a real safari, in the middle of the Alentejo
You can be in the Alentejo and have giraffes right in front of you. It's not a metaphor. Badoca Safari Park sits on a patch of countryside between Santiago do Cacém and the Alentejo coast, and the premise is exactly what the name says: a safari, with animals in open spaces, by car or on foot depending on the activity.
What sets this park apart from most Portuguese zoos is the format. It's not a sequence of cages and numbered enclosures. There are themed zones with their own logic: an island for primates, another dedicated to Madagascar lemurs, a tropical forest area, reptiles, birds of prey with live shows. The mandrill cub born here is, according to the park itself, the only one of its kind in Portugal. That's no small detail.
If you come with kids, the little farm and the walking trail are part of the main circuit.
Badoca is a few kilometres from Santiago do Cacém, in an area where the Alentejo horizon has no buildings to break it. The surroundings aren't backdrop: they're the reason a safari here makes geographical sense.
what's specific to this park
- mandrill, a species found only here in Portugal
- live shows with birds of prey and reptiles
- lemurs you can interact with directly
