Visiting Jimmy's Farm in Ipswich, Suffolk

Planning a staycation in the UK is always a gamble and the weather can often make or break your time off. With a midweek wedding on the Essex, Suffolk boarder and having many family and friends living in Essex we decided to take a whole weeks holiday in Essex.

After staying in Ipswich the night of the wedding we were in the area and looking for things to do. After a very brief walk around the town, which sadly is rather deserted and empty and run down we decided we would head back towards Essex and visit Colchester Zoo. What we hadn't realised was that it was already the afternoon by now and tickets to the zoo were over £20 an adult and that would be a rather expensive afternoon.

We had a brief detour to the Ipswich marina where we had a walk along the waterfront and a coffee whilst having a quick look on Trip Advisor for things to do locally. We stumbled across Jimmy's farm and thought that it looked quite good for an afternoon's entertainment.

On arrival at the farm we realised that this was more than a farm shop and a few animals, we paid our entrance fee's that were a lot less than Colchester Zoo and enjoyed a walk around the farm. We got to see goats, cows, horses, guinea pigs, geese, chickens, sheep and pigs. As we walked around the farm it dawned on us that not only was it the school holidays still but we were also the only ones walking around without children in tow. There's loads to do with the kids, giant jumping cushions, play areas and zip wires so it's definitely somewhere to tire the kids out.

For us adults the animals were all lovely and a highlight was the woodland walk were you could make dens amongst the trees. For my partner who works at an Eco architects making tree houses was just his cup of tea. Another enjoyable aspect was the butterfly house which was lovely and warm on a dull and breezy September day and was my first experience with some rather large butterflies up close and personal.

Sadly I can't completely sing 100% praise for Jimmy's farm, the giant piggy bank is looking rather sorry for itself covered in green mold and in need of a lick of paint with some new eyes.

Some of the wooden fencing around the children's play areas were damaged and several of the areas to wash your hands after petting animals were completely out of anti bacterial hand gel. It felt a little run down and forgotten about. We weren't sure if they were winding the place down for the end of summer and the end of the season would see some maintenance and repairs or it is always like this.

The farm shop was nice and the staff friendly however we didn't purchase anything in the store, for an afternoon out in the fresh air seeing some cute animals it is definitely worth a visit if your passing and it seems like a great place that children will love even if us adults are a little more worried about health and safety! Hopefully by next summer things will be rectified to their former glory and not left to deteriorate further.