ZSL Whipsnade Zoo Review
Reviewed by Amanda Gazzard
As a family of 4, which includes 2 children aged 8 and 12, we were all very excited about visiting ZSL Whipsnade Zoo as we had never been before.
We arrived as the gates were opening which was 10am but this does change seasonally. I had already been on their website to download the feeding times so we could decide on the car journey to ZSL Whipsnade Zoo what animal talks we wanted to see and what ones we did not. This also alleviated the ‘are we there yet’ as the car journey for us took approximately 1½ hours by car.
We were keen to explore ZSL Whipsnade Zoo as I was aware by looking at the map on their website it was a lot larger than a standard zoo within the UK so we had to be more organised on what we wanted to see first to have a chance of seeing it all in a day.
If traveling by car there are two options of parking. You can either park in the free external car which is a short walk to the entrance or you can park and drive within the zoo’s grounds. This comes at an extra cost of £25 for non-zoo members though.
Once in ZSL Whipsnade Zoo I noticed most families were wearing wellies which I found strange but within minutes of walking towards the first enclosure I understood why. Most of the paths are not concreted footpaths and with the poor weather of late a lot of the paths were very muddy and wet which at times became a challenge. I could imagine if you had a buggy or pram this could have been frustrating.
There is a good mix of species of animals at the ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ranging from hippos, elephants, cheetahs, tigers, lions, bears, zebras and much more. As ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is situated on a hill the views near the penguin pool are breath taking and are well worth a moment to take in.
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is the UK’s largest zoo and is set in 600 acres of beautiful countryside. If you have little ones then ZSL Whipsnade Zoo allows non electric scooters into the zoo as the walks between some enclosures can be quite vast for little legs. ZSL Whipsnade Zoo does offer a free bus around the zoo which stops at various locations throughout the day.
There is the Jumbo express which is a steam train which takes you through some of the territories with the amazing countryside as the back drop. The Jumbo Express gives you an insight to how vast the zoo is whilst at the same time getting to see some of the animals like the elephants and camels close up. There is a small cost to use the steam train and the train runs every 30 minutes.
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo truly reflects their passion on conservation as the animals have vast amounts of space to live in. This was clearly evident in the rhino paddock as it was huge which was lovely to see.
What I thought was unique and what my children absolutely loved was that certain animals were not living in enclosures and instead could roam the zoo freely. One of these animals was the wallabies. They sat quite happily lapping up the sun on the lawns across the zoo and did not appear stressed with the copious amounts of children running around.
The animal talks by the keepers were fantastic. It was clearly evident the keepers were passionate about the animals they cared for and the keepers interacted with the children which was wonderful to see. Even after the talks had ended the keepers remained behind to answer questions.
There is a large outdoor play area which allowed the children an opportunity to have some fun swinging and climbing and a chance for the adults to sit down with a drink. There is an indoor play area which you do have to pay for and book when you arrive. We chose not to use this facility but it proved very popular with others as a lot of the session slots were sold out.
I did find it confusing as ZSL Whipsnade promotes itself as a zoo and clearly states it is not a safari park, but you can drive in and around most parts of the zoo and there is a certain area only cars can drive through. But if like us you decide to leave your car in the car park you will not be disappointed.
There were plenty of places to grab a drink or snack and you were never far away from a toilet facility.
I could only find 2 negatives from the whole day. The first was the lack of bins situated around the park as we found we walked at times some distance to find a bin. This became more noticeable as the day proceeded to get hotter as we noticed more and more people leaving their ice cream wrappers and drink containers lying around which was a shame to see. The second was at times there were no footpaths and you walked between enclosures in the road. There were at times parents running after their excitable little ones fearful for their safety especially as some cars were travelling rather fast unnecessarily. There were no speed limit signs that I could see and I feel this could easily be corrected and to make it a safe and enjoyable experience for all would be to install speed humps as this would reduce the temptation of driving too fast.
All in all in this was a wonderful day out had by all and I have no doubt this will not be the last time we visit ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.
If you can purchase tickets in advance then you can get tickets slightly cheaper direct from ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.
Rating: 4.5/5
Tickets cost £24 (adults) / £18.85 (children) – book online in advance to save 10%
For more information or to book tickets visit www.zsl.org/zsl-whipsnade-zoo.
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU6 2LF | 0344 225 1826
