Marwell Zoo Review
Marwell Zoo
Winchester, Hampshire
Reviewed by Lee Johnston
Marwell Zoo is a wildlife park consisting of 140 acres of parkland. It is owned by Marwell Wildlife, a world renowned, action orientated charity leading conservation programs in the UK and Africa. It offers the opportunity to see 100’s of animals including giraffe’s, penguins, tigers, rhinos to name but a few. It is situated on the edge of the South Downs National Park, just off the B2177 between Colden Common and Bishops Waltham and clearly signposted. There is ample free parking and lots of disabled spaces available with traffic marshals directing you making parking easy.
I was really pleased to be given the chance to review the zoo as it gave the perfect opportunity to take my 2 daughters along to enjoy the experience too! As soon as we arrived we quickly parked and set off to the ticket gates. Even though we visited in a busy school holiday on a beautifully sunny day the queues to get tickets were swiftly dealt with by the friendly staff. There were several ticket booths open and a separate lane dedicated to ticket holders and annual pass holders which helped the queues to move quickly.
As soon as we entered we saw some promotional displays advertising the new ‘Wild Explorers Trail’. We put a donation into the collection tin, grabbed our trail map and set off (at the same station we picked up some lost child information stickers where you can add your mobile number and attach it to your child just in case they go wandering, which I thought were a great idea).
The trail takes you all over the park in search of stations where you can get your trail book embossed with beautiful pictures of the animals that you have seen. There are also a few questions to answer as you go along. It’s a really lovely keepsake of the day out and my 6 and 2 year old embraced the trail with great gusto!
Once through the entrance there is a handy toilet and coffee stop before our first stop the penguins. The enclosure is lovely and open with easy viewing of these wonderfully playful animals. There is an underwater viewing area and you can also view them from above on a viewing platform. The girls loved this area and we spent ages just watching the penguins swimming, diving and sunning themselves. We especially loved Ralph the little penguin in his very own made to measure wetsuit swimming around! There is lots of information about the animals which my 6 year old enjoyed reading. Also lots of life sized pictures of all the different penguin species.
We continued to follow the trail and saw many wonderful animals in lovely spacious, clean enclosures. The giraffes were outside while their indoor enclosure was being cleaned. The enclosure design means that you can get a real up close and personal experience – fantastic! The animals that we saw all appeared to be relaxed and happy in very natural looking environments. Lots of space whilst providing us with great opportunities to see them up close.
We saw so many animals, huge tigers sunbathing, rhinos grazing, lemurs playing! A firm favourite with the girls were the meerkats. Their enclosure is well designed which enabled us to have an enjoyable close up experience of these playful animals with lots of glass window viewing points at the right height for my 2 year old.
The nearby ‘Cafe Graze’ restaurant was busy but the queues were free flowing. We sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed the views of the animals across the African valley. We enjoyed food from the “Graze BBQ’ which was set up outside. The food was tasty, but I felt the BBQ food was a bit pricy for the portion sizes given. However all the food is locally sourced which I like. The restaurant was clean with a good range of food offered. Children had the choice of several hot meals or delicious pick and mix lunch boxes. The toilets were clean and fresh smelling, even the baby change smelt fresh which is so often not the case!
We continued on the ‘Wild Explorer Trail’ and managed to see all the animals plus many more. It may well have been down to the glorious weather but pretty much all of the animals were outside and within easy view. The highlight of the trip for all of us were the snow leopards. Whenever I have seen these before they are always hidden somewhere at the back of the enclosure. We were very privileged to see one snow leopard so close up that we could have stroked it (if it wasn’t for the glass that is!). We spent a long time just drinking in the experience, big smiles all round!
All throughout the park there were huge brightly coloured interactive displays giving loads of interesting facts about the animals in the park. My eldest really enjoyed these particularly learning about different birds in the aviary and the wild flowers to be found within the park. There is a small train that you can ride around the park for an additional fee and there is also a road train ride that you can take pushchair on but unfortunately it wasn’t working when we visited.
There are several play areas with conveniently located toilets and coffee stops located nearby. A good tip is to take a travel cup with you so you can enjoy your hot beverage whilst exploring! There are picnic tables all around the park, and many people were relaxing on the lawns behind Marwell Hall enjoying their picnic lunches in the sunshine. For those wet days there is an undercover picnic marquee. You can also download from the website an undercover animal house trail map for those days when the weather isn’t so lovely a great idea to get the most out of your day!
There were several interesting talks and animal feeding sessions around the park at differing times at various enclosures. The keepers were all enthusiastic and welcomed questions. The park was very clean and the facilities that we visited were well maintained.
As our day out came to an end we visited the gift shop. What I really like about Marwell is that you are not forced to exit via the gift shop as so many attractions seem to do. This gives the visitor the option to avoid it if wanted. Something I think all parents will appreciate! The shop is spacious and has a lovely cafe area for those weary visitors to relax before the journey home. We collected our stickers from the counter (a reward for completing the ‘Wild Explorer Trail’) and headed home vowing to return again soon. We all thoroughly enjoyed our day. We spent over 5 hours ambling around (at my 2 years olds pace), enthralled by the animals. In fact the time flew past. We all enjoyed it so much that I think I might invest in an annual membership!
Thank you Marwell for a fab day out!
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets (April to July): Adult £18, Child (3-16 years) £14, Family £60, under 2s free.
For more information or to book tickets visit www.marwell.org.uk.
