Summer Saturdays At ZSL Whipsnade Zoo Review

Reviewed by Janine Rumble

For four Saturdays during the school summer holidays, ZSL Whipsnade Zoo near Dunstable is extending its opening hours till 9pm to allow visitors to experience what life is like in the zoo after the visitors have usually gone home.

Last night, I was lucky enough to experience this, and what a lovely experience it was, the zoo becoming quieter and the animals that are normally docile during the day, becoming more active at night and the sun setting over the Dunstable Downs was spectacular.

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo opens at 10am and on a usual zoo day, it closes at 6pm, but on the following Saturdays, 5th, 12th and 19th of August, the zoo closes at 9pm. The extended hours are included with your ticket, if you book to visit on those dates.

We arrived at 4pm, and had ample time to walk around the entire zoo and spend time looking at and learning about each of the animals. Although, I would recommend going much earlier to really experience the zoo as we missed seeing the elephants and the Asian rhinos as they had been put to bed by the time we got round to them.

As well as the zoo animals, until 4th September, the Beano comic has taken over conservation at the zoo as part of the comic’s 85th anniversary celebrations, so there is a free Beano comic story to collect from the zoo entrance, then if you follow the Beano bunting to find Beano characters on the comic story trail, full of games and interactive challenges for both children and adults to enjoy. There is also Gnasher’s hide and seek trail around the zoo to follow. This looked like great fun. There is also Minnie’s scooter zone for the children to enjoy, but they have to bring their own scooters from home as there are none to rent. There were many children on scooters and as the zoo is the largest zoo in the UK, it is a great way for the kids to get around.

Throughout the day and evening, there were many different animal talks to attend, they were very informative, and the keepers answered any questions people had. You could tell they were passionate about their jobs and the animals they looked after. Information for these talks are on a billboard by the zoo entrance and it is recommended that you take a photo of this to help you plan your visit.

Also at the zoo entrance is the toilets, I would recommend stopping there before going to pay as other toilets within the zoo are quite a distance to walk to. The toilets were spotlessly clean.

Inside the zoo entrance, are the pay stations, with an option to buy a zoo guide for £4, these are very informative, full of great photos of the animals and information about them and the conservation of them. There is also a free map of the zoo, which is very useful when planning your day and for use throughout the day.

The zoo is set out into continent sections, with all the animals from that continent in that one area. Each area is well signposted and easy to walk around. The animal enclosures are large and mirror their normal habitats as closely as is possible and there are lots of plaques with photos and information of each of the animals in each enclosure. There is also information about the conservation of these animals, which is really interesting. I particularly liked the enclosures where you could get up high to see the animals. I especially liked the giraffe enclosure and walkway, being at eye level with a giraffe was amazing.

All of the animals are amazing. Some of the animals, such as wallabies are free roaming, which was amazing to see them jumping along. The tiger was a favourite of mine, roaming along the fence, looking at us. The presence and size of this magnificent animal was awe inspiring. Seeing the white rhino’s roaming their large enclosure was just amazing.

I learned so much about these superb animals during my visit and although it would be better to be able to see these animals in the wild, the conservation work that ZSL Whipsnade and London Zoo do to protect these species of animals is superb and by paying to visit these zoos, helps towards this important conservation work.

Throughout the zoo there are a number of restaurants, food places and ice cream trucks. We had cheesy chips from the chip van and sat in the sunshine enjoying these before going on the steam train. The chips were fresh cooked and very tasty. Earlier in the day, we brought ice lollies from a truck by the penguin pool and sat and ate them as we enjoyed the spectacular views over the Dunstable Downs for half an hour.

We enjoyed our ride on the steam train, but this is at an extra cost. We saw a few animals, but as we went on the last train of the day (8pm) we sadly missed seeing the elephants and the Asian rhinos. There is also a lot of construction work taking place alongside the track, which is needed, but not very appealing.

All in all, I would highly recommend a visit to ZSL Whipsnade Zoo at any time, but I would definitely recommend attending one of the Summer Saturday events as you get to see so much more at a much quieter time as there are less people around and some of the animals are much more active. I stood watching the red pandas climbing up their tree for ages as the sun began to go down.

All the staff we encountered were very friendly and helpful. All the facilities we used were clean and tidy and the gift shop at the end was great, although I could have spent a small fortune in there.

If you are thinking of visiting the zoo, I recommend looking at their very informative website https://www.whipsnadezoo.org/ for more information and to help you plan your visit, as there is so much more to know about the zoo and your visit than I can tell you in this review.

Ticket prices range depending on the day you want to visit, but for a Saturday, adult prices are £30 online and £35.50 on the day and children prices are £21.00 online.