Many wild life enclosures unused or "Temporarily unavailable" .
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
It has been sometime since I last wrote a review, but after visiting London Zoo just yesterday after a 200+ car journey to get there - I and my girlfriend were left slightly deflated once coming away from the zoo.
London Zoo is located on Regent's Park on the Outer Cirlce of London which makes is easy to get to for people who live outisde of London and who wish to visit and also very accessible for London residents and for those who may wish to use public transport.
For what we got to see on the day and for the short time we spent there due to the lack of activites etc, I felt the price was slightly high, but bearing in mind this is in the Capital of the UK, I'm sure the pricing is very much average.
You can also cut the price down of each ticket you buy by 10% if you buy online at the official London Zoo website @ www.zsl.org, print the ticket off at home and then just show on the pre-paid gate on arrival.
Transport Links:
We used a car for transportation, which I was hesiant on due to traffic and then finally finding a parking space. And although there is parking along the main road on the main entrance to the zoo with pay & display, these were all full, so we used the London Zoo car park. It costs £8, but atleast you know your car is secure and you can leave it there all day for that price.
Use of public transport - I cannot comment on this too much as we did not use it, but if you visit the official London Zoo website, there is a page with full instructions on which public transport links to use etc and it looks like it is well catered for.
Family Friendly:
There were many families visiting yesterday and several school trips going on too. And aswell as the animals, there was also a small amusement area for the children, which was right the by the side of the eating area on the zoo, but nothing much and if you was to go on a busy day like we found it to be yesterday, then your children would probably not like it.
Animal interaction:
There was a distinct lack of public/animal interaction. Even with the 'live shows' for feeding times for certain animals - The staff would not let you feed the animals, not even throw a fish to the penguins at feeding time and at some points it wasn't even worth checking out some of the enclosures for more than a few seconds.
Why? For example - The lion, tiger and sloth bear enclosures were some of the largest enclosures, which although was good to see, for the sake of the animals, but the viewing points for the public I felt were misplaced or too many obstructions in view of seeing any of the animals. OR, if there was a tiger, lion... sloth bear near side of enclosure, the viewing points were too small and with the amount of people there, everyone would try and swarm to that spot and became very uncomfortable for all and this was my biggest gripe of the day as it kept happening all the way around the zoo.
The only animal interaction you could have, was going into the cow & goat enclosure and actually getting upclose to these animals, but if I wanted to do that, I could of just gone to a near by farm!
Other animal interaction was some small monkeys in a walk through enclosure, but you was not allowed to feed or touch, let alone have your own drink or food with you (even though it was such a hot day). I can understand this as the animals would be climbing all over people to take their food, but still... the conditions the animals were in felt way too sterile.
On another bad note - We went around the whole zoo in approximately 2 hours and that was with waiting around to see several feeding sessions of the tigers and penguins.
We visited believing we would see alot of wild life and up close, when infact, yes... there was several good attractions, but there was also many empty enclousers which are not being used any more or "Temporarily unavailable".
Would I recomment London Zoo to people?
No, not if you have to make a long journey for it, it is just not worth the time or bother, but on the other hand, if you live locally to London, I would say it is worth the visit, but don't expect to be able to make a day of it.
For people living outside of London, or people who just want more for their money - Whipsnade Zoo is great and so is Woburn. If you have been to either of these, I'd suggest you do NOT visit London Zoo, it will be a big disappointment in comparison.
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
