Prague Zoo is situated a few miles outside the city centre itself and can be reached via the tube line C to Holesovice and then by bus 112. The bus itself can be quite an ordeal as it gets absolutely packed with passengers and reminded me more of transport in Asia than anywhere else! Thankfully it is only a few kilometres to the park entrance.

Nowadays the Zoo receives over one million visitors a year, visiting over 4500 animals in over 60 hectares of land and the zoo is open daily (and until 7pm in summer). A visit to the zoo will certainly require the best part of a day if you want to see as many animals as possible.

The Zoo itself is situated right on the River Vltava and the site itself is reasonably steep, however as the main entrance is mid way up the slope then it makes sense to go to the higher levels first (another good reason to get a map!), then make your way downhill towards the river. There is a small cable car which will take you up the steepest sections, as well as a small train – although we didn’t use either and walked instead.

It was very hot on our recent trip to Prague, and as we arrived at the zoo late morning, and stayed until around 4pm, we did notice that many animals were sheltering from the suns heat and we were not able to see quite as many creatures as we would have liked – at the same time understanding that the animals clearly have more sense than humans for escaping the mid-day sun!

The Africa Closely pavilion is another fairly recent addition and is home to 50 different species of mammals, amphibians and creepy crawlies. Across the road and into “The Americas” and the exhibitions are more open here. I enjoyed watching the Canadian Otters swim, very elegantly before exploring the whole upper area of the zoo which is the home to the largest mammals, including wolves, antelopes, moose, camels, bison, prairie dogs, and the beautiful leopards and tigers.

The lower half of the zoo is home to the many birds species as well as smaller mammals. There are also a number of pavilions in this section, including the Pavilion of Big Cats, Pavilion of Penguins, Pavilion of Big Tortoises and the Pavilion of Big Mammals. While I enjoyed most of these, and in particular the penguins and the adjoining sealions, the Pavilion of Big Mammals left me with the same feelings as I had with the polar bear earlier, a little saddened by the concrete homes for these magnificent creatures (elephants and hippos). The beautiful ring tailed lemurs have a new home, and compared to the size of the animal, it felt that the large animals were a little hard done by.