A Great Zoo to Visit (Whipsnade Wild Animal Park)

Member Name: craftydonna

Product:	Whipsnade Wild Animal Park
Date:	09/09/06 (912 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty of animals in spacious areas.

Disadvantages: Price, Toilets

I have been on the net and researched about what people thought about Whipsnade zoo and i came across good and not so good reviews. Reviews are what you personally feel and not everyone is going to like the same as you but heres my review and some facts about the Zoo itself.

Date of Visit: Saturday 26th August 2006

Weather: Showers off and on until and afternoon was fine.
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Where is Whipsnade Zoo?

Whipsnade Wild Animal Park
Dunstable
Bedfordshire LU6 2LF

Whipsnade is set in the Chiltern Hills North of London in dunstable, Bedfordshire
Only 20 minutes from the M25 (junction 21), Whipsnade Wild Animal Park is signposted from the M1 (junction 9 and junction 12) and all major roads - just follow the elephant on the above map.


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How much does it cost?

Adult £15
Child 3-15 £11.50
Under 3 FREE
Concession (Student, Disabled, Senior over 60) £13.00
Family Ticket £ 48

We got a whipsnade Package which included Hotel, breakfast and entrance to the park this cost £84.95 (The hotel we stayed in was the holiday inn Express at Hemel Hempstead, see my other reviews).

I feel that the price of this Zoo is Expensive even though we did have a great day out but i don't think its anymore expensive than any other big zoo in the country.

Car parking or Take your Car in?

If you Take your Car in you pay an extra £12 on admission, or you can put the car in a car park at £3.50 and use the free buses in the park which seemed quit busy.
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Opening Hours?

2006
10am - 5pm Feb 11 - Mar 4
10am - 6pm Mar 5 - Sep 30
10am - 5pm Oct 1 - Oct 28
10am - 4pm Oct 29 - onwards

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Our Day at the Zoo and What we Saw:

We arrived at the Zoo at 10.30 and Approahed the Gate of Whipsnade and gave the lady our ticket and Paid £12 to take our Car in with us. We also Brought the £3.50 Book which included information about the park and Animals, A free poster and Car Sticker. Then it was where do we go now? It takes you a little while to see that the park works in a one-way system in an Anti Clock Wise Direction. So we drove up a little way and parked on the side of the road in a Bay, thoughout the park are parking areas or Parking bays on the road (Normally on the Right hand side). This gave us time to look at the Map which seemed simple enough to follow. The First Area you come to is On the Left cheetahs then Brown Bears, and on the Right Gorillas and lemas. My daughter then decided she wanted the toilet, nearest ones were back near the entrance or further into the Park. So we got out of the car and Found a toilet sign and followed it through past the lemas across to near the entrance and here we was. The Toilets were okay, could be better but have seen worse, my daughter did like the childrens sized toilet they had here.

The we took our time and walked back though the Lemas area where they were being very noisy which attached the children as they though the sound they made was very funny. Once we dragged them away we headed over to the Gorilla encloser which was huge, we could have spent ages here watching them play, the baby one kept jumping on the older ones and trying to get them to play. The Gorillas also have a large inside play area, this is the best encloser I have seen for Gorillas with so much for them to do. We then crossed the road and went to see the cheetahs, they must have been hidding as we could not find any. Then we walked back towards out car which was near the Brown Bears area, a big crowd had gathered and we realised it was feeding time, the children could go down and get some fruit from the keepers and throw them into the area but not at the animals which was explained clearly to the children. I have never seen brown bears before so I was really fastinated by them and watched them for ages, watching them peel oranges and eat them was for some stange reason interesting. The Bears then went off to another quieter area where they were given more food away from the crowds. Then Came the rain so we got in the car for a bit, luckly we took the car as there didn't seem much sheather for people who did not take there car in.

We sat in the car for a little bit and studied the map again, and decided to drive up to the next parking area we came to. On Driving up we missed a road which went to the Left and you can't go back unless you go right round the park, so we parked up at the side of the road. What a view from here you get, you could see for miles and walk road the hills only problem is even though its nice to see animals like wallbys etc roaming free you do get a lot of poo on your shoes which isn't nice when getting back into the car. We then took a walk upto the Penguins, what a lovely pool they had to roam around in, they also had many hand on things for the children to do and learn about penguins. After this we headed back towards the car and went to the Rino Encloser which was just huge, they were not doing much just sitting around so the children got a little bit fidgety and wanted dinner. At this moment a wasp decided to sing my son aged 11, he was a brave thing and went to the toilets and put some water on and I kept a close eye on him being his first sting (He was fine). I took a trip to these toilets and wasn't empressed with these ones, they are near the look out café. The floors had paper all over and was wet and my daughter just wanted to get out as quick as possible, tip the disabled one didn't look too bad try this one.

We then sat in our car and had our packed lunch, daughter kicked up a fuss that she didn't like the crisps I had brought with us, so I popped to the café which was very crowded and noisy and pricey. I only brought 2 packets of crisps, 1 pack of small biscuits and it cost me £3.25, told my daughter she better eat them or else.

After dinner we drove along the road, not really knowing where we was going to stop next, I think this added to the excitement, it was like an adventure. We saw a sign to the Hippos and Parked up, again on the right side of the road. On the other side of the road were the lions encloser. We went to see the Hippos which was a huge area but for some reason could only find two hippos, one was outside in the water and the other inside, the insdie area has lots of info about hippos and the keepers come and shat here every so often, we just missed one of these talks oh well. My son wanted to go to the lions so we all went to see them, guess what they were hidding behind a hill, you had to climb on some unsafe boxes if you wanted to see any, I didn't bother. My son and daughter managed to see a cub while standing on a box, with my husband as support. It then decided to Rain again (Luckly the last rain of the day) so we headed back to our car.

By the time we arrived at the Car the rain had stopped, we drove along the road and came to a sign which pointed to the right and said cars only, so we followed and entered an area where the animals ran free in the first area it was covered in different types of deers etc. we drove slow and some of them came really close until they figured out we were there and ran off, we could take our time as there we not any cars for a while behind us but if there was I think it may put you off if your pushed around (If you know what I mean). After this area you came to another field with these huge things like buffos, they had big horns, one was right next to the road and we had to drive past it, it was a bit of a scarey moment for me. We then came out of this area and stopped in a little carpark to look at some short horned rinos, one must have been naughty has he was locked in his pen and kept sharping his horns on the bars, ready for the keepers J We watched some rinos play in the mud they seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Back in the car we got and drove up to what looked like 2 big carparks, this is where the car stayed for a long while as most things circled this area. We saw the sign for the Elephants which I just love so we headed that way and saw several including some baby one., they have a huge indoor area which also gives you some info on the elephants there. We saw the Elephants go on their daily walk around the Park, this was about 3pm but was told there is no fixed time for this. It was really sweet with the baby ones inbetween the keepers keep people at bay and remind them not to touch them. As the Elephants left we headed across the road to the tiggers encloser, they had just been given dinner which the children found interesting, especially with two arguing over a piece. We headed round the encloser and had a toilet stop, mmmmmm they need to make improvements on their toilets.

We saw the Jumbo Express train which cost £3 an adult children free, that's okay but on top of everything else you have paid that day you don't need another expense so we avoided this and headed to the Splash Zone where a sealion show was about to start. I was disappointed on this as have seen better ones at other zoo's, the sealions didn't seem as though they were enjoying it, maybe I am wrong? The only good part was that the children liked getting splash by the sealion, warning they get soaked, we had spare clothes , luckly. As this finished on the hill we heard someone talking and went over and found a bird show which was really fun. One of the bird came into the crowd looking for food and he was just wondering around. My children thought the little chickens were really funny and kept talking about them when we got home. We then stopped off for an ice cream 2 cost £3 which is normally for any zoo / park these days, they could move the bins away from the ice cream booth as they were covered in wasps and flies which freaked myself and the children out.

We took a walk back to the car past a huge playground for the children, think my two were too tired to ask to go on this as it was getting to around 4.30pm. Once we got to the car we drove onto a Bird area on the Right and petting zoo on the left. My children and myself went into the bird garden, husband stayed in car listening to football results. We saw some baby Penguins, oh they were cute. In this area you can see incubation tanks etc. at certain times of year, these were closed as they had no eggs or tiny chicks. My children didn't find this area interesting and just wanted to wizz through, I liked the parrotts as I find them interesting. After the bird garden I dragged my husband out of the car to the petting Zoo, at this time of day the animals were in the filed probably fed up after all the children petting them etc. We found a camel in his pen and gave stroked him, he seemed to like it. The area had a nice place for the children to wash themselves after touching the animals. The petting area had Horses, Donkeys, Camels, Goats, Pigs and Rabbits.

Our final part of the Journey was to drive back to near the Exit and walk over to the Discovery centre with all the creepy crawly things. My children loved it, me I just wanted to get out. The problem I found here was that the walkthrough was very narrow and and if you got stuck behind some slow people and you just want to get out, its not a nice thing. Also found a stange looking bug or two which I think should have been inside a tank or cage inside of wondering about but there was no one around to ask if this was normal so when I saw this I ran outside and waited for the others who couldn't care less.

Now that's the end of our trip around Whipsnade, we believe we did miss some areas in the park as we never saw the Giraffes which were surpose to be somewhere? We reached the Exit about 5.45pm the park closed at 6pm so not bad really. Normally when we visit zoos 3 hours is enough but here we had a really good full day. Would we go back? Yes if we are that way as we do live along way from the zoo but if in the area we would not miss it. I would rate this Zoo 8/10 the only let downs were the Price, Toilets and Cafes. I would also take a picnic with you, much cheaper for you.

I ALSO HAVE REVIEW ON CIAO

Summary: One of the best Zoo i have been to, loved seeing animals roaming free.