Penguins on parade (Edinburgh Zoo)

Member Name: Rook252

Product:	Edinburgh Zoo
Date:	04/11/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice to see all the animals

Disadvantages: Very expensive!

We recently went on a long weekend away to Edinburgh, and we each chose an activity while we were up there that the other couldn't say no to. I chose the Edinburgh Dungeon, my fiancee chose the zoo.

The zoo is easy to reach by public transport, there are a number of buses which leave from Princess Street and George Street, and take about 20 minutes. Make sure you pick up a zoo leaflet for each member of your party before going (available at the TIC on Princess Street) as these save you £1 per person. Even with these we paid £26 to get in, which I thought was pretty steep.

The zoo is on a very, very steep hill. So if you have knee issues, don't bother. Why anyone chose to put a zoo on such a steep hill is beyond me. We were blessed with great weather and therefore had a lovely day wandering up and down the hill looking at the animals. I thought they all had quite generous enclosures, although my fiancee was upset at the cages some of the big cats were in.

There are three places to get lunch, only two are open in winter. One is stripes, a very busy family orientated cafe serving panninis and baked potatos for £4-£5 a go, which I thought was pretty reasonable. The other was the mansion house, serving a sit down meal, again reasonably priced but the service was awful. When after an hour we hadn't got our drinks or food we walked out.

The highlight of the day is the penguin parade, where the penguins can take a voluntary walk around the outside of their enclosure. It was lovely to see them walking free, and definitely worth staying for.

We did the whole zoo in about 5 hours, and while it was a very nice day, it is a steep price tag and I would rather go to a safari park for my money.

Summary: fun day out but costly.