ZSL London Zoo

I am a zoo fanatic. i have been to over 30 zoos in my life. this comes 9th in my list. i have been to london zoo now probably 30 or more times. it is 37 acres or 15 hectares. they are making a galapagos tortoise exhibit. the animal adventure kids zoo is really nice. the rainforest lookout is cool and so are the gorillas. butterfly paradise is amazing. bugs is awesome.

Expectation could be a key issue with this zoo. Having lived in London for many years, I'd picked up that the zoo had faded from it's glory years. A click on trusty tripadvisor confirmed my thoughts, add in a forecast for rain and my trip to the zoo was shaping up to be a bit of a disaster.

But it really ISN'T that bad. I've been to 3 zoo's in the last year (Taronga in Sydney, Lone Pine in Brisbane and now this one) and although it's missing the setting of Taronga, the interactions of Lone Pine it's still pretty decent.

We got there at 10.30 and left at 5.30 (when it closed) and had not seen all there was to see. I could list all the animals we did see but that would be a bit boring (and a long list). Highlights for me would be the Biome (through the tunnels) with the amazing Pygmy monkeys so close you could touch (if you dare) and the Kid zone (can't recall its name), both of which seem quite new.

As an adult there was an extra tinge of history about the place (did you know they invented the word 'aquarium' short for aquatic vivarium) with many displays telling you the history of the zoo. One previous poster complained that the penguins had been moved. There glorious modernist home of old is now a grade 1 listed building, but unfortunately no longer suitable, so they had to move. Again all this is explained on the display around the enclosure.

Tips

- DO sort out the 2 for 1 voucher with a train ticket. You can buy a cheap single and apparently it still counts. We didn't, but they didn't check our train ticket any way.

- DO take a picnic, we avoided paying for food and had a lovely lunch overlooking the canal. There are plenty of other place to stop for a sarnie.

- DO be prepared for a walk. Even the nearest bus stop is a good 5 minutes from the entrance.

I have to whole heartedly agree with many of the other reviews...this day out was a huge disapointment. Luckily I was not subjected to the enormous entrance fees as we had bought tickets through tesco clubcard points (highly recommended to lessen the rip-off factor)

Despite the over priced shops, cafes, icecream stands and little 'extra' attractions (bouncy castles etc) which work hard to seperate the visitor from his hard earned cash, the toilet facilities were somewhat lacking (especially the toilets adjacent to the childrens petting area and splash pools-where the soft tinkling of running water was having the very predictable effect on many a young child who urgently needed relief in one of only 3 working toilets), although generally clean, the frustration experienced by parents with desperate 3 year-olds was apparent when they discovered 10 other equally desperate toddlers waiting patiently in line!

The most disappointing aspect of this whole experience, has got to be the lack of animals...

we had a good view of 2 goats and 3 sheep, but it seemed that every enclosure we went to was empty or the animals were so desperate for some piece and quiet that they had retreated to the furthest corner of their enclosure.

To be fair it all became a bit of a joke, and our family mission to spot an actual live animal lasted the rest of the afternoon-the highlight of which being the monkey enclosure, where we saw a grand total of ZERO monkeys-a completely empty walk-through enclosure- still open to a baffled public!

The lions and tiger looked woefully depressed in their tiny enclosures, and had, i assume lost the will to live- as had I by the end of this torturous afternoon.......You have been warned!!