Zoo Crawls?

Brum

Brum

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Whilst rereading @snowleopard's last travel thread, and also thinking back to August and to my surprise that @FunkyGibbon had never visited three collections in one day before that point, I thought I'd ask the consensus of the forum on doing multiple collections in a day?

I personally love a good "zoo crawl" (Stolen from one of the staff at CWP when she found out it was zoo number 3 of the day!) and I find they work best with a smaller collection or two first, and then finish with a bigger one. I pride myself on the fact I can do all three of my local collections by bus on a Sunday, but only in summer when Dudley is open an hour later, even though I can walk two of them with my eyes closed... ;) I just love squeezing in more collections, and even more animals into a day.
My last two three-zoo days were quite scattered and both featured a big zoo (Colchester & Cotswold respectively) but also featured a lot of driving, as the days would have been impossible by public transport. Luckily enough I've noticed @devilfish also likes a multi-zoo day as well, for which I'm eternally grateful! :D
I even managed to get my daughter to do her first ever double recently, but that involved @cliffxdavis helping out, whom too which I also owe a debt of gratitude. I'm not sure she's ready for a double up on public transport just yet. :)

So who else enjoys a multi-zoo day? Does anyone think it detracts from visiting one zoo and devoting your time that place? Do you have a specific structure to a multi-zoo day that you prefer?
 
Brum said:
So who else enjoys a multi-zoo day? Does anyone think it detracts from visiting one zoo and devoting your time that place? Do you have a specific structure to a multi-zoo day that you prefer?
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I don't like them. I have done more than one in a day (I think four is my maximum, but one of them was closed so really three), but if you're visiting more than one zoo in a day then you are zooing all wrong :p
 
To be honest when I saw you had posted a thread with '____ crawl' in the title I thought this was going to be about zoos that serve alcohol ;) :p

The only zoo crawl I've done when I felt I ran short on time was when I visited Bristol, Noah's Ark, and Slimbridge in a day in that order. Even then, I saw everything possible and the only reason I felt rushed is because the Slimbridge staff started pushing people towards the exit an hour and a half before closing.

Personally I enjoy being able to do multiple zoos in a day just as long as I'm not rushing anything, which I seldom if ever do.

~Thylo
 
Chlidonias said:
Not going to lie, when I saw the thread title and that the thread was posted by @Brum, I thought the subject was going to be more beer-focused.
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ThylacineAlive said:
To be honest when I saw you had posted a thread with '____ crawl' in the title I thought this was going to be about zoos that serve alcohol ;) :p
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I knew that's what people would think which is why I chose it as a title. Subverting expectations, that's how I roll! :D:D:D

Chlidonias said:
but if you're visiting more than one zoo in a day then you are zooing all wrong :p
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What? How very dare you? :p Care to put forth your logic behind this?
 
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I've actually done this twice. I go to the Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium in the same day, it's great.
 
I'm not exactly a zoo crawler (in this given definition of "crawl" :p). I've only once done two zoos in one day - Frydenlund Fuglepark and Terrariet Vissenbjerg which are located within 10 minutes' drive of each other. I had visited those before and knew approx. how long a visit would take.

I don't think I'd have the nerves to visit 2+ new zoos in one day unless at least one of them was obviously tiny. I'd worry too much that I rushed or spent too much time. It surprises me that, for example, it seems relatively common among zoo nerds to visit Duisburg and Krefeld in one day. I spent too many hours in Duisburg for that to seem feasible - Krefeld looks like a zoo that needs 2-3 hours.
 
It really depends on hours of places, I think. I've only done Virginia Zoo and then Virginia Aquarium in one day; I didn't get to go on the dolphin tour, and didn't spend as much time as I would have liked reading signs at the aquarium (that was also hindered by a massive school group coming through). A person could possibly do both and also include the Virginia Living Museum, but you'd have to start at the museum or aquarium as the zoo is in between the two. I wanted to start at the zoo and catch mammals when they were more awake, and then spent a lot of time in the reptile building.
Oh wait, I did ZooAmerica and Lehigh Valley in the same day, too! Just managed to fit all of Lehigh Valley in before they closed. They're an hour apart (without road construction...)
 
Brum said:
This is ZooChat... You can't just make a claim and not justify it. That's not how we do things round here! :D :p
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Heh. Really I don't mind whatever other people do with their zoo-visiting. I have no problem with visiting more than one zoo if they are small and very close to one another, but I wouldn't personally want to do it with anything sizeable. I doubt that if I was visiting Europe, for instance, I would make a plan to visit multiple "major" zoos in one day. Cotswold and Colchester, to take the ones in your initial post, I would not schedule on the same day because I would prefer to spend my time at them and not feel like I'd be rushed - they would be new zoos for me, probably with lots of new species and presumably different versions of exhibitry than other zoos, so it would seem like a disservice to myself. Maybe I'd only spend an hour at one of them, or maybe it would be six hours, but I wouldn't know until I was there. (Just as an example, when I was in Singapore the other month I went to Jurong to see the new birds - I expected I'd be there for a couple of hours because I've been there before and was only thinking about specific birds, but I was actually there for nine hours I think). I know there are people who take pride in forcing as many facilities into one day as they can, but that's not me.
 
I've managed a fair few multi-zoo days both by public transport and with the assistance of a helpful zoo enthusiast with a car :) with some combinations having been done through both methods; off the top of my head, with public transport and car travel indicated as demonstrated:

Cotswold Falconry Centre + Cotswold Wildlife Park + Birdland
Cotswold Falconry Centre + Cotswold Wildlife Park + Crocodiles of the World
Crocodiles of the World + Cotswold Wildlife Park + Birdland + Cotswold Falconry Centre
Bristol Zoo + Wild Place
Living Coasts + Paignton Zoo
Living Coasts + Shaldon Zoo
Cedars Nature Centre + Battersea Park Zoo
Woburn Zoo + Hamerton Zoo
Shepreth Zoo + Linton Zoo + Hamerton Zoo
Dudley Zoo + Birmingham Nature Centre
Yorkshire Wildlife Park + North Anston Tropical House
SEALIFE Blackpool + Blackpool Zoo
Aquarium of the Lakes + World Owl Trust + Lakeland Wildlife Oasis
Aquarium of the Lakes + South Lakes + Lakeland Wildlife Oasis
Lake District Wildlife Park + Lakeland Bird of Prey Centre
Wild Animal Adventures + Kirkleatham Owl Centre
Five Sisters Zoo + Edinburgh Zoo
Vogelpark Niendorf + Wildgehege Klovensteen
Zoo Am Meer + Klimahaus Bremerhaven
Zoo Plzen + Akva-Tera Plzen
Zoo Duisburg + Zoo Krefeld
Best Zoo + ZieZoo
Aquazoo Dusseldorf + Terrazoo Rheinburg + Wildpark Grafenberger Wald
Zoo Magdeburg + Tierpark Schonebeck
Zoo Dresden + Tierpark Chemnitz
Zoo Halle + Zoo Leipzig + Wildpark Leipzig
Lisbon Zoo + Lisbon Oceanario
Bioparc Valencia + Valencia Oceanografic
Zoo Barcelona + Barcelona Aquarium
Poznan Nowe + Poznan Stare
 
I think @Brum 's documented them well elsewhere on the forum but the first of our recent three-zoo days was to Suffolk Owl Sanctuary + Jimmy's Farm + Colchester Zoo, and the second was to All Things Wild + Crocodiles of the World + Cotswold Wildlife Park.

On the first visit the addition of the first two collections was a compromise - I wasn't too keen to spend a whole day at Colchester (having visited before, although not for several years), so to ensure we were all seeing something new we included the two smaller collections which weren't much of a detour. I won a couple of experiences at the Owl Sanctuary, so it paid off. ;p

On the second day I'd pushed to include Crocodiles of the World, having visited CWP with @zooman just a few months ago (on another three-zoo day).

Ideally I'd have as much time as needed to visit each zoo, and although I felt we could have spent a little longer at each of the two bigger zoos mentioned I don't feel it would have added much to the visit (but I guess we'll never know). I'm usually quite flexible when I plan multi-zoo days, and I have at least one collection I'm ready to cancel. In a country like the UK where you can usually spend more time in nearby zoos than driving between them on multi-zoo days, I find that seeing another small collection or two can be an efficient use of transport & accommodation costs and of course, of my day off. :)
 
devilfish said:
Some of those sound like hard work!
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The Shepreth/Linton/Hamerton one was a full day job, and required a) setting off at the crack of dawn and b) the longest possible opening hours.

Five Sisters and Edinburgh isn't all that hard nowadays, given the former has never really been more than a 2 hour zoo, the latter is only a 3 hour zoo now, and Five Sisters is only 25 minutes on the train (and then a similar duration walking) from Edinburgh city centre :P

The NRW combination was a little tricky and required careful time management, but was assisted by the fact there's a tram stop outside the Aquazoo which has direct service to Duisburg Hbf - overall I spent a little over 2 hours at the first collection, about an hour at the second collection and about an hour at the third collection.... which doesn't exactly contain much in any case.

The Halle/Leipzig combo was again assisted by plentiful train and tram connections, along with the fact that I had visited Zoo Leipzig before and knew precisely where everything was and what I wanted to see - along with quite early opening hours at Halle and a relatively late closing time at the Wildpark.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
The Shepreth/Linton/Hamerton one was a full day job, and required a) setting off at the crack of dawn and b) the longest possible opening hours.
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devilfish said:
Some of those sound like hard work!
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To be fair, our original itinerary did include Linton/Shepreth/Hamerton but, owing to it being my first Hamerton visit and the fact it was the IZES meeting, we elected to skip Shepreth for added time at Hamerton. If I were to be in a position to repeat it then I feel comfortable giving less time to Linton and Hamerton, so could possibly squeeze in another smallish collection.

Another recent double was Hoo Farm and Exotic Zoo, with the possibility of WILD Zoological Park as well. We decided to leave WILD for another day unfortunately but there are several options in the area for other collections to visit in conjunction with them.
 
Ebirah766 said:
I've actually done this twice. I go to the Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium in the same day, it's great.
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I've done that one, too, and also Central Park with the aquarium (also Central Park with the American Museum of Natural History). I've considered attempting CPZ, PPZ, and NYA all in one day but not gotten around to it yet.

Brum said:
This is ZooChat... You can't just make a claim and not justify it. That's not how we do things round here! :D :p
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Are you sure about that? :D

~Thylo
 
I've seen two zoos in one day a few times before, all on class trips (if you can still call it a zoo crawl). They were as follows:
-Lincoln Park Zoo then Shedd Aquarium, in that order. There were two instances of this. I never saw every individual exhibit at LPZ (e.g., bird house), but saw everything at Shedd.
-Akron Zoo and The Wilds, in that order. Akron Zoo is small enough to see everything in one day. The Wilds is thousands of acres, but the whole thing is a place where they drive you through all the huge enclosures (bumpy and no seat belts. To future visitors of this fantastic place: be careful with possessions and children.

As great a time as I had at these places (seriously, give these places a chance. Shedd is beautiful, LPZ has many great exhibits for the low low price of US$0, Akron is a swell place to bring the family, and The Wilds must be experienced to be believed), I would personally prefer not doing two or more zoos or aquariums because it would detract from other places, and they may start to blend together. Also, I like to take my time at some exhibits, especially if an animal/exhibit is particularly attractive or active.
 
It really depends on your personal circumstances and what you like to do when visiting zoos. I enjoy visiting two small collections in one day (Linton and Shepreth usually go together for me) but I personally would not want to visit more in one day, nor would I have the energy to. I have no problem with other people doing as many as they like in one day, though.
 
I'm at the opposite end of the scale, if there's a zoo version of the slow food movement that's me. I hate to feel rushed in a zoo and would rather amble around stopping for great length of time to look at the animals. I'd rather get a coffee, sit on a bench and watch animals if I have spare time instead of packing more zoos in.
When visiting zoos for the first time I like to give them a day (unless they're tiny) as I like to see them properly on the first run. Local zoos I can visit regularly without rushing them on one day. I visit Bristol Zoo regularly and spend 4 - 5 hours there, although I could then drive 15 - 20 minutes to Noah's Ark or Wild Place or walk to the Bristol Aquarium there's no need, I just visit another day.
That said, I have done some two zoo days and a combination of Shaldon + Living Coast makes sense to do if travelling a long way.
 
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