Note the absence of words - the zoo gets quite a lot of visitors who do not speak English. Open for larger version to see details. Islands, Chester, 12th May 2016.
Note the absence of words - the zoo gets quite a lot of visitors who do not speak English. Open for larger version to see details. Islands, Chester, 12th May 2016.
A much better map than the one for the entire zoo! Out of curiosity, how much time does the Islands project add to a regular zoo visit? Has Chester become an all-day zoo for a first-time visitor or can it be easily seen in 5-6 hours?
I'd estimate that Islands adds another 90 minutes or so onto a visit to Chester Zoo.
In my opinion Chester has been an all-day zoo - or close to it - for the first-time visitor for quite some time; however, I reckon that now a first-time visitor would be hard pushed to see everything in a single day.
Worth noting a couple of variations from reality on this map - the boat ride actually runs through the channel below the banteng, not round the back, as no water channel exists there! Also, there is no water between Papua and Sumba and you can pass between these easily as the path is actually continuous past the toilet block.
All the maps of Islands produced for visitors rather endearingly attempt to make the whole thing look like separate islands fully surrounded by water, when in reality of course there is only one 'proper' island (comprising Papua, Sumba and the Bali bird temple) - Panay, the Banteng half of Bali, Sumatra and Sulawesi are arranged around the edge of the exhibit and just back onto either other parts of the zoo or the perimeter fence.
I'd estimate that Islands adds another 90 minutes or so onto a visit to Chester Zoo.
In my opinion Chester has been an all-day zoo - or close to it - for the first-time visitor for quite some time; however, I reckon that now a first-time visitor would be hard pushed to see everything in a single day.
I failed to see everything at Chester when I visited last August, and I didn't get a good enough look at the majority of the bits I did get a chance to see. So I would need two days to get around it comfortably and see everything (with time to return to the animals that I couldn't see beforehand).
A much better map than the one for the entire zoo! Out of curiosity, how much time does the Islands project add to a regular zoo visit? Has Chester become an all-day zoo for a first-time visitor or can it be easily seen in 5-6 hours?
In summer it is just about doable in a day,during the winter I will be picking and choosing which bits of the zoo I see,as I would struggle to get round the whole thing at that time of year now!
A much better map than the one for the entire zoo! Out of curiosity, how much time does the Islands project add to a regular zoo visit? Has Chester become an all-day zoo for a first-time visitor or can it be easily seen in 5-6 hours?
I think Chester has been an all-day zoo for many years: but I walk fairly slowly and I tend to stop at the exhibits of interesting species
To be serious, you could see every exhibit in a day at the moment if you walked quickly and took minimum meal breaks, comfort stops etc. In high summer the zoo is open for another hour (10.00 to 18.00) but the Aquarium will have reopened and refurbished exhibits in the Tropical House, Elephant House and Dragons in Danger should all be finished, which will need most of this extra time, even if you avoid the new exhibition of animatronic dinosaurs. If the zoo is busy you would also probably have to miss the Islands boat ride, as the queue can be long for much of the day.
To be serious, you could see every exhibit in a day at the moment if you walked quickly and took minimum meal breaks, comfort stops etc. In high summer the zoo is open for another hour.
If the zoo is busy you would also probably have to miss the Islands boat ride, as the queue can be long for much of the day.
I mentioned in my comments about Islands, that I managed to go around and see virtually everything from 10.30 arrival to closing time. I actually went around the whole zoo twice. (My feet were pretty tired after!) And I wasn't rushing all the exhibits either, spending twenty minutes or so at the Giant otter talk for example and longer with the Sumatran Orangs too. But for average family visits there is so much to see and the distances for families with small children etc mean that they would probably never see everything in one visit. Especially since the opening of Islands- its almost a zoo within the Zoo.
I couldn't figure out why closing time was still 5 p.m. at this time of year- I could have used the extra hour...Waiting for the Islands boat ride could certainly waste a lot of valuable time on a busy day- I would query if it was worth the wait also.
