The art of zoo tripping

S

stubeanz

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I have been reading an old thread regarding zoo lists and it seems many zoo chatters (if that's the right word) have visited well over 100 zoos. Many of these zoos are around the world and not just the UK.

I just was interested to find out how everyone goes about their zoo visiting. Do you tend to a plan far ahead and visit two zoos in a day? Do you just enjoy the occasional random visit to zoos ? Or do you plan entire holidays around zoo visiting?

I have visited 56 zoos and try to visit at least a couple of zoos a month and this is just to get my "zoo fix!" I would love to do some designated trips to Europe just for zoos. Those of you that do this do you go along with zoo friends or your partner or just alone?

I think it would be great to get some zoo visiting tips from the pros!
 
For the last few years I've been working on at least one zoo per calendar month, so I feel your need for the 'fix'! :D

UK zoos I mostly do as day trips with the occasional weekend away - these are usually lined up at least a couple of weeks ahead. Random visits are generally limited to those with an hour or so's travel (Blackbrook, Twycross, YWP). My UK visits haven't been as extensive lately as a couple of years ago as I've found I get more out of my money by putting more into the foreign trips.

I'm lucky enough to have a regular 'gang' for overseas trips - there's usually between 2-5 of us depending on the level of interest/cash/available time off work. We tend to plan a fair way in advance, partly because we always attend the Zoohistorica events that move around the continent of Europe each year and so give us something to plan (and also because it gives us something to look forward).

The trips tend to form, snowflake-like, around a nucleus of a zoo or zoos we particularly want to visit, with other zoos added to give the length of trip we need. We usually make a point of spending our evenings exploring the cities we visit, but the days tend to be all- (or nearly-all-) zoo. These trips have taken me to some incredile places I would never otherwise have been though - Gregor Mendel's pea garden in Brno springs to mind immediately.

That's not say I don't have the occasional 'non-zoo' holiday as well - but they do tend to pick up the local zoo while I'm there. In the last few years, Tenerife was a general tourism holiday that the zoos were only a part of (two days out of the week), and in Vietnam they also weren't the main focus. The Florida trip I'm currently planning will be roughly 50/50 zoo/wildlife.

Have to admit, it's been quite a while since my last entirely zoo-free holiday! :D

If anyone wants to meet potential zoo trip buddies, the IZES meetings or the Zoohistorica are a good way - and with Zoohistorica in Bristol next year (13th-15th September 2013) there's no excuses! :D :D
 
I generally plan my trips around the opportunity to visit a new zoo or even a favorite I've seen before (a la San Diego Zoo). I go alone.
 
My zoo visiting takes four main forms: 1) the five minute cycle ride to Sewerby Zoo, usually on every day off work excepting the occasional day out and annual holiday; 2) regular half-day visits to Filey Bird Garden, aiming to add one extra visit every season so it was six this year; 3) the aforesaid occasional day out to Flamingo Land, Lotherton or another Yorkshire collection, this year the only one being a wonderful first ever visit to the Tropical Butterfly House; 4) my until now annual holiday to the West Country - 100% zoo visiting.

As far as planning goes obviously my holiday is booked well in advance and I have a regular programme allowing only limited adjustments for the weather, my days out are dependent on a good weather forecast and are therefore subject to postponement week by week (they are usually on Fridays as I am not at work, with Saturdays being ruled out by the fact that I have to go into town in the morning to buy two cream scones! I have been having two cream scones on Saturdays for 25 + years so this is written in tablets of stone), but I do go to Sewerby whatever the weather. As I do not drive it is one collection a day for me not counting when I call in at Sewerby on the way to catch a train to Filey. All my visiting is in the UK as I have never travelled abroad, in fact it has all been in England since 2008 although I am hoping to get to the Welsh Mountain Zoo next year for the fiftieth anniversary - this could take the place of my West Country holiday as I am thinking I cannot really afford that even if I do not make it to Colwyn Bay.

Usually I make only one visit a year with someone else - this year it was a half hour or so pop into a birds of prey centre near Bridlington (not mentioned above due to its short nature) with two friends who are both ex-Sewerby keepers. I am not at all good at going places with other people as I just like doing what I want to do with no interference - I could be the Greta Garbo of the zoo enthusiasts world.
 
It's great to hear how everybody goes about zoo visiting.
I will mostly go either with a friend who's into zoos or on my own when I want to spend time at certain enclosures, such as the brown bears at whipsnade or if I want to spend time photographing animals. When we go on holidays I try to weasel in at least 2 zoo trips however my partner wouldn't want to spend every day (like I would!) visiting zoos.

I'm hoping to plan a couple of 2 day trips next year where I hope to fit in zoos I haven't visited yet and will deffinatly be looking into the zoohistoria trip next year!
 
Thanks for the plug on this years Zoohistorica Maguari[ouch!]..weve got some interesting changes planned which im trying to put together at the moment,all will be revealed in time.Returning to the main thrust of this thread, last week in heavy snow i did my 615th zoo which was Schwerin in Germany-its a good total and i love German zoos of course,but i was astounded a few weeks ago to find out that Jonas Livet is on 999-and he isnt exactly ancient! Some zoo trips i make with fellow enthusiasts[and i have a preference for that] but my personal circumstances tend to ride over the amount of leave that they can get so i also do a lot of solo trips.For sure it takes money too,and the ability to drive is very important,particularly in the U.S..I would have said that age is obviously a factor in this-you wont get to Belle Vue or Winged World now im afraid-but young Jonas Livet disproves this.
Im interested in Parrotsandrew who im sure once stated that he had a preference for the smaller UK collections..this i just dont understand at all.Last week i saw Hagenbecks new Eismeerpanorama which is several leagues above virtually anything in the UK[at about £10 million more than anything ever built here].At the risk of using that overworked word amongst american youth it is "awesome"..why wouldnt someone bust a gut to see something like that?[with all due respect andrew]
 
Tim Brown said:
Thanks for the plug on this years Zoohistorica Maguari[ouch!]
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No problem! (and you can just call me Ben if it pains you that much! :D )


Tim Brown said:
Last week i saw Hagenbecks new Eismeerpanorama which is several leagues above virtually anything in the UK[at about £10 million more than anything ever built here].At the risk of using that overworked word amongst american youth it is "awesome"..why wouldnt someone bust a gut to see something like that?[with all due respect andrew]
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Hagenbecks is lined up for our next continental jaunt as well (with Hannover and Walsrode). Already can't wait!
 
I've been to 44 in this country just going on this list, I reckon 20-30 elsewhere. I make occasionally special trips, but usually just take holidays that are both enjoyable and have a few zoos about. Like Berlin which has two zoos and two aquariums, or weymouth which has monkey world, a sealife centre, and a few small animal parks too. I rarely go alone, but do go with like minded people who I know won't get bored!
 
Tim Brown said:
Im interested in Parrotsandrew who im sure once stated that he had a preference for the smaller UK collections..
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I certainly do Tim! My best day this year was definitely the Tropical Butterfly House, very closely followed by Axe Valley and Wingz (with better weather Wingz could have just shaded Axe Valley, but it WAS my first visit to the latter) - just my kind of places and the Green-winged Macaws flying free in the show at the Tropical Butterfly House provided my individual highlight of the year. Of course the small place I visit the most is Sewerby and I have been totting up my visits this year ready to post on Brum's 2012 thread at the end of the year having had to estimate them last year (I have made 13 visits so far this month, helped by having had holidays to get in by the end of December - just found out today the last Guanaco has died aged 20). I was sorry not to get to Tropiquaria this year as I happily spend all day there drooling over African Greys, Green-cheeked and Orange-winged Amazons and Ducorp's Cockatoos. I just like smaller collections especially as the visitor numbers are not too high, although there were quite a few people at North Anston. As you well know I do also have a major emotional attachment to the UK's most popular zoo which I suppose would be classed as a medium-sized collection these days. If I do get to Colwyn Bay next year I am sure the macaws in the flying displays will be my highlight of the year and I should be very excited to see Frosty and Jazzy the hybrid macaws once more (I was delighted to glimpse them on the Rhod Gilbert programme the other week). I very much doubt I shall ever venture abroad, but I should quite like to see Walsrode and Loro Parque. Really though they may as well be on the moon.

Oh dear, I have done the quotes thing wrongly yet again! Now corrected thanks to Maguari.
 
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Parrotsandrew said:
Im interested in Parrotsandrew who im sure once stated that he had a preference for the smaller UK collections../QUOTE]


Oh dear, I have done the quotes thing wrongly yet again!
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Just looks like you've accidentally deleted the [ from the end-quote code. if you add a [ back in immediately before the / it should fall back into place!
 
I'm astonished by 600 - or 900! - zoos visited !

My only 'claim to fame' might be the number of closed collections I've visited! [And I'm only a youngster!]

Aberdeen; Riber Castle; Tenby; Cromer; Bridgemere; Rhyl; Morecambe Dolphinarium; Glasgow; Belle Vue .... one more for double figures!

Colwyn Bay (Eirias Park); Llanerch Deer Park; Southport.
 
Sadly you have to be at least 40 to have visited Belle Vue[and have some awareness of what was going on], when i left school i was offered a job in the reptile house there by dear old Clive Bennett[the curator]who was the first person[in a zoo at least] to breed the Royal Python in the UK. I visited half of the place Shavington mentions and of the others Aberdeen holds most curiosity i suppose.Thanks Parrotsandrew for putting me in the picture- tho im still somewhat curious-without prying, why would a place in Germany be so inaccesible?
 
I don't take holidays (wish I could but various commitments prevent it). But I do occasionally have a 2-day, or more rarely, a 3-day break away, in which case I'll do a different zoo each day. I am proud to say I've visited almost every animal collection (with the exception of some in Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Wight), including aquaria, in the U.K. Because I can't get away for longer than 2 or 3 days, the only foreign zoos I've visited are Artis (1990) and the two zoos in Ghana (1998). Sometimes I manage to fit 2 small collections in one day. But generally, because I tend to spend a lot of time looking at each exhibit, there is usually time to do only one zoo per day. Big zoos are quite a problem for me, as there is never quite enough time to see everything, even though I never patronize the restaurant or cafe, preferring to spend as much time as I can looking at the animals: indeed, it once took me three separate trips to London Zoo over a period of several weeks before I was satisfied I had seen everything. It took me over 3 hours to go round the Blackpool SeaLife Centre a few years back! Some other zoos (Chester and Colchester immediately spring to mind here) have grown just too big to fit everything in one visit.
 
Tim Brown said:
Thanks Parrotsandrew for putting me in the picture- tho im still somewhat curious-without prying, why would a place in Germany be so inaccesible?
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Because it's abroad and I have never been out of the UK! Actually I did think about going on a trip to Walsrode in 2005, but I did not fancy the coach travel. Now I just cannot see how I could afford to travel abroad anyway. I am even seriously considering not going to the West Country next year (unless I win the lottery!).
 
Tim Brown said:
Sadly you have to be at least 40 to have visited Belle Vue[and have some awareness of what was going on], when i left school i was offered a job in the reptile house there by dear old Clive Bennett[the curator]who was the first person[in a zoo at least] to breed the Royal Python in the UK. I visited half of the place Shavington mentions and of the others Aberdeen holds most curiosity i suppose.Thanks Parrotsandrew for putting me in the picture- tho im still somewhat curious-without prying, why would a place in Germany be so inaccesible?
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And even older to remember the likes of Cromer & Eirias Park!
 
I can't find this year's Flamingo Land leaflet at the moment, but the 2010 one says "the UK's best loved zoo", and in 2011 it said "the UK's favourite zoo".

Just found the 2012 guide leaflet that is handed to visitors. Again it does not actually say "popular", so my wording was not quite correct, but once more it says "the UK's favourite zoo" on the front and in the bit about the zoo it says "you'll quickly discover what makes us the UK's most visited zoo".
 
Parrotsandrew said:
I can't find this year's Flamingo Land leaflet at the moment, but the 2010 one says "the UK's best loved zoo", and in 2011 it said "the UK's favourite zoo".

Just found the 2012 guide leaflet that is handed to visitors. Again it does not actually say "popular", so my wording was not quite correct, but once more it says "the UK's favourite zoo" on the front and in the bit about the zoo it says "you'll quickly discover what makes us the UK's most visited zoo".
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Yes its called a bloody big theme park with some pretty good rides on the same site,if it wasn't for that I doubt it would get over a million visitors a year,in fact a very much doubt much over 75% if that actually bother going round the zoo!!!
 
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