Last summer, @GerbenElzinga, @KevinVar and I joined forces to go see most of Eastern Europe's great zoos in one trip. We saw a lot of wonderful animals, and the entire thing was absolutely lovely, so it wasn't really a question. We had to go back.
The question, however, was where. There's a lot of wonderful places to visit in Europe. The first one we thoroughly looked into was a trip straight through England: from Howlett's to Chester, and everything in between. We posted a thread (The long-aspired zoo-trip of two Dutchmen and a Belgian: Round II) and left it at that for about half a year. And then we changed our minds.
We learned about the ACTP and wanted to go there, so we started looking into Germany. I have no idea how exactly we got to the next step, but not long after we had an entire itinerary for Southern Germany laid out, without the ACTP. However, the goal was to visit the ACTP, so the idea moved to Northern Germany. Those collections would, however, mainly be revisits, so we settled on, perhaps, a combination of both. And then we changed our minds.
The problem with it was that we wanted to squeeze in too much; not only would it take too long, it'd also cost a little too much. Eventually we came to a conclusion all three of us were comfortable with: the wonderful country of Czechia! (The closest thing to a normal name, though I'll admit it doesn't quite roll off the tongue. I wanted to use it in a sentence, as I don't think I ever have).
A bit of critical thinking, consulting other zoochatters and clicking every single animal on zootierliste later, we landed on a bit of an itinerary.
-Day 0: Flight from the Netherlands to Prague. (sleep in Prague)
-Day 1: Zoo Jihlava. (sleep in Brno)
*Day 2: Zoo Olomouc. (sleep in Brno)
*Day 3: Zoo Zlín. (sleep in Brno)
*Day 4: Zoo Brno. (sleep in Brno)
-Day 5: Zoo Ostrava. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 6: Tiergarten Nürnberg. (sleep in Prague)**
*Day 7: Zoo Ústí nad Labem. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 8: Zoo Dvůr Králové. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 9: DIY zoo-tripping. (sleep in Prague)***
*Day 10: Zoo Plzeň. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 11: Zoo Praha. (sleep in Prague)
-Day 12: Flight from Prague to the Netherlands.
A few notes:
*: The days indicated with a <*> as opposed to a <-> before the day signify that we can organize and switch these as we wish, while we're there. We have an interrail train ticket that permits us to have 8 train days, so with those we should have some freedom in choosing what we want to do when depending on how tired we are, etc.
**: One of these things is not like the others! Nürnberg was added for a few reasons that we will probably elaborate on later. In it's place we were originally wanting to do Dresden, but upon closer inspection Nürnberg had more highlights and was cheaper to reach.
***: As might be obvious from the rest of this thread, we're not good at making decisions and sticking to them. This day can be filled while we're there with what we feel like doing then. This will most likely consist of one of the following:
- A second day of any of the previously visited zoos;
- Zoopark Chomutov;
- Zoo Hluboká;
- Non-zoo day (city exploring, birding, a combination of both...)
Suggestions, tips and comments are always welcome! The interrail train ticket, flights, and hotels are already booked so we can't change anything on that front, but for the rest we have a very 'free' time schedule and can basically do what we want, whenever we want to do it.
As is probably obvious from the above list, our goal is to see as many different new species in a relatively short time, while still not having to rush every single zoo we visit. Unfortunately, this does mean that we'll have very little time to do anything besides visiting zoos... That's just how it is, I suppose. We'll have all the evenings to explore Prague and Brno!
The question, however, was where. There's a lot of wonderful places to visit in Europe. The first one we thoroughly looked into was a trip straight through England: from Howlett's to Chester, and everything in between. We posted a thread (The long-aspired zoo-trip of two Dutchmen and a Belgian: Round II) and left it at that for about half a year. And then we changed our minds.
We learned about the ACTP and wanted to go there, so we started looking into Germany. I have no idea how exactly we got to the next step, but not long after we had an entire itinerary for Southern Germany laid out, without the ACTP. However, the goal was to visit the ACTP, so the idea moved to Northern Germany. Those collections would, however, mainly be revisits, so we settled on, perhaps, a combination of both. And then we changed our minds.
The problem with it was that we wanted to squeeze in too much; not only would it take too long, it'd also cost a little too much. Eventually we came to a conclusion all three of us were comfortable with: the wonderful country of Czechia! (The closest thing to a normal name, though I'll admit it doesn't quite roll off the tongue. I wanted to use it in a sentence, as I don't think I ever have).
A bit of critical thinking, consulting other zoochatters and clicking every single animal on zootierliste later, we landed on a bit of an itinerary.
-Day 0: Flight from the Netherlands to Prague. (sleep in Prague)
-Day 1: Zoo Jihlava. (sleep in Brno)
*Day 2: Zoo Olomouc. (sleep in Brno)
*Day 3: Zoo Zlín. (sleep in Brno)
*Day 4: Zoo Brno. (sleep in Brno)
-Day 5: Zoo Ostrava. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 6: Tiergarten Nürnberg. (sleep in Prague)**
*Day 7: Zoo Ústí nad Labem. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 8: Zoo Dvůr Králové. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 9: DIY zoo-tripping. (sleep in Prague)***
*Day 10: Zoo Plzeň. (sleep in Prague)
*Day 11: Zoo Praha. (sleep in Prague)
-Day 12: Flight from Prague to the Netherlands.
A few notes:
*: The days indicated with a <*> as opposed to a <-> before the day signify that we can organize and switch these as we wish, while we're there. We have an interrail train ticket that permits us to have 8 train days, so with those we should have some freedom in choosing what we want to do when depending on how tired we are, etc.
**: One of these things is not like the others! Nürnberg was added for a few reasons that we will probably elaborate on later. In it's place we were originally wanting to do Dresden, but upon closer inspection Nürnberg had more highlights and was cheaper to reach.
***: As might be obvious from the rest of this thread, we're not good at making decisions and sticking to them. This day can be filled while we're there with what we feel like doing then. This will most likely consist of one of the following:
- A second day of any of the previously visited zoos;
- Zoopark Chomutov;
- Zoo Hluboká;
- Non-zoo day (city exploring, birding, a combination of both...)
Suggestions, tips and comments are always welcome! The interrail train ticket, flights, and hotels are already booked so we can't change anything on that front, but for the rest we have a very 'free' time schedule and can basically do what we want, whenever we want to do it.
As is probably obvious from the above list, our goal is to see as many different new species in a relatively short time, while still not having to rush every single zoo we visit. Unfortunately, this does mean that we'll have very little time to do anything besides visiting zoos... That's just how it is, I suppose. We'll have all the evenings to explore Prague and Brno!
