Trip in UK's zoos

J

Johan

Active Member
Hi everybody.

I am currently planing a trip to visit some UK parks during this spring (mai, june or septembre), dates are not arrested.

After my look on the gallery I noted the parks of London Whipsnade, Colchester, Chester Howletts.

Which zoos can you council ?


I may spend about 1 week to 9 days in the country and profite to visit London on one or two days.

Thank you for your help.

Johan
 
It’s difficult to say which you should visit out of the ones picked as it depends on your personal choice. If you’re relying on public transport you may want to check out the journeys as Whipsnade is certainly tricky to get to, not sure about Chester and Colchester.
The zoos you have chosen are quite widely dispersed so will require some travelling.
Howllets and Whipsande are both large open zoos mainly focussing on mammals (though Howllets more so). Chester is often considered the UK’s best zoo and a must really. Colchester has lots of animals (mammals) but isn’t the most enjoyable environment on a busy day as everything feels crowded in. London Zoo is historically interesting, has good reptile, bird and invertebrate collections.
 
I think Ned has given good summary, there is plenty of variety amongst these 5 zoos and they are fairly different, in fact other than Edinburgh (which is probably out of the question on a fairly short stay ), I don't think I could have suggested a better 5!
As stated, Whipsnade, Chester & Colchester would probably all require a bus or taxi in addition to an initial train or bus journey from London, but Howletts is within walking distance of the nearest station.

Any other zoos you may prefer to visit would depend on your specific interests
 
As another foreign visitor, perhaps I can offer travel advice. I have been to three zoos in the UK: Chester Zoo, London Zoo, Port Lympne Animal Park.

Chester is probably the premiere zoo in the country and is easy to get to on public transport. Take a train from London to Chester Station (about 2 hours), then walk to the main bus depot in the center of town. It is maybe about one kilometer from the train station? The bus goes from there right to the Chester Zoo front gate - about a 15 minute ride. When I went, I took an evening train and spent the night in Chester then went to the zoo the next day.

Port Lympne is the bigger park run by the same organization that runs Howletts (which I have not been to). What I did is take the Eurostar from Paris to Ashford station. Then I took a bus from Ashford to Hythe (about one hour) to spend the night. Bus from Hythe to Port Lympne Animal Park is about 15 minutes. However, I recently discovered on the internet that you can also take a local train from Ashford to Hythe, although it looks like the station is just outside of town, so you may have to take a taxi.

Probably you will get to London Zoo on the underground (also known as the tube), but be aware that it is a fairly long walk from the underground station to the zoo entrance.

If you do go to Ashford, I believe the big cat park Heritage Wildlife Foundation (or something similar to that) is located there? Can anyone confirm this?
 
Thank you for your help.

I think I will keep this 5 zoos, they seams to be a large view of UK zoo conception.

For the trip I may came by plane and rent a car or a mobil home there.

Thank's

johan
 
I was recently in the Uk and I visited a couple of the zoos that you're planning on seeing. I can't recommend Chester Zoo enough. There is a bus that goes from a a train station just outside the city straight to the zoo gate so it's relatively easy to get to and all of the public transport runs early enough that you can get there in the morning before the zoo has even opened. London Zoo is unforgettable. It's probably on of the most famous zoos in the world, and rightly so. I'd recommend getting off at Regent's Park station. It's further from the entrance to the zoo but the walk through the park is well worth it.
I didn't visit any of the other three that you plan on seeing but if I could make one more recommendation than I would suggest Bristol Zoo. It's small but almost perfect and Bristol itself is one of my favourite places that I've been to.

Enjoy your trip :)
 
As has already been mentioned, London Zoo is very easy to reach on the underground (tube). But I offer a useful tip: get the underground to the Camden Town station, not, as you might expect, to the Regent's Park station, as the Camden Town stop is a lot closer if you're planning to walk to the zoo once you leave the underground station.
 
Thank you all for your help, an other ask for UK zoofan, do you think it's possible to couple in the same day the visit of Howlett and Port Lympne ?

Same question for Whipsnade and Twycross ?
 
Out of interest, where will you be arriving in the UK? If it is by plane and you were to fly to Luton Airport, Whipsnade would be your best bet first, as you could maybe stay in Luton your first night then get a bus to the zoo the next day!
 
Johan said:
Thank you all for your help, an other ask for UK zoofan, do you think it's possible to couple in the same day the visit of Howlett and Port Lympne ?
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If you have a car, Yes. It is only half an hour's drive between the two Parks on a minor traffic-free country road. You can spend approximately three hours in one place and a bit more in the other.

If you have no access to a car, then No.
 
Pertinax said:
If you have a car, Yes. It is only half an hour's drive between the two Parks on a minor traffic-free country road. You can spend approximately three hours in one place and a bit more in the other. If you have no access to a car, then No.
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I personally didn't think that a single day was quite long enough for Port Lympne. It may be a short hop between the two, but the latter is definately a full day zoo due to the vastness of its size, and I could very easily spend a full day at Howletts :)
 
Javan Rhino said:
I personally didn't think that a single day was quite long enough for Port Lympne. It may be a short hop between the two, but the latter is definately a full day zoo due to the vastness of its size, and I could very easily spend a full day at Howletts :)
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I would tend to agree with this,certainly before they decided to try and ruin port lympne (haven't been since!), i think both pl & whipsnade would be too full a day to combine with somewhere else on a 1st visit. I did howletts(rushed) with RSCC 2 years ago, but would say that now only wingham or wildwood would be a possibility with howletts(haven't been to either but drove past wingham on way to rscc)
 
Just a note for Johan and others - from 1st May (Tuesday!) there will be a direct bus between Chester railway station and the Zoo (No. 32) every 15 minutes.

Splendid!
 
Thank you everybody for your help, I finaly close my program in the UK

Arrival by plane on 22 Mai, rent a car for some days and visit of London city

23 Mai visit of London zoo

24 visit of Colchester

25 visit of Howletts and maybe the RSCC or Port Lympne zoo

26 visit of Port Lympne or Howletts

27 visit of Whipsnade

28 and 29 visit of Chester zoo

30 back to London airport and back to France :)

Hope the time plane for each zoo will be enough and the wetter will be with me.

See you soon int the UK

Johan
 
Johan said:
Thank you everybody for your help, I finaly close my program in the UK

Arrival by plane on 22 Mai, rent a car for some days and visit of London city

23 Mai visit of London zoo

24 visit of Colchester

25 visit of Howletts and maybe the RSCC or Port Lympne zoo

26 visit of Port Lympne or Howletts

27 visit of Whipsnade

28 and 29 visit of Chester zoo

30 back to London airport and back to France :)

Hope the time plane for each zoo will be enough and the wetter will be with me.

See you soon int the UK

Johan
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You will have a problem doing RSCC,because as far as I know it closed last year,unless you know something thay us in the UK don't know,about the place like it's re-opened!!
 
I'm afraid that you're some 8 months too late for RSCC, Johan; it has closed.

Depending on where you're staying in London, I would recommend Baker Street as the tube station to use for London Zoo. You can then choose between a pleasant walk trough Regent's Park or taking the 274 bus.

Don't try to combine Howletts and Port Lympne in one day; it will be too much to cram in!

Enjoy your trip!
 
If intending to do Howletts or Port Lympne by train, do Howletts - it is a LOT easier to do by train, as the nearest rail station (Bekesbourne) is literally down the road from the zoo, and if you phone the zoo beforehand they sometimes send a minibus to pick you up from Bekesbourne station.
 
Javan Rhino said:
I personally didn't think that a single day was quite long enough for Port Lympne. It may be a short hop between the two, but the latter is definately a full day zoo due to the vastness of its size, and I could very easily spend a full day at Howletts :)
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He asked if it was possible to do both in a day, and it is.:) That's not to say it is ideal as they both deserve longer than a half day but if time is short or you don't want to overnight, its possible. I even once did both in an afternoon from 1.p.m.!! (due to a leaking car radiator my day was completely messed up!:rolleyes:)
 
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