Where to go next?

L

lamna

Well-Known Member
I've been to quite a few collections recently, and I'm wondering if I've missed anything significant. I live in the West Midlands, and can only use public transport to get around. Elephants are my favourite, with hoofstock and birds coming in second and third.

Here what I've seen recently.

West Midlands Safari Park
Dudley Zoo
Birmingham Nature Centre
Chester Zoo
Whipsnade Zoo

And I've been these places recently enough I'm not desperate to return.

Twycross Zoo
South Lakes Wild Animal Park
(You lot have put me off those two anyway)
Cotswold Wildlife Park
Blackbrook Zoological Park
Bristol Zoo

I've been thinking about possibly doing Bristol Zoo and The Wild Place, or The Deep once the get their Gentoos but the train trips seem much more expensive than my recent one to Chester.

My family do occasionally go on trips. Which safari park is better, Woburn or Knowsley? By some strange coincidence they take exactly the same amount of time to get to. Longleat is further and looks pretty expensive, and have a less impressive elephant collection.
 
If it's elephants you want to see, you will probably have to travel a fair distance. Howletts is easily accessed by train, but it's probably too far for a day trip(it also has no birds). I'd always recommend Colchester, but that would probably involve going into London & out so too far again & it's not really walkable from the station, so bus or taxi needed.
If you want value for money i wouldn't bother with Longleat.
 
lamna said:
I've been to quite a few collections recently, and I'm wondering if I've missed anything significant. I live in the West Midlands, and can only use public transport to get around. Elephants are my favourite, with hoofstock and birds coming in second and third.

Here what I've seen recently.

West Midlands Safari Park
Dudley Zoo
Birmingham Nature Centre
Chester Zoo
Whipsnade Zoo

And I've been these places recently enough I'm not desperate to return.

Twycross Zoo
South Lakes Wild Animal Park
(You lot have put me off those two anyway)
Cotswold Wildlife Park
Blackbrook Zoological Park
Bristol Zoo

I've been thinking about possibly doing Bristol Zoo and The Wild Place, or The Deep once the get their Gentoos but the train trips seem much more expensive than my recent one to Chester.

My family do occasionally go on trips. Which safari park is better, Woburn or Knowsley? By some strange coincidence they take exactly the same amount of time to get to. Longleat is further and looks pretty expensive, and have a less impressive elephant collection.
Click to expand...

Birdland isn't too far away from the West Midlands.
 
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i would go to woburn if you like birds and elephants they do a good bird display and have 4 elephants and a lot of hoofstock (girrafes,zebras oryx e.c.t)
 
Knowsley has seven elephants as well, and they are Africans. I haven't gotten close to an African since Flossie and Flora left Dudley. Hard to believe that was a decade ago.

It looks like you can get pretty close to the elephants at Woburn though.

Thanks for telling me about Birdland, that's exactly the sort of place I was looking for. I was seriously considering going to Edinburgh to see King Penguins, or any other penguins than the ubiquitous Jackass penguins. I never knew there were some only a hour away.
 
lamna said:
Knowsley has seven elephants as well, and they are Africans. I haven't gotten close to an African since Flossie and Flora left Dudley. Hard to believe that was a decade ago.

It looks like you can get pretty close to the elephants at Woburn though.

Thanks for telling me about Birdland, that's exactly the sort of place I was looking for. I was seriously considering going to Edinburgh to see King Penguins, or any other penguins than the ubiquitous Jackass penguins. I never knew there were some only a hour away.
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Only one of the collections you listed as having visited recently keep the ubiquitous Jackass penguins,and that is Bristol all the rest keep Humboldts!!!
 
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If you like elephants and hoofstock, have a liking for birds of display and even a sea lion or two then I would recommend Knowsley. What I can tell you that you won’t see on the website is that they have far more species than they advertise they have on the website, I have no idea why they only list about half their animals. The Amur tiger (0:2) enclosure is a scruffy mess from a visitors view, and the females who where two young sisters from Port Lympne about 4 years ago should I think have been found a mate by now. Opposite the tiger enclosure is an equally scruffy hunting dog enclosure with two old females, numbers of the dogs have dwindled over the years. The Lion drive through is decent, especially if you catch them not snoozing, but that is luck of the draw.
The next two ‘sections’ have your hoofstock, a good diversity of species, but lower in numbers now than past years. Then there is the famous Baboon drive through, or if you know baboons, it is the baboon sit and watch others drive through section!. The next section is the area where I think they excel themselves at Knowsley – the section with the White Rhinos!. Over the last few years they have successfully bred and raised sevrla White Rhinos who have gone on to different places around Europe to continue breeding success, the most recent example of this is the male at Cotswold Wildlife Park (Monty) who has just fathered his first calf. They currently have 3 successful breeding females each with a calf from a new male (Shaka) and two other females, one about 7 or 8 years old and another around 2 years plus. This large area of land containing the rhinos has recently been divided into two, so the bull and the two young females can be kept together and the three mothers with calves together, within scent of each other, but separate. I like this idea a lot.
I seem to have divulged away from the point of this thread, so to get back a bit…If you are travelling by public transport then you must ring the park to book yourself a place on the ‘Baboon Bus’, otherwise you have pretty much wasted your time!!. Also depending on your finances, have a look at the animal encounters, they do one for your favourite elephants, this also includes entry to the park in its price I believe, so check it out.
The walk through area has also increased a little recently with the addition of Brazilian Tapir and before that a neat but rather small nocturnal house.
 
By Jackass I meant Spheniscus species. Pretty much everyone has one species or another, and while I still enjoy seeing them I'm ready for something new, and Kings/Emperors are my favourites.

If it's only a hour's drive I can probably rope someone into taking me.

Blackpool does look like my best bet right now, a train station within half an hour's walk, and it looks like I won't have to hand over my first born child to pay for a ticket.

I'll probably be going there in November, so closing time will be 15:45 and it looks like the earliest cheap train back is at 19:20. Is the Sealife Centre worth checking out for a couple of hours?
 
lamna said:
And I've been these places recently enough I'm not desperate to return.

Twycross Zoo
South Lakes Wild Animal Park
(You lot have put me off those two anyway)
Cotswold Wildlife Park
Blackbrook Zoological Park
Bristol Zoo
Click to expand...

Hi lamna, I too rely on public transport to get to most collections and the two I've highlighted above are extremely difficult for me to reach from Birmingham. They are possible but take far too long to get there. How did you manage it?

And for an answer to your original question I'd recommend a long weekend in Torbay, you can do Paignton, Living Coasts and Shaldon quite easily and if you don't mind a train ride you can possibly knock off Paradise Park in Hayle as well. I only suggest the latter because they have a very extensive bird collection with a few token mammals thrown in. You'd probably need about three full days down there but you'd get quite a few collections of high quality. You also have Newquay and Exmoor zoos not too far away as well but I'm not sure either of those would be to your particular taste! ;)

http://www.zoochat.com/38/possible-first-visit-294559/

http://www.zoochat.com/38/random-thoughts-west-country-collections-280685/

There's two threads to give you some idea of what the West Country has to offer! :)
 
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Birdland

To get to Birdland, you would need to get the train to either Cheltenham or Moreton In Marsh, change at Worcester, thenget the Pulhams Bus to Bourton on the Water, Birdland is about five minutes walk away from the centre of Bourton.!
 
I've been to Twycross in the past with the family and most recently with Halesowen College as part of my animal management course, also went to Bristol with them.

Cotswold was another family trip. I would like to go there again but it's an awkward trip alone.

A short holiday in Torbay does sound quite nice, but I might leave that for next spring. Newquay and Exmoor do sound interesting. Elephants, hoofstock and birds are my favourites, but the only animals I'm not interested in are meerkats and chimps.
 
lamna said:
A short holiday in Torbay does sound quite nice, but I might leave that for next spring. Newquay and Exmoor do sound interesting. Elephants, hoofstock and birds are my favourites, but the only animals I'm not interested in are meerkats and chimps.
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I did the above in January 2013, as you may gather from the linked threads - accomodation in the area is a *lot* cheaper if you do it at that time of the year. I stayed in the Premier Inn at Newton Abbot - as staying there is cheaper than staying on Torbay itself, even though it is only 5 minutes away on the train - and conducted myself to the following itinerary:

Day 1 - train down to Newton Abbot
Day 2 - train from Newton Abbot to Paignton, did Paignton Zoo.
Day 3 - train from Newton Abbot to Exeter, changing there to get a train to Barnstaple. From there got a bus to Exmoor Zoo.
Day 4 - train from Newton Abbot to Newquay, did Newquay Zoo.
Day 5 - train from Newton Abbot to Torquay, did Living Coasts, then train from Torquay to Teignmouth, did Shaldon Zoo, then returned home by train.

Possibly additions or alterations, depending on how the weather may or may not affect rail connections for some of the above, could include:

* Train from Newton Abbot to Hayle, do Paradise Park
* Train from Newton Abbot to Plymouth, do Dartmoor Zoo
* Train from Newton Abbot to Axminster, do Axe Valley
 
lamna said:
I've been to Twycross in the past with the family and most recently with Halesowen College as part of my animal management course, also went to Bristol with them.

Cotswold was another family trip. I would like to go there again but it's an awkward trip alone.

A short holiday in Torbay does sound quite nice, but I might leave that for next spring. Newquay and Exmoor do sound interesting. Elephants, hoofstock and birds are my favourites, but the only animals I'm not interested in are meerkats and chimps.
Click to expand...

I do strongly recommend trying to get down there, I'm a big fan of Paignton zoo and Living Coasts. The bird collection at both is very impressive, LC have quite a few rarities when it comes to sea birds and have macaroni penguins as well African.

I also have to try and tag along on family trips and con lifts off friends and family for long distance/hard to reach places. It's a nightmare trying to get to certain places and rail travel costs a fortune! :(
 
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