Any Zoos you plan on visiting next year?

That's a nice haul for a year (especially the number of new ones), if you near-equal it I'd call it a good year.

HWP is one seriously long haul and pain in the backside to drive to (from Edinburgh). Unless you're going for a full on Scottish jaunt with a few other collections I'd suggest you'd be better spending the energy/money going to the continent.

 

Thanks Shorts, I think the Scottish jaunt will be a non-starter until at least 2 of the European trips I listed have been achieved, though Brexit may cause problems ..

Also it cost me less than £20 return flight to Cologne, Scotland trip by road, over £150

 

This is what I was weighing up last year, when I worked out HWP is pretty much the same distance from my home as Gelsenkirchen. Not only is HWP a long haul, but if the A9 gets closed, your journey south can be hampered; took me 5 hours to get back to Perth last July, including helping to get a car out of a ditch as the north and south bound traffic met on a tight single lane bend.

That was my quest to see one of the Polar bear cubs, so this year I will hopefully be going to Dierenrijk in April to see there

 

No concrete plans for me. Probably any zoo or aquarium in the area of any possible vacation spot I might visit this year. All this is mostly dependent on if/when I manage to get a job with vacation time this year.

 

I had a great year this year with the chance to get to 5 zoos in India, Singapore 4 times and the usual ones in and around Sydney.

With moving to Singapore at the start of February, apart from a lot more visits to Jurong and Singapore Zoos, I hope to get across to Jakarta for another visit to Ragunan and weekends to KL and across to Batu Secret Zoo.

 

Blasphemy!

~Thylo

 

I'm planning to go on yet another big summer road trip but for the first time the journey will be on another continent. I've got an itinerary that includes almost 50 Dutch zoos, 12 Belgian zoos and just over 30 German zoos for a grand total of 90+ zoos. I've already booked my flights and I actually got a sweet deal ($800 Canadian/$588 U.S.) as I confirmed my airplane tickets via a Boxing Day sale. I'm looking forward to 32 nights in 3 European nations and by the end of the trip I'll have visited zoo/aquarium #500 for my lifetime. Fingers crossed that all goes well... I'll leave the rest of the details secret but a mid-July to mid-August trek is ready to go!

 

One thing I didn't mention:

Every year I make at least one trip to a big zoo - which may or may not be one I have already visited. No exact plans yet.

 

I'm hoping to cross a few personal 'must have' zoos from the UK off my list this year, as well as visit my first European zoo outside of the UK, and a few besides!

UK must haves -
Edinburgh Zoo - really hoping to cross this off this year, have meant to visit for a while but being so far away it's difficult
Yorkshire Wildlife Park - this seems to beba really promising collection but suffers the same problem as Edinburgh, in that it's far enough away to make it difficult
Longleat - it's been a while since I last visited Longleat (5+ years) and the collection has improved so much so I'm going to try and stop by once the Koalas and Wombat are on show

UK revisits -
Chester Zoo - I was going to visit Chester this week, but am unable to so will definitely be going back later this year as soon as the new Madagascar complex is open, then probably again if the Lion habitat opens or reconstruction of Monsoon forest is finished
Wild Place - will definitely head back sometime in July after Bear Woods opens

European Zoos
Copenhagen Zoo - heading off here sometime in June as an end of uni holiday so will be ditching my friends for a full day here
Rotterdam Zoo and Zoo Duisburg - these two are less certain and are shoehorned into a roughly planned holiday to Amsterdam, so hoping to squeeze these in and praying I'm not too late to see Baby by the time this comes around

 

I want to go to Regent's Park fairly early in 2019 to have a last look at the Aquarium. I also want to revisit three of the collections that I visited for the first time in 2018: Drayton Manor to get better photos of their choicest specimens, Hamerton to see the new marsupials and Wingham to see the crested mangabeys (a species I haven't seen since 1973). Later in the year I hope that I'll be able to visit Pairi Daiza to see the rare species there and Antwerp to see the gorillas (their new baby is the first member of the 6th generation of the line founded at Basle that I will be able to see).

 

Pangolins are a bit 'ho hum', but nowhere near as 'ho hum' as platypus.

 

The only zoos I 100% know I'll visit this year are Sacramento and Oakland. However if this is like most years, I'll visit at least 3 or 4 additional zoos/aquariums.

 

I'll have to judge that for myself!

~Thylo

 

Double blasphemy! Although I have seen both I’ve only seen Pangolin once and Platypus twice so it’ll be a while until I consider them ho hum.

 

Barring any zoo adding new native species I don't see the point in revisiting any collection. Though if I make it to Tassie (which if it happens would still be a far cry away) I might add a place or two.

It'll be all about the wild-life this year, I guess.

 

I already went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium this year (yesterday ) . I will obviously go to the Fresno Chaffee zoo a million times. As for zoos I have not been to yet, at the least I hope to make it to the LA zoo and the Oakland zoo, but I will try to get to as many different California zoos as possible.

When I find out where in the world I will be moving to later this year for my mission, I will obviously try to go to any zoos near there.

 

I definitely recommend both zoos, but particularly Oakland with the new California Trail.

 

I've been through a difficult period and have not had the pleasure of zoogoing for a while, but hoping to plan a small trip to Lincoln Park again in the near future; can't believe it's been a few years already, as my last two visits still feel fresh. When my irl situation is fully settled, hoping to renew my Brookfield membership as well and make another pilgrimage there.

All that said... the time nor money won't be there for probably a good while, as travel is especially a luxury in my complicated position, but the long-term possibility of visiting Oregon or California have both opened up due to friends and family moving out there, which will give me the opportunity to explore some of those facilities some day.