i am thinking of going out with my family, and friends this weekend, i live in dudley,west midlands, england.i have visited most of my local zoos and safari parks, but want to venture a little further afield, i dont mind travelling 2/3 hours.i have looked a bristol zoo, and noahs ark farm zoo, but cannot decide.i would be grateful of any ideas or suggestions of where to go. thankyou
I would go to Bristol, it's a great day out in my opinion. I don't know if your friends and family are major zoo fans. If they aren't Bristol is a good choice; it isn't so huge that they could get bored or tired and there are lots of talks and educational shows which people seem to enjoy and the gardens are lovely. You also have Clifton Suspension Bridge nearby and Bristol in general is a nice city to visit.
If you can drive, I'd recommend the Cotswold Wildlife Park just south of Burford. Less than 2 hours down the M5 and A40 (unless the traffic is terrible). The Cotswolds are lovely at this time of year and there are nice places to stop for a meal on the way back if you wish. The CWP is a very nice collection, in a beautiful setting - excellent lemurs, some nice small cats, a very tropical Tropical House, some nice reptiles and an interesting selection of birds. If the weather is good, there is nowhere nicer, in my opinion. Alan
I work at Noahs Ark and think it would make a great day out but it depends on what you like the most Bristol zoo is also very good. Noahs Ark Has; Rhino, giraffe (and new baby), zebra, deer, and a lot more of the bigger stuff than Bristol zoo. Also a lot of play indoor and out. Bristol Zoo Has; Garrillas, sea lions & penguins (in a brilliant high tec. enclosure), nice gardens, and a big café, and one of my favourites a big walk through aviary. They both have a lot more to offer than the short lists above but they are the most different items. I have been going to Bristol zoo all my life and I would recommend it to everyone, it is small (12 acres) but walking round the well-established and well laid out ground it feels bigger. Noah’s ark Is run by strong Christians and try to give the place a family feel it is also a working farm (200 acres is farmed and 100 acres is the zoo) it is very hands on and you can get the feel of the farm at the same time as seeing tigers and letting the kids go on some great adventure play. You can’t fit both in a day If you have children you would be hard pressed to get them round all the play areas at Noah’s ark fit in an animal show or reptile experience, or tractor ride, with enough time left to see half the animals in a day. You will have to do both make two trips or stay overnight. Noah’s ark isn’t open on Sundays. This may sound like an extravagant week end but how about; Saturday at Noah’s Ark Zoo farm an overnight stay at Aston court (see our web site for a special rate or book something on line) take in a show or go to the cinema Saturday night and do Bristol zoo on Sunday.
Very sorry but you can do both in a day,I know as I have done it twice now,if you are Bristol for opening at 9am you can be at Noahs for 1pm at the latest,and then when you have finished Noahs before 3pm you can be back in your car and on your way to collection number 3 for the day,which in my case is either Shaldon or Living Coasts
I've done Bristol and Noahs ark in afternoon. You'll spend 3 times as long looking at animals at Bristol than you will at Noahs Ark. The kids should enjoy Noahs Ark more than an adult, however it's shut on a Sunday. Bristol is a top quality zoo and i'd say a must if you are a zoo lover. But i will also put in a good word for Cotswolds Wildlife park, i'd be hard pressed to think of any faults for it.
Wow it must be expensive 'doing' more than one of these places in an afternoon, I like to get my money's worth. I can barely 'do' the bats & gorillas at Bristol by lunch time. Cotswold is lovely too (sifaka!) I wonder where wayne goodman actually ended up going!
It depends on what you consider expensive,despite what many people think I don't rush going round a place,and I know people on here that have visited places with me and have,doubt that we could get some of my plans done,in the same day.But I said to them we go when you have had enough in a place,and guess what we did mange to get all the places done,in the day that I planned and that was with us spending longer in them ,than I would have done on my own as they others had never visited the places before!
It was my first visit to Noahs Ark, i think it's possibly the first zoo i've seen every animal without having to go back. I was a member at Bristol, so it was free for me to get in there and i'd have cherry picked the animals/exhibits i'd have visited that afternoon. Noahs Ark isn't as bad as some make out on this site, but it most certainly isn't a zoo worth travelling from Dudley for.
I am a bit confused about the free entry comment so far as I know Noah’s Ark has no discounts for Bristol Zoo members. As for traveling from Dudley to any other zoo you could easily argue the point WHY. Dudley Zoo is fantastic and I can’t see why anybody who lives close wouldn’t be a member and go there all the time. Why waste time traveling to see something else when you have something this good on your door step?
How long to spend at a Zoo? Again I suppose it all depends on who you go with and what you want from your visit. I personally have never had enough time at any zoo I have ever visited (and I have spent hundreds of hours at zoos other than where I work.) More often than not I am with somebody who wants to do this or that. I love it when I can get on my own and spend a proper amount of time with this or that animal and see what they get up to or just sit with a sandwich and take in the sounds. For me a day isn’t enough anywhere.
Wow! Dudley "fantastic" eh? Phew..ive been going there off and on for nearly forty years and much as i like the place its never been" fantastic"-one wonders if bazzoobuilder has ever been to look at zoos outside of this sceptered isle.He might get quite a shock.And in visiting nearly 600 zoos around the world i got the faint impression that they were all very different from one another irrespective of the different taxa within them all.With all due respect what a bizarre point of view.And to others..support Noahs Ark if you must but the place represents a quite scandalous non-evolutionary ethos and blatant competition to a 141-year old scientifically-based neighbour just down the road...i wouldnt go in there if you paid me a hundred pounds.
I meant it was free for me to get into Bristol. I agree about Dudley but seeing as the thread is about the Original poster wanting to go somewhere else other than Dudley, it would have been a bit silly to suggest it.
I whole-heartedly agree, Noahs Ark has zero appeal to me mainly for the 2 reasons you've stated above. Why compete with Bristol and why try and ram your religious views down peoples throats and ignore the facts in the name of "education"?
Blimey yes...after all i only co-wrote the 175-year history of the place last year! All the more reason not to support nasty Noahs then!
I paid Noahs ark a visit because i had to make up my own mind after what i had been reading on here over the years. To be fair it wasn't anywhere near as bad as i was expecting. It's not great, i wouldn't rush back, it would have been better if i'd stayed out of the Noahs ark model exhibit barn, but i had to make up my own mind.
Everyone's free to believe in what they choose, I'm just against the point they try to portray it as scientific fact!
