Were they done by public transport or done in a car? I'm going to guess a car as at least one of them seems to be quite awkward to reach?
I go to Dudley, BNC and sea life pretty regularly and don't think I could do them in one day, the latter two probably, but not all three. Bristol too I don't think I could combine, I spent 10-4 there once and still missed bits.
On my current road trip I'm taking 26 days and visiting approximately 80 zoos but many of them can be seen in an hour. On past road trips I would see one or two zoos each day but I'm now ticking off the small places on my lifetime list. I take a photo of every single exhibit and every single sign in the entire zoo and make comprehensive lists of species in Reptile Houses and Bird Houses but at the tiny zoos it doesn't take long for an individual to document the zoo in an hour and move on. Having said all of that, and judging from the miniscule amount of driving that can be done in the U.K. in comparison to the U.S.A., it seems possible that I'd be able to tour 5 small British zoos every day if I was to fly over to England. A major establishment like Chester would be all day; I've several zoo fans that have toured London Zoo in 5 hours and then maybe one other attraction; and then surely there are days when I could see 15 zoos in 3 days provided all of the facilities were tiny? Is that accurate? I'm asking in all honesty because if I travel to England five years from now I'd spend a year preparing an extensive itinerary. I'd like to see many major zoos with one or two per day but the tiny size of the country makes me think that 5 or even 6 one-hour collections is possible if some of them have later hours into the evening.
To do 5 collections in a day you would *really* have to rush most if not all the majority of collections you'd be prioritising would require a decent amount of time devoted to them, and UK collections tend to open later and close earlier than continental European and US collections do. To give you a general picture, here are some of the UK collections you are likeliest to prioritise, and a suggested "minimum visit length" - naturally some can profitably take a lot longer in order to see everything, but I know how you like to squeeze things in! for the purposes of this exercise, take "6+ hours" to indicate a full day, as depending on the time of year a zoo may only be open for this long, or less. Blackpool Zoo - 3 hours Bristol Zoo - 3 hours Chester Zoo - 6+ hours Colchester Zoo - 5 hours Cotswold Falconry Centre - 1 hour Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens - 3 hours Crocodiles of the World - 90 minutes Edinburgh Zoo - 2 hours Exmoor Zoo - 2 hours Hamerton Zoo Park - 3 hours Highland Wildlife Park - 5 hours Howletts Wild Animal Park - 4 hours Living Coasts - 90 minutes Marwell Wildlife - 4 hours Newquay Zoo - 2 hours Paignton Zoo - 3 hours Port Lympne Wild Animal Park - 5 hours Scottish Owl Centre - 90 minutes Shaldon Wildlife Trust - 1 hour Slimbridge WWT - 2 hours South Lakes Wild Animal Park - 2 hours The Wild Place - 90 minutes Twycross Zoo - 3 hours Woburn Safari Park - 3 hours Yorkshire Wildlife Park - 3 hours ZSL London Zoo - 6+ hours ZSL Whipsnade Zoo - 6+ hours
This list is enormously helpful and it gives me an interesting overview. Thanks! On one hand if I ever did a British zoo trip I'd obviously like to see as many zoos as possible as there is no point sitting around eating fish and chips and drinking tea when there are zoos out there waiting for me! On the other hand, I think that I'd be choosing the best of what is available and thus likely to be only touring perhaps two zoos each day and on several days just the one big one. In America many of the aquariums are open to 8:00 or later at night and that is one of the major reasons I've been able to see so many places on my current trip.
Here is the list again, put into a different order so as to show which collections of those I highlighted can be done in a single day. It goes without saying that some of the collections which are on their own and don't take a full day to see *can* be done with other collections - I just haven't highlighted those collections as ones I expect you would want to prioritise. I have also not taken into account any collection I have not myself visited. And yes, I *did* intend to suggest South Lakes is a collection you would want to prioritise; I imagine you would be rather keen to see and judge the place for yourself!
Picking flies a little, I know, but I think a few of the times are a bit off. I'm sure Edinburgh takes a little more than two hours -unless the hill has been rollered flat since my last visit . Highland Wildlife Park would not take 5 hours -you might choose to take 5 hours as it's beautiful and to justify the long journey to get there but you could easily see everything in half that time (there's not actually that many species to look at). Also, knowing Snow Leopard's methodology I'm sure he could do Crocodiles of the World in about an hour.
On the Scottish collections, Edinburgh could also be paired up with Five Sisters. And i would certainly disagree with 2 hours for Edinburgh, fair enough if you are starting at the top of the hill, with a skateboard! On the other end, HWP is a huge swathe of land, but 5 hours, once you have driven through, the central core of the park is quite tight knit, i did the park in 3 hours last Saturday (this was a time constrained visit). Could Camperdown and the Scottish deer centre be done in one day?
Very good assessment TLD. The only one of the ones I've been to(the majority of them)I'd query is Colchester which I think nowadays can easily warrant being a 'six-hourer' which is what I spent on my last but one visit there. Last time I went I saw everything in 4 hours and left(there were too many people!) but otherwise I could have easily stayed another couple of hours again. Cotswold WP and Bristol(when there was only 'the zoo' there) are also easily do-able in a day, but that precludes a visit to the new Wild Place (and Noah's if you are of a curious nature) so as there are now more centred around Bristol, its unlikley you would choose that option nowadays.
Here are some of the combinations I've attempted in a single day in the UK. Perhaps surprisingly, there are very few on this list where I would have preferred to stay longer. Two collections have surprisingly been closed on the day of the visit. Otherwise, most of the visits listed were successful. Bristol aquarium Bristol zoo Noah's Ark Zoo Farm British Wildlife Centre Tilgate Nature Centre Huxley's Bird of Prey Experience Eagle Heights Sea Life London Aquarium Blue reef aquarium Hastings Port Lympne Port Lympne Howletts Marwell Liberty's (closed) Bournemouth oceanarium Bournemouth gardens aviary North anston butterfly world Wetland wild animal park Yorkshire wildlife park Lotherton hall Harewood house Tropical world Leeds Ponderosa rural therapeutic centre Tropical Birdland Twycross zoo Wild place WWT Slimbridge Cheshire falconry centre Chester zoo Blue planet aquarium Hull park aviaries & animal education centre* (East park,* West park, pickering park and Pearson park) The Deep Cotswold falconry centre Birdland Crocodiles of the World Cotswold Wildlife Park Raptor Foundation Hamerton Zoo Park Linton Zoo Shepreth Wildlife Park Lakeland Wildlife Oasis Lakes Aquarium World Owl Trust South Lakes Wildlife Safari park Woodside farm and wildfowl park Whipsnade Tiggywinkles animal hospital Waddesdon Manor aviaries (Natural history museum at Tring) Sewerby zoo (closed) Sea life Scarborough West Midlands Safari Park Hagley Falconry Centre Dudley zoo Birmingham Nature Centre Birmingham Nature Centre National Sea Life Centre Birmingham Birmingham botanical gardens Exclusively using public transport: Clacton Seaquarium Martello children's zoo Colchester zoo Wingham Howletts Portsmouth Blue reef WWT Arundel Horniman Museum Crystal Palace Farm Park Eagle heights Tropical wings zoo Southend sea life adventure Battersea children's zoo Brent lodge park animal centre Hounslow urban farm Golders Hill Park Zoo London Zoo
In terms of physical footplan that would be about right; I allowed the extra half-hour because it can get extremely crowded inside the main building, which would slow progress around. Yeah, as I said above I only listed those collecrtions which I thought snowleopard would prioritise, but acknowledged he would probably try to fit others in. I reckon he would prioritise Edinburgh for obvious reasons, but my reason for suggesting he would prioritise Scottish Owl Centre is because North American collections are relatively impoverished when it comes to owl taxa, and with the closure of the World Owl Trust site at Muncaster Castle, the SOC is the largest owl collection in Europe. It goes without saying that when the new WOT site opens, he'd probably prioritise that too.
If you are only spending 3 hours at Paignton and seeing every exhibit, you must be an Olympic athlete.
Like I said, I based those estimates purely on my own experience it is possible that someone who is not as used to walking as I am might find it takes a shade longer.
Unfortunately Silent World closed a few years ago . It was indeed possible to do the 3 comfortably in a day . The zoo side of Folly Farm is expanding quickly but is still not enormous .
I don't think anyone's mentioned the Lincolnshire coast 4 collection combo yet: Cleethorpes Jungle Zoo Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary Skegness Natureland National Parrot Zoo They're all small, flawed and unspectacular but they each have a knack of throwing up some unusual species -Ganets and Giant Freshwater Prawn to name just two.
