Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens MY FIRST VISIT TO CWP.

i made my first visit yesterday(30/3/12) with my family and friends.
and was not disapointed, we had such a wonderful day. the park is spacious, clean,tidy, and the gardens and flowerbeds throughout are superbly presented.there is a good variety of small to large animals, and the reptile house is the best i have seen.
on a whole for a day out that is such good value for money, i could not really find any thing negative about cwp, and would recomend anyone to visit.

 

Cotswold Wildlife Park.

Could a moderator move the thread?

 

Most zoochatters who go there say the same- for my money apart from the interesting collection itself, its also the most attractive wildlife park setting and always scrupulously clean and tidy. A Five star park.

 

My only criticism would be the amount of unused space - there is a large area of woodland traversed by the railway that is crying out for some animal exhibits - say Tigers? And that backdrop of farmland always seems to be saying that it wants to hold exotic species rather than cattle.

Still one of my favourite collections though, and maybe the UK zoo with most underdeveloped potential (excepting Whipsnade, of course).

 

Looking at the park's map it seems as though you drive through a whole swathe of undeveloped parkland, just to get to the car park, surely bringing the car park nearer to the main road junction and situating an entrance facility there, would open many acres of open land.

 

Going on the above two comments, I don't think the unused space is an issue. The large open spaces and wooded areas give the park it's own charm and are part of the ambience of a very pleasant park. Rebuilding car parks and adding other large enclosures for the sake of it would ruin the charm and attractiveness of the park, in my opinion.

 

I'm very glad you enjoyed your visit

I agree that Cotswold has some empty space, but there isn't that much left now. As the collection has grown they have opened up new areas for new developments in a very sensible way. I expect they have one or two plans up their sleeeves.

Alan

 

Most of that unoccupied land between the llamas and the camels fills up with cars on busy summer days - the Cotswolds attract a lot of tourists and there is no alternative parking outside the park boundaries so I wouldn't expect much to change there.

Overall I agree with Dom - retaining an element of the open space is cruical for the park's appeal - it is one of the most (in fact probably the most) pleasant UK collections to just wander around.