Round Britain ( sort of ) Zoo tour

I have finally been given the ok from my employer to take some time off this year ( have just reached my 25th anniversary so it`s a long service "reward" ) and after all sorts of dithering and longing glances overseas have plumped for what I am starting to call my "As much as I can see" UK Zoo tour ... still hammering out when I can take my time off ( 25 days in total but not necessarily all at the same time ) so no dates for sure yet but am currently looking at May/June maybe holding some days over till September . I do also have some holiday time to play with but have family commitments to take into account and I`m trying to do most of the visiting outside school holidays .

I`m based in South Wales and have places to stay with family in North Wales and Nottingham and am happy to drive pretty much anywhere except London - I would be very grateful for any hints/suggestions for

a) places to stay near zoos

b) any tried and tested routes for taking in more than one smaller collection

c) any places that come with a personal recommendation that I might otherwise overlook ...

d) any places with limited opening times or that are planning to reopen during this year ( RSCC anyone ?)
Incidentally I have been keeping an eye on the Collections by Public Transport thread but hoping to do most of the tour by car .

I have the IZES Guide but obviously a few things have changed since that was published . Currently my plan is to take in as many ( if not all ) animal collections around Britain ( with Jersey and Northern Ireland very much depending on finances ) but NOT planning to do Aquaria unless they fit in to the itinerary - similarly not planning to do ALL birds of prey centres . Hoping to add a couple of museums to the list ( Tring and the Horniman for starters ) and have a few places to visit out of pure nostalgia ( the basement aquarium in Bolton Museum for one - spent many happy times there and in the library and museum above it when I was growing up ) . Once plans have firmed up a bit I`ll repost and if my visits coincide with anyones I would be very happy to meet up/be shown around if you would be so kind . Also if anyone fancies joining me at any point I shall have room in the car for one or two others ...

Collections I have previously visited ( not counting closed collections ) :
Anglesey Sea Zoo
Birdland
Bristol
Chessington ( actually that reminds me that I might be ruling out the places where the zoo is not the main attraction tho that`s flexible ) *
Chester
Colwyn Bay
Cotswold Wildlife*
Drusillas
Durrell *
Edinburgh *
Highland Wildlife *
London - Aquarium , WWT (Barnes) and ZSL *
Longleat *
Manchester Museum Vivarium
Martin Mere *
Paignton *
Slimbridge
Twycross
Washington WWT
Whipsnade *
Places with an * I haven`t visited for between 15 - 35 years ... !!

So as you can see there is a LOT of catching up to do and new places to see ( almost feel like a bit of a Zoochat fraud when I put it like that ... but then again I have been lucky to see quite a few places abroad during my travels with work so don`t think I`m doing that badly when I list in no particular order Shanghai , Ueno , Central Park , Berlin , Leipzig , Stuttgart , Prague , Brno , Frankfurt , Georgia Aquarium and quite a few more that I have momentarily forgotten ... ahem )

Anyhow any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated .

With Thanks in anticipation

Mr Ottershrew

 

It would be helpful to know what you really look for in a zoo. Favourite animals, if you prefer older zoos or newer ones, etc.

 

Ok - well I`ve been around long enough to have visited all sorts of zoos ( many now closed ) from very good to downright bad - Knaresborough was perhaps the smelliest zoo I ever visited but for all it`s faults was the first place I ever had the chance to handle a snake ... so basically I`m interested in any type of zoo and will visit with an open ( but informed ) mind .

As for favourite animals that`s a tricky one - I always say that I`m possibly less interested in aquaria but have spent many an inspiring hour learning more about the aquatic world . My abiding interest is I suppose in the small mammal sphere - I`m very interested in rodents , insectivores and other strange little beasties ( just check out my nametag ) but generally speaking I`m very happy to see contented and well cared for animals of any sort .

Older zoos vs newer ones - well I suppose part of the point of this trip is to see just what changes have taken place in the older zoos since I last visited ... I took my Mother ( who is in her 70s ) to Bristol Zoo a couple of years back for the first time in roughly 45 years and it was inspiring seeing her reaction to the changes there ( I visit at least annually ) . So I am very much looking forward to revisiting London for instance - last visit would have been maybe a decade ago but had been a regular visitor before then ...

Will post my current list of places I hope to visit soon .

 

I have had great success with www.Airbnb.com

 

Firstly, what an excellent plan -I've always fancied doing much the same on retirement.

Secondly, the IZES guide is a good place to start. I'm sure they'll be plenty of people come on insisting you've got to check out this or that place but the IZSES guide and your own instincts/research will probably be the best way to go. Two major exceptions to this are Yorkshire Wildlife Park (grown a bit, and very well, since IZES guide) and Five Sisters (shamefully omitted, in error, from the guide).

Finally:

It depends what you want, a place to shower and fall asleep or something a little nicer. I know some really, really good B & B's near Edinburgh, Norwich, Torquay and Kent but they're a little more expensive than Travelodges. What's your expected spend per night for accomodation?

 

Some good tips there from TLD.

Kent is another good place, i usually travel down on a friday morning and visit Wildwood, then stay in Ashford, visit Port Lympne on a Saturday and then Howletts and Wingham on a sunday.

 

Beat me to it, Birmingham has a very nice collection of small animals and if you're visiting the West Midlands you won't want to miss it.

If you're interested in natural history then there is a fairly small museum about ten minutes walk away from the BNC.
The Lapworth Museum of Geology - University of Birmingham - University of Birmingham

 

I would say the biggest miss from your list is Colchester, but it's not easily combined with anywhere else, maybe tagged on to Norfolk or Kent, or Whipsnade & somewhere else on the way home.

 

Many thanks to you all for the suggestions so far - a few I had already thought of ( or seen mentioned on here before ) but some have been really useful and will definitely look into them . As far as places to stay are concerned the price is flexible - so long as I manage to keep a few cheap(er) places in the loop then I can afford to splash out on one or two more upmarket establishments . Having said that I expect that London may be one of the biggest outlays ( train fare plus at least one overnight ) have checked out a few places to stay already and factored that into the overall cost ... the way I look at it I`m probably only going to do this once so I may as well do it properly !!
I do promise to post my current list of places I hope to get to soon ( let`s just say that the majority of the IZES guide is there - obviously one or two places are sadly no longer with us but there are happily some new places to visit as well )
It looks vaguely possible that I may have somewhere to stay with friends in Colchester as well now but even if not I`m definitely going to visit !!
Hoping that by the time I start out properly ( may well get round some Welsh collections and others within a day`s drive sooner than May ) that the RSCC will be open and also Shorelands ( their website is being redone at the mo but the facebook page states that they are closed till the spring ... ) If there are any other places that have limited opening that people know of I`d be grateful to hear ...
Once again a BIG thank you to everyone who has responded so far ... think I may well have to start a whole new thread once I`m under way to report back !!



p.s my family are not in the least surprised that I`m doing this but some of my work colleagues think I`m daft !! Mind you they thought that before so no change there ...

 

If you visit Bristol and subscribe to an annual membership for just under £60, you will get free entry into some other zoos around the country.

"Free entry to selected other UK zoos and safari parks, including; Colchester Zoo; Chester Zoo (one visit per year); Edinburgh Zoo; Marwell Zoological Park (one visit per year) and Woburn Safari Park (one visit per year)"

 

Does Bristol not have the arrangement with Paignton/living coasts/Newquay, as most of the others do & include Twycross too.

 

No, mores the pity. Which is why i changed to Paignton from Bristol, this year. If memory serves correct Colchesters is the best value and offers the most other zoo deals.

 

Here's Colchesters other zoo deals,
• Entrance to selected major Zoos free of charge on production of your pass. Based on one adult entry to each park this has a current saving of over £150 in admission! They are currently Belfast, Bristol, Chester*, Dublin, Edinburgh, Highland Wildlife Park, Marwell Wildlife*, Newquay, Living Coasts, Paignton, Rotterdam and Twycross. (*Chester & Marwell, 1 visit only per year)

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Colchester is one of the cheapest, under £50 recently with discounted offer.
I would have switched from Marwell, but they only let the other zoos passholders in once, & as i visit both 3+ times a year it wouldn't have made sense.

 

That`s all really useful thanks - have to say I had completely forgotten about the membership pass scheme with other zoos - need to look into it sharpish I think !!
Nearly completed my list and hope to post on here soon - some places I`m a bit unsure of and feel certain I shall get some interesting opinions from fellow Zoochatters ...

 

With the Colchester card we have visited Marwell zoo for 2 days running! Both Chester and Marwell do nothing to record your entrance nor can they mark the card in any way as it is not their property.

 

Thanks, that's good to know! I've never had my card number recorded at any of the zoos I've been to, but wasn't sure whether Marwell had started to since they began specifying 1 visit a couple of years ago.

 

Shhhhush (they'll hear you).

 

Ok folks - have decided to post the list of collections I intend to visit in installments ( otherwise it`ll be too unwieldy )

First off - I will definitely be visiting all collections in Wales ( regardless of quality ) so as far as I`m aware that`s the following :

Anglesey Sea Zoo ( an exception to my " No Aquaria " rule - visited a few times before and it`s somewhere to take my Mother !! )
Bodafon farm Park ( yes I know it`s a Farm Park but it does apparently have an owl collection and is just down the road from Mum`s house so thought I might as well !!)
Borth Animalarium
Colwyn Bay( Welsh Mountain Zoo )
Folly Farm
Manor House
Pili-Palas ( Anglesey )
Plantasia ( Swansea )
Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary
Welsh hawking Centre (Barry) -not my intention to visit the many birds of prey collections around Britain but this is on the site of the old Barry Zoo so thought it might be of interest , plus it`s only about 30 minutes away !!
WWT Llanelli

There may well be the odd place that I haven`t found out about yet ( there is definitely a garden centre or country park type place somewhere in the North that has otters ... ) so if anyone knows anything else then please let me know .
Thanks