South England Trip

That all sounds very realistic now!

Two places you are almost passing en route to Devon are Monkeyworld in Dorset, and Axminster zoo in east Devon. But, hey, you can't do everything.

 

Yes, much improved, thanks to you guys.

However, plenty time to tweek it further and having re-read Shorts OP in West Country Peregrinations I see that he is less than complimentary about Porfell. So does anyone else have an opinion of this place?

 

I have not been to Porfell but I'd definitely recommend Paradise Park to anyone visiting Cornwall - of course I am a parrots in particular and birds in general enthusiast though. As I visit places by public transport (although I am having another go at driving - I did not take it up after passing my test in 2005 and have now had 15 refresher lessons; in reality I have forgotten everything and am starting from scratch) I generally spend a full day at even quite small places other than Shaldon last year when I hot-footed it back to Paignton for the afternoon (I also had two full days at Paignton). I can happily spend all day at Wingz for example and I am pretty dejected when the 5 o'clock closing time comes around (although I usually then have another chat with owners Grenville and Anita Allen) so I'd say it needs more than two hours but again the fact that it has plenty of parrots influences me. Exmoor may not be massive in area, but there is a lot to see. The first time I visited (2000) I had walked from Combe Martin (even I could not have spent a day there - I just did not take to it and left after 70 minutes) and had only about 3 1/2 hours there which was nowhere near enough. I can easily spend a whole day at Newquay and I can recommend Axe Valley for future reference - another place I have spent the entire opening hours (on both of my visits), although I was told I was the only person ever to do that.

 

As someone who has had 5 mega road trips during the past 7 summers (ranging from 30 zoos to 65 zoos) I'm used to many hours of driving and spending a year tinkering with month-long road trip plans. I found that it made a major difference travelling alone and so if you are doing this thing solo then you might have a lot more time on your hands than you suspect. Without my wife and 3 little kids along on my most recent trip I was able to still take hundreds of photos and be done with small zoos in a short period of time, often even doubling back and seeing exhibits more than once.

Near the end of your short but interesting trip you plan to visit Newquay Zoo, but that establishment appears to be very small (13 acres) and if you got there when they open at 10:00 a.m. then surely you'd be done after 2-3 hours at the most. Exmoor is open until 6:00 p.m. so in the space of 8 hours it seems to me that you could visit 2 small zoos and also have a very short drive in between them. Therefore another full day of zoo visiting could open up more collections to you and England is already such a tiny nation. There are some days that look great while others could have another zoo squeezed into them if you are travelling alone. However, I fully realize that all types visit zoos and I have friends that are quite content to spend 10 minutes watching a sleeping tiger while myself, after seeing 100 tigers in a single summer, will hang around for a couple of minutes, take exhibit photos, and move on. We all have different styles of visiting zoos.

 

We do indeed. Some of these places Jackwow is visiting I've been to many times, some a few times or once, and one or two, never. At Newquay for example, though its a good little Zoo nowadays, I know I too wouldn't spend more than a couple of hours there. But if Jackwow hasn't been before, he might want to spend longer, and is probably budgeting more time than he needs at some of the smaller ones too. He may well find he's 'seen everything' particularly in some of these smaller places in less time than he is estimating for them.

 

I just walk round and round them for hours.

 

Just whilst I think on. Away from zoos in Cornwall is The Eden Project. If you have time I really recommend it, one of the best UK attractions I have been to. Also. Cornwall has the historic fishing harbours, Padstow, St.Ives, Mevigissey, Mousehole and more all good places to visit eat and sample a local brew.
Then there are also some small aquariums with sealife from the local areas too.

 

This thread has got my interest because in October I will be heading to Torquay for a week of zoo-visiting; unfortunately it's a family holiday so I'm reduced to Shaldon, Paignton and Living Coasts. All are repeat visits but I can whole-heartedly recommend all three, I'm glad to see you've got all three pencilled in!

I can also second Andrews suggestion of Paradise Park which you may be able to double up with Newquay. I've never visited Exmoor but would definitely allow a whole day there due to an amazing species line-up and there does appear to be a hell of a lot to see!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the collections you visit.

 

You may not be as unimpressed* as me (though I'd love to hear your opinions, one way or the other), however you'd struggle to spend four hours there -I'd say around two and a half hours at the absolute maximum.

If you fancy an aquarium the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth, is very good, certainly in the top three in the country and not insanely priced (SeaLife hide your heads in shame).

Another tip would be to get a zoo membership as Marwell, Living Coasts, Paignton, Newquay and Bristol are free/reciprocal for many memberships (my Colchester membership get's me in these places free as well as Twycross, Chester, Edinburgh & Highland Wildlife Park). You'll save at least a little money and a considerable amount if you plan visiting any of the other places (or return visits) in the next year.

I'm not sure of your culinary tastes but I can recommend The Hare & Hounds (technically Newton Abbott, great gastropub) on the way in to Torquay and Cafe Ode in the car park for Shaldon. Bistro Pierre has recently opened in Torquay and I haven't been to that branch but other branches (I believe there's 12 or 13 in all) have always been good.




*I'd say it's the worst place I've visited in the South West, by a fair margin.

 

Parrots, I'm a bird man too although not particularly a parrot person. I like to see all animals (although if I never see another meerkat I won't shed a tear) but my preference is birds. I'm therefore inclined to spend more time at Wingz. I also tend to linger at exhibits longer than most people, a bit like yourself I expect, so even small collections can take me longer than most.

PS Have you been to Birdworld as it "sounds" perfect for me.

 

Pertinax, I haven't been to any of the places on my list so it's all new to me. Also, as getting decent photos is such a big part of visiting collections to me, I will probably spend longer at them than most. Which reminds me, I must buy plenty of film.

 

Shorts, you've said enough, so Porfell is off the itinerary. Thanks also for membership and food tips.

 

Good to have your input Snowleopard.

BTW I am travelling alone so no distractions (other than the pubs) for me.

Exmoor is actually open till 5pm in October (it's dark by 6.30pm so zoos close earlier) plus the drive between Newquay and Exmoor is 2 hours so not so much time for each. Throw in a traffic jam and suddenly the time available for both collections is much less.

I'm not looking at doing more than two collections in a day as I like to take my time, not rush around them (I'm not looking to create some record of zoos visited in a certain number of days), and sometimes hanging around for the photo of a species you particularly want eats into the time. I'm more of a quality, not quantity, type of guy, which applies to my photography too.

You're right "England is already such a tiny nation" although not as tiny as where I'm from (Scotland). But England has waaay more culture and history than the whole of some very much bigger places, e.g., North America.

 

Personally I'd bin the New Forest place in favour of The Hawk Conservancy Trust at Andover. A much better day out IMO.

Or you could cut your full day at Marwell down to a half day and do that and the New Forest on the same day-there isn't so much at Marwell to make it worth more than an afternoon's worth these days (unless you're really, really into Meerkats).

On and if you want a reasonable pub lunch nearby, try Fishers Pond if the weather's nice-you can sit outside by a large lake full of fish and water birds.

You've also bypassed several small collections you could do in a day on the Isle of Wight-Amazon World and the IOW Zoo are on the same bus route too!

 

Gary, interesting comments about New Forest place and Marwell. I actually thought Marwell was one of the top places?

Re. Isle of Wight, I was interested in Animal World but assumed IoW would take a bit of getting to.

 

Now that's the way to visit Zoos. Go when you want, where you want, stay as long as you want..

The way we are all chipping in and organising your trip for you, it must make it a bit confusing when some of the information and suggestions conflict, though largely the hardened zoo visitors on here come up with similar timeframes for visiting most places.

Marwell- is large and plenty to see. Not as good as it once was though- hence one or two negative comments here for you. I imagine with it being a first visit and your photography that you will happily spend most of one day there.

If you visit the New Forest Park next, it will seem tiny(it is) by comparison to Marwell which is still a major collection.

 

I'm not convinced you'd need a full day for Howletts, you might be able to include Wingham that day as well. It's only ~15min drive down the road.

 

I've never been to Wingham( I might give it a go though) but several times in the past I've visited Howletts and Port Lympne both in one day, giving three+ hours at each and the half-hour drive in between. It can be a bit of a rush though, particularly at Port Lympne. But the last few times I've given most of a day to each and enjoyed the more relaxed visits that result from that.

 

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't recommend Howletts and PL in one day!
Wingham is much smaller though but a lovely collection. Definitely worth a visit if you have the time spare.

I'm doing RSCC, Wingham and Howletts this weekend. I might tack on Wildwood after RSCC if I have the time. I haven't been there this year (reminds me, they didn't send me my new pass. Better sort that now!)