I am going to Spain next week. I will be based in Madrid. I will not drive therefore I don't think I'll be able to make it to the Safari Park nor the Cañada Real Open Center. I will be staying at least 4 days, Faunia and Zoo Aquarium Madrid taking one day each. I was wondering a few things : 1. Will they be open on Chritmas ? 2. Is there any public transport that goes to the Safari Park ? 3. Is it possible to make a one day trip to Barcelona or Valencia from Madrid, in order to visit the zoos ? Thank you very much
Cañada Real is technically doable by public transport, although it's quite hard. Take the C3 Renfe line to El Escorial but that's where it gets complicated: You could technically take a bus that goes to the rescue centre but it isn't functional very often (and certainly will be less so during the holidays). The best way to get there is definitely by taxi but getting back to El Escorial from there is a pain: you either have to leave the zoo as soon as the bus arrives which means you have limited time to visit or you can take a taxi back there but that means you'll have to arrange that in advance as no taxi passes in the area (we had to wait one hour and contact many local people to finally find a taxi that could get us back to El Escorial) It's not much of a groundbreaking zoo as well and it lost many of it's rarities such as Cabrera's vole or Pin-tailed sandgrouse so if you don't have much time, skipping it is definitely a viable option. I personally have no idea but Faunia is closed on Monday the 23rd according to Google so might as well be closed the 24th (Google should update it to include whether or not it's open the 24th tomorrow or in a few days). Zoo Madrid is listened as open for a visit on the 23rd but no info for the 24th either. You'll need a car anyway inside the park so that's going to be hard to do. Possible but very far-fetched as a Madrid-Barcelona trip is a 3hour trip at least (so 6 hours both way) and 4 hours both way for Valencia. Doesn't leave you much time to visit the zoos. If you're in the Madrid area I'd focus on Zoo Madrid and Faunia as you have planned, which can both be done in a day (but you could add up another day if you want although Faunia is really expensive) and then maybe Guadalajara Zoo (which is easy to reach but truly isn't that great of a zoo and doesn't have anything interesting anyway barring some good deer and ibex enclosures).
Some zoos can have a reduced opening times for Christmas (for example, Barcelona Zoo closes at 14:00 instead of 17:30). It is possible to make a one day trip to Barcelona. High speed train takes 3h, but the airplane conection just takes 1h and it runs almost every hour. You can perfectly take a plane at early morning and another one at night and spend all day at Barcelona. And it is usually cheaper than high speed train.
I would contact any zoos you plan to visit to make sure about opening times. When I visited ZooBotanico Jerez a few years ago, I went on Monday and they were closed and had to go back (train from Sevilla) on Tuesday. There were no signs at the entrance as to why they were closed; two teenage boys walking by told me. Apparently everyone just "knows" that a lot of zoos in Spain are closed Mondays even though it is not posted.
You can check opening days and hours on the parks´ websites: Horarios Horarios Since the other parks are hard to reach by public transport, you can also consider to visit Atlantis Aquarium. Well, a quick check to the zoo´s website before go there would have avoided that trip from Sevilla
@Merintia I am virtually certain that I did check before my trip and at that time there was no mention of Monday closing. Also the hours posted on the main gate at the zoo entrance made no mention of it.
i am going to Seville soon and wondered about visiting the zoo and aquarium. I would welcome people's opinions ? Also are they open this time of year and are they easy to get to? Thanks
I have visited neither of them, but from what I've seen, I'm not too fond of the animal keeping and raising techniques used at Mundopark, which hardly clash with my standards regarding animal welfare and ethics. I've heard pretty good things about the aquarium, although it doesn't seem like anything special.
Well if youre going to Seville you have to visit both places. The aquarium is in the city and amongst a number of modern aquariums that Spain has. It is medium-sized but has some specialities from the Guadalquivir River that are unspectacular but exclusive to that particular facility. Mundopark is a fair way out but doable by taxi...a typical Mediterranean style zoo,a bit scrubby in places, but not without interest,saw my first Spotless Starling in captivity for instance. A similar distance to the south is Canada de los Paragos,a bird park where you will see quite a lot of species that are uncommon in captivity..I saw my first Red-knobbed Coot here.
I also recommend you to visit Cañada de los Pájaros, is not exactly a zoo but they do a great job breeding and reintroducing several threatened species of water birds with no help from institutions.
The Seville Aquarium is one of 5 ZTL collections to keep the devil firefish and East Atlantic red gurnard It is one of 4 to keep the African striped grunt, Senegalese sole and mummichog It is one of 3 to keep the eastern mosquitofish and white-spotted spinefoot It is one of 2 to keep the Andalusian toothcarp, leerfish, Iberian chub and purplemouth moray It is the only one to keep the Andalusian barbel
