Yes, but I loved Apenheul so much that I want a double dose. I mean no disrespect to Pairi Daiza. It's on the list. A top 15 or 20 list, perhaps.
Depends on how much time you want to spend in the train, Munich is a 4 hour trip one way to reach the main station, for Nuremberg you need another 2 hours, so 6 in total. So it would end up being a Bavaria trip . Zoos like Salzburg, Zlin, Brno and Budapest are more easy to tackle on a Vienna trip
Four hours sounds like an ideal amount of time to sit and write a Zoo review, beer in hand and terrible music pun up one's sleeve.
Book it far enough in advance and you won't have to... good planning is everything. Having someone bring you your breakfast and dinner on the train so you don't waste valuable zoo-time eating is what makes it worthwhile...
Far cheaper, and just as easy, to bring your own food and drink for the train For instance, if myself and my other half wanted to visit London Zoo for her birthday at the end of January then the cheapest advance tickets to get us there and back in standard class would come to £114. Conversely the cheapest advance tickets for first class would set us back £260. That's bloody expensive breakfast
Do you make you own bread and clothes too? At the end of the day you make you choice and pay your money. Personally, I'm now old enough* and reasonably financially stable enough* to throw money at some problems to save time and improve my quality of life. I know some people who will drive many miles to visit a couple of zoos, drive home, and drive back to the same area the next day to visit a couple more zoos (then drive home again) because they've calculated it's cheaper than getting overnight accommodation. Personally, I'd be happy to pay a few quid more and avoid the extra driving but (I may have done the same when I was younger and) each to their own. All that said, I think Zia's basically right -if you know how to play the game you can get rail journeys (even to London) at fairly reasonable prices** -I don't know how to play the game but my sister-in-law does and she seems to pick up some real bargains. Feel Free To Ignore Below (too much lunch hour time to burn) *Both of these took some time and a lot of hard work; ** Obviously essentially subsidised by the poor sod's*** who commute to London and buy very expensive season tickets; *** One assumes there's some compensation to a central London salary whilst living in non-Central London (personally I'd rather have the commuting time for myself but, again, you pay your money and take your choice); ****Sorry for all the footnotes I'm reading Ayoade On Ayaode***** at the moment****** which does this and I think it's contagious*******; *****It's good; ******Not literally at the moment, that'd be impractical; ********No doubt it's contagious.
< Snip > I've always liked you Shorts I stand by travelling first class making a day trip from London to Chester on the train a more pleasurable prospect. Obviously it is not compulsory and you can decide for yourself whether you want to spend your hard earned money on it... just like I can with mine.
I thought about using trains for some of my visits, but I am probably a fair weather fan and booking ahead has too much risk of rainy/gloomy weather.
My top prioritized European zoos to visit (and re-visit) are: 1- Berlin Zoo-Aquarium (re-visit on my own terms to make up for the disasterous 2-hour rushjob I did in 2006) 2- Berlin Tierpark 3- Tiergarten Schönnbrunn 4- Chester Zoo 5- Plackendael 6- Zurich Zoo 7- Parque de la Naturaleza Cabárceno 8- Crocodiles of the World 9- Parc des Felins 10- Reserve Africaine Sigean (revisit)
Hmm. I have actually never thought of this before, but I'd say (in no particular order)… Berlin Tierpark Berlin Zoo Chester Zoo Highland Wildlife Park Moscow Zoo Burgers' Zoo Zurich Zoo Apenhaul Primate Park Le Parc des Felins Tiergarten Schonbrunn Some of these are for historicity, others exhibit quality, others the diversity and/or uniqueness of the collection, and others a combination of the above.
Apparently I just accidentally deleted my comment *facepalm*. As I said... I didn't know much about European zoos prior to joining this site, but from what I've since learned I'd have to say. Top Ten Berlin Zoo-Aquarium (Berlin, Germany) Bioparc Valencia (Valencia, Spain) Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden (Budapest, Hungary) Burgers' Zoo (Arnhem, Netherlands) Chester Zoo (Chester, England) Hamerton Zoo Park (Hamerton, England) Leipzig Zoological Garden (Leipzig, Germany) Parc Zoologique de Paris (Paris, France) Zoo Duisburg (Duisburg, Germany) Zoo Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) Honorable Mention Highland Wildlife Park (Kincraig, Scotland) London Zoo (London, England) (formerly would of made top 10 but from what I've heard on here it seems to be going downhill) Pairi Daiza (Brugelette, Belgium) Wrocław Zoological Garden (Wroclaw, Poland) Zlin-Lesna Zoo (Zlin, Czech Republic)
First visit: Pairi Daiza Wroclaw Jihlava Vogelpark Avifauna Parc des Felins Wilhelma Moscow (not really Europe I guess) Re-visit: Walsrode (as often as possible) Burgers (horrible weather on my only visit) Leipzig (on a quiet day NOT school holidays) Chester Colchester (mostly for the Sakis) Apenheul (still astonished at the standard of this establishment - a magical place)
Top 10 to visit in random order: 1. Jersey Zoo 2. Berlin Zoo 3. Berlin Tierpark 4. Tiergarten Schönnbrunn 5. Zurich 6. Wroclaw 7. Plzen 8. Moskou 9. Copenhagen 10. Pairi Daiza Top 5 favorites for revisit: 1. Cabarceno 2. Chester 3. Praha 4. Frankfurt 5. Beauval
Best european zoos.” 1. Burgers zoo 2. Tierpark Berlin 3. Apenheul 4. Berlin zoo 5. Beekse Bergen safari park 6. Leipzig zoo 7. Ouwehands zoo 8. Wildlands 9. Amesfoort zoo 10. Blijdorp Rotterdam zoo
1-Chester zoo 2-Tierpark Berlin 3-Zoo Berlin 4-Pairi Daiza 5-Zoo Disburg 6-Zoo Leizpig 7-Apenheul 8-Zoo Plzen 9- Bioparc Zoo de Doué 10-Sigean Also, wanting to revisit Beauval when the dome is finished (my favorite zoo).
THere seems to be a lot of people wishing to go to Apenheul one day. I visited it a few years ago and I thought it was spectacular! P.S. it wasn't even in the original travel plan but managed to get a visit in from a drive from Cologne to Amsterdam.
