Whipsnade zoo is located in Dunstable, for us that was about a 30 mile drive, Lige is a really chilled road partner so the ride wasn't much of a challenge.
We had a really good time, but I do wish that I had done more research so that I could have gotten the best out of the day.
We bought our tickets online, the adult ticket was £27.27 and the child ticket was £17.73. Under 3's are free. The zoo is open from 10am to 6pm.
If you are planning a day to this zoo it is important to know that the zoo is huge. When considering how to get there I looked on their website and they stressed that it was not a safari and so you could either park outside the zoo for free, or pay £25.00 and park within designated area's of the zoo. Therefore it seemed like a no brainer to park outside. What I did not realise was that the zoo is split into different zones, Asia, Europe, Africa etc. These areas were very big and there was quite a distance between each area which meant a lot of walking. I did not mind and Lige happens to love walking, but some children may have had some difficulties with this and obviously this needs to be factored in time wise when you are trying to plan your day in terms of what you can fit in. If I did it again I would probably drive around the park. Me and Lige managed to clock up 18,000 steps according to my fitbit, which might be a bit much for small kids.
When we got to the zoo we first headed to the area known as 'Europe' so that we could see European animals. To me this was the most disapointing part of the park because some sections appeared to be empty. We came accross areas labelled brown bears and lynx however, we did not see them. As I really wanted to show Lige an animal before he lost interest we moved on quite swiftly and managed to see some Wolverines, Wild Boars and Penguins. The animals all lived in really large spaces that all looked as though some thought had gone into making it similar to their natural habitat, which was nice to see.
We then moved on to the Africa section of the park, I think this was our favourite part and we actually spent quite a while there. We saw Rhino's, Giraffe's, Lions (although Lige was quite disapointed because he said none of them had a mane. I was quite impressed at how observant he was and also unsure what to tell him about why there were no male Lion's), Zebra's. Meerkats and Cheetah's.
There was a que to see the Lion's but I do not recall having to que for much else other than the dinosaurs which I will get on to later. Lack of queing is obviously a plus when you have kids with you.
At the moment Whipsnade zoo has a dinosaur exhibition! This was part of the reason I wanted to take Lige as he is dinosaur obsessed. The exhibition has been there since the 24th July and will be there until 31 October 2021. To say Lige loved it is an understatement
As mentioned above there was a short que to get in but it moved really quickly. Once inside they had huge dinosaurs that actually moved, dotted around a small area. We spent a lot of time in this section, they also had some little cars that the kids could ride around in on a track, and an area with a large screen that was showing some sort of documentary, but there was no way Lige was going to sit and watch that when there appeared to be actual dinosaurs moving around!
We purchased our souvenirs in the dinosaur part of the park, we bought an egg that hatched if put into water for 72 hours (it worked, Lige now refers to himself as a father!), and a build a dinosaur head kit, Lige has really enjoyed both. I also had a look in the zoo gift shop when I was leaving and they had a good varied selection of merchandise at various prices.
Overall verdict from me: I thought it was a really good day, I just wished I had brought the car into the zoo as I think it would have been a much less tiring day, and there were parts that we did not make it too that I'm sure we could have covered in the car.
Overall verdict from Lige.
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