This may sound a little bah humbug but sometimes after all the fuss of Christmas it’s nice to do something which is totally not Christmassy.
On January 4th 2013 we headed to Bristol Zoo after being offered a chance to review it for Money Supermarkets Britains Best Day Out!
Can you believe I have reached the grand old age of 29 without ever visiting this popular attraction?? I was possibly more excited than Izzy who at 16 months was probably more excited about the car journey snack pack.
We arrived at around lunchtime on an unusually bright, sunny but most importantly dry day with only a handful of other visitors – a definite perk to visiting out of season.
A typical British attraction entrance through the gift shop had Izzy excitedly exclaiming at the stuffed toys and garish masks before we even entered the Zoo. She was a happy girl.
First stop was to visit the Lion.. We were sad to discover that Kamal the Lion had died and that Lioness Shiva was nowhere to be seen 🙁 We hadn’t noticed this on the website so were disappointed but quite glad that Izzy was so young so we didn’t have to explain it. She had plenty of fun with the Lion cut out anyway 🙂
In fact had there been no animals I think Izzy would have found some fun.. There is lots to climb on, peep through and play with.
Climbing
Exploring
Pointing
Chilling
The penguin talk had been cancelled but we did see a real life version of Happy Feet.. Kinda
We also went under the penguin tunnel to see them swimming about which was one of my personal favourites and Izzy loved it too
We saw cuties
And oddities
And what looked like a giant guinea pig.. I’m sure I’m wrong here but look at the pic:
The Aquarium was the biggest hit! Izzy was entranced by the brightly coloured fish and happily babbled away at them, pointing and saying hiya repeatedly. I think we will have to watch Finding Nemo soon.
We stopped for a quick bite of lunch and in the spirit of MoneySupermarket we took a picnic from home, there are lots of benches and some beautiful gardens to admire whilst munching away.
Back to exploring and we found some giant tortoise
I found some monkeys
As always we all kept an eye on Izzy
Measuring up
All in all we had a fabulous day, I would say its good value for money at £15.50 for adults and £9.50 for children ( free for under 2’s). There is a lot to do and see for all ages and although we had a few disappointments due to attractions being closed ( due to difficulties, winter weather and animal death which was unavoidable) it didn’t spoil our day. Not many people think to go to places like this in the winter but for many reasons ( particularly lack of crowds) it’s a great time to go.
The stuff you need to know:
There is hot and cold food available as well as a gift shop and numerous clean toilets and baby changing facilities. Lots more info and timetables to plan your visit by clicking here
Wherever you plan to go this year check out The MoneySupermarket Voucher site here and save yourself some pennies.
What day out is complete without a fairground ride?
A little video for you to see just how much fun we had 😉
* Thanks to moneysupermarket and Tots100 for providing a family ticket for us to visit Bristol Zoo – we had a great day.
I adore Bristol Zoo, we are members and go a lot. I couldn’t recommend it more (although Zooropia is terrifying and I’m not going to be doing that again in a hurry!). The giant guinea pig is exactly that – its a capybara.
Thanks for reading and commenting. We didn’t try zooropia but it looked scary! X
I haven’t been since I was a child, must take H!
Yes lots of fun x
It looks like you had a great day! We went to Bristol Zoo last year and loved it. I can also highly recommend Longleat Safari Park aslo.
Always wanted to go there! Hopefully this year x
I just saw a press release from Bristol Zoo and it made me think of this post and the fact you mentioned you couldn’t see the lioness – this is because she had 2 cubs in November http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/young-asiatic-lion-cubs-currently-being-hand-reared-at-bristol-zoo so they are off display because they are too young. The kept it secret the last time the had cubs, so there wouldn’t have been any notices up. Need to keep an eye out for when the cubs are on public display!
Thanks for letting me know. I may add that to blog post tomorrow. X