15 July 2023
Your wild adventure starts here at Colchester Zoo, home to over 160 species across 60 acres of parkland & lakes. With 60 years behind them, Colchester Zoo welcomes all guests, young & old, to experience one of the best zoo adventures you can have in the UK.
Colchester Zoo is located in the east of England, situated in Colchester and opened back in 1963. This meaning the zoo is now celebrating 60 years, hosting a range of additional entertainment, exclusive merchandise and expansion news for the future. The mission is to make a first class experience to all visitors and at the same time further understanding and respecting the animals. With a great ethos and a huge mission, they have successfully done so in the last 60 years leading us to our first ever visit in 2023.
Other fantastic news for Colchester Zoo, is in 2025, they will be known as Colchester Zoological Society. This allowing them to further expand, develop and house more animals & species than ever before.
There is lots to see, do and explore on your day out here and with lots to cover, we managed to explore most of the offerings on a busy weekend visit earlier this year. From trying out some of the food offerings, watching some of the educational talks to seeing all of the animals, it is surprising at how big and how much time you can spend at this zoo.
Travel, Prices and entrance
Colchester Zoo can be travelled to in a number of ways. On our visit, we took the car and found the location easy by satnav. Car parking is free and they have plenty of spaces. For those who would use public transport, getting here by train is also simple with it being an hour from London to Colchester. You will need to source a taxi or a bus for the last part of the journey from here however, but the journey is only an additional 10 minutes.
You can find the zoo open daily except Christmas day from 9:30am and the closing time does vary depending on the time of the year. With it ranging from 4pm during off peak winter to 6pm term time / summer holidays.
Standard gate entrance prices for guests over 16 years is £27.50, however if you are younger, book online in advance or are a senior, the prices do change. Tickets can be as little £17.42 for children and £23.37 for adults if booked online and you attend on a weekday. Regardless, the price ranges are not too bad meaning it is still an affordable day out for the family.
Upon arrival, you can see some colourful animal statues and a large modern entrance building, where you can buy and collect your tickets from before entering into the park. You can also find some toilets before going in or as you are leaving, and it is all surrounded by a beautiful landscape of plants which in the sunshine, really stands out for an entrance.
Exploring The Zoo
Once you enter the zoo grounds, it can be quite overwhelming with the sheer scale of the zoo to cover. Thankfully they have made this as easy as possible with plenty of signage and maps around. You can also download an interactive map via the Colchester Zoo mobile app, which will help you locate where you are, where to go and show food & drink locations, playgrounds and animal talk times as just some of the features.
In the zoo you can find multiple themed areas which are broken down to the type of animals and where they come from. You have areas like Edge of Africa, that hosts animals like cheetah’s, spotted hyena’s and more. Or you can explore Kingdom of the Wild and spot giraffes, maneless zebras, white rhino and other African species.
Before we delve deeper into some of our favourite and the most popular animals at the zoo, it is good to note that there is so much to do other than just seeing the animals. They have The Lost Madagascar Express, a train ride that explores some of the areas in the park on a land train, perfect for kids and allows you to take a break from walking. For adults wanting a break and kids wanting to run around, they have many outdoor play areas to explore. You can find these throughout the zoo and you will never be too far from one.
Playa Patagonia
Home to the Patagonia Sea Lions, you can find the playful group of female sea lions swimming around in this large glass enclosure with multiple viewing spots. First viewing them from above, you can see a nicely themed rocky beach style as you can catch a glimpse as they swim to the top of the water. With the enclosure having over 500,000 gallons of water, you may need to head below to get the best views. With you being able to walk all around below with many glass viewing points, allowing you to see them much more easily.
The best viewing point though would have to be the glass tunnel, allowing you to see these incredible sea lions up close. On our visit and whilst the park was lively, we didn’t have any issues with staying in the tunnel for as long as we wanted to see the animals swim about.
For those wanting to know more about these beautiful animals, during the summer timetable you have up to 3 opportunities to encounter them with the team, as they tell you more about the animals in one of their talks. For the most up to date times, check the Colchester Zoo app or see the board by the enclosure on the day of your visit.
Elephant Kingdom & Kingdom of the Wild
These next two exhibits are some of the most impressive at Colchester Zoo. Both covering a large outdoor area with some indoor parts in the Kingdom of the Wild. Here you can find a variety of reptiles and hippos with great clear sightings of these animals. Heading outside, you can find giraffes, zebras, white rhinos, ostriches and more all mixing together in the main paddock. Recreated as a Savannah environment, you won’t be disappointed and can find yourself spotting these animals for a long time, perfect in the sunshine.
Very similar in Elephant Kingdom, with this being a large outdoor section hosting 4 African elephants with them having a waterfall and large outdoor pool, amongst a unique concept enclosure allowing the elephants maximum sight, sound and physical contact to be catered for. With many different viewing areas as you can go all around the outdoor paddock, you will always find them roaming around like we did on our hot visit. They enjoyed playing and engaging during the talks & feeds which happened throughout the day too.
This is a must see when visiting the zoo, we enjoyed a large portion of our day here and is perfect for some family pictures with these great animals.
Chimpanzee Lookout, Rajang’s Forest & Gelada Plateau
These next areas are always a favourite as they contain… Monkey’s! All types from Orangutans, Baboons and Chimpanzee to just name a few. They can be found all around the zoo in perfect homes that suit their needs. The Chimpanzee Lookout was redeveloped in 2018 with 2 million pounds spent in giving them a great new outdoor enclosure and also them to reach new heights with high ropes, swing structures and more. The Orangutans during our visit were being very playful and trying to cover themselves from the heat using the range of blankets they had out for them.
With some of the highest viewing platforms to view these cheeky monkey’s, you can really get to see them from high and low, regardless if they are playing or resting. It was really interesting to see them from all types of angles and to see how they played and got around. All of these exhibits were so large and none of the animals seemed distressed, as they could get a good distance away from the public if they didn’t wish to be disturbed.
You must spend some time seeing these animals on your visit!
Food, Drink and Shops
With you spending all day at Colchester Zoo, they have a range of food and drink options for the whole family to enjoy. From restaurants to snack stops to even preordering a picnic to go! Depending on how you want your lunch, snack stops or maybe even breakfast to go, the zoo has you covered. On our adventure, we went to The Gourmet Sausage, which had a range of different sausages on offer with chips, snacks and other treats available too. It was all reasonably priced, served quickly and had a nice outdoor seating section for us to eat in. With a chip n’ mix stop, ice cream parlour and even the penguini’s restaurant, you will be sure to find something for you to enjoy whilst exploring the zoo. We thought all of the options were fair & reasonable, served quickly and it was just great to have a selection depending on our tastes on the day.
Fancy taking some of the zoo magic back with you? Then the The Outpost Gift shop is perfect to visit on your way out as you find the exit. Here you can find personalised products, t-shirts, fluffy animals, bags and all sorts of gifts. This was such a large shop with a range of products.
Overall, our first visit to Colchester Zoo was incredible. We were not expecting the scale of the zoo and how much there was to do. The thought of a zoo to us was a few hours exploring the animals to then leave, but we were so wrong. It can easily take up a full day to just see all of the animals, watch some of the talks, getting food and snacks and if you have kids, playing in some of the playgrounds. It is impossible to be bored at Colchester Zoo just due to the large number of animals and all of the viewing spots. Whilst it can be a lot of walking during the day, there are many benches and stopping areas to rest, with most of them being close to the animals so you can still enjoy the animals!
Dean thought the following during his visit. “I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Colchester Zoo. The visitor attraction was huge, and it was an adventure finding our way around to see all of the animals. Animals are unpredictable but there was so much on show, and some great interactions to be had. My personal favourites were the sea lion viewing tunnel, and giraffe enclosure area.
Austyn said, “I loved Colchester Zoo. I thought it would be a quick visit and was quickly mistaken when I started walking around. I loved the large exhibits and the range of animals, with the sea lions, meerkat and lions being some of my favourite animals to see. It is a place I am definitely going to return to and explore further.”
For those who have yet to visit Colchester Zoo, we highly recommend adding it on to your list. It is perfect for animal lovers, a date day for couples or a day out with the family. With the adults having plenty to be occupied about with the animals and the kids can explore the animals whilst playing in the playgrounds, nobody will be left out. With them growing and expanding, now is the year to visit with it being the 60th anniversary!
A huge thank you to the team at Colchester Zoo for inviting us to visit the zoo earlier this year. They did provide us two tickets in return for our thoughts, opinions, review and media coverage. Whilst sponsored, all opinions are our own and are not influenced.
@thrillnation Colchester Zoo in 60 seconds! Have you been to the excellent zoo? #ad #gifted #colchesterzoo #zoo #animals #daysoutuk #thingstodouk #england #summer ♬ Adventurer - Lux-Inspira
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