Adorable zoo about an hour to hour and a half from Central London. If you have the time and a car I…read moredefinitely recommend this zoo over the ZSL zoo. Every exhibit has multiple viewpoints here. There were plenty of opportunities to easily see all the animals here. The enclosures were extremely well kept and I think all had an indoor and outdoor area for the animals. There are multiple play areas throughout for kids here too. My kids also enjoyed the animatronic dinosaurs here (very cute). Food here was reasonably priced but we ate outside the park. Parking was free. They offer a lot of different animal interactions here. The prices for all were pretty high but for a special gift I'm sure they are totally worth it. You can also buy carrots to feed the animals in the petting zoo.

Overall great day out for the family ! I would say 50% animals 50% outdoor play for the kids (with…read moresome indoor) I did find some of the cages quite small for the animals but one of my only criticisms! There were a few extras while you were there so take additional money but to be expected at these places! ( it's set up for packed lunches which is great for families ) There is a good choice of animals to see and you can buy food which a good selection of animals to feed! They also had a lots of showing through out the day and I got to stroke a snake :). The park had a good layout where you can easily walk around and find where you are going plus you get a handy map! There have an indoor soft play at the entrance which is good and bad! Means the kids want to go these straight away instead of seeing the animals and you don't pass on the way out! The soft play was great for all ages and served your average drinks and food - one thing I will say which was disappointing was they charged me for a bit of milk for my baby! I always pay my way but this is the first place that have ever charged me for milk! Worth a visit and tickets are not expensive - look out for groupon deals!

What a delightfully fun day at this cute farm. Everyone was so happy to be out and about on this…read moresunny day. The atmosphere was super family oriented, kid friendly and very educational. There was a cute stand for food and hot drinks on this slightly chilly day. CARAMEL DOUGHNUT Fluffy doughnut with a delicious caramel glaze. It wasn't too sweet and it would be so easy to eat two of these without even blinking! FONDANT DOUGHNUT Fluffy doughnut with a sweet fondant glaze. This was tasty, but a little too sweet for me. My coffee helped wash this down for me. JAM DOUGHNUT Fluffy doughnut with a sweet and slightly tart jam filling. DELICIOUS. A perfect, classic jam filled doughnut. Could eat myself sick from these. Scrumptious! After having these delicious doughnuts, we walked around and fed the animals. This farm is so big on cleanliness and educating everyone about being friendly to all walks of earth. Absolutely loved learning more about farm animals, feeding them and seeing how well they are cared for. A great way to introduce children to learning so much about respecting animals and the environment!

What was meant to be a joyful experience started terribly when we were initially refused entry!!…read moreWhen staff were unable to scan our ticket we were informed shortly after that the ticket had been redeemed the day before at 2pm. This was utter madness to us as we live an hour away and the ticket was clearly dated with the date of our visit. I was informed that some visitors redeem their tickets earlier than their specified date that they choose when booking which seems odd to me if a venue needs to cap visitor numbers! We were made to feel that we were lying and we felt helpless with having to nothing to prove our innocence. It was made clear that we were not going to be allowed entry as they had no explanation for the mishap. My friend and her daughter were in great distress as a result. I ended up paying another £60 to avoid delaying our visit any further and risk missing activities for the day. The manager agreed to complete their investigation whilst we carry on with our day. We were later given a refund and gift card. Despite this, I would still like to share our experience incase this happens to someone else. I suspect their booking system is faulty. Odds farm WAS a special venue to me as I visited when I was young but this experience has tainted my view of the farm, as a result I will never return!

Lion Cubs experience…read more This my third experience now with Heythrop Zoological Gardens and yet again was a magical one. Me and my husband firstly meets Hannah who is such a lovely lady that explains all about the lion cubs and she then takes us around the forest whilst we walk the cubs along with another trainer. So we walked their new bundle of joy Nero and Lydia the lion cubs. It was a once in a life time opportunity and so unique. We walked the cubs in Heythrops private woods. The little cubs just loved to play with each other all the time whilst walking along and when they came across their favourite tree stumps they just loved leaping and playing on them as well as trying to climb up a tree or two. We could also stroke them when they were more relaxed in places and they felt so soft like rabbit fur. The markings on there fur was also so amazing Lydia the female cub had spot type markings and Nero you could see his mane coming about with his punk rocker type hair style going on. Its a tad expensive doing this experience but I highly recommend as it is so worth it and you won't be able to do this experience at any other zoo in the UK. Only reason this experience is allowed at Heythrop Zoological Gardens is because its a private zoo (not open to public however does have special open days to public 2 days in September only) and train animals are bred for TV and film. This experience only has two Saturdays left in June 2016 with a few places left so if you are interested then book asap. They do other animal experiences throughout the year that you can do from penguins to a sloth so check out there website. If you however want to do the more unique one off experiences like the lion cubs that is not available all year round then I advice you email them and ask them to keep you informed of any new additions like lion cubs, tiger cubs, other baby animals etc. The other animal experiences that I have done at Heythrop is the tiger cubs and a monkey (who starred in My Zoo a TV series). I highly recommend to anyone that loves animals.

Great family day out!…read more Huge space with fun areas for kids of all ages: sandpits, ride-on tractor yard, bouncy castles, duck racing, falconry, flying fox and more. The cafe and restaurant have an ok selection of food, but there are plenty of spots indoors and out where you can set up a bit of a picnic if you BYO. The annual membership is good value if you live close by, we seem to end up here at least twice a week.

Place was ok, but way overpriced for what you see there. Food was HORRIBLE!!!! Mystery meat…read moreburgers were beyond scary.

I cannot rave enough about Finkley Down Farm. I don't even have kids I can use as an excuse - I…read moresimply come here to relax and spend some time with the animals. The atmosphere is relaxed and peaceful and the abundance of cute greedy animals desperate for you to feed them is nothing short of delightful. Their animals range from goats and sheep to chickens to cows right over to the more unusual llamas and highland cows. Even if you're not into getting close to the animals or feeding them the buckets of food available at the ticket office, just watching them mooch around is still fun and relaxing. The llama took somewhat of a disliking to me (was it something I said?) and stormed at me, looking like it could easily clear the fence and gain its freedom. I wasn't going to hang around to find out. One look at my pathetic retreating hide running off into the distance was enough to reduce its anger to mere disdain, and instead he decided to spit all over me. In some sort of random heroic act, the pig sharing its pen flung itself at the llama as if to take the blow for me, and rather than reflect on the llama soaking I'd been given, I instead watched this pig take one for the team. Right in the eye, no less. From hereonin, I shall name this pig SuperPig. If you do have kids you can pretend are the reason for visiting, there's plenty to keep them occupied. Other than the animals you can feed, there are talks and handling sessions with some of the smaller or baby pets throughout the day. There's also a nice adventure playground and a couple of trampolines to wear them out on too. There's a small gift shop and a place to buy some food, as well as a picnic area if you're sensible enough to bring your own food. I love this place and can't wait to go back when it reopens for the season next year.

A lovely little petting farm for a day out with the family. Entrance fee is very reasonable. Farm…read moreisn't huge by anyone's standards but just about big enough for an afternoons walking about without it being too much for the little/older ones. Lots to see and many activities laid on for the children. Arm them with a bucket of food from the entrance first though or you will find yourself running back for some! On site cafe sells everything from fish & chips to ice cream or just a cuppa. Toilets well sign posted and clean. Lots of basins and hand gel dotted around for after you have touched the animals. Nice staff who are kid friendly. Congratulations to the farm for keeping the gift shop prices low, lots of souvenirs on sale for under £2.

Two years after the last visit the COVID-related struggles are gone. The zoo is in a much better…read moreshape and all enclosures are in good condition again. Mar well has always had nice big enclosures for the big animals. This time, we very much enjoyed the tropical house and the aviaries and red panda at the back. The tree dwellers near the house (monkeys and lemurs) are always a joy and it is great to see the snow leopards getting an upgrade. A lovely visit.

It was very cool day! Many different animals, and beautiful arena! One minus-…read more some animals were sleeping.

Tips: - Get a city pass that allows you to visit a number…read moreof tourist attractions around London. I did the London Eye and Sealife on the same day, as they are geographically close to each other. - If you like penguins, sharks, stingrays, and jellyfish, this aquarium is for you. I got a city pass and had a handful of tourist attractions to visit while in London. I did the London Eye and Sealife together in this order. I highly recommend coupling them for a day. The former give you a nice view of the city. The latter is a cool aquarium that I enjoyed visiting. I love penguins. I enjoyed seeing the gentoo penguins swim and waddle around. I probably spent a good chunk of my time here. I also liked the shark exhibit. Seeing sharks swim around a shipwreck was neat. The jellyfish exhibit was also amazing. It's the UK's largest jellyfish experience. I enjoyed watching them float around. Oh, the seahorses were fun. I saw the suck up shrimps with their snouts, which was different. I normally see them swimming around. I spent a lot of time at the gift shop. I ended up getting a keychain and a small penguin plushie. This aquarium is probably one of the best ones that I've been to. Staff were friendly and helpful. I loved everything that I saw. (21)

A nice aquarium in the heart of London. Sharks, rays, penguins, turtles, jellyfish lots of good…read morestuff. As soon as we got in it had to be evacuated for a fire alarm, but we were back in quickly enough with no one in front of us. A good way to pass some time while waiting on the marathon to finish.

Took my 15 yo nephew here today and we both enjoyed it very much. Lots to see and lots of space for…read morethe animals. We were both concerned for some of the animals that are not in their natural habitat just wondering if they were too hot. The train ride was a plus because we got to see animals on the other side of the park that would have been otherwise difficult to reach on foot. My favorite were the penguins, the the brown bear ( it was chasing a bird) the butterflies and the kangaroos.

Whipsnade Zoo has been a tradition in our family since I was a child. My own children now love it…read moretoo. It makes a brilliant day out in the Fresh Air on top of the Chilterns, with views for miles. We are members of the ZSL so can return as often as we like which makes the membership fee much better value. You can pay to enter and if you like the1 vibe, you can offset the cost of the visit against your first year's membership fee which also includes entry to London Zoo. There are elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes, and a large herd of White Rhino. The Chimpanzees have a very large enclosure. You can take the car in, which makes a picnic much easier. Go!