Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park — Attraction in Birmingham

I feel the need to feedback on my experience yesterday. We got there at 3.20pm. The receptionist did not say to turn left on entering. Just asked if I wanted a receipt. We could not find the café for ice creams. As we were intending to get ice lollies and ice creams, I did not mind that we had forgotten our bag with snacks and drinks in the car. When we had walked round haphazardly (due to no leaflets or adequate signposting on which way to go to cover everything) and were quite tired and desperate for a drink (inc my 9 year old daughter) , I asked one of the workers (4.05pm) where the café was and she told me it closed at 4pm and that the reception/gift shop was also now closed. I then asked to go to my car to retrieve my bag as my daughter still wanted to play in the play are and the worker said I couldn't. She was manning the exit and not able to let me out. 'Once you go out, you cannot come back in'. We paid nearly £40.00. She didn't bother signposting us on paying to enter, did not bother telling us that the café would close 1 hour early. And I could not get a drink and snacks for my daughter at the least, from our car. The workers seemed to paid to just be present. On the way out we saw a stand after it fell over, narrowly missing a toddler and that sign (old and faded) stated to turn left on entering. When I informed the worker that we were not given any leaflet or advice on entering regarding which way to go, she simply stated 'We are paperfree'. The stand that kept falling over was a Health and Safety risk. They seemed completely unaware of it. The staff were unbothered and only interested in chatting to one another. This lady showed no empathy or flexibility for the fact we had spent a considerable amount to get in, and for the total lack of verbal or written sign posting and for a child not being able to have a drink or ice lolly in the strong heat to allow a parent to go and retrieve something from the car that was so nearby. We did leave early as it was upsetting to carry on being there and to not be able to give my daughter a drink or snack. Thankfully we had a much better time on leaving, getting our drinks and snacks and visiting Cannon Hill Park which...

I visited the park with my 9 year old son from South Wales on Thursday while my daughter had a uni audition so we had to time to kill. I looked at various options including Sea Life and the Lego experience but both were so expensive. I found this place on Trip Advisor and the low cost and good reviews sold it to us.

We parked in the car park just outside - warning they only take cash for parking and you either have to phone or download an app to pay to park by card. The lady booking us in was very helpful answering questions about feeding times etc. and it only cost £17 for both of us instead of £27 EACH at Sea Life.

We did a gentle stroll around the park and probably saw everything in about 2 hours. I was impressed by the variety of animals and their enclosures were spacious and well equipped for the animals’ needs. There were lots of staff going in and feeding and maintaining the enclosures. I noticed a tortoise had fallen onto its side and couldn't get back up, i told a member of staff who radioed for help and they came straight away and made sure he was ok. A highlight for us was the otters and the komodo dragon! A bench by the otters would have been nice as we could have watched them playing for ages.

We then had our picnic lunch in a lovely spot and had an ice-cream which wasn’t expensive. There were plenty of bins around the park and there was no litter.

My son then played in the park for a bit, the only little gripe I have is the park wasn’t big enough for the amount of children there that day and it could have been better, he still enjoyed it though.

We exited through the gift shop and I was pleased to see they had teddies for all budgets. My son chose a small tortoise after our part in rescuing the one who had fallen.

I highly recommend this park for a morning or afternoon out and would definitely come back if we are in...

Great day out, and quite cheap. Worked out about £10.50 for 1x adult and 1x child. Parking adjacent is £2.20 for upto 4hrs. We've been here many times but Sept 2020 post Covid the prebookimg system was aweful. We ended up just walking in and soon realised that everyone else waiting outside had been forced to do the same. Most of the internal areas were closed; otters; reptiles; nocturnal animals; invertebrates; bust babies etc due to Covid 19 restrictions But weirdly the Komodo Dragon internal viewing area, and the golden marmosets were just limited to 3 people in at a time. Was very inconsistent and we were not told before we paid to enter. Felt like 1/2 tof the park was closed which was a kick in the teeth. Make sure you find the Komodo Dragon if you go, it is hidden in a far corner which is very easy to miss if you don't know where to look and it is an amazing creature!

Finally, for a conservation Park I expected some recycling facilities to help encourage my daughter to put her waste in the correct recycling bin but there was nothing. When I asked in the cafe they said to just throw it in the generic bin. We ended up taking it home with us and had a sticky bag which was annoying.

Usually a great afternoon out but tarnished by lack of communicating around closed areas, and poor standards around waste recycling.

Get those things sorted and would have been a great day, the animals themselves are very well looked after and the enclosures are nice and big. Well worth a...