Paignton Zoo Environmental Park — Attraction in England

5 star review with a 1 star section. So, the Zoo! How exciting, animals and plants of all kinds, forget noah, forget 2 by two, this Zoo is the ultimate feel good day out. Sunshine not garunteed, however, the zoo itself is clean, well organised and well laid out. Lots of 'keepers' (don't know their real job titles) are around and all knowledgeable, we first met joe a 'keeper' up by the huuuuge tortoises. She knew all the names of the animals from the 2017 bbc series the zoo, which is a mocumentary based around the animals at Paignton Zoo! My two god sons (6&4) are really into the show, Joe told us that she knew all the names and that they use different names for the animals for the show, they even made kiondu (a gorilla who is low in the pecking order) the leader of the silver backs because of how tough and grumpy he looks (he is Jurgen in the show, our God sons were especially excited to see him as I'm told his catch phrase is "shut up!" 🙄😂) So, why did we visit? We were there on a camping trip, we had an experience day booked at the zoo for my fiance and her bezzy mate nikster! Lucky devil's were going to feed some giraffe's 👍😊 We had to meet someone at 1 in a hut near the gibbons. So we did, we met Tracy who is an experience coordinator for the giraffes, Tracy is a credit to the Zoo. She was helpful, chatty and insightful, she fielded all the questions from our God sons around the zoo as we walked up to the giraffes, these weren't always about the animals, although most were specifically about 'jurgen' some questions she fielded were also about life in general and she did fantastically she even helped me too, she had a neck fan headset type thingy on and I've been wanting to buy for some time but didn't want to get it when it may be rubbish, turns out she was very happy to let me test it out, she popped it onto medium and let me test it out! Was like a cool hug and intensely satisfying to my heat needs. Tracy was brilliant, she really was, she took the ladies behind a roped area and she was (I'm told) sooo knowledgeable, she was patient and understanding. My fiance who is very hard to please said that the experience was enjoyable and that Tracy was informative! High praise, if you knew her you'd get it! The giraffes were gentle and yet strong and healthy, my fiance says the whole thing was Soooo brilliant she'd recommend anyone do it! Now why would I score any part of it a 1 after what I've said above? Well as afore-mentioned, we had an experience booked, but booking it was the issue in fact it was a headache. We come to Devon camping and so we had a weeks window. My fiance had booked this as a 30th birthday gift for her bestie. But once you buy the experience from buy a gift or whatever then you have to make contact with the Zoo to get it actually secured and booked in! This process started 3 weeks before we left to come to Paignton!! We were either not answered, or we were told the person wasn't there for some reason or another and they'd take a message, pass it on and the person would call back this NEVER HAPPENED! we then decided to drive to the zoo on the Monday after we arrived! My fiance was told it was all booked up until the Friday, luckily we were still here so we booked. We then we're told, oh that's not booked it's just pencilled in, we had to email to state our intention to come on the Friday for the experience... So we did, this was then booked and we received an email with all the ins and outs of what to do that day. Including the fact that there will be some specially reserved parking for us! We arrived in the morning, we see mo who says she knows nothing about the reserved parking, but the email states clearly that we are to tell the attendant we are there for an experience and they will show us to our reserved parking... Everyone, including the experience manager (who was rude) said this wasn't a thing. And then the manager called my fiance to apologise as he was rude and was wrong, there should be parking reserved, luckily the rest of the zoo made up for...

Ok we went for my daughter's birthday, not my 1st choice for a trip as I don't like the idea of Zoos. But I accept they are a necessary service for the animals and humans alike.

There's a walk down from the car park to the entrance to the zoo. I believe however, disabled can drive down and be dropped off.

Just remembered to save some energy after a long walk round, to be able to climb the hill to get back to the car park! Although for the most part it's not a difficult walk and quite a pretty pathway.

Warning it is expensive to enter, about £26 an adult to walk through the gates. Currently you get a free visit back, if you're still in the area to see more you may have missed.

So with the slightly dour start done, let's move on to the fantastic bit...

The park is very clean and quite spacious, the food in the restaurant is very good for this type of venue, disabled access is very good overall.

Gluten free is just about doable although choices are very limited. So bring your own if allergies are a concern, but catering staff are helpful over such matters.

The important thing for me was the animals are looked after very well. There's enough room for them to exercise which is good and sleeping areas are clean. It's good to see the employees attending the animals throughout the day and feeding times are well coordinated.

My daughter loves the big cats and they were on show that day, last time they hid away, so don't expect to see every animal. We never saw the rhinos at all, but they must be there somewhere!

As with the rest of the zoo the cats were very chilled and seemed relaxed and unstressed, which is a great sign. A testament to the care of the keepers.

There are loads of ice cream shops as you walk around and there are a few slopes to climb, so on a hot day and ice cream is a welcome break. There's also a great climbing area for the kids right near an outdoor cafe, a brilliant idea.

Young people seemed to love the zoo and adults were overall captivated by the closeness of the animals hence the 5 stars.

Apart from the cost of entry, the whole place is well maintained and animals seem content, I guess you get what you pay for.

The shop is full of cuddly toys and key rings - great for kids, but not much for adults to take away as a memory.

Overall a good day out for a family, if the cost was £15 to enter, then I'd be happier to pay it, as it would represent value for money. Although I guess the animals need their upkeep costs paid and it can't be cheap.

Definitely worth a visit, the family enjoyed the trip and walk round and great to see such a wide variety of creatures in a days walkabout.

Well done...

Great plants, good animals and enclosures, but lacking in information, theming and animal visibility.

There is a good variety of animals here and in reasonable quantity. You can spend most of the day here wandering the many paths and enjoying the creative and enriching enclosures for the animals. But that's most of the problem, it's the enclosures we were enjoying. The actual animals? Mostly nowhere to be seen. We didn't see the big cats, barely glimpsed the rhino, and many of the monkeys escaped us entirely. The enclosures are so good, so animal focused, that you can't see them. I support such great animal spaces, but think they needed to provide better viewing areas to see them such as elevated or, like Twycross zoo, a glass-tunnel through the lion enclosure would be a huge improvement.

The plants and paths here are wonderful. This zoo is better than most botanical gardens, with good signs for various plants around the park. Excellent.

The signs about the animals were professional and uniform, but lacked any real depth of information about the animals. You get a sentence or two at the most. I think quick facts are good as they're accessible, but there could have been bigger information boards for those interested, or even simple bits like what males or females of the species are called.

Another issue was around attending the talks. It was clear what time talks were happening, but it wasn't clear where. We tried to go to two talks but couldn't find them.

The zoo also lacked theming. For example there is a section of birds, and there could be an arch with "amazing aviary" and some statues or kiddy friendly picture posing points, some artwork, maybe a scavenger hunt or tracing points. There could be themed zones! But there's nothing.

The app is dreadful. Don't bother. There's an interactive map - surely the heart of any zoo app - but it is missing many animals, shows some animals that aren't there, and doesn't even show you where you are using your GPS. Worse, the first thing it does upon Downloading is ask for loads of permissions, like recording audio, that it just doesn't need.

The food was okay, the souvenir shop was fine, the car parking is nice, paths are well kept, toilets were clean, staff were friendly and there were a few stand out sections like the tropical trails. The soft play costs extra which is frustrating.

Worth a visit, but expect to enjoy the plants and enclosures rather than...