Travel A Day Out; Twycross Zoo

Coming back for my holidays to the UK with my mum we had all of the Midlands to explore and on one sunny (sunny?  I came to escape the sun!) day off exploring as well as reliving my childhood by visiting Twycross Zoo.

I love Twycross Zoo.  We went last year when Baby Boy wasn’t even a twinkle and it was just the Toddler.  In fact one of my favourite photos from my trip last year was taken in the zoo.

So this year, on my husbands whistle stop your, we decided to go again.  Not only that but one of our friends who has 2 little girls similar ages to the boys has family just down the road so she came with us on our day out.  It was lovely finally getting to meet the girls properly and amusing to hear her exclaim at how the zoo had changed since she worked their in Uni summer holidays.  Which I think goes to show how Twycross Zoo is updating with the times and it is brilliant for little ones.  Though apparently not so good for our friends grandma who worked there (many moons ago I’m told) and one night walking to the car came face to face with a gorilla….. we aren’t sure on the rest of the story but she made it out to tell the tale.

Walking in we came face to face with the Meerkats, cue much Compare the Meerkat banter between the adults, the kids attention was held for all of 30 seconds when they realised that straight ahead were the monkeys!

Twycross Zoo has an amazing array of various primates from spider monkeys to bonobos to orangutans. I have a special love for monkeys and it seems I am not the only one…

We delighted in watching them swing and play and roll with squeals of delight from the toddler as they swung towards the window. Baby Boy was a little indifferent sleeping through the excitement….

In fact Baby Boy slept through all of the monkeys before waking up and telling us he needed to be fed. And that he needed to be fed NOW. So we decamped to the nearest cafe for an ice cream pit stop; boobie milk for the littlest and I shared the ice cream with the Toddler. Creamy, delicious, toffee ice cream.

With everyone satisfied on we continued, past the splash park which looked like great fun for little ones on hot days, unfortunately Mummy forgot the towels and swim wear so we had to hurry past before the Toddlers demands reached ear drum breaking level. Luckily the splash park was right next to the adventure playground with the spiders web distracting the older 2 from the splash park.

I love the addition of playgrounds and splash parks in the zoo, while the animals are still the main attraction, I find that they are amazing for revitalizing the Toddler. Allowing him to run and shout while processing all that he has seen so he isn’t overloaded.

Next up were the penguins. Who were busy soaking up the sun instead of swimming.

This was swiftly followed by the latest attraction at the zoo – Feeding the Lorikeets – I am terrified of birds. A phobia inherited from my dad so the husband dutifully paid his pound for the nectar and took the toddler into the enclosure. Prams aren’t allowed in the enclosure so if you have another little one it’s best to have at least 2 adults so one can stay outside.

The birds, which aren’t actually terrifying but very beautiful, fly down and actually land on your hand to drink the nectar. The toddler was amazed at the birds on daddy’s hand and came bursting out shouting

the birdie drinking on daddy

Back for another detour to the monkeys and of course, being with children, pit stops are frequent, so we headed to the nearest picnic area to eat our pork feast. The problem with being in Dubai is that every time we come home we feel the need to indulge in ham, pork pies and scotch eggs. If you did want to buy food then there are plenty of different establishments throughout the park including fish and chips (another smell I love, no one does fish and chips like the British!) which our friend indulged in. The 2 toddlers then had a good go at a bag of rice cakes – and the Toddler happily “shared”, forcing poor Ams to hold rice cake after rice cake.

After lunch we took a stroll to see the elephants but it wasn’t to be as we couldn’t see them in the enclosure, but did see a lot of elephant poo which the toddler found hilarious. At this point we waved goodbye to our friends and we continued on just the four of us to the petting area of the zoo.

This was somewhere I hadn’t been before and this time we only paid a fleeting visit as the toddler was starting to flag at this point, you know, refusing to go to bed has this effect on him. We were there long enough to be headbutted by a goat *poor mummy* have a freak out at the rats *mummy again* wave at the rabbits *toddler* plead to get a rabbit *mummy* then make the call that it’s time to go home *daddy*

A lovely day out, made better with the glorious weather we had and the fact that Daddy was over for a few days after not seeing him for 2 weeks. We all loved the monkeys and next time we go I hope the elephants are about as, like monkeys, everybody loves an elephant.

Twycross Zoo costs £17.95 per adult with under 3’s going in for free. For those that are 3-16 you pay £12.95. There are discounts available if you buy your tickets online at Twycross Zoo.

Disclaimer; I received entry to the zoo for myself and my family for free in return for an honest review. All opinions and pictures are my own.