Half Term Fun at ZSL London Zoo
Half term can be tricky at the best of times to try and find places to take the children, but with places like ZSL London Zoo offering activities for the kids and talks with the animals – a trip to a zoo can be a wonderful experience.
We were going to catch a bus from Bakerloo underground station, but after being pursuaded by my 3 children that a walk through Regents Park would be better and more exciting we did – and what a pleasant surprise it was – a lovely open park with people running, playing rugby and football and lots of birds in the lakes for my daughter to see.
ZSL London Zoo is right at the end of Regents Park, but a stroll through the park only takes around 15 minutes, and is well worth it as the zoo is a great sight when you reach the end of the park.
I visited ZSL London Zoo with my 3 children, and was pleasantly surpirsed when we arrived to find a Penguin talk taking place, and plenty of room for the kids to sit and watch – my two eldest children listened intently to the keeper taling about the Penguins.
My youngest son spotted a big play area so wanted to explore, so we spent a good 20 minutes while he ran wild in the play area.
Next, we decided to explore a big inflatable tunnel, which housed the butterflies. We followed one of the paths, and entering the warm enclosure, my glasses steamed up. There were lots of butrterflies flying around – all of my children were intent on trying to spot the most colourful, and we were hoping one would land on my sons bright red teddy bear, but they didnt.
We continued to the Monkey enclosures, allowing you to walk amoungst the monkeys, and my son saw them trying to get into people’s bags and jumping across them.
The most exciting of the buidlings housed the ‘BUGS’. This contained leaf cutter ants, who carry cut up leaves across a rope, and you can actually see them really close, but mustn’t touch ! There were spiders, stick insects and lots of creepy crawleys for the kids to see.
My daughter really, really wanted to see the Girraffe’s – so we ventured through a tunnel to the other side of the zoo, where the Reindeer, Giraffes and Owls are – and my daughter was so excited to see the Giraffes up close, that she followed them round and went to see them from inside the enclosure to outside in their paddock.
Here is the video:
My kids were desperate to explore some more of the park, so we headed to the play areas and let our kids run around again.
Then it was time to head for the shop and the exit – and purchase the obligatory toy (limited to a certain amount) and they were happy with a £1.99 soft toy which was great !
My kids, and I, thoroughly enjoyed their day at ZSL London Zoo, with each of them taking home some great memories.
Visit www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo for more information.
