Twycross Zoo Avis 

Mothers day 2025, run down mamy tiny enclosure. All but one empty. Handful of large envlosure, all but one empty.

Not sure what we paid to see, but it wasn't animals.

Unable to.feed bird, do to bird flue (months Go now).

Parking manic, no option of dissabled parking. Fined for not paying the £3.50, that we would have paid, should we have seen a single sign/ parking machine.

No customer service response.

We see why its a free return, but absolutely not even worth an initial visit.

Dreadful customer service provisions. Due to issues with their website (purchased tickets but did not receive) and no number to call to sort I paid twice. Nobody will call me or reply to emails effectively to sort. I tried to sort when there but was told no - you have to fill in a form and I’ve now filled in four and imagine I’ll never get my money back - or at least it will be weeks more effort to sort it! Shame as the actual lantern show was wonderful but lack of a number to call is rediculous.

What an amazing event. Three generations all had an amazing time. Took us a good two hours to explore the event. Staff were lovely. Especially Lucy at the Costa coffee in the main entrance. We thought this event was good value for money. Lanterns if the wild is a lovely event. It’s beautifully set out and displays are just beautiful. Toasted marshmallows were lively, our only comment would be that they would have been nice half way through rather than very early on. We were thankfully blessed with a dry evening.

Lovely day out with the kids, soft play was great and nice to see a range of different animals. But waited an hour and half for food and the toilets were cold and dirty which made things difficult with a child under 1.

Love that you have the opportunity to attend for a year after visiting, makes the price much more affordable but only if you are happy with the waiting.

This review contains information based on my whole experience with Twycross Zoo between March 2025 & February 2026.

In March 2025, I brought 4 Adult Annual Passes and 2 Child Annual Passes.

Included with the pass are 5 free car parking tickets. What they fail to tell you is that the car parking is a scam.

Despite having the ANNUAL PASSES I have only visited the zoo 2 or 3 times. This has been due to lack of time but it didn’t bother me as the passes were mainly for my brother and his family,as he has 2 young children who go to school near the zoo. I thought it would be nice for them to visit after school with their friends.

Firstly, before you go, whether pass holder or not, you need to book your visit on the Twycross Zoo website. Date and time, you can’t just turn up.

Secondly, the car parking is not free or included with your ticket, you have to pay. As a pass holder you have to add car parking to your ticket even though you have 5 car park tickets included. I did this on each occasion I booked, and on my last visit with was to see the very disappointing Lanterns of the Wild event, I got sent A £40 CAR PARKING FINE.

When I emailed the zoo telling them it was a mistake as I had added the car parking to my ticket. I got told it was my fault as I had not visited customer services on the night of my visit. No where on the website does it state that this is a requirement, plus I had already registered my car with Customer Services on a previous visit.

I have paid the car parking ticket as the customer service through the zoo was disappointing. They would not accept that maybe there was an issue with the booking on the website. They did not apologise only that they were sorry I have had a disappointing experience, very patronising.

I had planned on renewing the passes this year and upgrading as I feel the zoo needed the support. Also booking some of the experiences. Now due to the lack of customer service I have changed my mind so I have saved over £1000.

On entry to the zoo from the main road there is a huge pothole, this nearly nobbled my car and the rest of our entourage’s carriages. There are also several others in the car park.

Once parked depending on what time you get there, is a 5 to 20 minute walk to the entrance. The entrance takes you into the visitor centre where there is a soft play, shop and cafe. So, it gets very crowded and claustrophobic, also noisy with the children on the soft play, but that is to be expected.

On our last visit to see the animals we hardly saw any animals. A lot of the enclosures were empty, a couple were damaged and in need of repair. Some were being renovated. Even enclosures that were supposed to have animals appeared empty. Meerkats and penguins were easy to watch, and entertaining.

In the children’s play area there were wasps everywhere. Several children were stung and none of the kiosks had anything to help, and no first aider or station nearby. This was in August but the bins were overflowing and the wasps were just everywhere. Not so bad in other areas of the zoo, but the bins should have bin emptied regularly. Especially as this was were the children were playing in the water.

I recommend taking your own food and drink. Most of the food options are pricey when you have a group.

The toilets around the zoo were also in a poor condition, the best ones were by the Gruffalo meeting area but still weren’t brilliant. Also, if you do want to buy something to eat, the cafe here was nice and the staff were friendly. They have a good meal deal here for children too and the sausage rolls were nice.

The gift shop as you leave has some nice things. Some of it is a little pricey and a lot is aimed at young children. You can leave from the entrance if you want to avoid the shop.

This is not a whole day visit about half a day. Despite a booking system the zoo gets very crowded. There is also not a lot of seating when it is busy or around the child play areas.

Our last visit was to see the LANTERNS OF THE WILD. We had a 5.15 pm slot. It was so crowded. We shuffled our way round as it was so busy. I have no issue with people taking photos usually but some of the paths were narrow and it just held you up as there was no room to get around them. As it had been raining and they had obviously had a lot of visitors some of the pathways were mud. Slippy, with deep grooves, some huge puddles, but a lot of mud. Recommend wearing a good pair of boots or wellies.

I don’t know if it was because we went at the end of January and it had been on since November I think, but some of the lanterns were damaged, as they are only paper. I couple I think were animatronics but were hardly moving. Where there was a grotto or something for Christmas along the routes, these had been taken away, and were just dark voids. Nothing to replace what was there.

The exit was a nightmare. Just crowds blocking the way.

Looking for a new true conservation zoo to support.

My son said he wanted to see the tiger and lion this Christmas, so I buy him a £60 ticket and took him to zoo. no lion and tiger in sight. So he came home disappointed.☹️

I don’t know why the zoo doesn’t build the parking fee into the tickets. As I would assume less people would get caught out and tarnish their zoo experience.

Really disappointed that I attended the lanterns and got stung by a parking fine. There was minimal lights highlighting where to pay in the dark and it was so busy that the pay machines were hidden in the crowds!

Why is twycross letting scum bag parking companies profit of their customers!

We visited Twycross Zoo on 17th January and bought tickets at 1:55pm, despite later learning tickets supposedly shouldn’t be sold after 1pm. We were not told that large parts of the zoo would be closing at 2:30pm (and in reality those areas were closed even earlier, around 2:20pm), so we were unable to see much at all despite paying full price and travelling over an hour to get there.

When I raised this politely with customer service, it was repeatedly dismissed on the basis that the tickets are annual passes — but that really isn’t the point when you’ve made a long journey and the visit itself is effectively unusable.

I was also spoken to in a very condescending manner and was accused of being “aggressive” simply for making a reasonable complaint. No resolution or goodwill gesture was offered.

I’ve since emailed and received no response. Very disappointing and not the level of service you’d expect.

Love this zoo, I know a lot of people complain about not seeing the animals, but they give the animals an option of privacy which is why you might not always see them. They care more about their animals than you being able to see them, this is the risk you take going to any zoo, so not sure why people are saying that.

I visit every month with my family and we always have a great time and never get bored, considering you pay for 1 day and go free for the rest of the year, this is such a massive bargain! I've not heard of any other zoos doing this!

We went to the lanterns last night too and it was absolutely incredible! We spent an hour and a half easily just taking it all in! The amount of effort that has gone into it is amazing!

Ignore all the hate comments, this is an amazing zoo! If you want cheaper and to see animals that are forced to be on show, go to a pet shop 🙄

We paid £10 per child and £5 per adult (£20 total) for a very short and underwhelming Father Christmas experience. The location and decorations were extremely basic and didn’t feel festive at all.

The visit itself consisted of a brief chat with Father Christmas, followed by the child choosing a very small, unwrapped soft toy. We were then told it would be an additional £12 if we wanted a photo with Santa, which felt excessive on top of what we had already paid.

Considering the amount of money spent on the Lanterns of the Wild, which are fantastic and well worth visiting, the Father Christmas experience is completely unnecessary and poor value for money. I would strongly recommend skipping Santa and just enjoying the lanterns instead.

We come quite often as we bought a ticket ans get free returns for the year. The most recent visit was to see santa and paid an extra £8.. there was a lovely little show followed by the santa visit and a teddy. Weve paid more than that to just see santa at a shopping centre with a chocolate bar gift. We have been to see santa previous years which I did think was better (group story with santa) but i understand they change things. We loved the gruffalo trail and activities along the way. Lots of animals to see and things to do (water park and sand in the summer) and never seems to be too busy there. Its definitely worth it if you can so a few return visits.

We had initially decided to visit for the ‘Lanterns of the wild’ but on booking we decided to add the day visit to the zoo. The time stated for this was 2:00 and the lanterns was at 5:30 so my thought was that we would have a few hours at the zoo before walking round the lanterns. We were not informed on booking that the zoo actually closed at 3:00. We arrived just after 2 and were informed the zoo was closing at 3 and a few of the attractions were closing at 2:30. So we had paid £30 (2 adults and child) for the zoo entry for 30minutes?! We decided to go to the Gruffalo area first as my son loves the Gruffalo. However, a lot of it was already closed and we were unable to see the butterflies. For the rest of the zoo, we hardly saw any animals as they had begun to cover their windows ready for the lanterns. We were very disappointed! I did end up going to the Guest Services to ask them about my tickets and they said it would include an annual pass for the zoo entry. However, after looking at my email, this was not correct and it did state that it was only a day pass!

My son did enjoy the lanterns and we spent an hour walking the trail and we wish we had visited just for this! I just feel that overall, a lot of things were very unorganised eg. the car park was absolutely manic with little wardens or guidance on how to exit!!

Absolute shocking customer service Have been chasing my return annual passes by email ,, keep getting the same AI response by computer I presume asking the same pre written Demelza ?.. not a user friendly booking system and no way of communicating with Twycross 🤷🏼‍♀️😱 emailed asking for a phone call back no reply , just ignored .

Me and my son had a nice time seing animals we would never get to see other wise.just becarefull about the parking.

We visited Twycross Zoo yesterday with four children under seven, and I left feeling deeply saddened by the state of the place. While there was plenty of focus on bright play areas, an all singing all dancing carousel at the entrance, and Gruffalo Land to entertain children, the same level of care and attention clearly hasn’t been given to the animals themselves.

Many of the enclosures were cold , bare, and depressing, with very few animals visible at all. The few we did see looked lethargic, bored, and desensitised and hiding in windows away from visitors (the gibbons looked desperate to get away from prying eyes) The lack of natural surroundings in almost every pen was shocking — bare concrete floors, cracked glass panels, and no signs of enrichment, comfort or stimulation.
One orangutan had tried to bury itself in shavings of straw/hay to snooze and looked so sad.

The tortoise enclosure, for example, was just concrete and a small grubby pool of water which even my six year old commented on being sad for the animal, with no soil, grass, or plants to mimic their natural habitat. The monkey pens were dull and empty, with only wooden planks and strapping to climb on — no trees, no greenery, and nothing remotely resembling their tropical environment. The giraffes were confined inside a large cement building with only a few bare branches hanging from the ceiling, and the tanks we saw were murky and lifeless.

It’s clear the focus here is more on creating attractions for children than on ensuring the wellbeing of the incredible animals that make a zoo worth visiting. The entire experience was disheartening and felt incredibly cruel.

The staff were all friendly and polite. The parking was an overcrowded nightmare. The zoo certainly seems like more of a ongoing sales pitch from the moment of purchasing your tickets to the minute you step out of your car everything costs extra at ridiculous prices.

Until significant improvements are made to the animals’ living conditions and enrichment, I would strongly urge others to avoid visiting. These animals deserve so much better.

Very disappointed. Very gimmicky. The zoo focuses on kids - and has a lot of (censored) playground style things. From fake animals to fake landscapes and children's playground furniture across the zoo's grounds. Also, staff dressed in fancy dress Halloween costumes etc.
Twycross zoo is like an unfun fair. Tacky.
I also felt that I was not welcome there. I found, to my surprise, that I was not at a zoo, but at a large children's playground, instead.
What are you doing here? You're not a child or with a child, was a palpable feeling that I got from staff and a couple of different adults with their children.
The animal displays' lighting conditions to take photographs with film was lacking. A lot of the windows looking into the enclosures were misted up or just plain dirty. Fences blocking views. The animals were often far away or difficult to see.

I compared it to Colchester Zoo, in my mind, where I went a number of years ago. What a difference.
I suppose Twycross is more interested in money and, thusly, are aiming at families for it, rather than catering for middle-aged adults like me, who would actually like to see the zoo's animals and plants. The Meerkats and the humbolt penguins were an exception. Hence a two and not a one star review. These amazing creatures I did get some great views of, videos and photographs of, too. Won't visit Twycross again. I'd rather drive to Colchester Zoo or another Zoo, than go to Twycross again.

Awful day out! Where are all the animals?! We were looking forward to a family day out after myself and my husband having an extremely busy week running events and we were very disappointed - even our 6 year old said before we made any comment about how bad it was. We also pre booked the feed the lorikeets at 2:30pm - when we arrived there was a queue and people paying to go in. When we came to the desk we were told it’s been busy and the lorikeets may be too full to eat! We went through anyway as naturally the children were excited. The keeper inside said they were only letting pre booked in which was a clear lie as we just watched families pay to come in. Why let people come through who haven’t pre booked? Just work on pre booked basis. There were over 70 people in there so no wonder the Lorikeets didn’t want to eat any more! Taking money for nothing and highly unfair on those who had pre booked. The enclosures themselves seemed very small and un kept. Our 13 year old said we see more animals at our family farm. The snake house has 1 snake out of the 2 enclosures there. Activities around the gruffalo trail were broken and not working. For a day out that has code over £80 for a family of 4 - it was extremely disappointing and we would not recommend going to anyone. There are far better zoos such as Cotswold wildlife park, longleat and West Midlands safari. Do not waste your money here. Very sad.

Too many people allowed in, car park organised. Not an enjoyable day. Also, where are the animals?!

Awful day out! It’s was bound to be busy because it was the summer holidays but it was so poorly managed. Layout is chaotic and the flow of people wasn’t managed at any of the pinch points. At some points people were struggling to move past each other. Toilets were disgusting and the queue for the ice cream stand took about 30 mins. 1 line to pay and then you had to queue again for your ice cream. Also barely saw any animals. Worst day out of the summer holidays I’ve done only free activities up until now and it felt like a total waste of money.

There are quite a few animals there, but I hated the layout. It was chaotic, with no natural flow. I must have counted 6 enclosures that were simply abandoned. Much of the zoo looked dated and run down. Paint was peeling all over the animal side of the gorilla enclosure. I looked at a picture we took there 14 years ago and the amount of decay is unreal. I liked seeing the animals, but majority of the primates seemed bored stiff. I'm glad we took a pack-up with us, as for 2 adults and 3 kids it cost us almost £130 and the food prices were crazy high. £2-50 for a can of coke??? The carnival theme attractions like hook a duck were expensive too. You have no choice but to have an annual pass, but I don't see myself using it to return. My kids seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what matters most to me and the only reason I'm not giving a 1 star review. I managed to see part of the back of a tiger and felt sorry for the leopard who seemed to be in an enclosure alone and just pacing. My wife was in a wheelchair and really struggled to see a lot.