Twycross Zoo Reviews 203

Visited Twycross Zoo recently and honestly it was one of the most disappointing attractions I’ve ever been to. The whole place felt dirty and run down, with large areas looking completely unkept. A lot of the park and enclosures seemed closed off or empty, which made the ticket price feel even worse value for money. Many of the animals looked unhealthy or just generally miserable, and there were barely any staff around compared to other zoos we’ve visited.

The layout also made no sense you walk all the way across the park only to see the same type of animal repeated again elsewhere. Most enclosures only had a single animal in them which made the whole experience feel depressing. Some of the enclosures are also right next to the main road and you could constantly hear traffic noise. It definitely seemed to be affecting some of the animals, who already appeared stressed or withdrawn.

Even the café area matched the rest of the experience. Tables were left covered in dirty trays, bins were overflowing, and the whole place just felt poorly maintained and understaffed. The food selection itself was also very limited and unappealing.

The atmosphere throughout the zoo genuinely felt bleak, almost like some old Soviet Union prison camp rather than a family attraction. It honestly doesn’t surprise me they offer a free return within a year because I can’t imagine many people wanting to come back after one visit. Overall, a very depressing and disappointing day out and definitely not somewhere I’d recommend over other UK zoos.

Disappointing.
Over-priced, under-resourced. Queues for everything and not enough staff to serve the number of visitors.
Not many chimps.
It was more frustrating than fun.
Really rubbish idea to have the play zone as soon as you walk in. That became our grandson's focus straight away. Couldn't book a slot even though had bought the premium membership online and when asked staff to help they said they couldn't. Ridiculous.
I only hope that the majority of the.membership price goes towards keeping the animals safe and happy. Unlikely to return unless it improves. Such a shame as I have good memories of visiting when I was younger.

Absolute Disgrace – 1/5. Do NOT waste your money.
This is hands-down the worst zoo I have ever had the misfortune of visiting. A complete rip-off from start to finish. Dirty, tired, and shockingly rundown, with barely any animals actually visible. We queued for ages only to be greeted by empty enclosures and sad-looking cages with nothing inside.
Most of the so-called "attractions" were closed, out of order, or simply abandoned. The few animals we did see looked miserable, and I’m still convinced several were plastic models — they didn’t move a muscle the entire time. After just one hour, my child was in tears, literally begging to leave.
£50 per ticket plus £40 for parking for this utter joke of a place is criminal. The whole experience felt like a badly run council car boot sale that somehow got mistaken for a zoo.
Save your time, save your money, and go literally anywhere else. Twycross Zoo is a total embarrassment. I wouldn’t go back even if they paid me.

We were treated to a Zookeeper experience day by our son for our birthdays.
We had an absolutely amazing time, thanks to all the staff and zookeepers who were friendly and extremely dedicated to the animals they look after.
They all went into great detail of their respective species and having the hands on experience was brilliant.
All the animals are extremely well cared for and look as such, also having privacy options when they feel the need.
The food we had was excellent and all the facilities were very clean and tidy.
Thank you for our gifts at the end and for a wonderful birthday experience, definitely one to remember.
Kind regards
Gerry & Tracey.

Very reflective glasses, preventing one from seeing the animals.
Weird booking policy, even with an annual membership.
And you'll get parking tickets in a dedicated car park for the zoo, even though you have a membership. Lovely!!

I tried to book online but got an error message saying it hadn't been made also there was no email confirmation. Yes, I checked my junk mail. There is no phone number so I messaged them twice and got no reply. They have charged my credit card so I have no option but to complain to my bank and apologise to a very upset child.

Gone down since my last visit 10 years ago. Enclosures some empty some with just one animal. Its awful to have just one animal in an enclosure poor thing. The prices are way too high. The price of food outrageous. Fish & Chips £15 Sausage and chips £15. I mean for 4 fish and chips and 4 cokes £80. They looked like a childs meal. A staff member said there was 8000 visitors today. When we gpt our food there was no spare tables.

We avoided the Easter weekend and visited on the Tuesday in the hope that it wouldn’t be too busy. However, we arrived at 11am and already there were thousands of cars and people, with hundreds more piling in. The overflow car park was much too far to walk with very young children and people who were elderly and not too mobile.
The place was absolutely heaving. We hardly saw any animals, as we couldn’t get anywhere near, and those few we did see were not looking like they were living a brilliant life. Most animals were behind glass windows, and by the time the children squeezed their way in, there was rarely any animals in the enclosure to see.
I feel that I completely wasted £85 taking my 2 young grandchildren. The money they must be making should be used to upgrade the place, and the enclosures for the animals. I can why they lure people in by saying your overpriced tickets will last for 12 months free entry, because doubt that many people would bother to return.
It was a miserable overpriced experience.

Discusting for what we paid as a family saturday 4 th April 2026 hardly any animals out food ridiculous priced play area absolutely ram packed with kids best bit about the day was the penguin DEFO WOULD NOT GO BACK AND RECOMMEND PEOPLE NOT TO GO

Nothing wrong with going around the animals today 3rd April.
However very crowded wanted to have fish and chips, went back several times packed out went back at 15.20 to be told take out only, I made them aware we were both in our Seventies and it was too cold outside two young boys couldn’t care less.
We have annual passes so get your act together and have manager that is at least able to discuss things.
Your prices are far too high to eat outside in the cold.

Worst zoo ever went on Mothers day hardly any animals out went after an hour due to boredom waste of fuel and entry cost

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 🙄