Chester Zoo Reviews 

We got food poisoning from the ice cream. The 2 ladies with the shop next to the slushy machine shop served us ice creams that were melted. We asked for new ones with oh they gave but had to rummage for frozen once’s. I’m guessing thier freezers weren’t working properly which meant the ice creams were being stored at the correct temperature.
On our ride home my children couldn’t stop puking up. They were in a terrible state with sickness and diarrhoea all night.
Absolutely appalled that this isn’t getting checked and being maintained properly.
It was meant to be a nice day out at the start of our summer holidays but that has now been ruined.

Lack of animals on show if you want food or drink very expensive in some parts of the zoo £3.55 for a cup of tea ridiculous won't be going back in a hurry

I bought an Elephant Splash experience for my partners birthday. We just wanted to thank Emma from the experience team who was so kind and helpful and Aaron from the Elephant team, so patient and knowledgeable, both clearly love the animals and do a wonderful job. And can we finally thank Mya, the beautiful elephant for allowing my partner to have a wonderful, up close experience.
The rest of the zoo is fabulous, well set out, so many different areas and things to see. What a great day out for any age

Honestly as a local and lifelong patron of Chester Zoo I now find it utterly heartbreaking and pointless to visit, I Visited today, was just myself and my son for something to do during the school summer holidays and I wish I'd have saved myself £70, as over half the animals that we came to see such as the spotted deer, we didn't spot anything, the Lions were lying on the other side of the compound couldn't see them, the Jaguars would not come out of their Hidey hole, sun bear nowhere to see be seen, complete waste of time money just to come out and walk around and look at a whole lot of nothing.
If you are willing to travel a bit further afield, I recommend Conwy Mountain Zoo

Nice day out but feel like the price is a bit steep for the facilities that are available. The buildings and architecture is quite dated now. The buildings and toilets offer no air conditioning and there are limited shaded areas. There are also no fans or hand held fans available to customers. Peak season for Chester zoo is summer holidays or end of year school trips, with no air conditioning or shaded areas it is a long hot day for children, employees, customers and vulnerable people. Personally I would not want to be taking my children on a day that temperatures exceeds 20 degrees as the lack of shade and air-con makes it really hard to walk all day in the heat. With that in mind I think Chester zoo need to reconsider the comfort of there customers and employees during there peak season (summer).

Avoid. In my opinion, Chester Zoo simply isn't worth the money.

This was our third visit in 12 months, and each time we left thinking we'd probably just been unlucky. Unfortunately, this visit confirmed that nothing has changed.

The aquarium has closed permanently, yet there was no clear notice before we booked or arrived. When we asked staff about it, we received conflicting answers. Whether they were genuinely misinformed or simply trying to protect the zoo's reputation, we couldn't get a straight answer.

We also noticed huge inconsistencies in the information given about the zoo itself. Depending on who you speak to or what you read, the size is quoted as anything from 75 to 152 acres, and the number of animals ranges from 30,000 to 250,000. It's difficult to know what's accurate.

The biggest disappointment is that you just don't see many animals. Time and again, we've been told that certain animals "aren't available today", but that's been the excuse on every single visit. At some point, it stops feeling like bad luck and starts feeling misleading.

As parents of multiple toddlers, we've visited zoos and wildlife parks across Africa, Asia, and Europe over the past two years. Chester Zoo is, without question, the most expensive and the most disappointing. It has the least to see, the least interaction, and the poorest value for money.

The staff themselves even encouraged us to give feedback asking management to reopen the aquarium, which says a lot.

Honestly, once you've seen the elephants and giraffes near the entrance, you've probably experienced the highlight of the day. After that, there's very little that justifies the admission price.

For the cost of a family ticket, there are far better options. We'd recommend Knowsley Safari or even a good petting farm over Chester Zoo.

Sadly, after giving it three chances, we won't be returning.

Went to Chester zoo yesterday for the Giraffe experience was greeted by the experience team and the lovely Ruby was our Guide,she made our day really enjoyable and couldn’t have taken care off us any better ,Charlotte was the one of the giraffe keepers and also was lovely nothing was to much trouble and talked us through the lives of the giraffe family . Would like to thank both these lovely ladies and definitely would recommend doing any of the experience's,once again Ruby and Charlotte you were stars thank you x🤩

Honestly had such an incredible day yesterday💚💚
We went on the curious creatures tour with the amazing Charlotte , Christos and Emma , had a couple of first time experiences even being a member and visiting most weekends , such an amazing experience I would highly highly recommend , definitely worth the price 🩷
Also Thank you so much to the team for being super helpful with my wheelchair 🩷

My Mum and I stayed at the Reserve on the 23rd June and we had the most wonderful time, the whole experience was high end luxury. We went on the Savannah package. T
he pre-check-in welcome and greeting was excellent, everything was explained and it was great to leave our luggage and head off for a day at the zoo before check-in. Even the little bracelets were such a sweet touch.
We were given a choice of tour times and chose 5pm. Ewan the Ranger was do friendly, knowledgeable and made the tour so much fun, and there wasn’t a single question he couldn’t answer.
The restaurant was beautiful. We had the leek and potato soup, sea bass and Eton mess and it was perfect, a real credit to the chefs. The restaurant team were amazing, nothing felt rushed or hurried. It was so good to choose your evening meal and breakfast time and there was such a lovely ambience in the restaurant. It felt very exclusive. Breakfast was excellent, really well laid out with both continental and cooked options. It was such a lovely touch to have a coffee made exactly how I like it, a decaf oat‑milk latte brought to the table, and the freshly made health shot from the chef was such a lovely touch.
The lodge was impeccable, spotlessly clean and so thoughtfully designed, we loved the décor, the bedding and toiletries were very high end, with lots of thick, fluffy towels and huge bath sheets and we loved the little touches down to the hair bobble in the shower cap. The shower was really big and there was plenty of hot water.
The welcome cocktail at check-in at 3pm was fabulous and it was really special to be taken to our lodge, showed around and they had left the air conditioning on which was so welcome and thoughtful as our visit had coincided with a very, very hot day!
We found both the map and the app especially helpful for finding our way around the zoo, and we loved the river boat ride.
It was so peaceful in the evening at the Reserve, enjoyed the view from the upstairs lounge and relaxing on our balcony which had lovely furniture and lighting, it was so lovely to hear the bird calls. We stayed in a luxury lodge right on the water, I watched fish jumping and loved seeing the birds and insects around us.
Early access to Heart of Africa felt incredibly special, exiting our private entrance to be greeted by giraffes eating their breakfast, looking so content, made it even more magical, walking around with sole access watching the animals start their day was unforgettable, we enjoyed watching the keeper feeding the Bat eared Foxes who were following him around really happy. You could see that all the keepers are so dedicated to their ensuring their wellbeing and comfort.
Everywhere we went around the zoo the team were so polite and helpful, you really get a sense of a genuinely happy team. A special mention to the young man who welcomed us for the evening meal, and also to the lady working on arrivals and departures around 12 noon yesterday (24th), who we thanked before leaving.
A couple of the volunteers stood out too, a gentleman who told us about the Komodo dragons, the gentleman with the flamingos and a lady who told us about the Fossas. They were really passionate about the animals and a credit to the zoo.
The animals all looked so content and healthy, and the planting throughout the zoo and around the Reserve was beautifully kept and laid out, there wasn’t a scrap of litter anywhere. The indoor enclosures like the Realm of the Red Ape, Monsoon Forest and all the others were beautiful.
We cannot wait to return for my birthday in October...this time we are going for two days!
Highly recommend you visit.
Thank you to all the team...and the animals!

My first time visiting the zoo. Sadly the 2 hour drive felt pointless and wouldn't go again unless got invited.

Firstly lets talk about the routes and signage. You find yourself walking round in circles, asking staff and others. Amount of people we bumped into who asked where stuff is and complained about signage was unreal.

Secondly the enclosures. Recently coming from Yorkshire wildlife park to this zoo the amount of viewing angles and observation points is night and day. I get its for "privacy" but you can barely even see anything. And if your going to go hmm lets put limited windows in for Orangutans for example why let so many people in? which brings me onto the next point.

Zoo might be "big" but due to so much confusion with signs its a literal zoo for humans too. So many people got allowed in yesterday you could barely even move. Due to such limited viewing points and people hogging them you didn't see nothing. For example i saw one family stood at the same window hogging it for over 15 mins. Then you have "professional" photographers who also just stand at window as long they want. Must have been 50+ people at just the Orangutan windows how do you expect them all to get into such limited windows?

Animals themselves. I mean yeah its all about the animals safety and stuff but i saw barely anything. So many dead spots in enclosures one woman told me she sat waiting over 2 hours to see lions and they was sat under a tree right at back nobody can even see like amazing. I saw more at the smaller zoos than i did in a whole 5 hours at Chester.

I don't think the zoo is thought out at all just a bunch of enclosures chucked on some land, no routes just confusing signs and the fact you have to pay for maps too says it all. Wheelchair shop told us 3 weeks in advance all the electric ones reserved yet we turned up there was like 20 in a row not even moved. Most paths aren't wheelchair friendly either like being on a bouncy castle same for prams have to get them out just so they dont throw up.

Would i come back here knowing its a 2 hour drive? nope sadly i wouldn't. Its not just the fact all animals were barely viewable its just how crazy it gets clearly letting too many people in and also whoever designed the routes and signs needs sacking.

Great zoo with utterly useless signage. One gets a map but without each enclosure having a number so you can find it on the map it becomes "stick a tail on the donkey". Its a great pity as fixing this would be trivial and take a couple of man days maximum.

Don’t use automatic vending machine got charged £45 for two magnum ice creams no receipt given and didn’t even realise till I got back

Expensive at almost £150 for a family of five involved a lot of walking around a massive park and waiting for a fruitless experience. The zoo was poorly signposted and ended up getting lost and maps weren't free to take. Many of the animals we were hoping to see weren't seen in their enclosures including lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards or we could not see due to overgrown grass restricing views and chester zoo response was "Animals have access to both indoor and outdoor areas at all times, and this does include some areas which may be off show to our guests. All of our animals have free roaming of their enclosures and so they can choose at any time to take themselves off show, which may have been the case during your visit." Not impressed as thats the whole reason for going to the zoo is to see animals- which left the kids dissapointed. Also wued for almost an hour for the boat ride only to get to the front and be told it had broken down. Again chester zoo say they "reserve the right to close or suspended the boat ride without prior notice." Also they had childrens helter skelter and courosel rides which were additional costs and also food prices were extortionate. This is a shambles of a zoo and left feeling very dissapointed and will never be returning or recommending to anyone.

Let’s start with the part that If I didn’t have tickets gifted to me I wouldn’t spend almost 40£ per person and so much for food that is actually small portion. It’s a shame they don’t have a station for families to warm up baby food and they are actually forced to buy food, 3 chicken strips and chips for 8.95£!!! It’s a rip off really. I know they want to collect money but be more considerate though

We visited on Sunday as the review said Chester zoo is the best, we had visited Paignton and Marvell zoo recently so wanted to visit. We travelled from Surrey which took 5/6 hours.my husband is69 and I’m 65 so it takes us a bit longer to travel long distances. When we got there on Sunday morning we didn’t have to queue as we had bought our tickets online. I know when you visit zoos you don’t expect to see all the animals but we hardly saw any, no giraffes, rhinos,tigers,lions. The only highlight was seeing an elephant being watered with a hose and that was as we where leaving as we where very tired and disappointed. It was a very expensive weekend away with not too many good memories.

The zoo was absolutely packed, yet the animals were missing 😳 no lions, no tigers, no rhino, all big cats missing apart from a jaguar which was 500m away and not even black 🙄
A few Pigs and a zebra only on ‘island’ area.

The gardening is overdue as all enclosures are overgrown and not maintained so unable to see if there is an animal.

See a sign saying 3 minute walk but walk for 15m and still nothing… then 20min later you reach the destination with no animal, there was no snow leopard. No cheetah, nothing.

The cafe experience was a disaster. Everyone complaining outside the cafe about the service being slow and orders being forgotten.

It should be illegal to sell tickets to the zoo if there are animals missing, it should be advertised clearly that there will be no big cats. You just walk around the overgrown landscape looking at pictures of animals.

Not even kangaroos.

Stay away, save your money, save your day and go somewhere else.

This is a place where you walk for hours and hours expecting to see animals , but can see only areas with names of animals ,and vacant spaces. Everything inside is super expensive .1 bubble maker for £22.And to make your little one happy ,people are forced to buy it. NEVER back again. Plenty of free car parking is available ,which is the only good thing felt.

Chester zoo is a good zoo but need to highlight the zoned area on the pathways , then your not going back where you have already been

So disappointed with the lack of animals in their enclosures and the entry fee costs. Paying nearly £100 including lunch and petrol to get there. For 2 pensioners that is very expensive to be completely disappointed with our what should have been a social day out.
Definitely won’t go back or recommend it. 3 star was generous