Chester Zoo Reviews 

Suppose to be a Zoo but no animals all either hiding or cages empty and over grown. Very expensive to see nothing

Not very good my son who is autistic wanted to go on the lazy river ride which finishes at 7.30pm get there at 6.30pm whe. Not so busy to be told sorry we are shutting early due to lack of staff tried explaining to them my sons condition not interested at all wont visit again

The zoo visit was disappointing because so many animals were not in their enclosures and were not visible. Considering this, the ticket price felt far too high.

What a disappointment, one empty enclosure after another! Yes of course you'd expect some but not over 80% of them!
The main reason we cane was to see the snow leopards and hopefully their cub. Not a sign of them However they have a tv screen of the inside den, and it shows a looped video of the cub. Ermm sorry but why? Live feed please! And this highlights the issue with this zoo. There's cameras everywhere watching us but instead of investing in live animal cams and interactive displays all the development has gone into money making food and gift stores.
The phone app is appaling, yes you can type an animal and it'll direct you but its void of any other info on your trek. It could show you what you're passing and nearby, it could present you with the animals names and pictures but its just a very basic cheaply made app.
As an environmentalist and botanist I fully appreciated the planting and species chosen. The plants were amazing and compensated for the lack of animals, but this is a zoo not a gardens and you need to rethink your focus/time spent on horticulture.. As others have noted areas are overgrown to the point you cannot view what few animals that are in the pens...
Overall we left feeling very sad feeling some of the animals were in too small enclosures, looking bored, depressed, and lifeless. Like circus animals, there for a show, locked in prisons. Yes the destruction of their natural habitats is heartbreaking but shipping them across the world to die in cages is not the answer. Even if you got to see the animal up close and had a zookeeper there to storytell his charges, or a modern informative display it may educate, inform and change kids and folks view on the world.. but no, its more about selling food and toys...

If I could give zero stars I would! Chester Zoo is all about making money. The lack of the wildlife animals was ridiculous we was a family of 5 walking for hours and saw about 5 diff animals. There was no Lions, Tigers, Bears or Red Pandas. Most of the enclosures were empty.
Everything is centred around making money and seems no care is given for the animals. We won't be coming back again.
It was £3.29 for a refillable metal water bottle and yet there was only 1 filling station which was miles away.
Face painting was a min of £8 which was ridiculous.
To dig for "dinosaur bones" was £4.50. It's just such an underwhelming experience we don't want to repeat!

My wife and I took our 7 year old granddaughter to chester zoo yesterday 10 August 25 full of hope and vigour and this is what we all thought. Trying to find your way around efficiently you might as well follow a blind man. The signs are useless and the paper map is even worse. We must have wasted 2 hours wandering around in circles and only covered a third of what we wanted to see. What was disappointing; the Congo buffalo and okapi locked away, the komodo dragon in its shed, a massive disappointment for my granddaughter. An old lion lay on its back to us bored to tears, the orangutans looked totally fed up with each other with nothing to stimulate them in very dismal dingy looking housing. Where was the majestic herds of wildebeest, gazelle and zebra. The only redeeming enjoyments for us were the penguins full of enthusiasm swimming about, the butterfly house and the black jaguar who came outside to say hello. My granddaughter got more enjoyment from the numerous commando parks. Well, we could have stayed at home and done that. Warning: stay away from the numerous kiosks and drinks counters as you will lose the clothes off your back paying for them. £4.50 for candyfloss, your having a laugh!
Understandably the costs to run a facility such as this must be eye watering but if you don't give people what they pay to see they won't come back. Will I return, possibly not.

Overpriced entry, empty enclosures and no refillable water stations

We went for a family day out, lucky enough to buy the family ticket that didn’t specifically need children as we went as a group of adults. Which was a saving grace as £40 for an adult ticket is extortionate.

Initially went to purchase a bottle of water, £3.25 for a metal bottle that could be refilled (already an extortionate price but we didn’t take our own which was our own mistake) we found one facility to refill our water bottles in one of the food courts but the majority of the day we found no refillable water stations or even a water fountain. It was a sunny UK day with temps around 24-26 so water is a must.

Willing to purchase other drinks/snacks but lack of vending machines (that also never worked when you did come across them) / large queues at every station gave long wait times.

Very busy everywhere, saw lots of empty enclosures and ones where we did see some animals they looked as if they were fed up

Disappointed with the overall experience and unlikely to return in the future

The food wasn't good. Was thrown on the plate. Very very expensive place. Didn't get to see any big cats. 2.70 for a can of pop ridiculous didn't buy one. The ice cream was lovely and very well priced. Won't be going again. The entry fee is extortionate. Will probably find alternatives.

Very over price. Bad signing. Disappointing experience. I hardly saw any animals. Mostly empty enclosures. Lots of walking. No tigers No lions. No jaguars. No Bears to be seen.

£42.50 adult entry . Very disappointed. Not much to see .

Having been to many others over the years . Ie kent , Devon and Norfolk. I found this one to be the biggest disappointment.

I had high expectations considering the cost of tickets . Not much to see and rather boring to be honest . Empty cage after Empty cage .

Disabled parking not great . Still had a fair distance to walk and parking bays same average size . You would struggle if wanting to get into wheel chair .

Very disappointed with our visit, we took three grandchildren, age 14,6 and 4, £175 admission fee….felt it was totally overpriced, saw very few animals, quite a few empty stalls/paddocks, I realise animal care, feeding, vet bills , staff wages need to be covered, we came away feeling it was one big money spinning machine, especially seeing a fun fair there??????.
Will not be returning….

Reading recent reviews felt jubious about going but still made the 200 mile round trip.
Wasn't disappointed, food was great and reasonably priced (7.99 for kids nuggets chips and drink)
Animals everywhere, we didn't not see any of them.
Place was clean and animals looked healthy and happy.
Thing is with a zoo, it's hit and miss if the animals are out, they like there privacy too.
Would definitely go back.

Just been today the Tigers, Lions and Jaguars were nowhere to be seen what a disappointment & waste of money! Save your money and go to Knowsley Safari Park or somewhere better. Also too much walking and not properly signposted. Kids not happy. Won't be going again!!

Food very average and expensive £49 for 2 coffees, 2 burgers, 2 soft drinks+ 2 flapjacks
entrance fee too high. £86 for two adults.
Hardly any animals to see, just one empty enclosure after another absolutely awful.
Had more eateries than Meadow hall shopping Centre they should focus the "zoo" side of things not making money selling burgers and ice creams this place makes Twycross zoo look like the best Zoo in the world at least you get to see the animals at Twycross .
Our first visit and very disappointed with Chester will never go again.

The zoo itself, really good, the process of booking tickets, dreadful! Congratulations, you have the worst booking process of all companies I've used (inc Ryanair!) The website booking system gets caught in a loop when you want to order tickets, it wont allow you to check out as a guest if you have a profile, but when I try and log in, it asks me to check out as a guest. I'm forced to call in to book tickets in.. only to be kept on hold for an hour, listening to the same saxophone rift over and over... and over... if it wasn't for the fact my son loves the zoo, I'd never use your services again. Get better at managing your customer journey

Been visiting Chester for years. Really disappointed this visit. Many enclosures empty - we didn't see many animals for the price of the ticket.
Upselling on other things such as VR, mini 4 X4 etc.
Although all zoos have the difficulty of animals not always being visible if the animals are there full stop or are shut inside with no viewing of inside areas it's impossible to see them. isn't this why people visit the zoo?
Won't be back to Chester again. Better zoos in the Midlands which are cheaper and have more animals.
Lots of comments overheard from visitors while there.

Many of the enclosures appeared empty, with no sign of the Lions, Tigers, Bears and many others. The Giraffe and Elephant indoor part was also closed which they told us after entering the gate. There were lots of senior school children on school trips shouting and running around too.
The talks were not well sign posted and we ended up missing them, with the app not giving any directions either. the gardens were well tended but the food was also overpriced and poor quality. When we sat down to eat, we had to move with lots of wasps hovering around and bothering us.
Really wouldn't recommend, particularly on a hot day. My family was very disappointed and it was poor value for money. They like to up sell as much as possible too, with even maps not given for free.

Absolutely loved our day at Chester Zoo! The enclosures are spacious and thoughtfully designed, and you can tell the animals are really well cared for. There's so much to see - we easily spent a full day there and still didn't cover everything. Staff were friendly, facilities were clean, and the whole place felt really well run. Perfect for families or anyone who loves animals - we'll definitely be back!

We visited July 2025, family of 4.
Amazing zoo, clean, good size enclosures.
Great to see all the enrichment provided to animals.
Staff and volunteers all friendly, helpful and extremely knowledgeable.
We took our own picnic so can’t comment on food prices.
Would highly recommend.

Overcrowded, overpriced. Most enclosures seemed empty. Waste of money/time