Paradise Wildlife Park: A Review

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to be invited to Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire in exchange for a review on the blog. Given that baby (or should I say toddler now) Isla LOVES animals, we jumped at the chance! Here is our review of Paradise Wildlife Park. 

Paradise Wildlife Park: A Review

Overview

Paradise Wildlife Park is situated in a rural area of Hertfordshire called Broxbourne. We had never visited before and thought we were lost when our sat nav took us along endless country lanes, but we found it in the end!

Paradise Wildlife Park is essentially a zoo, but it also offers a range of unique experience to suit the needs of all the family. It changes these experiences throughout the year too- at the moment they are promoting ‘howl-o-ween', for example. The park claims to offer unique animal experiences, jungle sleepovers for children, the option to become a zookeeper for the day and bespoke zoo tours. They also have the new attraction ‘World of Dinosaurs'.

Animals

The zoo has a wide range of animals for your little ones to see and they have a feeding schedule throughout the day. Isla got to watch the cheetahs being fed, which she found very interesting! 

The animals are organised according to animal type/location and we particularly liked the outback trail which had lots of animals from Australia. You could get up close with the kangaroos and the ostriches, which Isla enjoyed.

She also loved seeing the lions as these are her favourite animal!

I have to admit that the enclosures were quite small, which did made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. Whilst its lovely to be able to guarantee that your children will be able to see all of the animals, we prefer to see them in a the wild or at least in an open-design park such as a nature reserve. I guess we are spoilt though in that we travel a lot, and I know that these opportunities are not there for everybody. For more on the benefits of travel for your little ones, check out this post: why travelling with stimulate your senses better than any baby sensory class. 

Catering

There are lots of places to eat at Paradise Wildlife Park and there are also picnic tables provided for those who choose to take their own food. As with any attraction such as this, the prices weren't particularly cheap, but that's to be expected. 

Indoor play

The day we visited Paradise Wildlife Park the weather was a bit hit and miss. In the morning it was raining and in the afternoon we had glorious sunshine! Needless to say, therefore, we visited the indoor areas quite a bit. The park is set up for all weather which is pretty good, especially given the great British weather! Most animals have a sheltered viewing point or inside area. 

There is the indoor soft play area and some sheltered slides for the kids to play on when the weather isn't in your favour, so the day is certainly not spoilt by a bit of rain! When we arrived at the softly there were about 50 scouts running around (or should I say charging around). This made the area very busy and quite intimidating for a little 18 month old, but I'm sure it's not always this busy. Isla enjoyed playing here and even convinced daddy to go down the slides with her! 

World of Dinosaurs

This is the new attraction for 2018 and it has received a lot of positive publicity. No doubt this has resulted in a significant boost to visitor numbers this summer as I know people who have travelled quite a distance to visit this unique attraction. 

The dinosaurs are very well made and make Jurassic-like noises. There are lots of moving models scattered throughout the trees and it is very interesting to see what these creatures would have looked and sounded like. It really felt like a we were in a scene from Jurassic Park… so much so that my husband felt it necessary to re-enact one of these scenes! haha 

Prices 

Prices are in-line with most attractions of similar standard in the UK at £19 per adult and £16.50 per child. They do offer an online discount though, so it's definitely worth booking ahead! 

All in all we had a lovely day and Isla got to see some of her favourite animals! Have you visited Paradise Wildlife Park? What were your experiences?