"Santa's Grotto"

Me and my wife took our son to the Santa's Grotto today and by far was the best we have been to. He has left with a tiger teddy and a massive smile thank you

"Colchester zoo throws away tons of food…"

Colchester zoo throws away tons of food daily when it claims to be for the invironment. It's profits and money is not given to charities, the animals are bailly cared for properly. Food outlets are not hygienically cleaned, employees have admitted to things such as fryers and ban Marie's not being cleaned at all neither was the dish washer. The food like pizzas were dated for 5 days with browning ham and molding bacon. A member of staff admitted that before inspecters come they bleach the whole kitchen. The work counters are never wipped down properly. Animals are often neglected and there health is unimportant to most keepers. Money and how the zoo looks to the public is the most important thing to these people.

"Really lovely visit!"

Really lovely visit with my grand children.

Staff always very helpful and friendly.

Well worth a visit when down that way.

"Be prepared to walk miles in the wrong direction!"

I'm going to "pinch" a bit from another review as I agree with it completely:- "The site is very clean & tidy and the variety of animals to see is excellent."
BUT....
Nitpicking, the train ride was much too short and showed very little where I had hoped it would take us around the zoo to see some of the animals. And why could they not have smoking zones IN the zoo? It's open air for goodness ake?
MY biggest criticism however is with the signposts. Many of the "exhibits" were not on the paper map given and many of the items on the map could not be found in real life. To make matters worse, the signposts dotted around the place were hopeless!
My family had booked for the soft play area (which was pathetic) but couldn't find our way back to it, struggled to find the entrance to go get our picnic lunch and ended up passing the elephants FIVE TIMES in our search for the train! Actually catching any of the "Encounters" or feeding times was beyond us unless we waited a long time when we stumbled across a particular area.
Again, spotlessly clean, friendly staff (when you could find them) and a wide collection of clearly well cared for animals but PLEASE, invest in an updated map and SOME PROPER SIGNAGE around the zoo?

"Colchester Zoo never fails us!"

Every time we have been to Colchester Zoo (Every year), it has been fantastic! The site is very clean & tidy and the variety of animals to see is excellent. You can certainly tell that the staff really do care about the animals to!

If we were really digging to find a negative....maybe you could say that the entrance fee is a little on the expensive side. However, we understand that a zoo is a very expensive place to run and like to think our money is helping the animals though :-)

"Good staff but poor access for disabled people"

Let me start off by saying that the staff were extremely helpful in helping me and my disabled wife however, the zoo senior managent needs to get its act together.
Government guidelines suggest that disabled parking ratios should be 6%. I do not know how many parking spaces there are at the zoo but I would estimate in excess of 300, this means there should be at least 18, there are 4!. There were 8 but 4 of these have been put out of action by the public walkway to the entrance. While the zoo was a forerunner in good zoo design however it is looking very jaded. Directional arrows on the walk ways have become very faded, and in some cases, illegible. Although the zoo claims good accessibility, the mobility scooter we hired, had trouble making it up some.of the slopes to attraction areas. If you bring someone in a non-powered wheelchair, there are going to be a number of areas that you won't be able to access.

"Although it was very busy on a summer…"

Although it was very busy on a summer Sunday, there were plenty room to sit /hide from crowds.
The grounds are vast, get your walking boots. The animals' enclosures are large and tidy, we missed some as they were hiding

"3.5 Star is under rated due to COVID reviews"

Colchester zoo is great to explore to create awareness for the kids. It has lots of hidden areas, navigation is easy, just read the signs. Its not the largest zoo so makes it interesting for kids to see lots of animals to be aware of all the different types and hopefully safeguard these animals future in the wild. There are lots of play parks and cafes, food is average but go to a restaurant after if you want good cuisine. Zoo staff do a great job, the zoo is clean and tidy some front of house staff could do with better hospitality training but the majority are good. Overall this zoo is a good solid 4 taken down by irrelevant COVID reviews and by people who cannot navigate. There are some enclosures that need updating and investment, one example being the Lion and leopard enclosures, some improvements and more space here would be nice.

"Birthday treat"

We booked a keeper shadowing experience with the giant tortoise for my sons birthday. I was a bit late booking and the cool animals were already taken but he still had a great time and learnt lots.

"Amazing animals, rude and useless staff"

The zoo was great amazing animals despite the rain we still managed to see lots of animals and even saw the baby ronio. The only bad thing about are day was the staff, firstly the young girl at the front entrance was very rude didn't even say hello or smile just scanned tickets and went. And then went to the food wrap and roll place and all of the members of staff were rude and couldn't be bothered to do anything too busy chatting about a night out, how hard is it the smile.
The zoo it self was very clean and tidy