I’d never even heard of Yorkshire Wildlife Park until I went actively hunting online for zoos in the North of England. We decided to pay a visit in mid July last year when our son was 17 months old. In this review, I’ll answer some of the questions we had ourselves before going and share our thoughts.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Reviews – Our Quick Rating
[pipdig_stars rating=”5″]
We rate Yorkshire Wildlife Park a 5 based on how we found it for our son. Here’s what we loved in summary:
- Plenty of parking
- All the animal enclosures are really spacious
- Indoor play options in the event of bad weather
- Outdoor playgrounds for little ones
- Huge variety of animals
- Good value
For a more detailed review and guide to enjoying a day out at this awesome zoo, read on.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Location
We found Yorkshire Wildlife Park easily with our sat nav!
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Prices
As well as being a really great zoo in general, the prices at Yorkshire Wildlife park are great value:
- Adults – £17 (or £16 if you book online)
- Children aged 3 to 15 – £14 (or £13 if you book online)
- Children under 2 – free
There are also significantly reduced prices for disabled adults and children too as well as concessions for OAPs.
Let’s compare that with arguably the best known zoo in the North, Chester Zoo:
- Chester Zoo charges £24 for adults on the gate and
- £20 for children on the gate with
- Under 2s free.
- Tickets in advance for an adult range for £16.36 (off peak dates) to £23.63
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Opening Times
The park is open from 10am to 6pm across the summer season.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Vouchers and Discounts
I’ve seen a lot of sites purport to offer vouchers for Yorkshire Wildlife Park, only to actually take you through to their booking page with no discount. Here’s what I do know:
- You get a £1 discount by booking online
- Follow Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Twitter. I’d imagine promotions like that would be featured there
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Reviews
Setting my own opinion aside for a moment, if we take a look at some of the big platforms, here’s how Yorkshire Wildlife Park is being rated:
- TripAdvisor – 5,375 ratings averaging 4.5/5
- Facebook – 10,401 ratings averaging 4.7/5
Our Own Review
There were 4 of us visiting the park – myself, my husband, our son and my Mother. We arrived at opening time and had already prebooked our tickets.
There were no queues, despite pleasant weather and the fact it was July, so we were in quickly.
The first thing we noticed is how wide the paths were – something that really does stand out for us with a buggy. It’s ideal for buggies and wheelchairs, but what it also meant is that as the park got busier during the day, it never felt crowded.
We were surprised by just how many animals there were and how huge the park itself actually is.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Animals
The animals include:
- Lions
- Tigers
- Leopards
- Lemurs
- Polar Bears
- Meerkats
- Otters
- Lemurs
- Baboons
- Wallabies
- Camels
- Giant Otters
There’s a huge bugs area too.
One thing I was really impressed with is the sheer size of the enclosures. These are huge spaces that are well designed based on the needs of the animals they house.
Food and Drink
I was also impressed with the range of food and drink offerings and moreso with the fact that prices were actually reasonable on food and drink across the park.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Play Areas
The other thing worth mentioning for those planning to go to Yorkshire Wildlife Park with toddlers or young children is play facilities.
There’s an indoor slides area, which is great. Our son was just 17 months at the time so we didn’t take him in. But now he’s just over 2, he’d love them! The Zoom Slide barn has 4 20ft slides.
Next to this is the indoor play area, Monkey House. This is an indoor soft play area with slides and climbing frames. And it runs beside one of the monkey enclosures, so you can see the monkeys through the glass windows. There’s a cafe in there too.
There are also 2 outdoor play areas. We only visited one – the Big Bugs Play Area. This had soft ground covering and lots of little climbing obstacles (bug themed) for the littler ones.
On the Whole
We had such a lovely day here. The park is big, so it’s worth taking a buggy even for confident walkers. Our son, even then, didn’t much like being in the buggy. But he was tired walking around so gave up in the end and got in!
It never felt too busy at all and we were able to see all the animals easily.
Most importantly, for a zoo, it certainly seems the welfare of the animals is at the forefront of what the park stands for. The enclosures are amongst the best I’ve seen.
On the whole, a superb value day out and, just in case this review doesn’t make it clear, we’d definitely love to go back.
We’ll be planning our summer days out soon and expect this will be on the list.
