Twycross Zoo

Absolute shocking customer service Have been chasing my return annual passes by email ,, keep getting the same AI response by computer I presume asking the same pre written Demelza ?.. not a user friendly booking system and no way of communicating with Twycross 🤷🏼‍♀️😱 emailed asking for a phone call back no reply , just ignored .

Very disappointed. Very gimmicky. The zoo focuses on kids - and has a lot of (censored) playground style things. From fake animals to fake landscapes and children's playground furniture across the zoo's grounds. Also, staff dressed in fancy dress Halloween costumes etc. Twycross zoo is like an unfun fair. Tacky. I also felt that I was not welcome there. I found, to my surprise, that I was not at a zoo, but at a large children's playground, instead. What are you doing here? You're not a child or with a child, was a palpable feeling that I got from staff and a couple of different adults with their children.The animal displays' lighting conditions to take photographs with film was lacking. A lot of the windows looking into the enclosures were misted up or just plain dirty. Fences blocking views. The animals were often far away or difficult to see. I compared it to Colchester Zoo, in my mind, where I went a number of years ago. What a difference. I suppose Twycross is more interested in money and, thusly, are aiming at families for it, rather than catering for middle-aged adults like me, who would actually like to see the zoo's animals and plants. The Meerkats and the humbolt penguins were an exception. Hence a two and not a one star review. These amazing creatures I did get some great views of, videos and photographs of, too. Won't visit Twycross again. I'd rather drive to Colchester Zoo or another Zoo, than go to Twycross again.

Very friendly staff, each one of you made the trip a happy day, along with the sunny day but apart from that, lots of visitors, lots of space to keep walking around in circles but lack of animals to view. If there was a glimpse of an animal, lots of visitors would dash and crowd that area because overall, it was boring. It's ok if you are able to use the annual return pass but if not, it works out expensive. I can see most reviews are on the £3 parking charge too, this is pure greed. Couldn't get on my mobile data to work, lack of reception and couldn't connect to their wifi to pay via via QR code and pay machines not working in the lobby. The toilets are well overdue to be cleaned, extremely stinky and no loo roll, the improvement could start here at least.

Cost us over £150 to gain entry, had to pay another £3 each car to park. It was more like a farm than a zoo there were no elephants tigers leopards lions very very disappointing, will not be going back even with the free pass we got, then to top it all off we had to pay £8 per child to go in the soft play area