This review contains information based on my whole experience with Twycross Zoo between March 2025 & February 2026.
In March 2025, I brought 4 Adult Annual Passes and 2 Child Annual Passes.
Included with the pass are 5 free car parking tickets. What they fail to tell you is that the car parking is a scam.
Despite having the ANNUAL PASSES I have only visited the zoo 2 or 3 times. This has been due to lack of time but it didn’t bother me as the passes were mainly for my brother and his family,as he has 2 young children who go to school near the zoo. I thought it would be nice for them to visit after school with their friends.
Firstly, before you go, whether pass holder or not, you need to book your visit on the Twycross Zoo website. Date and time, you can’t just turn up.
Secondly, the car parking is not free or included with your ticket, you have to pay. As a pass holder you have to add car parking to your ticket even though you have 5 car park tickets included. I did this on each occasion I booked, and on my last visit with was to see the very disappointing Lanterns of the Wild event, I got sent A £40 CAR PARKING FINE.
When I emailed the zoo telling them it was a mistake as I had added the car parking to my ticket. I got told it was my fault as I had not visited customer services on the night of my visit. No where on the website does it state that this is a requirement, plus I had already registered my car with Customer Services on a previous visit.
I have paid the car parking ticket as the customer service through the zoo was disappointing. They would not accept that maybe there was an issue with the booking on the website. They did not apologise only that they were sorry I have had a disappointing experience, very patronising.
I had planned on renewing the passes this year and upgrading as I feel the zoo needed the support. Also booking some of the experiences. Now due to the lack of customer service I have changed my mind so I have saved over £1000.
On entry to the zoo from the main road there is a huge pothole, this nearly nobbled my car and the rest of our entourage’s carriages. There are also several others in the car park.
Once parked depending on what time you get there, is a 5 to 20 minute walk to the entrance. The entrance takes you into the visitor centre where there is a soft play, shop and cafe. So, it gets very crowded and claustrophobic, also noisy with the children on the soft play, but that is to be expected.
On our last visit to see the animals we hardly saw any animals. A lot of the enclosures were empty, a couple were damaged and in need of repair. Some were being renovated. Even enclosures that were supposed to have animals appeared empty. Meerkats and penguins were easy to watch, and entertaining.
In the children’s play area there were wasps everywhere. Several children were stung and none of the kiosks had anything to help, and no first aider or station nearby. This was in August but the bins were overflowing and the wasps were just everywhere. Not so bad in other areas of the zoo, but the bins should have bin emptied regularly. Especially as this was were the children were playing in the water.
I recommend taking your own food and drink. Most of the food options are pricey when you have a group.
The toilets around the zoo were also in a poor condition, the best ones were by the Gruffalo meeting area but still weren’t brilliant. Also, if you do want to buy something to eat, the cafe here was nice and the staff were friendly. They have a good meal deal here for children too and the sausage rolls were nice.
The gift shop as you leave has some nice things. Some of it is a little pricey and a lot is aimed at young children. You can leave from the entrance if you want to avoid the shop.
This is not a whole day visit about half a day. Despite a booking system the zoo gets very crowded. There is also not a lot of seating when it is busy or around the child play areas.
Our last visit was to see the LANTERNS OF THE WILD. We had a 5.15 pm slot. It was so crowded. We shuffled our way round as it was so busy. I have no issue with people taking photos usually but some of the paths were narrow and it just held you up as there was no room to get around them. As it had been raining and they had obviously had a lot of visitors some of the pathways were mud. Slippy, with deep grooves, some huge puddles, but a lot of mud. Recommend wearing a good pair of boots or wellies.
I don’t know if it was because we went at the end of January and it had been on since November I think, but some of the lanterns were damaged, as they are only paper. I couple I think were animatronics but were hardly moving. Where there was a grotto or something for Christmas along the routes, these had been taken away, and were just dark voids. Nothing to replace what was there.
The exit was a nightmare. Just crowds blocking the way.
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