A day out at Chester Zoo

I've always heard lots of good things about Chester Zoo but have never been, so when my OH's birthday came round we decided to have a few days away and to explore Chester Zoo as well as chester. We drove 2 hours from Leeds to Chester and arrived at the zoo around 11am, paying £20 per adult ticket. I know this sounds, and is, pretty pricey but trust me... it's SO worth it. I'm a big fan of zoos and have been to quite a few now, but this is probably one of my favourites... it's so good.

The zoo is huge, with loads of different sections with plenty of animals. The animals have plenty of space to roam and are in an environment suited to their needs, which meant I felt comfortable wandering around and looking at them. I do love going to zoo's and seeing animals, so long as they are well looked after, which these animals certainly are.

My favourites to see were the red pandas and bush dogs as they were so small and cute. Also the lion was prowling up and down really close to the fence - I've never been so close to one. His coat was thick and glossy and he looked in great condition, which was nice to see. My OH is obsessed with giraffes (he has been known to claim he has seen 10% of the worlds giraffes... yeah right!) and he was really happy to see loads of giraffes in a huge enclosure, including a couple of babies who were really cute and a little wobbly on their skinny legs.

We grabbed a quick late lunch from the zoo restaurant after a few hours looking at animals. We got two drinks and a large pizza for £14, which isn't overly cheap but not as expensive as I thought it would be. If you wanted to do it cheaper, you could take a picnic as there's loads of designated picnic areas dotted around the park.

After lunch (which was pretty tasty), we headed over to a section of the zoo called The Islands, which is designed to look like six South East Asian islands. There were loads of really cool props to make you feel like you were in the islands and there was a boat ride. I'd seen the boats going round a make-shift river and it looked fun, so we had a go. I'm not going to lie, it was slightly disappointing. You couldn't see any animals from the boat and there wasn't a whole lot to see, so it seemed like a really long ride with not much to do. That's the only part of the zoo I didn't enjoy and wouldn't really recommend.

Overall, we had a brilliant day out at Chester Zoo. Although it was quite a pricey day, it was so worth it. We spent about five hours there as there was so much to see and do, and there were loads of different, well looked after animals. If you're looking for something to do on a weekend or on a holiday then this is a great day out, whether you have children to entertain or not!

Have you been to Chester Zoo? What was your favourite part about it? Let me know in the comments below :) L xx