Wow a lovely place for the family to go, is a grea...

Wow a lovely place for the family to go, is a great day out and the animals are well kept (as to the eye can see), and the grounds them selfs are very beautiful and inspiring.

I have been on a number of occasions and had a wonderful experience. However on this occasion due to the covid-19 restrictions we was lead to believe it would be a well orchestrated experience. First we had to book tickets on line after the required registration, and chose a time as for the park to be in control of how many visitors may be allowed to roam at any one time. Also no tickets are available onsite to buy.

But to the contrary, When we arrived we had been instructed / redirected to park our car elsewhere as the Artis car park was full (600 car capacity) Which was a little strange due to the required pre booking non-sense. Also no alternative was given and told to perhaps drive around to find a spot (This is in Amsterdam!) We did have luck all the same and a 5 min walk.

Once we arrived at the Zoo / Artis there was too long cues, partly expected but not as big as previous visits. Also on cue happed to be for non-pre booked tickets and for normal walk i n sales. Advertised as being NOT available. Only pre-bookings. So not apparently true. No need to pre book I would say.

Once in the zoo-artis it self, there was no real control of visitors keep any distance, even though there was signs stuck to the ground and the odd attendant talking to people. There was good control at ships and restaurants, Also some directional posts for one way traffic i. certain places, and hand cleaning stations around the zoo. Not that its my habitual behaviour, so is just a note for reference.

Ok all said the day as a whole was good, just a few unnecessary hiccups I did think the park was more busy than expected and advertised, also more so than our previous 2 visits in the past years. The car park has NEVER in our experience even been half full. So that was a shock due to the pre booking and the 18.07 it cost me to park elsewhere for 3 hours.

Thanks for reading!
dopeNL