Always an excellent day! Great variety of animals ...

Always an excellent day! Great variety of animals that all have spacious exhibits and seem very healthy and happy. There's lots of information to read and usually several keepers nearby who have always been happy to answer questions in my experience. The penguins are my favourite, but my partner loves the lion cubs and we visit regularly to see them grow! There's also bats, alligators, red pandas, lemurs, butterflies, lorikeets, sloths, scorpions, snakes, seals, flamingos, tapirs, tortoises, gorillas and much more in the aquarium and bug houses...We will arrive at nine in the morning and happily stay until the zoo closes. For families or parents, there's lots of play and picnic areas for kids, and an excellent exhibition where you get to "meet" the animals, even being allowed to touch a tarantula if you want as you get an in-depth class on several different species.

There's a cafe which is a bit expensive, but the food there is good. If you just want snacks, there are vending machines all around the zoo to have a light lunch. There are plenty of facilities, a large gift shop, and everything is very clearly signposted.

The zoo has breeding, research and conservation programmes in place which are very interesting to learn about. I've taken several friends to the zoo who all agree it's definitely a gem of Bristol.