My mumsie (Aka Squidge’s Nanna) and I took Squidge on a day-trip to London Zoo.
Squidge is at such a great age for discovery right now.
Although she doesn’t understand what a Lemur or Penguins actually are, she still had a LOT of fun talking to the animals at the zoo!
Whenever we go on trips to places like this, I like to compare them to ones in other countries.
Personally, after our experience at London Zoo on this particular day, I would have to say that I preferred the Zoo in Vienna!
It was definitely a huge help having a toddler who has been trained not to grab everything in sight!
Travel
To get to the Zoo, there are a few options.
The water bus can be fun and goes straight into the Zoo, but at nearly £30 for each adult, we gave that a miss and chose to walk the lengthy walk from Camden Town underground to the Zoo.
It was actually a nice walk from the station to the Zoo because the weather was so beautiful.
I’m VERY glad I took Squidge’s cute lil sunglasses along because she wouldn’t keep her hat on at all!
What a cool lil lady 🙂
Annoyingly, once we got there, I had to spend about 10-minutes holding my phone up in the air to get enough reception to be able to load our pre-booked tickets.
As soon as that was done we were off with our Zoo map in hand.
TIP: Download tickets before-hand to save time on arrival.
Animals Animals Animals!!
I guess it’s a bit of a hit and miss as to what you will actually see on your visit to London Zoo, as there were no tigers visible in the tigers den.
Although we saw 3 lioness and 1 lion, they were all sleeping – or getting ready to sleep (apparently, Lions sleep for about 20 hours a day on average)!
At the end of the day, we managed to grab just enough time to see the Giraffe and stripy horses (Zebras).
My mum and Squidge both have a thing about Meerkats, so we knew that would be our first stop!
The monkeys were next – all eating and scratching their bottoms, of course.
When we got the the Gorillas, the Mummy (or Daddy?) Gorilla was asleep but we got to see the baby Gorilla.
Squidge kept calling the mummy/daddy? Gorilla “Teddy” (her fave word at the time. Everything is a Teddy apparently!).
The Camels were the most chilled out I’ve ever seen!
Terrace Restaurant
By 2.30pm it was time for a nappy change with our brilliantly-packed changing bag and time for some food.
The changing rooms inside the London Zoo Terrace restaurant were nice and clean, but (and I really do hate to say it), the actual restaurant itself was a horrible experience!
The food was basic and worse than School dinners!
I stood in one line for about 15-minutes to get Squidge’s food and when I got to the end of the line, I was told that I had actually been lining up for a different food stall!
There were no clear lines, just a clump of people, so I couldn’t even see which line was for which stall.
A “helpful” member of staff sent me to the “correct” line for Nanna’s food – just to tell me 5-minutes later that she was wrong and I needed to move yet again!
The place was a complete mess and I honestly felt like an animal in a Zoo!!
The only good thing about it was the awesome Carousel that was outside the restaurant!
Best Bits…
Who doesn’t love Penguins? We liked them so much that we went to see them twice!
The first time, we walked into the little cubby-hole to get a closer view of them under the water.
The second time, we caught them just at Penguin feeding time (about 4.30pm).
The Children’s Petting Area was amazing!
Squidge went right up to baby goats to pet them.
The other kids were a bit bigger than her so I had to be ready to move her every now and then in case they stepped on her little feet, but most were very sweet and mindful that she was there.
It is a shame that I can’t say the same thing about the adults though!
We had to leave the pram outside the Petting Area, so it was handy to have Nanna there to keep an eye on it while Squidge and I went in.
Squidge had loads of fun running around on the grassy open area.
She doesn’t get much of a chance to go exploring “on her own” (without holding my hand) in London, so taking her to green parks like this is great!
This was the first time that I ever let her go more than a few meters away from me (don’t worry, I didn’t let her go too far. I was on my toes the whole time).
It also gave me Nanna and me a chance to chill out for a bit!
Overall, we had an amazing day!
It is always lovely hanging out with my mum and my daughter at the same time.
Squidge and I had a ride on the (randomly placed) carousel.
She got the chance to pet baby goats and enjoyed the freedom to run around and the chance to see some new strange animals.
It is a very easy place to manoeuvre with a pram, and if you have older toddlers that might get tired after too much walking, the Zoo can provide rented prams (special zoo ones) for a price of about £30.
Other than the terrible Terrace Restaurant (my personal opinion), this Zoo is a fab place to take your kids (or your parents) on a fun day out in London.
