Zoological Society of London Reviews

I spent over £140 on a day out at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo and yet again not all animals were present, it’s a hit and miss experience. There were no monkeys, lions or bears on this visit!

As this has happened on multiple occasions, I finally complained via email and received the following excuses from an employee called Ben in their Support Contact team;

- The animals enjoy indoor and outdoor sleeps
- They cannot guarantee where or when their animals are likely to be during the day
- We should have returned at a later time

I would suggest having some signage if the animals are not at a visitors view point to reduce disappointment.

Their website should also advise what animals are not present before purchasing tickets and planning a day out!

Signed up for a 1 year membership. Noticed they were about to take £200 for another year and Tried to cancel my zsl membership by calling their helpline. Very unhelpful person on the phone saying she couldn’t help cancel it and I must have had an email warning them and they could have helped if I called 2 weeks ago. She told me no manager working who could help either and to try calling my bank and cancel myself. Annoying as it’s meant to be a company doing good for animals but has annoyed me, so I wouldn’t want to contribute with them again. Hopefully my bank have stopped the payment in time otherwise I have to go through a dispute payment.

What a waste of time. Wish I’d read these reviews before going. Saw very few animals, most of those we did see were totally inanimate. Paid £103.50 for 2 pensioners, 1 adult and a 3 year old child. Should have saved my money!!!!

Most boring day out!
Nothing to do there for the kids( and adults), most animals are nowhere to be seen, a lot of walking involved…
Overall, I would definitely NOT recommend it.
Waste of money.

Booked an 'all-year round flexible ticket' to be able to visit any day for the next 12 months (as advertised). We have a small child and not having to pre-plan is quite handy. On the day we wanted to visit we were told that even flexi-tickets need to be booked in advance, because of covid restrictions. Restrictions are understandable, but why keep selling more expensive, but useless flexi-tickets?? That's understandable too-to make money. ZSL refused to refund. Terrible customer experience without even visiting. Well done

I have recently visited London zoo ,it was my grandsons 2nd birthday and I decided to go along last minute was aware you had to book online but also thought I would be able to buy a ticket on the gate ,when we arrived at 1pm ,which only leaves 3 hours in the zoo as you have to book time slots in November off peak season couldn't understand this ,they let me buy a ticket after some offish staff on the gate had to have exact money as couldn't give me change .
£28 for 3 hours horrendous price ,children enjoyed animals ,staff inside very helpful, I then went to buy a hot drink ,what a surprise no cash again only card ,we then saw a carrousel £3 extra for this !
We're then hussled out the zoo dead on 4pm ,didn't even get a chance to buy the photo as closed .
Won't be visiting again for a long time obsurdly priced .

My foot was caught under loose anti slip strips in the giraffe section, whilst I was holding a toddler, I went flying and both myself and toddler hit floor badly. The incident was awful and should not have happened, the park is clearly not maintained as many of the strips were only held in place with one remaining screw (despite each strip have multiple screws), clearly it hadn’t been checked for ages.
Contacted zoo and waited two weeks for a reply, no compensation was offered such as new jeans which were ruined or refund on our park tickets. Can never get hold of them.

There are many hazards around this park, such as a log missing on the railing of the cafe, means small children can slip through and would have a dangerous fall, uneven roads, cars driving through the park where people and kids are walking, no adequate sidewalks for pedestrians or for buggy’s and wheelchairs, so people forced to walk in the road with cars.

This place really needs to review its healthy safety measures as it’s an accident waiting to happen... and has already happened but they don’t seem to care.

We bought a season ticket for zsl because we live near london zoo. Well what an absolute waste of half the money that was.
London zoo has got to be the worst zoo I've ever been too. It's over crowded with cages but no animals, every corner they are trying to sell you something and quite frankly it's a pathetic excuse for a zoo. They have a massive cage for a few exotic birds but then a tiny cage for gorillas, the saddest part is that I used to visit as a child and it hasnt changed in over 20 years.
The reason I say it was only a waste of half the money is because whipsnade is much better. Plenty space to run around plenty animals to see. The animals actually seem to have loads of space and arent cooped up in tiny cages like london zoo. Staff are friendly.
Oh and they dont have a million carts dotted round the zoo to sell you something.
So i guess we will be making the most of our season ticket but only at whipsnade. I wouldn't even pay for parking at london zoo it's the biggest waste of money.

Went to Whipsnade Zoo yesterday very disappointed. We went as a group of 6 adults and 3 children, cannot believe how many people they let in and I agree that there are too many cars allowed in. A lot of the animals were missing are they on furlough lol ???

Not sure where to start, the pricing is a bit over the top to be fair but most would pay for thier child's excitement but It's totally impossible to social distance during these times as I feel they are letting too many people in which means unless you're happy being on top of 20-30 people all the time you should kot go. there seems to be no one way system or adherence to it either, would love to know how many people actually pick up covid here...the souvenir shop is a rip off too, but actually saw more animals (teddy bears) than we did in the actual zoo so that's a plus. Won't be back

whipsnade zoo : Cars everywhere inside the zoo , not safe for kids.

Family day out at London Zoo on 23rd May 2021. We were there for five hours and didn’t see a Tiger, Lion or Gorilla!!! Two tiny fish in a massive aquarium!!!
Travelled from Harrogate to take the grandchildren as we had not seen them due to Covid 19.
Entry cost £121.12 plus £14.5O car park free.
Terrible time…????

Been there today and very disappointed. Our favorite playground is closed for everyone apart from GOLD MEMBERS. absolutely ridiculous, seems like gold members can't have covid and are fine with playing next to each other. Many places are still closed and zoo is not ready to be open yet,so don't waste your time and money.

Shameful and a rip off, how they’ve been allowed to get away with this all under the umbrella excuse of Covid, needs investigating.

£60 to see a cow a deer and a pig, apparently the supporter contact coordinator? emailed me when I complained told me that it was all on the website, I’m still looking. I understand certain thing could be restricted, but ‘everything’ come on?

It was empty, everything closed but yet they still felt that the £60 was worth it.

Support more honourable Zoos as these clowns believe it’s lawful and acceptable to display nothing and not provide a refund or a complimentary visit, when they’re actually fully up and running. I know of no other place where this would be accepted.

They have separate pools for member tickets. During lockdown it was like you can't get free tickets for next 1-2 weeks, but you can pay for a full ticket.
So you already paid for a maximal membership, but you can't use it. Very disappointing. In my case I spent more money for membership than I could have spent for tickets, and I wasn't able to use it - so it was better to pay full price than buy membership.