Blackpool Zoo - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)
Blackpool Zoo
Blackpool Zoo
4.5
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 4:45 PM
About
Blackpool Zoo is a family friendly attraction, providing fun and education for all ages. Situated only 2 miles inland the Promenade, the park is easily accessible from the M55 motorway. Over 1000 animals, birds and reptiles reside in a scenic 32 acre park amidst mature trees, lakes and spacious lawns where the kids can burn off their excess energy. All your favourites are here including big cats, elephants, giraffes, sealions, gorillas, orangutans, camels, zebras and many, many more. Opened in 2014, the new Orangutan Outlook allows visitors to get up close and personal with these charismatic apes. Open daily (except Christmas Day) from 10 am, the park's closing times vary seasonally.
Duration: More than 3 hours
Meets animal welfare guidelines
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  • Ashleigh C
    3 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great day out
    Went here for a family trip this week and it was wonderful! Weather was great and all of the animals appeared very well looked after. Staff all very nice and the sea lion show was a hit with the kids. Food isn’t great for the prices charged but feel free to bring a picnic!
    Visited April 2023
    Written April 28, 2023
  • Jillian D
    1 contribution
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    lLovely Zoo
    What a lovely day out. managed to see all the animals. We were greeted by the male peacock as we walked in, he was trying his best to impress the females but to no avail. Everywhere is spot less and there seemed to be a lot less seagulls than last time! The male gorilla never fails to impress. The only downside was the rats in the winged world area feeding out of the bird feeders. Hope they leave the birds alone.
    Visited May 2023
    Written May 13, 2023
  • Gill Murphy
    Sowerby Bridge, United Kingdom599 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Fabulous day out
    Fabulous day out. This was my first visit to Blackpool Zoo. I loved it. Plenty of animals to see and all looked very well cared for. Unfortunately the bid cat enclosure was closed for renovations, but I will return once the renovations are completed. Highly recommended
    Visited May 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written May 14, 2023
  • sje1983
    North Wales, United Kingdom14 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great zoo
    First time visiting this zoo and loved it! Got a taxi right up to the entrance and arrived just after 10am so no queue to get in. Nice size zoo it took us about 5 hours to go all around (we took our time) and that is with eating dinner there too. The zoo is generally clean and accessible as majority of it is on the flat and lots of seats around if you need a break. It was nice to see the new lion enclosure, plenty of demonstrations to see and there were only a couple of animals we didn’t get to see as they were sleeping/hiding. Ate in the main cafe loved the fries but not so keen on the burger (might just be our taste buds) the meal deals are approximately £10 each but there were other options available on the menu and there is also a subway. Also had an ice cream before we left highly recommend ice cream cookie sandwich with a choice of ice creams. I highly recommend visiting.
    Visited May 2023
    Written May 29, 2023
  • talktome
    Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom115 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Would return.
    We recently visited as a family of 5. The sealion demonstration was fantastic, and their pool was lovely, as was the big cat enclosure. Others such as the otter enclosure, or the elephants just seemed filthy and too small for them, the smell of the otter water was unbearable to be around and looked like it needed a good clean. It was extremely busy when we visited, but still space to move around and see everything. Could definitely do with more parking ticket machines, as the queues were huge!
    Visited May 2023
    Written May 30, 2023
  • David R
    Huddersfield, United Kingdom268 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great experience
    We were delighted with out overall experience at Blackpool Zoo during our recent visit with two of our grandchildren. Having booked tickets online prior to our visit we were expecting long queues given our early arrival was already into the overflow car park! But we were wrong and able to enter straight away. All the animals were clearly well attended to and the new wild cat enclosure was very pleasing. In our four hour stay we were able to navigate the entire zoo.
    Visited May 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written June 1, 2023
  • Juzzels
    Liverpool, United Kingdom50 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Lovely day
    Had a great day here again, it’s got better than the last few times we’ve gone too. Really friendly staff helpful too. Sadly not all the food and drink vendors were open but it was mid week so I get it
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written June 17, 2023
  • David F
    1,976 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A very enjoyable and educational attraction for all ages
    Plenty of animals and birds to see here even if some are a little hard to spot! There are regular talks through the day about different animals and there is even a sea lion show. Highlights include the orangutans, gorillas, elephants, camels, lemurs, flamingos, giraffes the aviary and wallabys. Plenty of furry monkeys too and for the kids a dinosaur park. You need several hours to fully enjoy the whole site. It IS walkable from the town centre in about half an hour - through Stanley Park - but there is a bus that goes right to the entrance.
    Visited May 2023
    Traveled solo
    Written July 1, 2023
  • davidA5642VT
    Bolton, United Kingdom4 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Birthday treat
    Visited on the 9th July as a birthday treat for my mum. The new enclosures for the tigers and lions was very nice managed to see 3 female lionesses and the male lion but didn't see the tigers. The cheese burger was warm. Was nice that you now have your photo before you go inside on the green screen but was disappointed that wasn't informed of the prices of the different packages. Overall was very enjoyable.
    Visited July 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written July 10, 2023
  • Jade
    14 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Fun Family Outing
    We visited the zoo as a family of 5 and had a lovely time! The zoo is spaced out and well signposted so is easy to navigate. The cafe had a nice choice of food and plenty of tables. I thought the prices were quite reasonable too. Be mindful of the peacocks outside the cafe, they're quite confident and pinched my son's biscuit! The new addition of the lion enclosure is great and we managed to spot a couple, much to the delight of our children. There were plenty of informative talks going on throughout the day, we went to sea lion talk and the elephant one which were great! We did go on the dinosaur trail which was nice albeit a little tired. I think in its hay day this area would have looked amazing. The figures are now in need of a little paint and the trees and greenery cutting back a little to see the figures properly. Although I think this is more a thing adult's notice my dino mad boys didn't seem to mind! For us, a gift shop purchase at the end of the day is a must. We were pleasantly surprised to notice the prices were very reasonable and the choice plentiful. Overall, we had a lovely day at Blackpool Zoo and would definitely return.
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written July 11, 2023
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles6,834 reviews
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4,289
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Average
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SA82
Stoke-on-Trent, UK185 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2020 • Family
We had pre booked tickets and paid using Tesco Club card vouchers, we had stayed in Blackpool the day before and we planned to visit the zoo before we came home. The torrential rain very nearly put us off bothering at all but decided to give it a go even if we weren’t there long. On arrival we were only about the 4th car on the car park hence the weather so wasn’t expecting it to be busy. Before we went in we were able to purchase rain ponchos so that was helpful. So glad we went now and didn’t come straight home. Staff are doing a great job, good social distancing and hygiene measures in place. The animals were fab, saw them all. Got some brilliant pictures. All the animals were visible either outside or inside where you could walk through and view through the windows, markers on the floor so there were only so many people looking at one time then when they moved on the next group could go through. We had pre booked a meal voucher so went for that when the food started to be served at 11.30, staff are cleaning tables as soon as people move so there is mostly always a table free, glad we had food early as when we had finished there had formed quite a queue to get in. We were there for 3 hours obviously would of stayed longer if it had been nice weather but we had an enjoyable time and saw everything we wanted to see. Lovely place and will visit again.
Written July 27, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

jennyrob669
widnes230 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Family
First of all let me say I've been to Blackpool Zoo a few times and always loved it.

I visited yesterday with my family and it was chaos.

You have to book online, but the zoo seem to have allowed too many people to book at once. The car park was full at 12pm and it's pay and display (£3 and you need change, can't use card or your phone to pay.)

There were queues for 70% of the exhibits, we missed about a third of the animals because the queues were too long to stand in. There are staff posted at points reminding people to wear their masks indoors (this includes toilets). The staff were spraying down benches and picnic tables between people sitting there.

The kids playground was insane, so many children.

It was disorganized and far too crowded the whole time we were there. We usually spend a good few hours at the zoo, but just after an hour we were done. Considering how much entry is, it was really disappointing.

Also why are there smoking stations?! Just ban smoking outright in the zoo. I lost count of the amount if times we had to walk through a cloud of smoke even though people were using the designated smoking areas. You have to walk past them to get to other parts of the zoo!

Probably won't visit again until next summer now.
Written August 15, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Christine L
Oldham, UK216 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
Visited again today as our 6 year old Grandson said he wanted a day at the zoo. It was a bright but bitterly cold day and the zoo was busy. We booked online and remembered to take £2.50 for parking. The zoo itself is great, well looked after animals and nice and compact to get round but the catering certainly needs sorting out. The coffee shop at the entrance was closed as was every other around the zoo, the only one open and that was only half open was the Lakeside Cafe. The queues were long and a table if you could get one was left full of the previous occupants dirty pots and food. Whilst my Husband queued up I cleared pots and cleaned the table, luckily I had wet wipes in my bag. My Husband and I had jacket potato with cheese and beans my Grandson had sausage, chips and beans, the food was stone cold making it inedible. Surely on a busy Saturday whoever manages this cafe should have both sides open and hot food available, also staff working who can clear and clean tables. I don’t mind paying if the food is edible but it’s annoying once you are in the zoo and relying on this cafe to eat lunch when they can’t provide a hot meal. That said we enjoyed our day but come on Blackpool Zoo sort the catering out!
Written February 8, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Michael K
Liverpool, UK1,144 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020
What you need to know; We booked online which gives a small saving in advance in light of current events. You get an email confirmation and e-ticket.

I drove and it is well sign posted. There is sufficient parking which I imagine would be full on a weekend or sunny days as I've read. Take £3 in coins for their pay and display car park (for the whole day) - very good value and it benefits the animals or if you haven't got change then there is guest services where you can pay.

There are numerous staff members and sanitising points right throughout the zoo, which was good to see. It's a spacious zoo with good access walkways throughout for all abilities. As with any place they are adapting like us all to the guidelines so everyone must take responsibilty for themselves to keep safe distance but in the main no issues.

No shows on at present and it's luck of the draw on which animals you'll see because of weather and how busy it is! Fortunately we took our time inbetween
the occasional shower and managed to see most. Certain areas are cordoned off to reduce the likelihood of visitors being too close in enclosed spaces.

It's a shame that some of indoor bird zones walk-through areas, animal demonstrations, and mini train aren't currently able to proceed but ultimately this is
with guests safety in mind. But that doesn't reflect in the price of their tickets! Having previously reviewed this zoo sometime ago they hasn't been many big changes other than the elephants relocating. Some areas still look tired and dated.

Despite this there are still some great attractions. The introduction podcast commentaries, and the base camp for the new elephant zone is coming on. The giraffes, orangutans, mountain gorillas, big cats and more will still keep you busy

It's a nice zoo and we made the most of our day despite rainy moments. It'll be a while but we will return in the future
Written August 22, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Danielle R
Greater Manchester, UK67 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Family
I honestly don’t know why they have got such bad reviews off people who visited during covid.
The zoo have made plenty of changes, one way systems in places, face masks worn in all indoor spaces, plenty of hand sanitiser stations around, queuing system to get to the very busy animals like gorillas etc. Queues to enter cafe and only one way in and one way out, all tables and chairs sanitised after each use.
In all honesty if you’re still moaning after all this is being done it’s probably best you stay home for now.
We visited today for our sons birthday and had a fantastic day. We actually enjoyed the changes made as it meant less shoving and pushing from people to see the animals etc.
We’re all adults and it is our duty to socially distance ourselves, however it is quite impossible to always socially distance in a busy place like a zoo so it’s more about common sense. We didn’t have a problem at all throughout the day.
Queue moved quickly for food, however I do feel it would be easier to have two separate queues. One for hot food, one for cold food. We only wanted sandwiches and had to queue for about 15 minutes, which when you have a toddler can become rather difficult. And when we got inside the cafe queue it became apparent it was probably taking so long as most people ordered hot food. It wasn’t until leaving the cafe we noticed a little bit serving ice cream which had the odd sandwich so we could of probably been in and out in a few minutes had we known that was there.
We did only buy food as we knew it would be 50% off with the eat out scheme, what we had was nice but I do feel had we paid full price it would of been way overpriced.
Kids playground was really busy which we had no issue with. Seen others moan about this but it is quite difficult to make children distance themselves. All they want to do is play.
My only other niggle is the fact the baby change has no toilet in it, so I went in the ladies toilet and the baby change unit isn’t even in it’s own cubicle, it’s right next to the sink which to be honest I really didn’t like. I had to change my little boy as he’d fell in a puddle and he was stood up on the changing unit with no clothes on with people just stood staring whilst waiting for sinks.
Overall we will definitely visit again! Glad we went.
We went to Chester zoo back in July and
Blackpool zoo was a much more pleasurable experience for us!
Written August 17, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Keeley W
31 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Family
We left halfway through, we were that fed up. We assumed that you were getting everyone to book so that it didnt get overcrowded, what with all the social distancing and covid regulations. However after our visit, we cannot see the point because you let way too many people in anyway! We didnt feel at all safe because it was impossible to keep even half a metre apart with the amount of people in. We didnt want to queue to see certain animals (the giraffes and penguins had the longest queues) because it was a really hot day and the queue wasnt socially distanced either. Yes, you could say that people are in control of themselves and they could distance themselves, however, if there is no space to do this, then no they cant. With the heat, and the amount of people, we couldnt stand it anymore so we took our daughter and left. Luckily she is only 1 and saw lots of animals anyway so wasnt disappointed but it certainly wasnt worth nearly £40. If you can't maintain social distancing, you shouldn't have opened. Maybe you normally do follow procedures and maybe we went on a bad day, however you should be maintaining low crowds and not allowing so many to book every single day. Makes me think you dont care about the people but solely the money. If you put donation buckets around to give money to support the animals and maintenance of the zoo, the guests would probably donate so that you made up the money that you would lose in sales. At least the guests would feel safe and you wouldn't lose too much money. But it is purely about the money isn't it.
Written August 16, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

wishingwellappeal
Chorley, UK227 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2021 • Family
With a 2 year old who is dinosaur mad, we visit the zoo once or twice a month, sometimes more.

The zoo is fairly small so it is easy to get around. There are plenty of animals to see plus the dinosaur area, play area and cafe.

Parking is easy and as a member we get a discount of the food. The soft scoop ice cream tripe chocolate is lovely.

We spend an hour on a quick visit and about three hours on a longer day. We often take a picnic and ball and enjoy sitting on the big grass lawn by the orangutans.

Would definitely recommend membership but for far away visitors the zoo is good value for money.
Written August 8, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Nick smithlangold
Langold, UK115 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
my wife and I decided on the spur of the moment to spend a weekend in Blackpool. and have a day at the zoo. it was , as I said January it was very wet and windy we got there at just after opening time ( the cashier said we were the second people in ) so there were no mad crowds to fight against. we got not bad views of most of the animals the cafe was "bloody expensive" at £9:50 for two cups of coffee and two biscuits. we missed most of the keeper talks apart from the penguins just through bad timing on our part it rained the whole way round but we still enjoyed it
Written February 17, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Amanda Myatt
Lancaster, UK87 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Family
Great little gem in Blackpool. Easy access via public transport, which was great as none if us drive. Due to covid things were clearly going to be a lot different to normal but the staff had worked so hard to implement measures to keep visitor safe with plenty of social distancing measures & hand sanitiser around the zoo. The animals looked happy & well cared for & there was ample variety. Admittedly it was rather busy & a hot day so there was queuing for food but even that was well organised for social distancing. There was a great variety of animals & it was great to see them in enclosures designed to represent their natural habitats. I would recommend that you don't try to squeeze the zoo into a couple of hours as to get the whole experience you ideally need to spend a full day there. There was also plenty of rest points for when my feet gave in due to the vast size of the park. Although not all aspects were running/open it was still a fantastic day out. The gift shop was our final stop which had an ample amount of souvenirs to buy- my daughter would have happily maxed out my bank account in there. Highly recommended.
Written August 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Lozza1971
Morecambe, UK310 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2021 • Family
We booked our tickets online 2 days before we visited the zoo.We took our 19 month old grandson who has never been to a zoo yet and he loved it!!!!!The park wasn't overly busy as it was during the week.There is social distancing measures in place.You have to wear face coverings in the indoor areas.The zoo is great,there's some beautiful animals and they all seem very well cared for by the keepers.We ate at one of the cafes but watch if you are eating outside as there's a lot of geese,seagulls and peacocks wandering around.Prices arn't too bad only what you would expect at any attraction.We had a fabulous 5 hours there with lots to see.We would definitely recommend this place for families with children of all ages.
Written June 13, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Blackpool Zoo - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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