We went to Paradise Wildlife Park for a return visit for the first time this year. As always it is great for younger children as small and compact and little legs don't have too far to walk. Plus there is a big play area and a splash pool. They are always making improvements to the place and reinvesting. My only down point would be the price of the food but they are very happy for people to bring their own picnics. At over £40 for one adult and 2 kids it is not a cheap day out ( especially as you then pay extra for train rides and go-charts etc.) so make the most of it and go for the whole day.
I love the big cats so will be back next year. Also a good place for school trips!

Very good day out, lots to do lots to see. Friendly staff. Happy, healthy animals. Lots for kids to do including soft play will definitely be back soon

First off, let's try and make something very clear. The care of animals and the conservation of species is the reason that places such as this exist. It's not there so you can go ooh and aah at the big cats for free. It costs thousands of pounds a day to keep such a place as this open, whether 1 person turns up or 5000, whether it's sunny or rainy, whether you stay for an hour or all day.

Sadly, most of the thousands go to the government. Because of this, I don't begrudge a single penny of the admission charges I pay for the privilege of being allowed to get safely close to animals I would never otherwise have a chance to see.

Secondly, anyone who ever experienced the old (and deservedly maligned) Broxbourne Zoo must surely remember the awful, cramped conditions the poorly kept animals were housed in. Those who have been or are planning to go to Paradise... take a look at the coati mundi enclosure: that's where they used to keep one of the big cats! Paradise has changed itself beyond all recognition from that abysmal place.

Right. Rant over.

I've visited Parade quite a few times over the past couple of years: mostly with my wife, sometimes with my teenage sons and a couple of times with close friends. It never ceases to prove itself to be a great day out.

I've also been lucky to have been given as presents some of the "Experience Days", such as the Tea With Tigers (a guided tour of the big cats followed by a very tasty tea in the Tiger Treetops café) and the Photography Experience (expert tuition followed by "up close and personal" visits to some of the enclosures). I loved getting among the lemurs!

I've never visited with young children but those I have seen seem to be enjoying themselves. Apart from the obvious attraction of the animals, there are the usual playground facilities, a paddling pool, face painting and a stage area which has entertainment shows.

To put it simply, you'll get out of the day whatever you're prepared to put into it. I'm always there with my camera in the hope of getting that fantastic shot that makes everyone say, "Wow!". On our recent visit we saw one immaculately dressed young lady making faces and looking for some way of washing because a goat had licked her hand.

We walked among lorikeets who spent ages chewing on my ears or biting my necklace and depositing messy little packages all over my hair and clothes. We then heard someone complaining about the smell coming from one of the cat areas. Er... these cats are territorial and mark their boundaries with urine. What did you expect?

My point is, don't expect all areas to have been vaxed and bleached. These animals are in as natural an environment as possible, which is how they should be if they're in captivity.

So, Paradise Wildlife Park is, in my opinion, a great place to visit. The animals are well looked after and the staff obviously love caring for them. It's worth going back at different times of the year to see the differences seasons can make, especially to the grounds.

Finally, if the cost is a little too steep for you, it's well worth checking our their Facebook page as they'll often have a code for £10 off if you spend more than £25. Just remember that practically every penny goes to the welfare of the animals and to their supremely important conservation work.

And yes, I've already got my tickets for the next visit in a month's time.

Paradise Wildlife Park is just fabulous, there are a wide range of animals which all look healthy, well looked after and happy in their surroundings which for me is a must! I loved seeing four of the five species of big cat and look forward to returning in October to see the new jaguar! I was blown away at how close I could get to take a photo of one of the beautiful white tigers, which appeared to be posing for the camera! the white lions are a gorgeous little family and my nephew whom I took for his 3rd birthday was very happy to see them on their new 'bed' as he says, since he witnessed Moto destroying the other one a year ago at our last visit! my favourites are the meerkats, I love that you have the clearest view of them and I can watch them for hours, they are all cute little characters, in fact my nephew felt I was spending too long there and dragged me away! the site itself is very clean, and has good amenities. There is so much to do and see for the little ones (and the big ones) and it is obvious that they are making improvements all the time, as I say I can't wait to return in October to see not only the jaguar but the new wolf enclosure/walk. my nephew loves it there and has very strong memories from his visit when he was 2 and again now from our most recent visit, he talks most about Moto the lion and Bobby the parrot, who always says 'hello', love him, such a character! no two visits are the same as there is always something new to do or discover, it is an amazing day out. I particularly like the minibus service from the train station since I can't drive, it makes it hassle free getting there, although I preferred it when it was a complimentary service (who wouldn't) but £1 each way per person is a reasonable charge and as I said it does make things easier! would recommend this as a perfect day out for anyone who loves animals - five stars! can't wait to visit again very soon! (Sam Reed xxx)

I visit Paradise Wildlife Park frequently with my son as I have a season ticket (great value!!). The animals seems to be very well cared for and the keepers are always friendly. I recently fed the ring tailed lemurs as my birthday present from my husband and would highly recommend it! A great place to spend some time all in all.

What a fantastic day out for 2 adults 4 children between 7 & 10 years. So much to see and do. We visited 26th August 2013 although it was Bank Holiday it was not too crowded. We arrived @ 10 and left @ 6. Everyone had a good time. Clean, friendly and helpful staff. This place is such value for money would definatly visit again. You won't be dissapointed. All animals looked happy in their environment and well taken care of. A******

Paradise Wildlife Park has an extensive collection of animals, particularly big cats - leopards, snow leopards, tigers, white tigers, white lions, ocelots, etc. The park is very much geared up for children and family days out, with lots of plastic animals, bright plastic signs, play houses, rides for kids, etc, and I must admit that my heart sank a little as we drove in as it all looked a bit tacky, but the zoo itself is very good and definitely exceeded our expectations.

The place itself is a little reminiscent of London Zoo - a lot crammed into a small space, and some of the enclosures are quite small and difficult to see into, but overall we were impressed with the selection of animals, the effort that had been put into providing viewing platforms and making the animals as accessible as possible.

I particularly liked the woodland walk, which was very peaceful after the noise of hundreds of children in the zoo itself.

One comment is around accessibility - the park has made an effort to be accessible to people in wheelchairs, but while very good is not perfect. The ramp where the gibbons are is a good example - the narrow ramp goes along the side of the enclosure to allow people to see the animals, and I went up it on a mobility scooter. However, at the other end is a flight of stairs, which meant that I had to reverse through a crowd of people to get back off the ramp - which raises the question, why have stairs at all? Accessibility really needs to be tested by people who are genuinely disabled, not someone who "thinks" this is what disabled people need.
Other examples were narrow bridges on the walkways, which were difficult to manoeuvre onto on a large scooter.

Overall, our impression was very favourable and we would probably go back again.

I've been to Paradise Park many times over the years, firstly with my children and latterly with my grandchildren. As with all such attractions it's quite expensive to get in but we managed to get discount vouchers online. It's a charming little zoo where you can get up close and personal to many of the animals. The catering facilities are good and there are many play areas, including a paddling pool area and indoor soft play area. We've always had a really good time there and I'm sure we will be going back yet again.

Lovely widlife place, exciting for children of all ages.
Took our son for his 1st birthday and our daughter of 8.
Staff helped my child well after she had a injury.
Would recommend this park to everyone with their many different facilities and we look forward to going back soon. :-)

Spent a full day at the park with my family. It was a day to remember.The white lions were brilliant and the little cub was adorable so lucky to see such beautiful cats. Loads to do for the kids who didnt know were to run to first. So lucky to have this attraction on my door step.

The first thing that struck me about the park is the lovely and very knowledgeable keepers who are very happy to talk for ages out the animals. Their love for the animals come across as very genuine. Its very sad that many so called animal lovers who give bad reviews on here obviously know very little about the animals they are talking about.
Despite the park being packed there was hardly any queues for food which while not cheap, the prices were no more expensive than most places and the burger and chips was very filling.
Feeding the lorikeets is a very funny but painful experience and one even managed to untie the knot of a knecklace.

A fantastic day out for anyone interested in Big Cats (or small ones!) the staff were really friendly and the guide that talked to the group about the Big cats was funny and showed a genuine love of these animals. The afternoon tea was yummy, freshly made sandwiches, scones and cake and plenty of tea, coffee and juice - there was plenty laid out for the group and we all went up for 2nds. And to top it of the treetop cafe overlooks the tiger enclosure which was excellent. I'd brought this as gift for my partner's birthday and he loved it.

The zoo itself may not be the biggest and the variety of animals may not be that of some other zoos, but seeing how much the zoo has altered over the last 30 odd years you can't deny that the keepers are working hard to preserve and educate people on such wonderful animals. They also have a sister ite in Kent working towards the preservation of big cats.

If you visit try to watch the lions at their feeding time - we got there earlier to get a good spot as it did get busy - but totally worth sticking around for.

Also if you travel by train to Broxbourne station there is a shuttle bus every half hour that only costs £1 to take you to the zoo.

I treated my boyfriend to a meerkat experience here. The keeper ensured that I had the best spot for taking pictures and video. He was very informative during the experience and my boyfriend enjoyed every minute, giving me lots of lovely pics of him smiling.
Afterwards we went around looking at the animals, all looked very well looked after.
We throughly enjoyed the show they put on with the birds. Cheeky the parrot lived up to his name lol.
A very enjoyable day out and we hope to return one day.

Took my 80yr old nan who is wheelchair bound and two 6yr old cousins. I will start off with negatives as I like to end on a good note.
Accessibility:
Park is not very accessible. You can get round most of it with a wheelchair or buggy but there are areas that really need looking at:
-the barked area around the children's play area near the beginning of the park had raised ledges so impractical for disabled people or hefty buggies.
- lots of viewing areas up high and only one ramp to access these which is right at the end of the park.
- lots of pavement edges that are uneven
- no picnic tables suitable to park a wheelchair at
- one ramp we went down near the bird area was so steep we had to remove the feet pads on wheelchair to get down it
- not that we used it, but the inappropriately named 'special place' disabled children's playground left a lot to be desired, needs a good revamp and brightening up
- some paved areas e.g. Around bird area were very narrow for wheelchair access
- other areas e.g. Around pond/duck area were very uneven and slopping nearly resulting in nan ending up in the drink!
- land train was totally inaccessible to disabled

Extras:
- lots of hidden extras, go karts, driving game, water game, land train and other things all £1 each, I feel for the £17 pp some of these things should be free.
- the restaurants weren't all that, same food in all of them pretty much and very expensive and not a lot of variety

Other stuff:
- didn't feel it was very well signposted in the park, we got lost several times! Maybe signs need to be a bit bigger!
- after reading other peoples reviews on their concerns with animals being in small enclosures etc, and reading the parks replies, perhaps some signs on enclosures explaining these issues would be helpful to visitors
- we were really excited to go to the parakeet house to feed them, however the last time was 3.30 i think, and considering the park closes at 6pm i thought maybe there could have been a few chances to go in between 3-6
- toilets were a little dirty

Ok, onto the good stuff!

- i personally felt the animals looked very well looked after and pretty happy
- the staff were very helpful, even though a lot of them were very young (i'm not agist!) they were very friendly and efficient ( after leaving my handbag in the car park like a lemon, dashing back to the park at 6pm when they shut, the staff in the cafe were MORE than helpful and got my bag for me from their safe room - really put themselves out, all clearly going home but stayed to make sure i got my bag back ok)
- they were LOTS of free play areas that were set out really well
- huge variety of animals to see
- good parking facilities

Generally a great day out, a little expensive and lots of little things that need to be looked at. I hope someone from the lark reads thus! As i am not a moany person, but think there are some important things that need to be considered.
Well worth a vissit.

After reading some reviews I felt I had to submit a review .We purchased our ticket on-line in June which lasted a year so we able to wait for a nice day during the Summer school holiday period .We arrived at 10am and had a choice of car parks so decided to use car park 2 where there was a picnic area with tables (at this stage I will mention our party was 4 adults and 3 children aged 6.3 and 9 months) On entering the park we were taken to the pre-paid desk and in within minutes.We decided to go to the animal area first where we found the staff keen to help and very knowledgeable it was apparent that they cared deeply about animal welfare .The viewing areas were excellent over two levels.We were also fortunate to experience several feeding sessions which the grand children enjoyed .As lunch time approached we returned to our car and got our picnic and sat in the picnic area within car-park 2.After lunch we returned to the park to enjoy the entertainment on stage and the adventure walks rather than the train ride which we thought would miss lots of things finishing off in the animal area and splash pool the kids enjoyed this part as it was a hot day .finally leaving at 5pm ..Would we go againYES..

I really enjoyed this Park. It kept my two sons - aged 3 and 5 and a half - very entertained. We arrived at 10.45am and left around 3ish and we only left then as they (and us!) were flagging!

It took us about 30 minutes to get through the entrance to the Park, but only because they had so many rides and 'things' for them to see. The big slide was a great hit and so were the diggers and the little train. It was £1 per person to ride the train, which we didn't begrudge at all. Well worth it to see the boys faces.

There was a bouncy slide set up near the animal park which my oldest son loved. The bird display was nicely presented and if we had timed it better, we would have caught a show in the theatre bit. Both the boys were fascinated with the giant tortoises.

All the animals looked well kept and the whole Park was clean - so many aren't. My husband and I both thought the overhead walkways were a great idea. When you are small, you can't always see at ground level - the boys loved being able to see the white tigers and the monkeys 'close up'.

The Park was just comfortably busy, plenty of space, and the weather was kind to us.

The food - for a Park of this nature - was fine. Cooked to order (I've had much worse) and a choice of veggie options which was refreshing. My only slight criticism? The boys portion of chicken bites was a bit stingy at 3 pieces, not much for hungry boys!

All in all a really good day out for all four of us. Lots to see and do and some things we didn't manage to see. Great for young children, we will be back!

I went to this attraction with two children aged 11 and 13 who both thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a car park which is free very close to the entrance to the park. All the animals looked very well cared for and although it was sad to see them in a zoo, it is obviously preferable to them being shot in the wild. The food was good and not expensive e.g. a piece of cheese on toast which was lovely in Safari Sam's was £1.00. I don't think you would break the bank going there for the day. There were lots of families at the park and quite a few had picnics that they had taken with them. All of the animals were easy to see and you could feed quite a few of them. A petting zoo was a hit with the kids I had with me. A bag of food was £1.00, again not expensive but it gave them a couple of hours of fun choosing which animals to feed and how much!

All the staff were a delight and they seemed to have quite a few volunteers so they obviously wanted to be there and it showed. A really good day was had by all and we will be going there again. Incidentally it is really well signposted from the M25.

We love Paradise Park - it's a great day out at anytime of year!....expect it to be crowded in school holidays because it is great value for money! - after parking your car & entering via the new ticket office there is a lot for younger children (ours were 3 & 5) - to see & do in not too large an area. All the facilities are well kept & clean. A lot of time & effort has been put into this wildlife park by people who really care about making a difference to many endangered species - the staff interacted well with our children & my older grandson was in awe of the day!
We advise you to take a picnic because it is so much easier...there are plenty of tables around the park....go along & support this family run zoo. We would all like animals to be wild & free but life isn't perfect & zoo's do a fantastic job - well done for the owners of this facility as we had a lovely day!!

This beautiful little zoo was a lovely day out. Our highlight was hand feeding the zebras! Good variety of animals, all looking happy and healthy. I spoke at length with the head cat keeper, who obviously loved his job showing great care and enthusiasm. I highly recommend this zoo

My bf took me here for my birthday as i love animals and especially the big cats. We had a fantastic offer on tickets by booking online and having money off due to liking their page on facebook. We spent the whole day at the park and absolutely loved it. The park is not very big but there is plenty to see. It looks like there are a lot of things to do for children a swell. There were places where you can buy food and drink and sit down and eat, buy feed for some of the small animals and farm animals, ice cream stand and face painting. We mainly spent the whole day near the big cats but also listened to other animal talks. The otters and red pandas were very cute. The cats are amazing and the enclosures are very nice and you can get very close to the cats and have clear views all the way round. I really enjoyed the big cat feed at the end of the day when Narnia the white tiger was being fed and we were very lucky that she decided to enjoy her meal right next to where we were watching her. I absolutely fell in love with Baikal the male white tiger and with Zara the lion cub. I am already planning a return visit to the park and have already requested a feed the tiger by hand experience for Christmas :-). We traveled here from the West Midlands and would most definitely return and recommend the place to family and friends.

Went to the Park on a Tuesday, as we were at a loss for what to do. Having seen the park Advertised we decided to give it a try.
The park was very easy to find as the signs for the park are well displayed from the motorways, right to the actual park. Car park was easy to access, and were welcomed at the entrance by smiling helpful staff.
Although the price of entry was quite more than I thought, the park was very well laid out , and each animal had good descriptive information boards, The animals were very varied and of course the children adored the Meerkats.
Food is available everywhere, first of all there are the kiosks, but also has a restraunt which is very well run, - Karen the supervisor was very helpfull especially as the children were very indicisive, but she couldn't have been more willing to assist. The food was cooked well, and the staff were happy to help.
There is a paddling pool of quite a good size,and on the hot day we visited was very welcome. If you go on a hot day - get the kids to bring costumes.
In all a good visit, - and remember that a lost of animal conservation is involved which someway is met by the entrance price, (i understand that the park cost £8000 per week, so the price reflects this)

Went to Paradise Wildlife Park for Tiger Tea experience. This included admission to the park. The whole day was great .I took my 10year old grandson and his great grandma! We all had a great day. The park was vey clean with lots of different animals to see and lots of talks on the animals in the park. there was also playgrounds and a bouncy castle for the children. The safari theatre had entertainment too. Great for the young people. Cafe was clean and food good value. Tiger experience was very interesting and Ricky who took us round was full of facts about big and small cats. At the end of the tour we were treated to a lovely sandwich and cake tea. Excellent value for money and a great day enjoyed by all ages.

We visited here for my daughter to take part in a zoo keeper for the day activity. She is 6 and absolutely loved it, staff were very informative and she gained a great experience with several different animals, she hasn't stopped talking about it! Overall the park was a nice size and especially very good for younger children. Lovely picnic areas which we took advantage of and plenty of refreshment places if you decided not to take your own food (although cannot comment on the food as we didn't have any of it). Nice play areas, my daughter loved the train! Would definately recommend.

We have just returned from a visit to Paradise Wildlife Park with our 2 children aged 2.5 and almost 5 and they loved it. Plenty of animals to see, the staff were friendly and looked like they really enjoyed working there. It was clean, tidy and being maintained, plenty of picnic areas and play areas including bouncy castles, slides, inside & outside play areas. We took the kids swimming stuff for them to paddle but just ran out of time.
We used Capri sun vouchers so the children got in free and I felt for what we paid (2 adults @£17) it was worthwhile and a brilliant day out. The children are already asking if we can go again on Saturday!

We visited for the Monkey afternoon tea purchased as a present, places for these get booked up quick so if you get one call and book well in advance! We arrived early and had a look around, the animal feedings and displays are well worth while.
At midday we went to the visitor centre to meet our group and guide, whilst waiting there was tea/coffee and biscuits. Our guide for monkey experience was very knowledgeable and passionate about the monkeys, telling us lots of stories about his monkey friends! Going into the ring tailed lemurs cage was the highlight of our trip, the whole group (17 in total) went into the cage to feed the lemurs apple, as soon as you enter they climb on you to get the food. The afternoon tea after our monkey tour included sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and hot and cold drinks. We enjoyed the afternoon tea and carried on walking around the park.
Overall the zoo is aimed at children, with lots of play areas, it could do with a bit of a re-vamp but we enjoyed it.