ZSL Online Gift Shop Reviews 13

Great family time! Took our kids who are 5&7 years old and they loved it! The lion was so close to the viewing glass which my son was soooo happy about and my daughter couldn’t get enough of the penguins and seeing them swimming under the water. Really great day and quality family time!

Not the Zoo, we never got there, but the booking process with See tickets.
As a member I bought £68.20 tickets for 2 adults and two children under 3 with £4.30 Refund protection. Come the day one adult had sprained their ankle and could not walk, making the outing impossible. It turns out the refund protection only covers bereavement, train strikes, medical sick note (how easy is it to see your GP?), military service.. So no cover, so Boo to the Zoo and the ticketeers.

Full priced entry for 1 Senior, 1Adult, 1 x 17year old (classed as an adult) and 1 x 14 year old amounted to £117! Pre-booked via Network rail 2 for 1 offer and paid £87. Still very expensive in my book. I remember the zoo from my 1950's childhood and I must say that it is a shadow of its former self. I understand that the Victorian idea of animals for entertainment has now morphed into animal conservation. Very laudable but it makes for a poor visitor attraction. You won't see any elephants, rhinos, big hippos, bears, or chimpanzees. Just a tiger and a couple of lions. No other big cats. Penguins are still there and a couple of giraffes and a few other animals such as Llamas. Monkeys are present but not many different types. The new monkey enclosure was closed to 'give the monkeys a rest'. Lots of empty enclosures. The Butterfly house is one of the smallest I have visited and there are better examples elsewhere. The childrens' area has some goats for petting - available at any childrens' petting zoo for a fraction of the price of the zoo entry cost. On entry the staff immediately confront you to have photographs taken which they hope to sell to you when you leave. I found this annoying. All refreshments are expensive - £19.50 for three ice-cream cones and a small ice-cream sundae. The shop is basically selling cuddly animal toys and other cheap trash. There are better zoos available, try Edinburgh.

Needs better organization. Prices are high for what it is.

Had a great time with the family, could’ve been cheaper but was good

The cost of the entrance tickets made me expect a very different experience. The woman who checked our tickets did so through glass (we do not bite), very unfriendly. I asked her for a map but was waved aside with ‘over there’. No maps were available which is problematic as the layout of the zoo is very confusing.
The zoo looked shabby, building works going on everywhere, enclosures closed, educational material looked gaudy and brash, the theme park approach (eg the lion enclosure) makes no sense (I was interested to see lions not visit Southall, no need I live next door), refreshment vans closed, etc.
I had an utterly disappointing visit and felt really low when leaving.
I would not recommend a visit, as the zoo is a very poorly curated and needs major reorganisation.

It’s simply not ok to keep wild animals in boxes, cages or otherwise!

Visited ZSL yesterday, and I felt so bad for the animals that we left early. The animals looked so forlorn, there was no interaction, and to be honest, I think all the enclosures are too small and boring for them. I was really sad to see the vultures - they were looking at the sky through wire netting. Its only big enough to be a petting zoo, really.

Very Disappointing.
Took the grandchildren to ZSL Whipsnade. Nearly £100!
No mention at time of booking that there were no lions, cheetahs, seals...
A lot of animals we used to see there are no longer there for various reasons. This should have been made clear at time of booking.

like many others, feel the zoo has certainly gone down since my last visit. shame, has the ability to be a marquee attraction in london as it used to be!

Poor. Could count on my one hand how many animals we got to see. Hugely disappointing. Run down zoo - seems all the money being ploughed into the zoo is going on the new monkey enclosure. None of the interactive units worked. The whole site is run down.
Overpriced and very disappointing.
Whipsnade is far better than the London experience.

Very disappointed...
The only animal I could see close to me was a rat
Nothing special at all... most cages were empty a real deception

Overpriced
Very disappointed
Very tiny cages
Most animals were asleep
No elephants
the lions section was far away
The tiger territory was very disappointing it was only 2 tigers so far we cant see anything
The gorilla was the same thing
I feel that i spent almost 90 £ in nothing
I advice every person really to think twice or grab a really good discount
Lisbon Zoo is amazing just in case

I always loved this shop in the London Zoo. Great stuff there for gifts. It's my favourite zoo spread out over a large area in London. Fantastic walk around. Really missed it during the pandemic. Looking forwards to getting back there to see the penguins and various other animals which are my favourites.