I have been visiting this park since I was a kid, my last visit was when I was around 9/10, I am now 20. I treated my mum as a day out for her birthday with the rest of the family and my boyfriend. I have always loved paradise park and all the animals in it (the red pandas are my favourite) The food is very expensive, £5.60 for a kids meal (which wasn't all that) so take your own food. There are stinging nettles everywhere! I managed to get stung a few times.
We got the train from London to Broxbourne so we had to use the Paradise Park cab service which was great, they pick you up anytime and return you back to the station at anytime just for £3 return each (adult) and the driver was very nice and friendly, all the staff were!
I would return here, most certainly, I will just be more careful around the nettles next time!

I recently visited Paradise Wildlife Park with my boyfriend and we had a fantastic day. The animals are so much closer to you than other zoos that I have visited. The animals all looked healthy and all the staff that we spoke to were very friendly. Can't wait for our next visit!!

We expected a good time feeding the Meercats but it exceeded our expectations, The whole experience was unbelievable.

Had a Reasonably fun day here at Paradise Wildlife Park.
Travelled from north West Norfolk for our day out here. Weather wasn't the best so couldn't take full advantage of a lot of facilities provided.
Loads of play equipment & various areas to offer the kids a fun time amongst the animals. Train ride was cute & kids enjoyed the set up of animals & dinosaurs.
There's also a splash park which looked really good, but again, couldn't use due to good ol' British summertime...!
Animal park was interesting & there really was a good variation of animals, from tigers, cheetahs & leopards to camels, zebras, reptiles, monkeys, deer, wolves & birds plus lots more.
The weather just brought a dampener to our day.
We paid for tickets with Tesco clubcard vouchers, £15 in vouchers got us £60 in day out reward tokens and we didn't have to put a penny to it!
There was just something, I can't put my finger on, but I felt I wasn't fully enjoying it at the time... Just my own daft perception though, I'm sure!
Had the weather been better, we could've stayed longer & enjoyed more.
Great for parents of young children.

Went for breakfast with the tigers experience which included tour of big and small cats out of hours, breakfast in cafe over looking tigers and whole day in park. Nothing but amazing. Staff were really nice and very knowledgeable.
Only thing wrong was only 2 food outlets open in heaving half term. Would certainly return.

My birthday present was a Meerkat experience at this park.That was well done with good attentive staff and even better with meekats up and close and personal. Overall we felt the place was not sure whether it wanted to be a children's theme park or a wildlife park? The minimal animal exhibits were good but at every turn there seemed to be a child's ride or similar. A great day out for a young family but limited for animal lovers. Some of the enclosures are well designed to observe the animals ie Otters and Meerkats but some not so good. Worth a visit for a young family.

I can here on a Monday so it wasn't very busy which was nice.
The farm animals are amazing, loved feeding them! This was the best part.
All the animals looked well looked after and there is a very large variety.
Not sure if I'd bother to go again though. There are definitely better parks to go to.

We went to sit and eat at a place onsite. The burgers we got were very expensive and vile.
We paid £22 for two cokes. A cheeseburger and chips each. The chips had been cooked a couple times to stay hot and the burgers must of been sitting there for the whole day. They were like dry bricks.

Disgusting.

Second visit within the last 2 years, this time taking our friends and their two children aged 2 & 4.

Positives. Lots of entertainment for the kids, they had a brilliant day and came away shattered. Staff are very attentive and helpful.
All the enclosures for the animals are close together so not too much walking around to find things. You can get very close up to the big cats which has it's plus side and negatives (See later in the review)
Food was OK, your usual burgers and chips etc. Although the restaurant was very busy service was quick with minimal waiting.

Negatives. Small enclosures for the animals which results in your being to get very close to them but also seemed to lead to lots of the big cats pacing around and looking more than bored. Something I never like to see.
Some of the park needs some TLC, the crazy golf is virtually a jungle and difficult to get around, along with the astro turf being very worn. Certainly needs addressing.

A good day out which represents good value. Especially for the kids.

I visited the park recently with my nephew & niece and had a fantastic day out. There is so much to do, the animals are amazing and really well looked after. It is excellent value for money and would recommend to anyone!

Well laid out park, good sized enclosures, good value for money, great day out for families.
Loved seeing the big cats

I made a trip to this area of the country in order to visit a number of zoos and wildlife parks, including this one. Over the year I am visiting more than 40 so inevitably I compare them. One recent visit was the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, which costs £15 and has polar bears, tigers, lions and much, much more. Paradise Wildlide Park costs £17 and is nowhere near as good.

It is always interesting to see the big cats, and effort is made to offer enrichment to the animals in their enclosures. That is, once you can find them amid the childrens' play things - ride ons, climbing things, bouncing things, a stage for singing things, crazy golf and so on. Clearly appreciated by local kids, but it felt rather seedy to me and I was glad to find the animals. There isn't a particularly large collection here, and the enclosures are not huge. It is pleasing to see the efforts that have been made to improve the interiors. I very much liked the woodland walk area where there are wolves and some hoofstock but did not like the garish plastic dinosaurs and the train which goes through, cheapening what should be a beautiful, natural area.

We ate in Safari Sam's Diner, which is actually good value for money. The toppings on jacket potatoes are very generous!

Overall this is not somewhere I would return. I feel it is very expensive for what it offers. I would prefer to see a separation between the animals and the "play facilities". There are better and cheaper wildlife parks around.

My husband bought me a meerkat experience for Christmas. It was brilliant and the keeper was really chatty and informative. Got really close to the meerkats and one sat on my shoulder. There is so much to do at the park like crazy golf, adventure park as well as all the animals. Definitely would visit again.

Took my young children 4 and 2 to paradise park recently. It was a good experience - they enjoyed seeing the good range of animals. Entry was reasonable with a voucher and we spent about 4 hours there which was plenty for them. The kids outside area is also very good. Having to pay a £1 for the train ride was a bit unnecessary as it's not the most entertaining but not the end of the world as the kids seemed to enjoy it so that's the most important thing

Although we did enjoy our day out at Paradise Wildlife park, it was disappointing to see that since we were here last, a couple of years ago. The place looked very run down & shabby, enclosures were over grown, bushes not cut back making it hard to view some animals / birds. But worst of all it was disheartening to see that many of the animals looked sad, unkept & were pacing around seemingly bored especially the big cats. Some animals looked thin or as though they hadn't had any attention paid to them in some time, it was upsetting to see. Other areas could do with attention too for example the train ride - train took several minutes to get going as just couldn't get momentum to pull the weight of carriages. Then when it did get going half of what we were supposed to be seeing was hidden by overgrown plats - dinosaurs also covered in moss & cobwebs.
Basically the whole place needed much TLC.
It is good to see that some areas are being done up so hopefully this is the start of a good overhaul which is much need to make it the great place it can be.

I went here not really knowing what to expect, I'm not keen on the idea of zoos but it was just up the road and we wanted to take a friend to cheer her up after some difficult times.

Firstly, we are a couple in our late 30's, no kids and really into wildlife and the great outdoors. Our friend, in her early 60's is passionate about animal welfare and big cats and has an interest in zoology.

I want to write a balanced view here, but it's going to be hard because parts of this place were great, but parts of it were so awful that I came away feeling quite upset, despite the fact we had a nice day with our friend. It will probably be easier to deal with each thing as I remember it, rather than try to divide into good/bad. To give this review perspective we visited on a Saturday in mid May.

On arrival you drive down a road into what looks like a theme park. This place is clearly geared towards kids and the sort of families that need to be "entertained". I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as we got out of the car as it all looked very tacky and commercial with huge plastic meerkats and bright signage as the main focus. I could hear loud tacky fairground style music pumped out from beyond the car park and I took a deep breath. It certainly didn't give the impression of "Paradise" or "wildlife".

Anyway, we paid our money and used a 20%off voucher that we found online just by googling, this was a smooth transaction and we entered the park and were given maps. We went in the cafe by the entrance for a quick cup of tea, which was alright, nothing special but large cups and reasonably priced. There's a huge ball-pit style attraction in here, which made me wonder what sort of people would bring their kids to a wildlife park with lions, tigers etc as the main attraction then spend their time sat in a cafe with the kids in the ball pool. We are about to find out...

Upon leaving the cafe and entering the park, we noticed that everyone had several unruly kids and was about 22 stone. We seemed to be the only people not wearing polyester branded sportswear.

We realised on looking at the map that the park is divided into two with the wildlife bit at the back and the entertainment/theme park the first bit you have to go to to get to the animals. I am not exaggerating here when I say that this first part is like entering the seventh circle of hell. Loudspeakers playing that godawful theme from "Frozen" and various slides, rides, amusements and later a stage with various workers dressed as animals leaping about like they were on on acid. We sat waiting for our friend to use the loo observing the scene around us. Lots of people shouting at their kids with fags hanging from their lips while on their mobile phones shouting at whoever is on the other end. The theme from Frozen has gone now, replaced by Blame it on the Boogie and then bizarrely some gangster rap and I don't know what else because we didn't stick around long enough to find out. Our thoughts at this point being let's just see the animals and then we can get the hell out.

At this point you cross a road into the animal bit. There's still garish signage everywhere and again it's all aimed at kids and very commercial. There's a sign pointing at something you think is an animal enclosure off to the left but in fact is a set of slot machines. There's a little kiosk selling animal feed for £1 a bag so we get two and are dismayed to discover each bag contains half a finely chopped carrot. We are about to lose all hope when we go round a corner and are met by the sight of a majestic white tiger looking straight at us! It's still not that busy as everyone else seems to be at the amusements so we are able to spend a good amount of time observing at a close distance before he wanders off.

We then go into a building and watch a talk given by a young lady with a voice like nails down a blackboard. During the talk lots of small animals are brought out including rats, a skunk, an owl and some ferrets. It's mildly interesting but all very dumbed down and patronising and delivered in that childrens TV presenter on speed style everybody hates, especially children. The kids in the building are all getting restless at this point because they just want to go back on the rides and not listen to the screechy lady with the distressing voice. The good thing is the owl is flown around and lands on perches very close to the audience, it's possible to get right up close to the animals if you sit down the front and the animals all seem to be well looked after and healthy. Obviously none of the kids are watching and the parents are all telling them off. It's at this point that they decide to play a video at full volume about Hero Rats and it has a very annoying song, again in children's entertainer style high pitched shrill about the poor little suicide rats that are used to detect land mines. I'm rather horrified by this piece of propaganda and we are then asked to give money to the rat which has been trained to put it in the money box. Hmmmm I hope not all the "talks" are like this.

So on to the next talk, which couldn't have been more different. We're at the cheetah enclosure and the speaker is an elderly gentleman who is very interesting and engaging and we see the cheetah being fed by hand by Ian the keeper and another keeper who are inside the enclosure. Fascinating stuff and in complete contrast to what we've just endured. Only thing is all the overstimulated brats and their parents are all shouting at each other, which ruins it a little.

We then wander around the rest of the zoo part, which is rather nice. I'm surprised by how well kept everything is and by how close you can actually get to the animals and they all seem quite happy. We watch more talks including the otters and the red pandas, again fascinating and engaging stuff marred by the whiny brats and their shouty parents. Everyone here seems to have the attention span of a goldfish. And they are everywhere.

Anyway, there's a lot of really good stuff here. The enclosures seem well kept and roomy compared to other zoos I've been to, and views are enhanced by raised walkways and viewing platforms. There's a white leopard that we see in a small enclosure pacing about, we're concerned about him and ask a keeper. Apparently he is in there while the females are fed so he doesn't steal their food. He will be let back out very soon. Perhaps a sign stating this would be a good idea? We weren't the only ones who found this alarming, but most people wouldn't have asked about it and left with the wrong impression.

Throughout the afternoon we are pleasantly surprised by the rest of the animal park, the rainforest house is really nice with the little Tamarins and we see a good selection of animals who all seem very happy and well looked after. By now we have learned to try to filter out the thousands of people who take their kids out in public to shout at and humiliate them.

We then go and look for the bird section, but can't find it. Twice we are given directions then discover a very narrow path with no signage at the back of the gift shop. This leads to the birds. Upon arrival we are invited into the Lorikeets house where we are given a little pot of nectar and an elf'n safety brief before we are lead through and they all land on us to drink the nectar. This is a highlight of our day, it's £1 extra but well worth it. We come away having taken lots of nice photographs of the beautiful birds on each other's heads and it didn't feel rushed or scary. Very pleasant. The rest of the bird part we have mixed feelings about - some fabulous birds but all the enclosures look a little small and in need of updating, is also has a feeling of being tucked away from the main attraction. Mind you with all the shouting that's probably a good thing, for the birds at least. There's also an arena in the middle where they do bird displays but there was nothing on at the hour we visited.

Following this we make our way back for the lion feeding, we notice a lot of people have left and we get a good view from the platform as the lions are given their dinner. Again the elderly gentleman is giving the talk, which is really interesting but unfortunately a lot of the kids are moaning they are bored and they want to go home. Then the parents are moaning that the kids are moaning. There's three lions eating a horse about 18 feet in front of us and a man who has known them since they were cubs and has worked with lions for many years is telling us about the time he slept next to one and all these miserable excuses for humanity are starting to wander off. At this point I wonder what is wrong with these people. Why do they come here? Then I remember the funfair style attractions and I believe therein lies the problem.

I don't know if I would come back here. The lions, tigers, leopards etc are amazing. We really enjoyed some of the talks and chatting to the keepers afterwards. This part is really nice, but you have to dodge all the overstimulated brats and their horrible parents shouting into their phones. Perhaps it would be better on a school day?

It's such a shame that it can't just be a peaceful wildlife park/zoo and they need to have the nasty entertainment to draw the crowds, I wonder if they took it away, got rid of the plastic and dumbing down kiddy focused nonsense and made it more about the animal experience, made that more engaging, would they attract a different sort of crowd that wouldn't make it so unpleasant for serious visitors who just want to come to "Paradise" wildlife park to enjoy the magnificent animals? I do worry about the effect all the noise and stress has on the creatures, whose hearing and sensory perception is far greater than ours. Maybe they could bulldoze the theme park style attractions and make the animals the main gig? We'd certainly come back then, and frequently.

My husband bought me this experience for my birthday and it was a fabulous experience. We were greeted in the morning by very friendly staff in the Animal Encounters Area, who provided us with hot drinks. We then met with the keeper, her name was Pia, who gave us lots of interesting information about the wolves we were going to feed that morning. We then went to both enclosures and fed both of the Norwegian and Iberian wolves. Pia, made the sure that the wolves were comfortable with us being so close and that we were also comfortable being so close to the wolves! It was an amazing experience and I would thoroughly recommend for any animal lovers. I feel like I learnt a lot from my visit.

There is something for everyone here, including great wheelchair access throughout. We were unlucky that the Penguin enclosure had just been closed for refurbishment as both we and our grandchildren were particularly looking forward to seeing them but there was so much more to see that any disappointment was soon forgotten.
My wife and I were both disappointed that despite extensive signage we never did find any birds of paradise, whilst the children didn't see the ducks. The only bird on what we took to be the duck pond was a moorhen.
We ate at the main restaurant, under their large awning. The selection was satisfactory but not great and the prices were as one expects at such venues. For those on a budget or looking for a different experience there are designated picnic areas including a covered area that we did not inspect.

We were Shadow Keepers for the day.
We arrived to a smile and a cup of tea. We then went to the hooved enclosures and met the Alpacas and Camel and to help muck them out. We were then shown around the paddocks.
After a short break we went to the reptile house and had all the animals explained to us. They have two anacondas and the female is huge and still growing. There are only a few in Europe. After holding a python we went onto see the Animal Antics show and helped round up the rats for their part in the show
We then went to fly an African Spotted Owl ourselves and watch the bird show. Lunch followed. It was complementary and the usual fare for a park and plenty of it.
Then came the small mammals and we hand fed the Red Pandas, a Coati and stroked a skunk. They were all so gentle when they took the food from our hands.
We then went to see the primates and again hand fed the Black Limas followed by the Red Ruff Limas. These were more boisterous, but again gentle and cute when we were feeding them. Lastly we want in with the Tapirs which was lovely.
We never really stopped all day and each keeper was ready and waiting for us at each stage. There was no 'corporate' guide. We met the actual keepers for each species of animal, which is what we wanted as they knew their charges and we got an excellent guide every time. Everyone from the receptionist to each keepers were lovely, informative and did everything to make our day go smoothly.
It was a great day for us and we thank everyone for their time and effort to make our day memorable.

We spent a wonderful afternoon looking at well looked after animals with knowledgeable keepers who took the time to answer all our questions. Reasonably priced food - well worth a visit. Only downside was we choose a day when there were an awful lot of school children visiting so a little on the noisy side!

We really enjoyed this. We are all big cat fans and there were plenty to see here. Lots for kids to do. If you go on your own as adults the zoo part is reasonably small , but then it is an attraction aimed at families. We went early and we got to see the cats waking up and eating breakfast. Toilets were nice and clean and they did have lots of toilet facilities and a playground for disabled visitors.

We had a great day, I would recommend!

Went here for a shadow a big cat experience. One word- Amazing!

Our keeper Steve was full of knowledge and super helpful.

It is an experience I would strongly recommend to anyone. It is not everyday you can say you have hand fed lions!

A great day, with great staff and great animals.

My wonderful husband bought me an amazing VIP experience for my birthday. We got to spend 2 days at the park and even stayed overnight in the Tiger Suite. On the first day I fed a white tiger which was incredible. I was helped by a very informative keeper called Shirley who explained exactly what I needed to do. We spent the rest of the day enjoying seeing tigers, snow leopards, lions, meerkats, monkeys, lemurs and many, many more. I think my husbands favorite were the red pandas.
On the second day we had breakfast watching tigers and then had a tour with one of the keepers called Emma who was brilliant and very knowledgeable.
Overall we had a brilliant time.

Early start but well worth it. Well informed guide took us around all the big cats enclosures. Fantastic place for children with plenty to do and see. Worth a visit!

I've wandered round this zoo with family, friends and alone, it's my favourite place, keepers are friendly and informative, place is kept clean, plenty to see and ideal for a family, great for photographers of animals too, most of the animals you can get up really close and personal to, separated in the main by specially toughened glass, access for wheelchairs, buggies etc, even for the higher walkway as specially made ramp for this use, compact and level for all types of mobility and age. Plenty to see and despite my many visits I don't think I've ever seen it all in one go, I imagine if you want a whistle stop tour it's possible but then you could miss out on all the keeper talks, the antics of the various animals, the bird show, etc, etc. All in all, a great day out for everyone

We stayed here as opposed to hotel or B&B for a planned trip to Harry Potter studios. We were so glad we did. Had a lovely day around the park on first day. It was incredibly foggy that weekend and as it was November got dark early. It was excitingly eerie walking around the forest path and then in the morning waking up to the sound of the gibbons and the raw of the lions. Fabulous. The VIP breakfast experience was wonderful, 10 of everything for breakfast, followed by the tour with the keepers. The apartment was comfortable and warm, the kids loved having a TV in their room too. End result was that everyone enjoyed the zoo experience more the Harry Potter Studios - what more can we say. Can't wait to visit again. Not the cheapest of nights away but comparable to a nice hotel and profits go to the animals not some-ones pocket.