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If you're visiting Toulon, don't miss a visit to Mt Faron. Take the bus to the departure point, then you get up the mountain by means of an exhilarating, if slightly terrifying, cable car ride - the highest cable car I'd ever travelled in, it felt like being in an aircraft!
Once up the top, there's miles and miles of wooded paths to explore, a military museum, spectacular views across Toulon and out to sea, a few cafes, and a weird zoo, which I'd probably give a miss next time. We stupidly went in the middle of the day so most of the animals were asleep (either that or they'd been replaced with stuffed toys), so it might be better in the mornings, but it wasn't anything to write home about.
The walks around the top of the mountain were great though, highly recommended!
You can buy combination bus/cable car tickets from the tourist office on the waterfront in the centre of town. These are cheaper than paying for the bus and cable car separately, and the bus stop is just a few hundred yards from the tourist office.
Newly opened zoo which tries hard to present itself as ecologically sound and involved in saving species. It's a taxi ride away in the west of Valencia. Children will love being really close to the animals - and it will be even better once the monkeys are there. Rather pricey at € 20/adult.
Take a taxi which will cost under €10.
I visited the biggest oceanarium in the world. You don't need to love fishing or a nature-freak to enjoy this. It is a great experience. There are four biotypes, each recreating one of the world’s coastal habitats. They're located in the four corner towers which encircle the central aquarium.
Together they constitute a representative set of ocean environments. And I will never forget how cute a baby sea otter can be.
Esplanada D.Carlos I
Lisbon
www.oceanario.pt/
Australia's zoo was made famous by the late Steve Irwin. It makes a great day out, the croc feeding shows are a real highlight.
Near Beerwah
www.bigtravelweb.com/austrailia_zoo.htm
Rome's zoo is being gradually improved and has been renamed the Bioparco. A greater emphasis is now being placed on its ecological and environmental credentials. I visited it on a Wednesday afternoon. Apart from three Russians who asked me for directions to the exit, I was the only visitor. I think the animals were glad to see me. If you like wolves there are lots here. Very wolfish and sleek. Apart from its intrinsic merits, it's one of the few places in Rome where you can get away from the crowds.
Viale del Giardino Zoologico. Trams 3 and 19, plus a short walk.
Haven for injured and abandoned Koalas. Great place to see koalas and to experience their unique pong.
Friendly and well informed staff will be happy to tell you all you need to know. Great family day out a few minutes from Brisbane.
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Jesmond Road,
Fig Tree Pocket
Qld 4069, AUSTRALIA
www.koala.net/index.htm
On the mainland, Pattaya offers a range of amusement parks, gardens, and theme parks. Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens although recently scandalised by the Beeb for their treatment of elephants is worth a visit, just don’t support the elephant rides. Elephant village is similarly not to be supported.
Pattaya Park is a Water World amusement park that offers all the usual water rides plus a revolving restaurant and some hair-raising ways of getting up there and back down.
Mini Siam is a miniature tour of Thailand - full of busloads of tourists with a MacDonald’s at the entrance.
Million year-old Stone Park has beautiful gardens - feed the 5ft long catfish! And cringe at the abysmal treatment of tigers and crocodiles.
Further afield is Sri Racha tiger Zoo (to be avoided at all costs), and Kao Keow Open Zoo, a refreshing change from the usual callous way animals are treated in Thailand. There is also the Water World Aquarium on Sukumvit Rd. Any hotel or travel shop will arrange to take you there.
Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens
www.nongnoochtropicalgarden.com
Pattaya Park
Jomtien Beach, www.pattayapark.com
Mini Siam
Sukhumvit Road
Million Years Stone Park
www.thaistonepark.org/
We like to go to Colchester Zoo. We really love the baby elephants. It's a nice zoo because the enclosures are bigger than other zoos. Feeding the elephants is fun; they like to eat carrots and apples. There are lots of breeds of animals like leopards, monkeys and zeedonks. There is a playground with a cool climbing frame. We like to take a picnic which we share with our cousins George and Lucas.
From Robin Odell (age 9) and Lucy Odell (age 6).
Go to the zoo and see the animals ..and get up close with the animals. After closing time, "Roar 'n' Snore' starts with dinner followed by a nightime guided tour of the zoo. You get to explore the zoo as night falls and see the zoo's nightlife...animals whose activities start at dusk. Supper follows..before you bed down for the night...in your tent in the middle of the zoo.
I might add, nightime at the zoo is NOISY!
Breakfast is served next morning before more walks around the zoo.
This is simply a wonderful activity that has to be experienced.
For adults and families with children 7+
Melbourne Zoo
Elliot Ave, Parkville
Melbourne Zoo is located only minutes north from the city centre, within Royal Park. Car parking is available or visitors can take the tram or train to reach the Zoo. Trains run from Flinders Street Station stopping at Melbourne Zoo's own Royal Park Station
www.zoo.org.au/melbourne/roarnsnore.htm
The most amazing collection of retro family entertainment. The Zoo took several hours to get round. Next door is the - pleasantly affordable - indoor circus (very 'foreign' feeling, although the ticket sellers do speak some English. Beware that they do include animals, some borrowed from the zoo!).
Next to this is a great amusement park (Vidám Park) with an old-fashioned feel which could well have have kept us amused for a full day, if we'd had the time. The wooden rollercoaster is great, even for our four year old. Do bear in mind that Hungarians have a more relaxed approach to health and safety that in the UK!
Metro line no 1 (yellow line) to Szechenyi furdo.
The zoo - lots of fun animals, set in a lovely copenhagen suburb. There are, however, a few cramped enclosures.
Cairo Zoo was once very lovely but is now rather run down. However, if you are in Cairo with children and they have had enough culture and need a break this is quite a fun place to take them.
We went in quite a large group (8 adults and 8 children) but we were the only westerners there. This added so much to the experience - there were several groups of school children visiting and they were so excited to see us there that they were paying more attention to us than to the animals. Our children felt like celebraties. The security men at the zoo were quite concerned about us being pestered and kept shooing the children away. There were also a few teenage boys who were trying to engage us in conversation, but no problems because of the security.
The zoo itself is very cheap - about 2 pence (sterling) per person to get in!! and ten pence to take your camera in. You buy the tickets at a little window outside the zoo and the ladies there speak no english but we were able to communicate easily. Once you get inside you need LOTS of small notes, this is because the zoo keepers need tipping. Lots of the keepers have food for you to feed the animals with such as lettuce for the giraffes and peacocks, bits of fish on long sticks for the sea lions etc. You don't get to feed the lions but you will get taken inside the lion house and so get to see them much closer up.
It was great fun and the animals seemed a lot happier than some we have seen in western zoos and even if their accomodation is a bit shabby at least the enclosures are large.
Giza - we took a taxi.
Award-winning zoo has very few fences, using natural boundaries and breakers to corral the animals instead. Gives a real feeling of being among the animals instead of peering through bars. Watch out in the butterfly house if you don't like insects landing on you!
Also, try Jurong Bird Park - exotic and beautiful
Easiest way to get there is to take a taxi - plentiful and cheap from downtown or anywhere, really!
Not usually a fan of zoos but this is definitely the nicest one I have seen. The 2000 animals are mostly kept in natural conditions, with moats rather than bars and cages. The night safari is a highlight, allowing you to see nocturnal animals as well as the others who haven't yet gone to bed!
MRT to Ang Kio station then bus number 138. Cost S$10.30.
www.zoo.com.sg
A giraffe or rhinoceros in the middle of an Australian plain? Yes there are, at the Werribee Open Range Zoo. The Werribee Zoo is an extension of Melbourne’s famous zoo at Parkville, but with much more land. It’s billed as 'Africa out of Africa', and that is a very good description.
K Road, Werribee, Vic. 3030
tel: 9731 9600;
www.zoo.org.au/visiting.cfm?zoo_id=3
Lisbon Zoo is fantastic. You don't need children to enjoy the spectacle. A great aerial trip around the park on a mini cable car is included in price (and dangling above lions is great fun).
Estrada de Benfica 158-160, Sete Rios;tel: 217 232 910;
Metro: Jardim zoologico;
www.zoolisboa.pt/main.aspx
Wilhelma is a botanical gardens and zoo, apparently the result of King Wilhelm I’s attempts to emulate the Alhambra in southern Germany in the mid-ninteenth century. Alongside the striking Moorish architecture, an impressive range of wild animals reside in some disturbingly poky glass boxes.
Neckartalstrasse, 70342 Stuttgart - Bad Cannstatt
tel: 711 5402 0;
www.wilhelma.de
An outdoor museum of Swedish traditional handicraft as well as a zoo where you can watch typical Scandinavian animals such as bears, lynx, wolves and elks. A great way to see them all is the guided feeding walk which starts every day at 14.00 by the wolverines. The Aquarium costs extra and houses exotic fish, snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies. There is also a children's zoo of baby animals, and don't miss the bakery and glass-blowing cottage.
Djurgården, bus 44 or 47 from T-Centralen.
www.skansen.se
Spectacular palace and gardens. The journey to the top of the hill is rewarded by a fine cafe. The world's oldest zoo is here too, a great place to take the kids.
U-Bahn Schönbrunn
Rated one of the best 10 zoos in the world. Wonderful butterfly room with millions of butterflies landing on your head.
Centrally located in Parkville; www.zoo.org.au
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