Welsh Mountain Zoo Reviews Summary

Animal Enclosures

Pros:

• "Some great enclosures for the animals and some very small ones."
• "The selection of animals is beautiful, scary, funny and everything inbetween."
• "Some great animal enclosures as well."
• "Zoo with a view... unlike some zoos you get to see 99% of the animals."
• "The animals all looked well the gardens and flower borders very well kept."
• "Everything is in good condition and clean, and the animals look happy and well cared for."
• "Every animal clearly cared for and not just for show."

Cons:

• "Some enclosures seemed inadequate."
• "The Chimpanzee area is poor in my opinion. About as far as you can get from a natural habitat."
• "Some of the enclosures were a little small but this is an old zoo."
• "The zoo itself is really run down, animals don't look happy, a lot of them pacing up and down and have a lot of hair loss."
• "The enclosure felt small and we kept looking for signs that the zoo was working in conservation, but sadly didn't see anything."
• "Some of the enclosures were a bit small but they were raising funds to make sure that they could expand as quickly as they could."
• "The only down side is it could do with some serious updating as all the enclosures look like they are about to break open."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Staff, when encountered, were very friendly, with one very kindly suggesting a better place to eat lunch away from seagulls!"
• "The staff all welcoming and cheerful."
• "The staff were friendly and knowledgeable."
• "Lovely staff everywhere we went. It was excellent."
• "The staff were so helpful and delightful."
• "Staff we came across were really friendly and happy to help where they could."
• "The keepers were really knowledgeable. The animals all look in excellent condition and really well cared for."

Cons:

• "The manager was not... this manager seemed more interested in control of the staff, who were doing a perfectly fine job, before he came in barking orders, than he was with the quality and timeliness of the food served."
• "On going to the cafe/restaurant on site, we watched the cook putting grated cheese and nuggets in the customers' food containers with bare hands (no gloves)."
• "The Safari restaurant... waited 40 mins for jacket potato cheese and beans."
• "Food was over half an hour wait when they were really quiet, people ordering after us got theirs and only ordered sandwiches and bacon baps, sea lions had electric wire in the enclosure and water for them looked green and horrible, hardly saw any animals."
• "Little penguin cafe was so manic and busy the queue was out the door."
• "The takeaway coffee shop could only provide basic coffee as the machines were out of order."
• "We watched and heard several people complaining having to wait ages for their food after ordering too."

Accessibility and Layout

Pros:

• "Great day out. Lots of easy access routes around the zoo."
• "There are accessible toilets and cafe."
• "Very good for prams, good play areas for children, plenty of eating areas, and toilets."
• "As a disabled visitor I found this a very helpful design!"
• "The zoo is laid out so the spaces between exhibits are part of the attraction."
• "The location and setting of the zoo is what makes it really stand out. It's on a hillside and half is in beautiful woodland, when you come out of the trees the views are stunning."
• "Play area was excellent for all ages and made great use of the space."

Cons:

• "The only thing I did not like is that you could easily miss some enclosures."
• "The map isn't the greatest either."
• "The one thing that made it a bit difficult to get around was the map, as parts of it were quite unclear."
• "It can be hard work walking around with a pushchair because of steepness of the mountain in parts."
• "Parking can be a little tight and the cafes were both unfortunately very busy so we couldn't rest up and eat so we decided to leave a bit early and visit more of the coast."
• "Most routes were not suitable for the pram so navigating around the park was difficult."
• "The only downside was the map and signage, which was a bit of a challenge if you want to see everything."