Bristol Zoo Gardens, Bristol, England United Kingdom

A visit to Bristol Zoo Gardens is an adventure into an exciting animal kingdom, all set within 12 acres of beautiful gardens. Visitors will come face to face with over 400 species of exotic, endangered and adorable animals from the four corners of the globe.

Visitors to Bristol Zoo can see the family of gorillas, including gorilla baby, Kukeña, stroll through the tropical Butterfly Forest or become immersed in the impressive Seal and Penguin Coast. Some other Zoo favourites include Monkey Jungle, Reptile house, Asiatic lions, Bug World, Twilight World, and the Aquarium.

Don’t forget to visit Explorers’ Creek which has three exciting areas. The first is ‘Splash’, a water-play area with streams, dams and the chance to get your toes wet. Next, follow in the footsteps of jungle explorers as you enter ‘Forest of Birds’, before feeding nectar to colourful parrots at the ‘Feed the Lorikeets’ exhibit (small charge applies for nectar).

More adventurous visitors can have a go on the aerial ropes course, ZooRopia, and swing alongside some of the Zoo’s most popular animals – gibbons and gorillas – before flying down the zip wire (restrictions and charges apply).

If that’s not enough why not take in one of the daily animal shows, join an expert talk, or pit yourself against the best of the animal world with the popular Zoolympics trail?

Dinozoo
This summer, 12 huge and incredibly life-like animatronic dinosaurs will be placed around the Zoo. The new residents will include some of the world’s most popular dinosaur species, such as the tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops and the long-necked brachiosaurus, all of which willbe brought to life using mechanical technology and animatronics.

The exhibition, called DinoZoo, will be open every day from Friday, May 25 until November 4 2012, and is free with Zoo admission. It will give visitors thechance to get up-close to amazing, moving, roaring, hissing, growling and even water-spraying creatures they’ve only read about in books or seen in films.