Day out Amazona Zoo Cromer - Bubbablue and me .
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Amazona Zoo Cromer – an educational visit

As you might have read before, I do like to cram in days out when we’re on holiday. We rarely spend a full day at one location when we’re on our own.  Both N and I (although him more), like to have a few hours whizzing around, and then get bored and want to get away and do something else or chill out.  So we did have at least 1 mad day on holiday when we did quite a few different activities.

On our first day in Norfolk we decided to visit Amazona Zoo just outside Cromer.  This is a fairly new zoo and wildlife park, based on South American animals and environment.  We’d had a disappointing visit to The Living Rainforest before, but we found Amazona a lot better to visit with more to see.

Day out Amazona Zoo Cromer - Bubbablue and me .

As it wasn’t Norfolk school holidays and we arrived early, Amazona was very quiet.  This meant more space and time for us to go where we wanted.

Everything seems really eco-friendly, lots of wooden cabins and decked walkways to get to the animals.  There’s a real mix of animals and birds, some we recognised, others we didn’t.  N was excited to choose his own route around the park and walkways.  He’d taken his camera, so  he loved spotting and trying to photography some ducklings (yep, not sure mallard ducks are Amazonian).

ducklings at amazonia zoo
hiding at amazonia zoo
taking photos at amazonia zoo
robin at amazonia

We saw a variety of animals from flamingos, tapirs, Geoffrey’s spider monkeys lazing in the sun, reptiles, fish, crocodiles and fish in the tropical house.

crocodile at amazonia
iguana at amazonia
flamingoes at Amazonia zoo
tropical house flowers at amazonia zoo
purple clematis
rheas at amazonia

We liked watching the monkeys, although they weren’t being very active, preferring to sunbathe.

Our favourite was the big cat area.  The puma was asleep behind his window, but the young jaguar was out pacing his run.  I felt so sad for him because there was a notice saying his mum had recently died, and he’d only ever lived with her, so was grieving quite badly, hence was pacing a lot and making more noise than normal. They were monitoring him – poor thing. It’s interesting to reflect how animals also suffer from loss of relations.

jaguar at amazonia zoo

The discovery tepee was a little empty, but good to get children thinking about the Amazon, deforestation and impact on indigenous tribes. N was interested in one woman’s tribal face decoration and then recognised her picture later on when he spotted it in the café.

There were also a few areas for play amongst the animals – N enjoyed driving the big cat ‘train’.  The proper play area had plenty of picnic benches round, but disappointingly the 2 jumping pillows were padlocked off.  Given they weren’t actually it didn’t make sense. Naughtily someone had gone over with their child because whenever they went to Amazonia they always went on them, and toddler  was on the autistic spectrum and didn’t understand not going on them.

I decided I’d drop N over because I couldn’t see a safety issue (I’m not usually a rule breaker, but for once did). But then the staff came out to explain it was because the sand was too hard around the pillows.  We left but the father put up a fight saying he’d have to work the time down prepping his child for coming off.  I understand where businesses have to follow health and safety, but sometimes it is annoying when the signs say children play under parents’ supervision and not the business liability, but then the parents aren’t able to make the call.  Because of course, tonnes of children fall off bouncing pillows head first onto compact sand (not that it looked very compact anyway).

bouncing pillows

The rest of the play area was perfect for N’s age – good balancing and obstacles.  It’s great to see him so confident about using play equipment nowadays.  There’s no stopping him for most things now and he doesn’t seem to struggle on them either (except maybe really high netting).

on the tyres at amazonia zoo
sitting easy at amazonia zoo
posing at amazonia zoo

There’s also a soft play cabin which N enjoyed for a while on his own, before he was joined by  a few other children. I could see it getting quite busy if it’s raining but it’s nice to have that alternative to outdoors.

softplay at amazonia

After having our fill of the animals, it was nearly time for lunch so we stopped off and ate in the café.  The food is fairly simple – jacket potatoes, chips, burgers , sausage rolls, sandwiches but wasn’t too expensive and there was enough taste for us.  The café is rustic though and decorated quote roughly to fit in with the outdoor nature of the place.  It wasn’t warm on the day we were there (despite it being warm outside).

A quick walk out via the shop and we were on our way off to the next activity after a nice morning learning about Amazonia zoo’s animals.

Amazona wasn’t very expensive, it cost around £20 for the 2 of us.  It’s also worth keeping a look out for tourist information things to do leaflets, because I had 2 with money off vouchers for Amazona (which I forgot to use).  It’s really good for toddlers as it’s not too large for walking around and primary age children will love finding out about everything too.

Have you ever been?  Where are your favourite wildlife parks and zoos?

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6 Comments

  1. Sounds like a very well priced Day out. Shame about the bouncing pillows but I guess that means there’s a reason to visit again at somepoint? #Countrykids

  2. That poor jaguar, that is so sad, and he must be very lonely too 🙁 lovely play area..shame about the pillows #countrykidsfun

  3. This looks ace. I wish it was closer – my son is doing a project about the Amazon for school and he’d love to visit this as part of that! Thanks for sharing on #countrykids – another day out for my wish list!

  4. Looks like a fab place to visit, lots of different animals to see. Mine love seeing the different animals. The play area looks good too and the price is very reasonable 🙂 #Countrykids

  5. This looks like a great place to explore and really get kids interested in animals from different parts the world. N looks like he enjoyed spotting all the animals and having a go on his camera. It’s a shame that the bouncy pillows were closed, even if you did manage to sneak a quick go.

    Thanks for sharing with me on #CountryKids.

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