Brockholes Nature Reserve
A nature reserve with a visitor village that floats on the lake - genuinely floats. Easy flat trails, hides, a good playground and free family crafts through the summer holidays.
Wild Discovery
Preston, Lancashire
It sits inside Ribby Hall Village near Wrea Green, which throws people, because you do not need to be staying there to go. Anyone can book. It is a proper small zoo rather than a petting corner: a safari walk, an exotic house, a bat house and a farmyard end, with otters, meerkats, wallabies, porcupines, armadillos, pelicans, marmosets and a lot of reptiles.
The scale is the point. You can see all of it without anyone being carried, which at this age matters more than the size of the collection. Keeper talks and feeding times are what lift it, so check the day's board on the way in and plan the loop around them rather than doing laps and hoping.
Prices are not published on the website, which is annoying, and you only see them once you start a booking. Parking is free and the village's cafes and Papa Johns are a two-minute walk, so lunch is sorted without going back to the car.
Know before you go
- Last entry is an hour before closing, which catches people out on a lazy start. Doors are 10.30am to 5pm, shorter out of season.
- Animal encounters booked from January 2026 onwards no longer include zoo entry, so you need an admission ticket for every person doing the encounter as well.
Looking for more farms & animals near Preston?
Also in Preston
The Harris
Preston's museum, gallery and library reopened in September 2025 after a £19m rebuild, and it is still free. A proper children's library, changing exhibitions and a cafe under one Grade I listed roof on the Flag Market.
Ribble Steam Railway & Museum
Steam trains along Preston's dockside with a museum shed full of engines, a playground and a tea room all on one ticket that covers all-day travel. A Saturday railway, so check the calendar before you promise anyone a train.
Avenham & Miller Parks
Two Victorian parks joined at the hip beside the Ribble: a Japanese rock garden, a riverside cafe, a playground sited between the two, and the Easter egg rolling hill. Preston's best free afternoon.