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 in 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.
What it costs: Day pass tickets for adults, children under 16 and a family pass of two adults plus two children. Under-2s go free. Prices are only shown once you start a booking.
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.
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What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.6 across 964 Google reviews.
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