Since my two were babies, we have had annual passes to Colchester Zoo so when it comes to a zoo day we usually head there, despite Wingham Wildlife Park probably being our closest zoo!
My friend recently got us a voucher for the kid’s birthdays to Wingham inviting me to have a sordid fling and betray my beloved favourite zoo.
Well, not that I condone adultery, but it was absolutely fantastic!
Wingham is such a good day out for toddlers and you can spend a whole day here and still find things to occupy them.
As of August 2026, they are currently undergoing a huge refurbishment. We got to see the new big cat enclosure and this has made me even more excited for what’s to come.
It offered fantastic views of the tiger as well as colourful, interactive and well built structures to entertain children.
As well as fantastic animal enclosures, Wingham also offers plenty of play areas for children of all ages for some well needed free play.
Play areas for toddlers at Wingham
All of the indoor and outdoor play areas are located in one central area, as well as most of the places to eat.
There are three main outdoor play areas plus a mini cars track and adventure golf for an extra cost.
Our favourite one with toddlers, was the smaller one just outside the soft play. It is a simple climbing frame with slide, perfect for toddlers.
We also really enjoyed the larger playground behind the castle play area but we went on a really hot day and there was no escape from the sun. There were also some higher climbing bits inaccessible for my 2-year-old.
There is also a fantastic castle play area but this is definitely for older children and we didn’t even attempt it.
The indoor soft play at Wingham is absolutely incredible and my two spent nearly two hours in here.
You have to leave your pram in the stroller park outside which is a pain plus they are stricter than Miss Trunchball with socks. I always have spare socks for the kids kept in the pram for soft play but I was wearing sandals and didn’t have any for myself. I said my husband would just go in the soft play and I would stay on the outside but this was absolutely not an option. My only choice was to buy some but it turned out that they were only £1 so not a problem. Whilst in there, I saw some kids take their socks off them and they were on them quicker than your toddler with your freshly made toast.
Still, the soft play was great. They have an under 3 section but my adventurous 2-year-old could access everything in the main section without help.
They also sell hot food in here and highchairs are provided.
Walkthrough areas for toddlers at Wingham
My daughter shattered my heart into a million pieces when she said she preferred Wingham to my favourite Colchester Zoo.
When I asked her why she said because of the ‘bugs’. There is a really nice Outdoor Bug Garden with oversized insect sculptures and a walkthrough ant hill.
Though I didn’t think it was necessarily ground-breaking, we are looking for the best days out for our toddlers so if my daughter loved it – it is worth a visit!
Another walkthrough we really enjoyed was the Dinosaur Zoo.
With more dinosaurs that you can say “clever girl” to, a wooden jeep, sand pit and moving structures, my dinosaur loving son was in his element.
The real highlight of this was the sand pit at the end where toddlers can dig for fossils which was perfect for some free play.
Animal areas at Wingham
There are too many animal enclosures to mention but just wanted to highlight some of our favourite for toddlers.
In case you couldn’t tell by the outfit and face paint, giraffes are my daughter’s favourite animal.
The enclosure gives a good view of the animals but our absolute highlight was when we climbed the stairs to the indoor enclosure, we were lucky enough to get a much closer view of the giraffes which was my daughter’s highlight of the day.
Like I previously said, we were really impressed with the new big cat enclosure and this gives you a fantastic view of the tigers.
Even if it was while he was licking his gonads.
My daughter’s second favourite animal is ‘move its’ aka lemurs. There is a fantastic walk through where the lemurs get really close.
We have been to a few lemur walk throughs before where I think the ones in Madagascar are actually closer. But at different times throughout the day they always felt close to the path at Wingham.
We were probably just really lucky but we also got a cracking view of the moon bears, which is also quite a rare animal to have in a zoo.
We lucked out with plenty of views on the orangutans including their indoor enclosure with the giraffes, their outdoor space and our favourite: the aerial walkways connecting the enclosures.
There is also a farm here where you can pay 50p to feed the goats but remember this is dangerous to women expecting (and anyone that is freaked out by goat’s horizantal pupils).
In addition to the outdoor enclosures there were a few indoor ones including chimpanzees, reptile house and a nocturnal house. Though the nocturnal house felt quite pointless as it was really dark and unless you had 27 carrots for breakfast you can’t see much.
In summary, all of the enclosures are well thought out and gave brilliant views of the animals.
There are also some wild guinea fowl roaming around the park that my children really enjoyed getting close to.
Eating with toddlers at Wingham
Like most days out with toddlers, we took a packed lunch to Wingham.
Though of course we got ice cream – we are not complete heathens!
There are plenty of picnic benches if you do bring your own lunch and they even have the picnic benches with a space for pushchairs. I presume they are actually for wheelchairs but they work so well for prams also.
There are plenty of places to get hot food if you fancy it, mainly around the play areas. I suspect Gordon Ramsey would have a field day there – it is just very basic fast food.
One area I want to highlight, which looked new, is above the Nui Ice Cream shop with upstairs seating overlooking the monkeys.
I really recommend Wingham Wildlife Park for a brilliant day out with toddlers. If you have any other questions about our visit feel free to contact me here.