{"id":1547,"date":"2026-08-03T13:26:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/?page_id=1547"},"modified":"2026-09-12T08:48:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:48:57","slug":"wingham-wildlife-park","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/?page_id=1547","title":{"rendered":"Wingham Wildlife Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since my two were babies, we have had annual passes to Colchester Zoo<\/a> so when it comes to a zoo day we usually head there, despite Wingham Wildlife Park probably being our closest zoo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My friend recently got us a voucher for the kid\u2019s birthdays to Wingham inviting me to have a sordid fling and betray my beloved favourite zoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, not that I condone adultery, but it was absolutely fantastic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wingham is such a good day out for toddlers and you can spend a whole day here and still find things to occupy them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It offered fantastic views of the tiger as well as colourful, interactive and well built structures to entertain children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As well as fantastic animal enclosures, Wingham also offers plenty of play areas for children of all ages for some well needed free play.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Play areas for toddlers at Wingham<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All of the indoor and outdoor play areas are located in one central area, as well as most of the places to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are three main outdoor play areas plus a mini cars track and adventure golf for an extra cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also a fantastic castle play area but this is definitely for older children and we didn\u2019t even attempt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The indoor soft play at Wingham is absolutely incredible and my two spent nearly two hours in here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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\u2019t 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 \u00a31 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also sell hot food in here and highchairs are provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walkthrough areas for toddlers at Wingham<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My daughter shattered my heart into a million pieces when she said she preferred Wingham to my favourite Colchester Zoo.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I asked her why she said because of the \u2018bugs\u2019. There is a really nice Outdoor Bug Garden <\/strong>with oversized insect sculptures and a walkthrough ant hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Though I didn\u2019t 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another walkthrough we really enjoyed was the Dinosaur Zoo.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Animal areas at Wingham<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are too many animal enclosures to mention but just wanted to highlight some of our favourite for toddlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In case you couldn\u2019t tell by the outfit and face paint, giraffes are my daughter\u2019s favourite animal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like I previously said, we were really impressed with the new big cat enclosure and this gives you a fantastic view of the tigers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even if it was while he was licking his gonads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My daughter’s second <\/em>favourite animal is \u2018move its\u2019 aka lemurs. There is a fantastic walk through where the lemurs get really close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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\u2019t see much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In summary, all of the enclosures are well thought out and gave brilliant views of the animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also some wild guinea fowl roaming around the park that my children really enjoyed getting close to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eating with toddlers at Wingham<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like most days out with toddlers, we took a packed lunch to Wingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Though of course we got ice cream – we are not complete heathens!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area I want to highlight, which looked new, is above the Nui Ice Cream shop with upstairs seating overlooking the monkeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s birthdays to Wingham inviting me to have a sordid fling and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1547","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1547"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2053,"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1547\/revisions\/2053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toddlertravels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}