Featured image: Eastern Black Rhinos at Chester Zoo

All three occupy different locations, but they all have the same objectives in common – the well-being of their animals, conservation of wildlife worldwide and entertainment while educating their visitors. One of the best times to see the animals and learn more about them is while they are being fed. During feeding time, the animals are more active, and a zoo keeper or ranger will give a talk about the animals and answer questions. There is also the option to pay extra for a close encounter experience with an animal of choice. Adventure playgrounds for the children, picnic areas, cafés and snack vans ensure a great day out for the whole family.

Annual membership is the ideal way to get guests involved as they can visit as often as possible and get to know the animals, as well as understand the conservation work being undertaken. Especially when they miss a ‘favourite’ because it has left for a while to assist in a breeding programme elsewhere. This is particularly true of the polar bears, a great favourite at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park.  

A Polar Bear at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster 

Yorkshire Wildlife Park a decision by John Minion and his business partner Cheryl Williams to open a zoo after acquiring a riding school and small farm. They both had experience of working in zoos, particularly John who had looked after elephants at Woburn Safari Park.

The park opened in 2009, and since then, it has quickly developed into a global dynamic centre for the conservation and welfare of animals. More land has been acquired, allowing the construction of more natural habitats for endangered animals, including a family of critically endangered Amur Leopards. The proud parents of two cubs born earlier this year live at Leopard Heights, the largest facility of its kind in Europe.  Visitors can climb up to a viewing platform to see if they can spot these elusive animals on one side. And can take advantage of some good viewing of the Rothschild and Reticulated Giraffes in an enclosure in the area known as Into Africa. 

Amur Leopard at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Amazonas is a small, walk-through immersive habitat that is home to some rare species from South America. Keen eyes will spot the small, critically endangered Golden Lion Tamarins and Silvery Marmosets climbing in the trees. More grounded are the Patagonian Mara, a rodent with long ears like a hare on a deer-like body. Another rodent, the capybara, has webbed feet and will often be seen submerged in the small lake. Other walk-through areas in this park are the Wallaby Walkthrough and the Lemur Woods. There is also a huge wetland area accessed via a long boardwalk that skirts Tiger Land. 

Golden Lion Tamarin at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

A grand finale to a visit here is the Pangea Walk that threads its way through an impressive collection of dinosaurs in the five ancient lands of Pangea – a super-continent that once covered the Earth. Thirty roaring giants include the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor.

This walk emerges back at the entrance which is part of a large complex including shops, a play area, restaurants and cafés. An increasingly popular addition to our wildlife parks is overnight accommodation.

The Hex Wildlife Hotel offers a choice of modern, well-designed standard rooms, family rooms and luxury suites as well as fully accessible accommodation. The family rooms can comfortably accommodate a family of four. A real treat to wake up hearing the sounds of the animals in the adjacent wildlife park. Chesire Zoo will soon be offering accommodation in luxury lodges in their new area, Heart of Africa. 

Pangea Walk at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Chester Zoo in Cheshire  

Chester Zoo was established by the Mottershead family in 1931 when the family acquired the Victorian Mansion that is today known as The Oakfield. Once the home to some of the original animals, it is now a restaurant and wedding venue.

Its outbuildings, known as The Square, represent an ideal venue for functions and meetings. Soon after this zoo opened, it  
registered as a non-profit organisation (1934) known as the North of England Zoological Society. Today it is renowned as a globally recognised centre of excellence for wildlife conservation and research with its own on-site laboratories. The 128-acre site is home to over 37,000 animals representing more than 500 different species – many of which have been preserved thanks to the work that is done here and in collaboration with countries all over the world.  

Educating visitors is an important part of its mission, and central to this is the Heart of Africa, a large new enclosure, opened in early 2025.

Here visitors are invited to partake in a number of activities to learn about endangered species and their habitats. Fully accessible elevated walkways overlook the Savannah. Zebras, ostriches and giraffes all have access to this area. It is a splendid sight to see them grazing together. Another enchanting arena is the large, tree-shaded pool where the Giant Otters hang out. These delightful creatures know how to enrapture an audience as they frolic, fight over fish and race through the water like turbo-charged mini-subs. 

A Giant Otter at Chester Zoo 

The Persian Onager is hardly ever seen in wildlife parks due to the challenges of keeping and breeding them. It is one of the rarest animals in the world, but numbers are rapidly decreasing due to poaching and loss of habitat. Once used as a beast of burden, the difficulties involved in taming them meant they were replaced by the horse, donkey and mule, regaining their status as a wild animal.

Fortunately, the onagers at Chester Zoo are thriving and have produced offspring. Often mistaken for donkeys, they are among the oldest of the equine species but today they are only found in two protected areas. Their dappled coats thicken and darken come the cold weather. Chimpanzees are also a favourite here but share the limelight with the three other species of ape at Twycross Zoo. 

Onagers at Chester Zoo 

Twycross Zoo in Atherstone, Warwickshire 

Twycross Zoo enjoys the accolade of being the first female-founded zoo in Britain. Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans overcame their rivalry as pet shop owners to work together, curating a unique collection of animals that formed the basis of Twycross Zoo when it opened in 1963. 

These pioneers of animal care and conservation became of the founding members of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. And in 1972 it became a charitable trust, The East Midland Zoological Society to secure its future and continue its conservation work. Twycross was also the first to welcome the Bonobo, one of the four great apes.

It is still the only zoo or wildlife park that has Bonobos as well as the other three great apes, Western Lowland Gorillas, Bornean Orangutans and Chimpanzees.  

Bonobo in Twycross Zoo

There are also numerous small primates at Twycross, which is renowned globally for its work in the conservation and breeding of both large and small primates. In 2025, the charity announced the development of a £25 million Global Conservation Centre thanks to a huge grant from the UK Government. This hub for their expanding global conservation work will include facilities to train the next generation of conservation leaders.

There will also be a world-class Bornean Orangutan habitat and new Indonesian-themed habitats for threatened Indonesian species that will become part of its ex-situ conservation work. Of course, animals are not the only endangered species. Birds are also threatened as their habitats disappear through man’s intervention. Twycross is home to an impressive number of birds. There are several walk-through themed aviaries. In Lorikeet Land, visitors can admire the colourful, friendly Rainbow Lorikeets and feed them with special bird seed available to buy at the aviary entrance.  

Rainbow Lorikeet at Twycross Zoo

 Unique to Twycross is the Gruffalo Discovery Land, which young children love to visit. This zoo is a haven for families with young children who will have fun and games in an indoor soft play area, race through the large splash pad and then flop on the grass, sit at a wooden table to enjoy a picnic. For a memorable adventure, overnight group sleepovers are available (subject to minimum numbers). 

Splash Pad at Twycross Zoo

Planning a visit? For tickets and more information about annual passes, memberships, and close encounter experiences with the animals follow these links: 
 
Yorkshire Wildlife Park  here   
Chester Zoo here  
Twycross Zoo here  

You may also like to read: Three must-visit wildlife parks in Southern England this summer

The post Three Must-visit Wildlife Parks in Northern England this Summer  appeared first on The Travel Magazine.

Some say that the future of motoring is electric. It’s great for the environment, but it has given birth to a new phenomenon – Range Anxiety, an anxiety about running out of charge before reaching the destination, especially during long-distance drives.

A new free-to-download app, EVDC, aims to reveal all the public charging points and identify the nearest ones to you, plus offers a discount on the cost of charging. There are no subscription charges to use it.

EVDC is the brainchild of Canadian Tech Whizz- entrepreneur, Matthew Teudor, who has been developing his app for over 4 years. He collaborates with charge providers – more than 240 of them around the world – buying up charge in large quantities at wholesale prices. This means that EVDC can offer people who use the app the benefits of reduced-price electric charging.

So we decided to do some real-life journeying to put the app through its paces. We tapped in our destination, and various charging points along the way, appeared with information on whether they are working and available, or in use.

We chose a Lexus – its RZ450e, Lexus’ latest large All Wheel Drive electric SUV. So we were travelling in style. The Lexus RZ450e had been chosen for our trip for several reasons – mainly because we wanted to see what it was like on all types of road and also because with the car’s range displaying 245 miles, we knew we were going to have to make use of public charging facilities along the way and we could see how the EVDC app fared.

We wanted to ensure we gave the car and EVDC a good run out for a day at the Kent Coast from London, touring the county before heading back. So we headed around the North of London on the M25 and made our way across the Dartford Crossing and out into Kent, braving the latter end of the morning rush hour – and the queues at Dartford – in the process.

First stop was RAF Manston. Set atop one of the highest points in Kent, Manston has two museums – one dedicated solely to Spitfires and Hurricanes with whom it was a key strategic WW2 base and the other a more general RAF Manston Museum (did you know it was officially London’s third airport for a while in the 1950s/60s?).

Having enjoyed all Manston had to offer – including an excellent iced coffee – we motored on for a late lunch in beautiful Whitstable, where the EVDC App told us that there were several possible recharging sites. We picked one seemingly on the front – which turned out to be at the rear of the Marine Hotel, in its car park.

Here we encountered what was potentially a major problem. Like many so-called “destination charging points”, you are at the mercy of the management of the venue. The Marine boasted no less than six chargers, and all, according to the app, were listed as available. However, on reaching the destination, all were occupied by non-charging, non-electric cars – this despite large notices everywhere telling people that the bays were for EV charging only.

We would urge those who opt to install Destination Chargers at their location to seriously consider a penalty system of some sort so that people understand that these are bays that are reserved solely for EV charging – and if they use them incorrectly, they will face the consequences.

We were, however, fortunate on this occasion that the car park was wide enough for us to be able to park the Lexus across the occupied bays and the charging cable was long enough so that we could still use the charger.

Limited access to charger

We went in to have lunch and left a note on the windscreen with our telephone number should the “offending” car owners return, which they did, in the latter stages of our lunch. So they moved out of the bay and we moved in to finish charging.

The EVDC app worked well – and we saved 6p per kw using it – a saving of around 9 per cent against the price as published on another app.

Satisfied, after a spell on the beach and the mandatory ice cream, we made our way through the Kent countryside and home.

The return journey was slow, because of the time of day, but the Lexus whisked us around in comfort and, on what was one of the first really hot days of the summer, its vented seats made our ramblings effortless. It really is a great luxury family cruiser, eating up the miles and, when occasion demanded, showing a truly remarkable turn of pace – it will give petrol-engined supercars a run for their money away from a a standstill, and all this with five people sat in the cabin and their luggage stowed in the boot.

We returned to North West London without needing to charge the car again, but have used the EVDC app on several occasions since, at other places. EVDC is new to the UK; it doesn’t yet have the depth of coverage of some other apps, but it is still more than good enough to find recharging points nearby, and we have since made even bigger savings than in Whitstable.

EVDC tell us that the GEN 2 app is imminent and will feature full journey planning capability with Sat-nav functionality.

For those travelling in EVs and crossing country borders, EVDC has a trick up its sleeve: its own crypto-currency. It may sound a little over the top, but it avoids any need for currency conversion with the commission or poor exchange rates,  so it is far more than a gimmick.

VERDICT: Our experience with both the Lexus and the EVDC App have left us smiling – and the dreaded range anxiety was nowhere to be seen. If this is what EV travelling has in store for the future, it has more than a little going for it. 

More info: www.evdc.network

The post Range anxiety – there’s an app for that appeared first on The Travel Magazine.