Be honest with yourself about your fitness level. Edinburgh Zoo is built on a steep hill. Your calves will get a workout whether you like it or not.
Pushing a stroller up there is a noble but exhausting quest. The views of the city are a nice reward, but you’ll be huffing and puffing by lunchtime.
Chester Zoo is flat. Gloriously, mercifully flat. It’s huge, so you’ll walk miles, but you won’t feel like you’re climbing a mountain.
Pro tip: At Chester, you can rent a little buggy to zoom around in if your feet give up. At Edinburgh, you just have to embrace the Highland hike.
The Weird, Wonderful Stuff
Edinburgh Zoo has the Penguin Parade. Every day, the keepers take the penguins for a walk. Not in a cage. Just… out. On the path. With the public. It’s gloriously messy and joyful, and a little penguin might waddle right past your ankles.
It feels like a charming, slightly chaotic tradition that makes you smile for the rest of the week. That’s the sort of magic you can’t plan for.
Chester’s magic is in the Monsoon Forest. It’s a huge indoor dome where butterflies land on your shoulder and gibbons swing right over your head. It’s humid, loud, and smells like earth and flowers.
Not London or Edinburgh - UK's best zoo revealed with 30,000 animals
You walk out feeling like you’ve been on a mini holiday to Asia, not a day out in Cheshire. The sheer scale of it makes you go, “How did they even build this?”
