Dudley Zoo Gardens

Cravendale Milk is rewarding their fans for drinking more of their good stuffs with visits to zoos to once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Join them today and they will welcome you with a 2 for 1 voucher for a great day out. Collect 3 codes to start your first adventure! Love Cravendale sent us to the ZOO! Dudley Zoo is a zoo with hundreds of animals set around an 11th century castle incorporating the world’s largest single collection of Tecton buildings and the country’s only vintage chairlift – all sited on a 40-acre wooded hillside with a rich geological history.

This morning was such a gorgeous day.  We set off from Lichfield which took us 50 minutes to reach the Zoo. The car park is just next to the Zoo but there is quite a walk if you come late. The fee is £3.50 per day which is quite reasonable.

When you reach the zoo, you are welcomed by the rather unique and ancient 1970s’ entrance. The whole place does look very old but it added a different level of scenery. After we passed the entrance, just in front of us is the country’s only vintage chairlift! Both of my children wanted to go but they were too young (aged 7 above) and under the requirement of 1.2 metres. Luckily, we heard the choo choo! It was their land train!

I was so glad to take the train than push a pushchair up the steep hill. The zoo is situated on the hill and there are some steep slopes to walk. So please be careful while walking with young children or elderly. I found some paths quite hard to walk up/down with the pushchair because they are gravelly and steep.

When we reached the castle, the scenery was brilliant. It is so weird to see a castle in the middle of the city centre. I love the look of the castle ruins.

There are so many animals to see from flamingos to meerkats. I especially love the Monkey Tails. It is an indoor green house and you can expect it to be very warm in there. When we reached there, there are random monkeys jumping and roaming around. We are able to get so close to them!

We visited the farms next which is one of the many must-see places.  We were able to stroke the animals and get a close up with them.  They were so tame and relaxed.  Please beware that they may chew your clothing especially skirts.

There are children play areas dotted around the zoo which is very useful. Whenever my husband and I needed a rest, we let both the kids have a play in the play areas!

Near the entrance/exit, there is a funfair where you have to pay for the rides.  They operate a token system and most rides are only one token and only a couple of rides are two tokens. One token is equivalent to £1 or less, depending on the number of tokens you buy. We ended our visit to the zoo with a few rides on the cars, aeroplane and swing chairs. Of course, we reward ourselves with soft ice cream and candy floss too! We had so much fun as a family day out and would love to do it again!

We’d love to say a big thanks to Cravendale and Dudley Zoo Gardens for organising this activity for our family to enjoy. Start drinking Cravendale and collect codes to get your free activity.

Disclosure: We were given this experience for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.