The Great Brick Safari at Twycross Zoo

A couple of weeks ago we took a little trip to Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire for the opening of the Great Brick Safari that is on now until the 7th of January. Twycross Zoo is the first in the Midlands to host this world famous interactive safari that showcases over 70 life-sized LEGO brick animals!

Twycross Zoo is set amongst the beautiful rural countryside in the heart of England, and is an award-winning conservation charity, with an education programme which aims to increase the level of awareness, knowledge and understanding of visitors about its animals. They have over 500 animals, from 125 different species, and there are both indoor and outdoor enclosures, and I went to see the brand new Chimpanzee Eden a few months ago, which is absolutely brilliant.

The Chimpanzee Eden is a new habitat for the chimpanzees at Twycross, which is designed to pose the same kind of challenges that wild chimpanzees face in their daily lives. The multi-story building is designed to provide outstanding facilities for animal welfare, research, education and visitors. They want the animals to be living and behaving as closely to how they would in the wild, and so they place a strong emphasis on creating naturalistic habitats for the animals to live in, and Chimpanzee Eden has been designed with this in mind.

The 1,160sqm habitat has indoor and outdoor climbing frames, providing more natural surroundings for the chimps and a great experience for visitors too. You can see through the walls of the inside enclosure and watch the chimps, as well as watch them thunder through tunnels above you to head outside. It’s so fun to watch them move about their surroundings and play with each other. The Chimpanzee Eden is part of the zoo’s £55m plan to become a national conservation organization and world-class visitor attraction.

The Great Brick Safari at Twycross Zoo

The Great Brick Safari, which is included in the price of admission, is such a fun new addition to the zoo, and Ava absolutely loved spotting the different animals and ticking them off her list.

Professional LEGO brick builders, Bright Bricks, used 882,339 LEGO bricks to make the incredible sculptures, which include a four-metre-tall elephant made with 271,739 bricks and weighing 1,210kg, a lion with his cubs, an alligator, and a gorilla which her baby, which Ava thought was very cute! It’s crazy how much detail is in every animal – they’re so clever!

There is always so much to do and see at Twycross Zoo, but the Great Brick Safari makes it an even more interactive experience; the children were all having so much fun trying to find the LEGO animals, and if they find them all they get a sticker at the end too, which of course they love.

The Explorer Café at Twycross is a lovely place to sit and have a rest or get warm for a little while, and you usually get to see the snow leopards whilst you relax there. Ava loved being able to see the beautiful cats through the glass whilst we enjoyed breakfast. There’s also a brilliant soft play within the Himalaya Centre (which you can even use for a fee without entering the zoo!), and at the moment there is also a LEGO Brick Pit which kids can play in and build their own animal which they can take home, for a small fee.

Twycross Zoo is home to one of the largest primate collections in Europe and the only place in the UK, and one of four worldwide, where visitors can see all four types of Great Ape (gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee and bonobo) as well as a wide collection of gibbons. They are also leading the research into cardiovascular disease in great apes, as part of an initiative to develop a collaborative and co-operative approach to the investigation of cardiovascular disease among the European captive great ape population.

I love that conservation is so important to the zoo, and that they do so much for animal education and research. Over 80% of the beautiful babies born at Twycross Zoo in 2017 were from species that form part of the European Endangered Species Programmes (EEPs) & European Studbooks (ESB) breeding programmes.

Over Christmas there is lots on at the zoo, and they are also offering a huge 30% off tickets when you buy them online, until 31st December, meaning adults can visit for as little as £13.97 and children for £10.78!

There are lots of free activities on for kids, including storytime with Santa where kids can hear about the conservation work at the zoo, arts and crafts, and Santa will be wandering around the park too, so you can say hello!

There is also a breakfast with Santa, and a special supper experience where you can sing along to your favourite Christmas songs with Santa and his elf, followed by a magical Christmas story. So now is a great time to visit with so much on, and at a bargain price too.

We had another great day at Twycross Zoo. There is so much to see and do, and you can easily spend a whole day there. There are picnic areas, and play areas for the kids to run wild on, and so many different species to visit in their habitats. Ava loved getting up close to some of the animals and getting to stroke some, and it’s such a brilliant day out for her and the whole family.

Twycross Zoo is open to the public from 10am to 6pm, 364 days a year – book tickets here www.twycrosszoo.org.

We were invited to see The Great Brick Safari at Twycross Zoo, but all words and opinions are my own. See my full disclosure policy here.