kolmarden wildlife park

3 Brits staying with a Swede in Gothenburg. We woke up at the crack of dawn to make the 3hr drive to Kolmården. Tickets were about £32 (400 SEK) each, quite pricey but we were expecting it and willing to pay considering the size and reputation of the park.The park was absolutely huge and was definitely one of the best if not the best zoo I have been to. We stayed from opening time all the way to near closing time and we still could have easily spent more time there if we didn't want to start the 3hr drive home at a reasonable time.One thing I have to say is YOU MUST SEE THE DOLPHIN SHOW!!! I have seen many dolphin shows on holidays, and we very nearly just sat it out because my girlfriend didn't feel well, there was a very large crowd waiting to get in, and I just assume it would be another show were you have a dolphin doing a few flips through hoops. Needless to say we were blown away by the show, it was by far the best show I have seen involving animals and it had my girlfriend crying at the end, she went and bought a dolphin plushie too. If you love animals and you love animal human bonding then it is an absolutely must see.We went on a hot clear day and near the start of the park there's a little trail you can take showing off various types of rocks and such. You eventually get to a spot with a breathtaking view of the lakes/forest around (See attached picture)I'm terrified of heights but we enjoyed the cable car ride. Be warned that it can get very high at times, and every so often it will stop/slow down and the cable will appear to be loosening as if you are going to be lowered to the ground. It can be quite scary if you don't like high rides.We spent a total 6 hours travelling to and from Kolmården, but if I was back in Sweden again I would gladly do the journey for another visit to this wonderful park.

Kolmarden Wildlife Park (Zoo) in Kolmarden, Sweden was not far from our home base on our visit in Linkoping Sweden.We spent the day at the Kolmarden Djurpark (which I think means Zoo or animal park). If you visit the website, hit the icon for the British flag so the page will translate into English.It's not a cheap day out at over $57 per adult and about $43 per child over 3. They DO, however, allow you to bring in a cooler of food if you want and make a day of it. Other than food and souvenirs, everything else is included...which means the rides, the gondola, the dolphin show...I think I heard there was also a seal show...and Bamse's World (which is a famous and popular cartoon bear...and Bamse is the Norwegian word for teddy bear).The zoo is built on a very steep hill...I mean steep. Like, if you let go of a stroller...gone baby gone, steep. Like cough up a lung steep. Like not handicapped accessible steep. Well, you feel me, right? So there was much stopping to catch breath and resting. OK, maybe that was just me. I didn't understand the signs of course, but you can figure out how to wind your way around the park and see everything. It was fun and the kids we were with (ages 2 and 4) enjoyed it a lot. Food isn't cheap but you could bring your own if that was a concern. There is also a gift shop.The dolphin show lines are long so you'll want to pay attention to when the show times are and get in line early. I love dolphins so I liked it. I hear tell there is a seal show, but we didn't see that, or know about it until later. There is a nice gondola ride that takes you over many animals to view from high up in your safari gondola. There are a few languages to choose from by pushing a button on the ceiling of the individual car you are in. After being in the noise and chaos, and long lines, it suddenly gets very quiet and peaceful on that ride. There are some breathtaking scenic views as well. A nice change of pace and some cool animals to see too.There are a few rides for the kids and a good day was had by all.If you are at the entrance gate, and turn your back on it, you will see a large aquarium building. That is apparently owned and operated separately and would be an additional charge and we didn't go there. If you check out their web page, there are season pass prices, and package deals for motel rooms and such.It's a zoo much like any other zoo, but the included rides, gondola feature, dolphin and seal shows make it a bit more special...and those views! You'll get your exercise! I would not recommend it for those with health issues. I'm not certain if there are any options for those with health issues, or handicaps. While the trail is smooth enough for a wheelchair, it wouldn't be safe to push one around the steep portions...because...did I mention it is steep?

We stayed one night at this hotel just outside Norrkoping. The adventure pool was great, and the whole hotel was built for kids. The wild life park was a bit boring and the distances between the animals was too long. Young children would get tired walking around for more than half a day.

The whole family had a great day. My younger sisters were extremely exited and even the parents hade a good time. The zoo was big enough and in a three hours we coudn't even see anything. The gondol was nice, you could listen about the animals at the same time it was moving forward.

We invited our family with grandkids to this fantastic Place .Stayed in the Vildmarkhotell on site .Purchased a all inclusive ticket for all (18 pers), which includes parking and access to everything the park offers .Excellent small shows all day long, and of course the dolphinshow.Everything is geared up to make it attractive to Children. There are plenty foodplaces around, from simple Hot dog & Hamburgers to a good restaurant. If you like picnic with your own food,there are picnic tables everywhere.The kids had 2 great days .While the entry fee seems high, I would say it's still resonabel since inside the park everything (shows,tivoli, etc) is free .The best zoo we ever visited

ParkingThe parking area is very large but you will have to pay at the pay stations. The park is not cheap but as the visit I did feel it had been worth the cost but only due to the dolphins and safari areas.AccessThe park is quite hilly and involves A LOT of walking. We had a buggy as there was no way my child would have been able to walk around the huge park without one.FoodThere are several places to get food in the park including a nice spot overlooking the Zebras and near the elephants. There is also another opposite the monkey house. We saw lot of people bringing their own food in a picnic.SafariThis for me made the park stand out over all the other parks I have ever visited. There is no extra charge for visiting this area but expect queues. You get in a cage that fits about 6 people so should fit a whole family. We were only 3 but they still allowed us have it to ourselves. You get taken over the enclosures of all the animals and get really close to the lions. They tend to place food directly under the path of the cages so it means you get within 10-15 feet of the lions. It was an unreal experience. We did the ride twice in a row. We would have done more but it was raining so not the best weather for our son to be sitting in a cage.Dolphin ShowThis was brilliant and well worth it. As with the safari area there is always queues for this show. Try to sit as close to the center as possible as this is where the dolphins spend most of their time.The only downside was that the zoo is so far from where we live that we won’t be able to come back for a few years. We will be back at some stage in the future for sure.

I was here for the first time, some old-timers were sad to see that the safari with your own car is discontinued. It is now only possible to see some animals like lions and giraffes from the safari ride gondolas. If you spend a lot of time amazing the other wildlife wonders, you are going to stand in a line for a long time. This day was as hot as it can be in Scandinavia, so looking for a shadow became most popular. Luckily some of the animals liked that, so we saw it all except the hyena and the wolf.Do not miss the Dolphin show. Of course these magnificent, clever mammals would be better off out in the sea, but to me they seemed to enjoy the show themselves.The food served in the restaurants is fast food, as fast and as average as it can get. Some seemed to bring their own meals in baskets. We should have done that, too.

Nice park and a great area to walk with the kids, ok amount of shops and eating places. Great dolpine show. The wild life gondola is definately a must.

We spend a wonderfull day at the park with our two kids. It was an amazing park with respect to the animals. Do not miss the dolphin show and the safari.if you stay at stockholm it worth the trip.

This park is sacred to me. It is a Swedish classic. Lately the focus have turned away from animals and more more stuff that's just not Kolmården. Like 20 sec rides that cost more than you spend on food that day. Sure there are some new great improvements but back to basics please.

We spent a very nice day at Kolmarden. They have several animals, and they seem to be kept under descent, ethical conditions, despite captivity. We all had a wonderful time.The dolphin show and the safari gondola ride are the big highlights! The park is huge and you end up walking a lot, so if you're visiting with children under 6-7 years old, you might want to rent one of their carts or take your own stroller.

We just got back from a 2 day visit to Kolmården with our 2 year old son and it was a great experience! The park is quite large, so be prepared for a lot of walking, but it is wonderful to see all the animals have so much space around them. Here are some tips if you are planning a visit:- If you visit any of the other parks owned by the same company, such as Grona Lund or Aquaria in Stockholm first, keep your receipt and show it at the ticket counter to get 30% of the entry price. We spent 200kr on our tickets to Aquaria, but then we saved 300kr on our Kolmården 2 day passes.- We stayed overnight to enjoy the park for 2 days, and we were able to save 1200kr by staying at a Scandic hotel in Norrköping instead of the Kolmården hotel, so consider that when planning a visit.- There is a lot of walking, especially up and down hills, so wear comfortable shoes. They also rent wagons to carry your stuff (or kids) for 40kr at the entrance, but we saw lots of people with rolling suitcases and coolers for their supplies.- You can bring your own food to the park and there are lots of areas to picnic in. When visiting in July, it can be very busy and the queues for food can be very long. It took half an hour of waiting in line to get a burger yesterday. - Definitely go to the safari ride over the park, there are great views from up there, and you may see some animals as well. Its the only view of the giraffes and lions. If you can go straight to the ride when entering the park, you may save some time. We waited half an hour in line yesterday, and the ride itself was another half an hour. They have an audio guide in multiple languages, and if you don't speak Swedish, they give you your own private car so you can have the audio in English, as opposed to filling each car up with 8 people.- The dolphin show is definitely the highlight of all the shows, the show is just awesome, we went twice! They sell tickets for reserved seats for 25kr each, and people without tickets start lining up an hour before show time. Since the theatre holds 1800 people, if you show up 20 minutes before show time, they open the doors and start letting people in and there are plenty of good seats available. We showed up 15 minutes before show time today and just as we entered they opened up the left section of the theatre and we were able to get front row (splash zone) seats, we loved it!- If you are only going for a day, don't waste a lot of time waiting for the shows to start. There is so much to see in the whole park, and many times just seeing the animals play on their own was far more entertaining than seeing them at show time. We saw the elephants first thing in the morning and they were playing in the pond and the baby was climbing all over the parents and it was so much fun to see them playing like that, so we came back a few hours later and waited for the elephant show to start, and it was just one elephant lifting its trunk and few times and an educational talk about elephants, not nearly as entertaining and we wasted a whole hour on it.- We had a stroller for our son with all of our bags hanging on it, and there are plenty of places to park the stroller when going on rides and to the shows. I was worried about theft and locking it up, but no one was locking up their strollers and we left ours for over an hour multiple times and nothing happened to it, it seems pretty safe there.- They have free wristbands for children at the entrance where you can write your name and number on it, highly recommended if you have little ones as it can get quite busy and hard to find each other in the chaos.

I've visited Kolmården Zoo as a child but don't remember much from that time. I'm very critical to zoos in general because of their ethical problems. The information given about the species and protecting made me feel a bit better.As a wheelchair user I found the steep hills of the zoo very difficult. I wouldn't have done without an assistant. I'm happy his entrance was free of charge. If the ground would have been wet I would have had some serious safety problems in the hills. There are plenty of animals to see. We spent there the whole day and still didn't have time to see everything. Our child liked the activities they had to offer. Just watching animals all day long would not have been enough to keep her interested all day long.We adults enjoyed most of the gondola ride over the park. The view was amazing. We nearly missed it since it wasn't advertised. I'm happy we happened to notice it. It might be a good idea to bring your own food with you especially if you are vegetarian. The menus of the kiosks and restaurants were mainly something like sausage and hamburgers. The red curry I had was ok but the portion was quite humble.

I grew up close to Kolmården and had visited as a child. It had been 20 years, and they've really upgraded the park since. I brought my husband, dad and grown up siblings, and we had a wonderful day. The gondola ride over the park was just phenomenal!

The safari tour is incredible, its a must!Overal very neat and tidy place and animals seem to have good time too :)Dolphin show is also recommended.