Beautiful Family Zoo at Bioparc Valencia

**We were kindly gifted free entrance to Bioparc Valencia in exchange for promotion via this website and our social media channels. Tutte le opinioni espresse di seguito rimangono le nostre.

introduzione

I miei figli adorano gli animali. Whenever we get a chance to see them or be around them, they always jump at the chance. During our recent visit to Valencia, we were therefore very excited to be offered the chance to visit the beautiful family zoo at Bioparc Valencia.

While I always have mixed feelings about zoos – in particular about the animal welfare in relation to the size of the enclosures and the continued captive breeding programmes, there is no escaping the fact that seeing these majestic creatures up close is always a real treat.

Although actually outside of the Costa Blanca region, as Spain’s third largest city, Valencia is full of fun things to see and do for all the family and is luckily only a relatively short drive away. Tuttavia, if you are looking for an animal attraction closer to home in Costa Blanca, also see our review of the emozionante zoo e parco acquatico per bambini al Rio Safari a Elche.

O, if you are in Valencia and looking for other similar and fun animal-based things to do with kids, also see our review of the incredible aquarium for kids at Oceanogràfic València.

Qui però, we are reviewing our experiences of visiting the zoo at Bioparc Valencia with our 4 bambini.

Where is Bioparc Valencia located?

Bioparc Valencia is located towards the edge of the city of Valencia, in Spain. La posizione esatta è a: https://maps.app.goo.gl/HDLjbpQj5Sgx4Y4x9

There is plenty of on-site car parking available (€7 per car for the day), or else several of the city bus routes stop a short walk away. We arrived by bus and found it to be easy and convenient.

What are the opening hours for Bioparc Valencia?

Bioparc Valencia is open every day of the year. The current (Marzo 2025) opening hours for Bioparc Valencia are as follows:

Monday-Sunday: 10:00-19:00

In the winter months the hours are shortened to 10:00-18:00, while in the summer months the hours are extended to 10:00-20:00.

For a full calendar of opening times and scheduled daily events, vedere il loro agenda.

What is the cost of entry to Bioparc Valencia?

It is always advisable to book your tickets in advance via the Bioparc website. Tickets are sold for entry during specific time slots on any chosen day, helping to prevent the park from ever feeling too crowded.

The zoo operates dynamic pricing, where the cost of entry varies depending on the time of year and day of visit. Prices start from €28.90 for adults (13-64 anni) and €22.60 for children/pensioners (4-12, +65 anni).

Certain discounted tickets and annual passes are also available.

What is there for kids to do at Bioparc Valencia?

Being a zoo, as I’m sure you can imagine, the main attractions are of course the animals. Bioparc Valencia aims to bring a little taste of all that Africa has to offer. With specific habitats recreated from all over the continent, and with animals to match, there is a brilliant selection of different species to admire.

Throughout each day there is a schedule of events to base your visit around should you wish. These include in-depth talks from the keepers that sometimes provide the chance of getting closer to the animals, a show in an outdoor theatre area, and a short cinema presentation.

Away from the animals, there is also an outdoor children’s playground. This was sadly closed during our visit for maintenence, but I’m sure it won’t stay shut for long.

Review of our visit to the beautiful family zoo at Bioparc Valencia

As a family with 4 bambini (age 10, 8, 6 & 4), we all had a really great time at the beautiful family zoo at Bioparc Valencia. Come ho detto prima, my kids are big animal fans, so this came as no surprise! Even my 4 year old remained engaged throughout.

There are lots of different animals to make your way around. We arrived in the morning soon after the park opened and happily stayed until mid-afternoon. I think if you took your time, you could easily stay for a whole day.

Here is what we thought of the different aspects of our visit to Bioparc Valencia:

The animals

The range of animals on display is very impressive. Detto ciò, being themed on Africa, don’t expect animals from all over the globe. The zoo did contain pretty much all of the big hitters that you would expect from Africa though, so still plenty to go at.

There are lions, giraffe, elephants, rhinos, hippos, gorillas, hyenas and many many more…

The idea of recreating a range of different habitats from all over the continent of Africa is a nice one. It is good to see the animals mixing in an environment that is more natural to them.

My personal favourite was the chance to see hippos swimming underwater in a clear tank that replicates an African wetlands habitat. This is a feature that is unique for Spain and something that I have never seen before at a zoo. It was pretty spectacular.

The enclosures

As I stated at the start, while I love the chance to see these kinds of animals up close with my kids, it always also saddens me to see large mammals being kept in captivity. All of the animals at Bioparc Valencia did at least appear to be healthy, which is always encouraging.

Those thoughts aside, some real effort and attention to detail has clearly been put into creating the enclosures at Bioparc Valencia. Each of the different habitats have all been artistically created to provide a real sense of the corresponding natural environment, with plenty of variety and opportunities for animal interaction. I can have no complaints with how the zoo has been designed and presented to the public.

Tuttavia, even though the landscaping and appearence of the zoo is really beautiful, I was a bit concerned about the size of some of the enclosures. I understand that for zoos it is always a balancing act between giving the animals space to roam, while still ensuring they can be seen by the paying visitors. In the case of the big cats here, I don’t think they really had enough room – although in fairness the lions never appeared to be at all stressed out by this.

One bigger issue I think is the gorilla enclosure. An indoor viewing area has been created where visitors can see the gorillas up close through a glass wall. The noise being created by the crowd was obviously distressing the silver back gorilla. In fairness there was a member of staff trying their hardest to get people to stay quiet but I still think this viewing area needs a re-think to protect the health of the poor gorillas who seemed very agitated.

The shows

We didn’t get chance to sample everything that was on offer on the daily schedule during our visit. We did however go to watch the animal show in the outdoor theatre area. This was really fun and didn’t last too long, so was perfect for smaller children.

The show involved a selection of different birds of prey swooping over the heads of the crowd, as well as some other animals like porcupines let loose in the centre of the ring.

Throughout the day there are also talks from the keepers in each of the different habitat zones. These are primarily in Spanish, but there are also some English language talks. We went to the Madagascar area for a chance to see the lemurs and hear more about them from their keeper. While you obviously can’t touch, you can still get really close to the lemurs which is very special.

The food & drink

It is not permitted to bring your own food and drinks into Bioparc Valencia.

There are a selection of food and drink outlets, serving drinks, snacks, ice creams and fast food options. There is also a really beautiful restaurant for more formal dining that overlooks the savannah habitat area.

Although we didn’t stop to eat so I can’t comment on the food, we did enjoy a drink on the outside terrace next to this restaurant. What could be better than relaxing with a close-up view of some of Africa’s most iconic animals?

In sintesi

We all had a really enjoyable day visiting the beautiful family zoo at Bioparc Valencia. We were all very impressed by the range of animals on offer and the design of the zoo. The fact that you can circle around the enclosures allows for different viewing angles and perspectives that you don’t always get at similar animal parks and attractions.

While I did worry at times that some of the enclosures are a bit small, they are at least all creatively designed and themed. There has obviously been real effort put into trying to recreate natural habitats, right down to the selection of plants that have been used in each different area, which is commendable.

As a family, we all love being around animals, so Bioparc Valencia definitely didn’t disappoint. While the cost of entry is perhaps a little high (soprattutto per le famiglie più numerose come la nostra), you could easily stay all day so it still represents pretty good value for money as a treat.

Ad essere onesti, I’d say it’s worth visiting just to see the swimming hippos alone!