Even making my 4th visit to Pairi Daiza – there’s still new things and old favourites to see every time! This was my 4th visit and my mum’s 3rd visit, so we’ve seen most of the park already. I mentioned in my last post that we needed an accessible room for my mum, she wears a prosthetic leg so just needs a little less fast-pace and definitely fewer hills. We opted not to take a wheelchair hire, but even if we had, I don’t think I would have been pushing the wheelchair up the few hills there are at Pairi Daiza, I’ve done the hill at Edinburgh Zoo and that was a stressful experience (worried I might let go accidentally on the way down XD)! But because we’ve both been before on multiple occasions we didn’t really feel like we were missing something, and perhaps next time we’ll try out the wheelchair and see how that goes. We very much stuck to the more accessible parts of the park – my mum is generally fine with a small number of stairs, so we weren’t restricted in areas where there were only stairs, but steeper hills like the majority of Kingdom of Ganesha and the back part of Land of Origins weren’t on the cards for this trip. The map online does have indicated where paths are not wheelchair/pushchair accessible, however doesn’t have hill-steepness marked on which would be another useful option. But onto what we did see:
A brand new entryway to Pairi Daiza
We stayed one night mid-week and had spent our previous night in Brussels so we could catch the train first thing in the morning to make the most of our time. We arrived around 9:30AM – the train station is around 15min walk for those without mobility considerations, we took around 30mins to walk and there is a bit of a hill involved, plus the ground isn’t great for a wheeled suitcase! We checked in at the resort entrance and for us our wristbands were both hotel access and also park access so we used these to enter – which was done through the fantastic new entryway! We saw this being built on our October 2022 visit but didn’t quite know what it was, and delighted to visit and see the completed product, just wow! The first think you come across is a fantastic fountain, celebrating caring for wildlife, there are so many details on here to check out and of course there is a panda included. Around the sides here are beautiful mosaics and some windows selling food – these weren’t all open when we were there but it was before the official opening time so during the day I suspect these are all open and popular. Then in the covered entrance hallway under the huge clock there are a few customer service areas and also some shops – one general with so many Pairi Daiza branded items, much larger than the previous shop, and then a few specialty options as well. After passing through here there is then another courtyard and at the end here is where your ticket/pass is checked and then you are in the park!
Cambron Sur Mer + Cambron L’Abbaye
The Cambron areas are the first in the park, and do also contain the farm which I’ve already posted about, but there is also a lot else to see here. After coming in the new entrance, the path leads directly down to a water feature/floral/garden display and beyond here is the newly restored aquarium – this is something we’ve not done on visits before, I’m not sure if it was closed when work was being done, but there was a lot of scaffolding up and I think the roof was being made on our last visit. What is different about this aquarium is that the windows are all screens looking into a seafloor view, every so often you might see a very large creature swim by – quite impressive and memorable! So we went in this time, even though there is a lift available to get between the floors, overall the corridors in here were quite narrow and I found the space quite small – when busy I’m not sure it would be ideally suited to a wheelchair user, but my mum went around anyway, we just took it slowly and found spots to step aside to let big groups pass by. It was also very dark in here. The Cambron L’Abbaye area is immediately to the right side and one of the first animals to see are the camels, I really like watching these guys because I’ve not seen camels on many of my more recent zoo trips and just look how lovely they are! Super fuzzy, fantastic beard fur and so chilled out. One of my favourite spaces in the park is the yard at the side of the Brasserie where the space is shared by capybaras, tapirs and giant anteaters – what a cute trio and was so happy to see all of them as I’ve struggled to see them on previous trips. The capybaras and tapirs cuddled together on our evening stroll back from dinner at the Izba was the most adorable sight^ This space also has the river running through which makes for a very scenic space. In this area you can also board the steam train that takes you around the park, we did this last time and really enjoyed it so went again. The Cambron Sur Mer area is next to and behind the aquarium, there aren’t so many animals here and this time we didn’t get lucky in spotting the seals but you always will spot the African penguins, such a cute penguin species and they’re in a walkthrough space so you may get lucky and have some come very close up. For accessibility in these areas, there are a few sets of steps but always an alternative although it may take some extra time getting there. There was also a relatively steep hill coming up from the front of the Brasserie and underneath the bird aviaries which was also cobbled thus also requiring some extra time.
Middle Kingdom
Of course, being where the pandas live, a lot of time was spent in the Middle Kingdom as per my previous trips – but it does have beautiful Asian designs and is really stunning to look at and to get photos, especially on a blue sky day like we were lucky to get! This is a large area to the left side after entering the park. The first animals we saw were the Asian black bears who were very playful and enjoying their large climbing frame. When we were there it happened to be the day of arrival for the golden snub-nosed monkeys, so I went and watched the procession into the park, and on our second day we tried to catch a glimpse of them through the glass but they were a little shy still, but still, something great to experience and their outdoor yard space looks fantastic. We caught a very small glimpse of a red panda in a tree but it was far too tucked into the branches to get a good photo. Would have loved to have seen the binturong as I haven’t seen any in some time, but we had no luck on our visit, and we also spent ages trying to spot the snow leopard, we were sure it was probably sitting looking right at us, but we just couldn’t see it! There were some stairs in this area, and a few slopes but these were pretty gentle and for the most part paths were flat and easy to navigate.
Land of Origins + Kindgom of Ganesha
We spent the least time in the Land of Origins and the Kingdom of Ganesha – at the back part of the park the paths were more hilled/steep and there were also quite a lot of steps to navigate in some areas. We also only went to these areas on our first day in the park however you do pass both on the steam train ride. Although we didn’t spend a lot of time here, we did see most of the animals. In the Land of Origins it was great to see a gorilla outside as I’d only seen them inside previously and it’s all through glass inside. We very much enjoy the lemur walkthrough, didn’t spot any ringtails but I do love the red lemurs a lot! The park has a lion cub currently and I’d hoped to catch a glimpse of the little one but it was very much nap time for everyone when we stopped by and lots of people were already waiting in the best spots hoping for a glimpse of the cub. The only animal that we looked at in Kingdom of Ganesha were the white tigers who were both quite active when we were there. But on our previous visit we did see more animals, which you can check out *here*!
*Brand New* Islands of the Rising Sun
The Islands of the Rising Sun is the newest area in the park and themed on Japan. Overall it did look a bit like the planting needed to grow into the space a bit more and there could have been a few more animals to see, but the theming looked great and I think this is a nice little addition to the park. Here we saw plenty of the Sika deer, which were in a walkthrough area and are a very sweet little deer species, and we also saw the cranes, I really liked their space design especially the ‘windows’ in the walls, those made for some great photography! There were of course also Japanese macaques, whose space was built onto the outside of the Mersus Emergo ship. Would have loved to have seen the racoon dog, these look super cute in pictures and I don’t think I’ve seen any before. We were here almost first thing in the morning and it was very quiet with almost no other visitors so a good time for a peaceful experience. This area was completely flat and paths were a good width, so a very accessible space.
Austral Cape
The Austral Cape is the Australian themed area, it’s one of the smaller areas of the park but still has plenty to see. We saw a lot of this area last time so we didn’t spend a lot of time here on this trip, but of course made a few stops to try and see the wombat again, we were in luck and saw it on the last visit before leaving! And we had to head to the koala house as well to see Dameeli, who was born at Edinburgh Zoo. He is still living alone but has a very nice space here – on this visit the inside viewing wasn’t open when we stopped by however we could see him easily through the window from the outside. Super cute as always^ This area is also pretty flat so easy to get around – the kangaroos are in a walkthrough area and here the paths are more rough, and also quite narrow in some places, so potentially harder to navigate with a wheelchair, but not impossible.
Land of the Cold + Last Frontier
Onto the final lands, these are the spaces that are part of the resort access so we spent our evening and early morning in the Land of the Cold and the Last Frontier because of the 24-hour access. Before and after our dinner at Izba we enjoyed a walk up to the Land of the Cold to explore the ‘underground’ passages to see the walruses and polar bears – always a bit of a challenge seeing the polar bears in the water here, but one did jump in however only when we were above ground! The walruses however are always easy to catch in the water. Here there are steps and some steeper areas which may be more challenging for those needing mobility assistance, for example to see the racoons, but for the most part paths are wide. The underground viewing areas all have stair-free access as well with a flat path and a lift both available at different sections. We spent our morning after breakfast in the Last Frontier, because we headed to the special breakfast feeding at the brown bears which was just amazing, there are so many bears here and they have a great space. The path is on top of the hotel rooms here which are face to face with the bears, and the keeper fed the bears at different points along the path so guests in the rooms could have a fantastic view as well as those on the path above. We also saw the black bears, puma and moose – would have loved to have seen the beaver too, I’ve seen spaces for these in a few zoos now but am yet to see an actual beaver! This area is almost completely flat, the only slope is up and down from the brown bear viewing and it’s a pretty gentle one, and overall viewing all animals here is generally very easy and accessible.
