Yesterday we had a fabulous day at Kolmården Wildlife Park. I’d been putting it off until Adrian is older, but after glowing recommendations from friend R, we decided to give it a go this year after all. I’m very glad we did!

The main part of Kolmården is the animals of course. What makes it nice is that it is a wildlife park, not a zoo: the animals move around in large areas, and in many of them several kinds of animals share the enclosure. For example, the savanna enclosure covers 18,000 sq m and contains rhinos, zebras, and 6 kinds of antilopes. And most of the areas are not surrounded by fences, but ditches, or the entire area is sunken a few metres into the ground and the visitors’ path around it is above the animals’ level. It is not quite like being on a real safari in Africa but it is a great improvement over city zoos.

What I didn’t expect was all the other, non-zoo-related activities. There was a large playground with a jungle gym, a Bamse-themed playground with an activity trail, a roller coaster… great ways to let the kids rest their legs in between all the walking.

The two highlights for us adults were the cableway safari and the dolphin show. (The safari replaces their previous car-based safari, which I vaguely recall from my previous visit about 20 years ago). Now you glide in an airy gondola over a large area of rugged terrain, both above the treetops and down close, while watching everything from lions and bears to giraffes and ostriches.

The dolphin show was astounding. I had sort of expected them to do a few jumps, but they did synchronized backflips, precision jumps, threw and caught balls, swam on their backs, balanced their trainers on their noses, stood on their tails in the water (truly)… A video can’t do it justice of course but you can get a taste of the show on YouTube. A wonderful show, and very impressive animals. (Top tip: do pre-book your seats; the queue can be massive.)

Ingrid’s favourite part was the roller coaster. It really hit the sweet spot: not too scary for Ingrid, and still not dull for the adults. And best of all, by the time we were at the roller coaster, it was late afternoon and somewhat rainy, so there were hardly any queues. Get off, run around to the entrance, and get right back on again!

I am not sure what Adrian’s favourite part was – maybe the elephants – but he was clearly happy with the whole experience.

The park was very visitor-friendly. Good signage, seats and picnic areas where needed; everything clean and tidy and friendly. I cannot think of a single thing they could have done better.

Even though we got there almost as soon as the park opened and stayed until closing time, we didn’t have time to see and do everything. I can now totally understand why they sell two-day tickets and have a hotel next to the park. We will absolutely be going back to Kolmården in the years to come.