Kolmården Djurpark in Sweden is largest zoo in Scandinavia. It houses Scandinavia’s first dolphinarium and has world’s first cable car safari. With that kind of introduction one is eager and looking forward for their trip to this Zoo. We bought a basic entrance ticket which covers almost everything important to see at the zoo, like the wildlife safari, dolphinarium show etc.

How to get there?

Most people we know had driven to Kolmården Zoo by rental or their own cars. But, if you are like us who will rely on public transport for reaching this place, then it is pretty straightforward. Since we wanted to spend maximum time inside the zoo, we took an extremely early morning train.

I booked our train and bus tickets via SJ app. SJ is a company that runs regional trains between different counties across Sweden. My ticket via the app covered the train journey from Stockholm central station till Norrköping and The bus 420 from Norrköping central station till the Kolmården Djurpark.

We took an early morning train and reached Djurpark at around 9am. I was under the impression that since we reached early, we won’t be allowed inside as the place open at 10am. But they were letting us inside after scanning QR code on the tickets.

For return journey we got late evening train from Kolmården station itself. Zoo closed at 6pm, we had a bus journey covered till the train station. So we reached the station early, had dinner at a pizzeria before heading back to Stockholm

Points to remember

• Check the timetable on the calendar area of their website to know exact viewing times of different animals happening on the day. This helped us to focus on what we really don’t want to miss at the Djurpark.
• You can take your own food and drinks which you can consume in many open areas with benches
• All the presenters of the shows give information about the animals in Swedish. They hang around after the show, so you can ask questions if you have them. All of them can speak in English.
• Park has many small big restaurants, cafes, a major food court to buy food and enjoy them
• There are many toilets as well
• If you are bringing a stroller then each area has a stroller parking area to keep your strollers. There is no specified zones, areas inside these parkshed. Everything is basis on trust
• There are certain pull along carts and strollers available for free at the entrance of Djurpark
• You can get a wrist paper tag for your child, to write parent’s /guardian name and phone number.
• Besides the main attractions there are many rides, games, play areas for children of all age groups, so your child will be entertained be assured 🙂
• We did not book any special extra viewing tickets for animals and birds, yet were satisfied with our experience

Our Day at the park

We have a toddler below three years old (no ticket required for children to 3 years old) who was interested in Bamse. So we started our day first visiting the Bamse world. We got the opportunity to see the first Bamse show of the day and then the toddler got a chance to meet and hug the Bamse. It was a highlight as toddler has never seen a stage show and totally believed a stuffed cartoon character. We got an opportunity to click pictures with Bamse as well.

Following this we had a self brought breakfast at the zoo. There are plenty of free benches available to use.

We followed this with the bird show called Birds of prey. It was a wonderful show with opportunity to see birds up and close.

After this we saw the red panda, camel and the brown bear show. All of which is entertaining and must watch.

We spent some time at different play parks and fun rides across the zoo.

We had lunch at the big food court on the side of Dolphinarium. We witnessed the Dolphin show which is absolute must if you are visiting Kolmården.

We spent our more than half an hour at the long queue for Safari Park but thoroughly enjoyed the Gondola ride. We witnessed so many of these wild animals (giraffes, deers, bears, lions) which are not part of the rest of the zoo and live in more natural setting.

Rest of the evening was spent in the Savannah region where we saw monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, zebras, rhinoceros, ostriches, camels, elephants, deers of so many varieties! Weather was extra warm by this time and we were glad to have kept this part of the zoo after our ice-cream break.

By the time we reached back to exit, we were glad how we spent our day and first visit at the Kolmården.

It is a must visit for every family with kids. You will most likely not regret it. What I really enjoyed the most that most animals were visible and did not really look in any bad condition.