After having seen numerous zoological parks, bird sanctuaries, night safaris, aquariums, dolphin shows and zoos in last couple of years, a trip to a wildlife park hardly arose my interest when i first heard about it. And frankly, even the description of the kolmården Wild Life Park on the net didn’t seem to be offering anything different from what I had already seen. But then, I decided to go along with my friends, just to enjoy the outing with our big fun group. And, I must say, what a good decision it was, just for the spectacular dolphin show there.. (details later in the post.. )
Before I begin I should mention this : If after reading this article you feel like visiting the place right away, you will have to wait till next summers. The park is closed from October till March end..
How to reach Kolmården
Left to Right : View from the train, View just outside the park
The best way to reach Kolmården during the summers is to take the special tour buses that start from Stockholm Central Station and the bus ticket cost includes the entry ticket to the park as well. But the time we decided to go, these buses had stopped plying. So after some research, we came with this travel plan which was the cheapest.
From Stockholm Central, take the Regional Train to Kolmården Station (Train No. 229/233) and from Kolmården station, take the bus#433 that takes you to the park. The return train ticket cost was around 240SEK and the bus trips costs 20 SEK one side. You can get the timings etc from the Stockholm journey planner website (www.resplus.se) and ticket prices from www.sj.se. Note that these ticket prices keep on increasing as the date of travel approaches, so earlier you book, the better.
Entry to the park
The entry to the park
The entry ticket to the park costs 245SEK. Add to it, the cost for Safari park entry and the Safari tour and which is 80SEK (50SEK entry and 30SEK tour bus cost). The Safari park is an extension to the main park where animals are not kept caged but roam around freely in open and a bus takes you around the area.
Attractions Inside
As one would expect from any decent wild life park, there were plenty of animal species inside starting from baboons to tigers and lions. I would not go much into the details of all the variety (fact is I don’t remember them all either). Instead, I would give a brief description of the various animal shows that we saw there.
At the entry gate, we got a map and a pamphlet with schedule of all the animal shows. We spent some 10 minutes figuring out the path we should take so that we can accommodate all the shows.
The Bird Show
The first in the line was the bird show. Birds dancing around, jumping, hopping, catching food in air etc etc… With nice music playing in the background and interesting hostesses, the show was decent but not anything extraordinary. Fun part was when one of the big birds came and sat down next to one of the spectators and scared the shit out of him..
The Tigers
There was no tiger ‘show’ as such. But then, tigers are tigers and always deserve a special mention. Every time I see them, I feel sad about the fact that this splendid royal animal is an endangered species now.
The seal show
Next in the series was the seal show. If you see a seal lying down, it feels as if its a big filthy heap of flesh with hardly any life. But the kind of acrobats that were performed by them in the show were amazing. Standing on their tail, dancing, flipping and running… they did everything. The show was being narrated as a complete story with love hatred and revenge all included. But it was in Swedish language so could not make much sense of it.. :(
The Dolphin Show
This was one show that made my feel that I got good value for my money spent. It was held in an indoor pool with scintillating lighting and music effects. Dolphins are one of the most intelligent animal species and it was evident in the kind of act that was put on display by them. What was amazing was the synchronization between dolphins during jumps, curls etc. Many of us wanted to see the same show again, but then we decided against else we would have missed a large part of the park.
And the rest
Apart from the ones that I mentioned above, there was a ape show which was ok and an elephant show which we missed. Towards the end, there was a museum which had various animals’ skeletons on display and is a must watch. And then there were a couple of fun tunnels and slides for kids near the exit which we enjoyed as well.
The Safari
At the end, we took the safari park bus that was an approx 45 minute ride into the open jungle area where animals roamed around freely. Most of the animals we spotted there were also present in the main park except probably for the giraffe and the Lion. The ride wasn’t too much of fun and if you are scarce on time and or money, you can give it a miss.
Finally, dead tired, we spent some time at a coffee shop outside the park and then took the bus back to the railway station.
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