One of the most famous and beautiful sights in Tenerife is the Loro Park in the resort of Puerto de la Cruz. This zoo, which was founded in 1972 as a small parrot park, is now part of the most beautiful and best zoos in the world. Loro Parque was not completely unknown to us before our visit, because we already knew it from the german ARD documentary series “Parrots, Palms & Co.” and from the VOX documentary series “People, Animals & Doctors”. All the more we were now pleased to be able to visit the park live.
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The Loro Park in Tenerife
The Loro Park is located in the north of Tenerife and advertises with the slogan ‘El “must” de Canarias’ all over the island with countless posters. And this is not by chance, because the Loro Park is one of the strongest tourist magnets in the Canary Islands. Since its foundation in 1972, the park has had an influx of over 50 million visitors.
Things to know, opening hours & admission
Originally conceived as a paradise for parrots (Spanish: Loro), the history of the park began on an area of 13,000 m² and 25 employees. Today, it has the largest and most diverse reserve for parrot species and subspecies in the world and offers a home to about 4,500 animals in 570 species on an area of 135,000 m². In addition to biodiversity, the Loro Park is also characterized by the quality of its near-natural facilities and respect for the environment. As a result, the park was awarded the Travellers’ Choice Award as the “Best Zoo in the World” in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
In 1994, the Loro Parque Foundation was founded, which is committed to animal and species protection as well as education and research worldwide in order to promote the conservation of endangered parrots and marine mammals as well as their habitats. Since the foundation was founded, 10 species have already been saved from extinction. We find it interesting that a German founded the Loro Park: Wolfgang Kiessling is still the owner of the park and has also opened other attractions in the Canary Islands, such as the Siam Water Park in Tenerife and the large aquarium ‘Poema del Mar’ on Gran Canaria, which is one of the largest aquariums in the world.
Currently, the park has – due to corona – limited opening hours and is initially only open from Thursday to Monday from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. with limited visitor capacity. Adults pay an entrance fee of 38 EUR, children 26 EUR and children under 5 years have free admission. Parking on the premises costs 4 EUR for the whole day.
A map of Loro Park
On the following map you can get an overview of the different areas and animals in Loro Park. An interactive map can be found on the park’s official website.
A map of the Loro Park in Tenerife
The Zoo facility
The total area of Loro Parque is approximately 135,000 m². Everything is very clear and quick to reach, even with strollers. The complex is very well maintained and always offers great views of the local vegetation. Sometimes you feel like you’re in a jungle 🙂 Over 3,000 palm trees were planted on the entire area.
The Parrots
With the parrots, the Loro Park has become known. They are the namesake of the park and to this day their keeping, breeding and protection is an essential focus of the zoo. A total of 350 parrot species can be found in Loro Park; there are about 800 worldwide. Many of these species are threatened with extinction; some species no longer exist in the wild. It is all the more gratifying that certain species (e.B. spix macaw) have already been bred several times in Loro Park and thus preserved from extinction.
The Aquarium
Opened in 1992, Loro Parque’s “Acuario” consists of twelve thematic exhibitions with a total of 1.2 million liters of water. Whether piranhas, clownfish, moray eel or sharks: the zoo is home to countless species of aquatic animals and aquatic plants and recreates ecosystems from different parts of the world. For example, you will also find a large-scale coral reef here. The highlight of the aquarium is an underwater tunnel in which some sharks and rays can also be seen.
The Penguinarium
The Planet Penguin at Loro Parque is considered the largest penguinarium in the world. Since its inauguration in 1999, about 250 penguins from five different species (king, rock, donkey, rein and Humboldt penguins) have been living on almost 2,500 m² in a lifelike reproduced habitat. Here there is up to 12 tons of real snow per day, a large iceberg and polar climate.
What we really liked: Around the glazed front of the penguinarium runs a treadmill, on which you can simply stand on it and watch the penguins relaxed as you drive by.
Other animals in the park
During our tour of the park, we were able to discover many more animals, such as chimpanzees, lions, gorillas, caps, alligators and flamingos.
The Orca Show
The Orca Ocean is the highlight and flagship of Loro Parque. It is considered the most innovative and modern facility for accommodating orcas worldwide and has been specially designed for well-being and built to raise awareness among animals to the public. Six killer whales live here, which have built up a very close connection with each other as well as with their keepers in the many years of living together: Keto, Tekoa, Kohana come from the USA, Adán and Ula were born in Loro Park and Morgan is a wild orca female who was found completely exhausted in the shallow water near the Dutch coast, half-starved and without an associated orca group and later found a new home here in Loro Park.
Unfortunately, there is no way to see the orcas away from the two shows during the day, as their pools are not accessible. The show takes place 1x in the morning and 1x in the afternoon and lasts about 20 to 25 minutes. Up to 3,000 spectators can watch the show, where you can learn a lot about the animals and marvel at the impressive size of the mammals.
The Dolphin Show
Unfortunately, we could not see the dolphin show due to time constraints; but this should also be a real visitor magnet. Opened in 1987, the dolphinarium is considered one of the most modern facilities in the world. There are currently ten dolphins living in Loro Parque, three of which are already over 39 years old. They all form a large family of bottlenose dolphins.
The Sea Lion Show
We watched the show with the sea lions at the very end of our tour of the park and found that this was a very nice end to our day at Loro Parque. Just like the dolphin show, the sea lion show has an edutainment character, i.e. you try to convey Things to know about the animals to the visitor with entertainer elements. The show was really funny and we had the impression that the animals have great fun with the activities – especially if there is fresh fish as a reward 😉
We really enjoyed the day at Loro Parque ❤
We have to admit that it was very crowded in some places. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the park was completely closed for over 1 year due to the corona pandemic and now, of course, many want to visit the park again. On the other hand, there were also some larger groups of cruise ships in the park at the same time. In the afternoon, however, this had dissolved again and we could stroll relaxed through the zoo.
We recommend taking a whole day for loro park, so that you can watch all the enclosures and the shows in peace and also take a relaxing lunch break in between.
A map with all sights & photo spots on Tenerife
On the following map at Google MyMaps we have marked all important sights, attractions and photo spots on Tenerife.
Eine Karte mit allen Sehenswürdigkeiten & Fotospots auf Teneriffa
Our travel reports from Tenerife
» Santa Cruz de Tenerife – 8 Things to do & Top Photo Spots» The east coast of Tenerife – Attractions & Photo Spots
» The old town of La Laguna & the Rural de Anaga Park
» The Loro Park (Zoo) in Puerto de La Cruz
» The Los Gigantes Cliffs & Mountain village of Masca
» Puerto de la Cruz – Sights & the best Photo Spots
» North coast of Tenerife – Sights, Photo Spots & Things to do
» The Volcano Teide & Parque Nacional del Teide