What the Loro Parque is to Tenerife is Cocodrilo Park to Gran Canaria / Grand Canary. Even though you cannot compare it with the key animal attraction on their neighboring island, Cocodrilo Park is definitely one of the key tourist spots on the island. Thereby, most people visit the park as a zoo – in fact, it is an animal rescue and sanctuary, which is caring for animals found or left on the Canary Islands. I just had to have a visit.
Cocodrilo Park – Location & Admission
Even though Cocodrilo Park is just a couple of kilometers away from GC-1, the main motorway of the island, it feels to be quite remote up in the hills of the island. You likely head the GC-104 road from Arinaga to the park, when you visit the rescue center. In peak season times, there is a bus transfer to the park. From Las Palmas Airport, the park is roughly a 15km drive.
At the time of visiting, the park was only open from Friday to Sunday, 10:30 to 16:00 hrs. My visit was however during Covid-19 times, so that I rather believe in significantly longer hours during normal times. Adult admission is 9.90 EUR. Like in many Canary Island places, there are reduced prices for residents. Apart from the demand to wear a mask and the reduced opening times, there was no limitation of my visit due to the pandemic.
Cocodrilo Park – The Visit
When I visited the park in December 2020, it hosted some 500 animals. The area is quite large, roughly 22,000 square meters. The park feels very cozy and nicely maintained. Due to its location it is slightly hilly. Signposting was very good – the pandemic situation, however, forced you on a round trip more or less anyway. The majority of signs are in Spanish, English and German. A lovely part of the visit is the cactus garden.
The park is especially a lovely place for reptile lovers. Right behind the ticket desk, you meet alligators, snakes, but also iguanas. There is a cave-alike terrarium area with snakes and other reptiles.
The North of the park hosts the crocodile habitat. The feeding of the animals is done in a show-alike presentation, which is very popular at the visitors – I felt there were quite too many people at the same spot during the feeding, so that I just passed it. The more time I spent in the accessible habitat and watched the lemurs and birds. In the same area there were also emus and even merkats.
On North side of the park, there are some additional habitats. There are masses of turtles, but also cattle and llamas. This area also features some more exotic animals like porcupines. The key attraction of the animal park are however two white Bengal Tigers.
Cocodrilo Park – Services
There are some additional food outlets in the park, which were closed during my visit. The staff at the restaurant (which also hosts a gift shop) was very friendly and food was really nice (at a reasonable price).
I arrived to the park from North, which just leads you to this very small car park with roughly a dozen of lots. South of the park is major car park, though. Parking is free.
Cocodrilo Park – My View
Cocodrilo Park is really a nice place with interesting animals. They really try their best of give the non-human beings a good time there. You had a good chance to explore the animals – and even on the key attractions, the tigers and the crocodiles, the situation was not that bad. I definitely enjoyed my visit.
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