Pairi Daiza

Pairi Daiza sits on 55 hectares of former abbey grounds in the Walloon countryside, about an hour southwest of Brussels, and it is genuinely unlike any zoo you have visited before. The monastic ruins, ornamental lakes, and elaborately themed garden zones — Chinese, Balinese, Amazonian — give the place a strange, immersive grandeur that can feel more like a film set than a wildlife park.

That theatricality is part of the appeal, though it occasionally tips toward the overwrought.

The giant pandas are the undisputed drawcard. Belgium has had remarkable luck with its pair, Tian Bao and his parents Hao Hao and Xing Hui, through a loan agreement with China, and the panda house draws long queues by mid-morning. Arrive at opening — gates open at 10:00 — and head there first.

Beyond the pandas, the Bouddha jungle section houses bonobos and okapi in enclosures that feel spacious and considered, and the Gondwana greenhouse is a lush walkthrough aviary worth lingering in. The aquarium tunnel and seahorse displays are particularly strong with children.

Conservation credentials here are real but mixed. Pairi Daiza Foundation funds field projects in Central Africa and Indonesia and participates in European Endangered Species Programmes for several ungulates and great apes. The enclosure design is generally well above average for a continental European zoo of this age, though a few older paddocks show their years.

This is firmly a full-day destination — most families spend seven or eight hours. The site is largely flat and pushchair-friendly, though gravel paths in the garden sections can be awkward. Summers are crowded and hot with limited shade in the central zones.

Bring a picnic if you want to avoid the overpriced on-site restaurants, and book tickets online in advance to skip the entrance queues.