Dvur Kralove Safari Park

The safari park at Dvur Kralove is built almost entirely around African animals, and in the warm months its main draw is a route through open enclosures: your own car or a park bus drives in among giraffe, zebra, antelope and rhino, with the animals loose around the road and free to ignore you. Outside the safari season the same animals are visible from paths and pavilions, along with a large walk-through aviary, lions and a big collection of hoofed stock. The park has a long record of breeding rhinos and its herds are among the larger ones kept outside Africa. It sits in eastern Bohemia and takes most of a day to do properly.

What you actually see

• The safari route - the summer drive or bus ride through open enclosures shared by several African species.
• The rhinos - the breeding herds the park is known for, visible from both the safari and the walking zoo.
• The African savanna paddocks - mixed groups of giraffe, zebra and antelope on open grass.
• The walk-through aviary - a large netted hall of African birds you move through rather than look into.

When to go

The self-drive and bus safari runs only in the warm months, roughly June to September, and that is the reason to come; outside it the park works as a conventional zoo. Weekday mornings avoid the queue at the safari gate. Animals are most active early and late; midday in July usually finds them lying in shade.

Honest expectations

The safari is short, the road is fixed, and animals often sit far from it, so expectations of a wildlife drive need adjusting. The safari season is limited and the drive closes in bad weather. Entry is not cheap for a family, and the bus is a further cost if you do not drive your own car. Much of the site is ordinary zoo.

Nearby

The Krkonose foothills and the Kuks baroque hospital complex are both a short drive away.