EDINBURGH ZOO
Read moreOpened in 1913, this 33-hectare zoo is home to more than a thousand animals from 170 different species. Its two giant pandas, the only ones in Britain, arrived from China at the end of 2011: Tian Tian ("Honey"), the female, and Yang Guang ("Sunlight"), the male, are its main attraction. Koalas are also very popular, and there are many other fascinating specimens such as chimpanzees, penguins, Asian lions, Sumatran tigers, zebras, rhinos and many others.
CAIRNGORM REINDEER CENTER
Read moreNo need to go all the way to Scandinavia to get close to the reindeer! The ticket for the visitor centre includes the exhibition and the approach of a few deer in the enclosure, but you will have to follow one of the daily visits to venture out to meet the herds on the hills. If we forget everything once we are with the reindeer, busy feeding them, we still have to take into account that the "hill trip" is done in large groups (sometimes 80 people) and that you have to be in the queue as soon as the centre opens to get your place.