How long do you need at Oasis Wildlife?

Four to five hours is realistic if you want to see the animal areas, the botanical garden and a couple of the shows. Families with young children often make a full day of it. Arriving at opening gives you the coolest hours and the emptiest paths.

How much does Oasis Wildlife cost?

Expect somewhere around 35 to 40 euros for an adult ticket and roughly half that for children, with online booking usually cheaper than the gate. Extras such as the camel ride and animal-feeding experiences are charged separately. Check the park's own site before you travel, as rates change regularly.

Is Oasis Wildlife worth it if you don't like zoos?

Probably not for the animal areas, which are conventional zoo enclosures rather than a sanctuary or rehabilitation centre. The botanical garden and Cactarium, though, stand up as an attraction in their own right, and you could spend most of a visit there. Be clear with yourself about which part you are paying for.

Do you need a car to get to Oasis Wildlife?

Not necessarily. The park is on the FV-2 at La Lajita, about ten minutes north of Costa Calma and 25 from Morro Jable, and the buses running between the south and Puerto del Rosario stop nearby. The park has also long operated coach pick-ups from the main resorts — confirm the details when you book.

A giraffe standing among palm trees in its enclosure at Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura, La Lajita

Photo: Norbert Nagel (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons

La Lajita, Fuerteventura

Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura

The island's biggest wildlife park, with a cactus garden to match.

Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura is a large privately run zoo and botanical garden at La Lajita, on the sheltered south-east coast about ten minutes north of Costa Calma. It holds several thousand animals across roughly 250 species, plus a Cactarium billed as the largest cactus collection in Europe. Most visitors come for the camel rides, the sea lion and bird-of-prey shows, and a full day away from the sand.

A zoo and a garden, on a big scale

Oasis Wildlife is a commercial wildlife park, and it helps to arrive knowing that. The animals — several thousand of them, across around 250 species — live in enclosures, and while the park runs breeding and education programmes, it is a zoo rather than a rescue centre or a reserve. Judged on that basis it is a good one: paddocks are large by Canarian standards, the arid climate suits many of the species, and the site is landscaped rather than concreted. If paying into captive-animal attractions is something you would rather avoid, this is not the one for you, and the island has plenty of alternatives.

What you get for a full day is variety. Camels — the park's original business, long before the zoo grew around them — still carry visitors on short rides across the hillside behind the enclosures. There are giraffes, big cats, primates, reptiles and a large aviary, plus scheduled shows with sea lions, parrots and birds of prey that run several times a day. The shows are the part children remember, so pick up the schedule at the gate and build the rest of your visit around them.

The Cactarium and the rest of the day

The botanical garden is worth the ticket on its own. Its Cactarium is presented as the largest cactus collection in Europe, with tens of thousands of specimens from a couple of thousand species — everything from thumbnail-sized globes to columnar giants taller than you are. In Fuerteventura's dry heat the plants look entirely at home, and this is the quietest, shadiest corner of the site in the middle of the day. Plant people should allow a good hour here alone.

Allow four to five hours for the whole park; families with small children often stay from opening until mid-afternoon. Buggies and wheelchairs manage most of the main paths, though a few garden sections are stepped or gravelled. Entry costs somewhere in the region of 35 to 40 euros for an adult and roughly half that for children, and booking online is normally cheaper than paying at the gate — rates are revised every season, so treat that as a guide rather than a quote. There are cafés and a restaurant inside, but bring water: shade is limited and La Lajita gets hot.