Loro Parque Tickets: Prices, Queues & Smart Booking Tips

Inside Loro Parque: what you’re paying for

Loro Parque opened in 1972 as a parrot garden — “loro” is Spanish for parrot — and the Kiessling family has spent five decades growing it into a full zoological park that regularly tops “best zoo in the world” rankings on review platforms. It sits just outside the centre of Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife’s lush north coast, and it’s the sister park of Siam Park in the south.

What fills the day:

• OrcaOcean — the orca facility and its educational presentations, the park’s most famous (and most debated) attraction.
• The dolphin and sea lion arenas — scheduled presentations run through the day; the printed schedule you get at the gate is the key to planning your route.
• Planet Penguin — a huge indoor polar house with a moving walkway gliding past hundreds of penguins on real snow and ice.
• Katandra Treetops — a walk-through aviary where lorikeets and other birds fly around (and occasionally land on) you.
• The parrot collection — the largest in the world, backed by the Loro Parque Fundación’s genuinely significant breeding and conservation work.
• Big animal houses — gorillas, chimpanzees, jaguars and tigers, plus a walk-through aquarium with a shark tunnel.

The park suits a wider audience than a ride park: toddlers, grandparents and teenagers all get a full day, and nobody is excluded by height limits. What you’re paying for is density and quality — enclosures here are consistently more modern and more naturalistic than at the average European zoo, and the conservation foundation gives the entrance fee a purpose beyond the turnstile. The Fundación has channelled tens of millions of dollars into parrot and marine conservation projects worldwide since the 1990s, and several parrot species owe their survival in the wild partly to breeding work done here.

Expect a full-day rhythm closer to a botanical garden than a funfair: the site is dense with mature palms and subtropical planting, paths wind rather than march, and there’s always a quieter corner when the arenas empty out. Food options inside range from kiosks to sit-down restaurants; prices are resort-level, so a big breakfast beforehand is the frugal move.

Timing is everything

• Arrive at opening (typically 09:30). The first hour is the quietest the animal houses will be all day, and cooler mornings mean more active animals.
• Grab the presentation schedule first and build your loop around it — the orca, dolphin and sea lion arenas are at different corners of the park, and a bad plan means criss-crossing all day.
• Midday is coach-tour hour. Tours from the southern resorts tend to land late morning; the animal houses get noticeably busier from 11:30. That’s your cue to sit in a presentation while the walkways are packed.
• Winter is underrated. The park is open year-round, the north of Tenerife stays mild, and December–February crowds are far thinner than in the school-holiday peaks of July–August.
• Arena seating for the popular presentations fills 15–20 minutes early in peak season — arriving as the previous crowd leaves gets you a shaded seat.

Insider tip: Do Planet Penguin straight after your first presentation of the day, not at the end. By mid-afternoon the moving walkway queue is the longest in the park; before noon you can often loop through twice.

The insider entry

There’s no queue-jump system to buy here — the park doesn’t need one — but two upgrades change the visit. The Discovery Tour takes a small group behind the scenes with a guide, including areas ordinary ticket holders never see; places are limited per day, so book it with your entry rather than asking at the gate. And if you’re staying in the south without a car, transfer-inclusive tickets effectively buy you an earlier arrival than the big coach tours, which is worth more than it sounds: the difference between a 09:30 and an 11:00 start is the whole quiet morning.

How to save on tickets

• Book online. On the official site and resale platforms like GetYourGuide, adult Loro Parque tickets start around €47–50, and pre-booking skips the ticket desk.
• The Twin Ticket with Siam Park is the single best saving on Tenerife: one purchase covers both parks on separate days for less than two individual tickets.
• Child discounts typically apply up to around age 11, with free entry for the youngest — check the current age bands when you book.
• Tickets with coach transfer from the southern resorts cost more, but usually less than a return taxi — do the maths against your hotel’s location before dismissing them.
• Annual passes and second-visit offers exist for residents and repeat visitors; only relevant if you’re on the island for weeks, not days.

Getting there without the hassle

Loro Parque is on the western edge of Puerto de la Cruz, in the north of Tenerife.

• From Puerto de la Cruz: it’s walkable from the western end of town — a pleasant 20–30 minutes along the coast — and a free road train shuttles visitors between the seafront near Playa Martiánez and the park entrance through the day.
• From the southern resorts (Costa Adeje, Las Américas, Los Cristianos): allow about an hour by car via the TF-1 and TF-5 motorways. Coach-transfer tickets and Titsa public buses (change in Puerto de la Cruz) cover non-drivers.
• By car: the park has its own car park; the approach through Puerto de la Cruz is signposted well.
• Nearest airports: Tenerife North (TFN) is roughly 30 minutes away; Tenerife South (TFS) about an hour.

Make it a trip

The obvious pairing is Siam Park — the Twin Ticket makes the double-header the island’s standard plan, with the water park on your sunniest day and Loro Parque as the flexible one (it works in any weather). Puerto de la Cruz itself deserves the rest of your Loro Parque day: the old harbour, the black-sand Playa Jardín next to the park, and the Lago Martiánez seawater pools are all close.

Island-hoppers heading to Fuerteventura can add Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura for a very different, desert-set animal park. For more ideas, browse our zoos and aquariums hub or the full Spain destination page.

One routing note: if you’re basing yourself in the south, do Loro Parque on a day when the south looks cloudy. Tenerife’s microclimates often run in opposition — and the park is a full-day attraction that doesn’t depend on sunshine, while your beach days do.