Universal Kingdom: Ice Age | Adelaide Zoo | Review
Step inside a prehistoric world frozen in time at the Adelaide Zoo with Illuminate Adelaide!
Review by Angelica-Hazel Toutounji
This year as part of the Illuminate Adelaide Festival, the Adelaide Zoo has been transformed and taken back to the ice age. Picking up our tickets and seeing the signs we knew there was a prehistoric theme but we had no idea what adventures we had in-store!
As soon as we passed the entry gates we made a bee-line for the café and ordered a hot chocolate to warm us up. Passing under the fairy lights we took out our maps and made a plan of attack to see the majestic creatures dotted throughout the zoo.
Our first stop was a visit to a pair of dinosaurs at Brachi Brunch, lit up on the grass. We snapped a quick photo and then made our way to the playground to take advantage of the last rays of sun. Even though we were there to see the light installations it was really hard to pull the kids away from this area. Our visit reminded us just how awesome the nature playground at the zoo is with multiple slippery dips, climbing ropes, stepping stones and a big basket swing! It is an awesome feature and a great part of any visit to the zoo.
Prying our kids away from the playground we walked past some goats sprawled out amongst the rocks. We then noticed a big mammoth light installation with a machine pumping out little snow flakes. This spot was so much fun as the kids loved dancing in the snow. We then walked past the fossil pit excavation area perfectly set up for little kids with sandpits and shovels. The kids then set their sights on a fairy floss van and we treated them to a huge duck shaped fairy floss.
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With fairy floss in hand we made our way around to the Dino Dome, where we witnessed an awe inspiring puppet performance by the thunderbird that had my daughters convinced that dinosaurs were real! We then stopped past to watch a pelican feed, which was all kinds of fun because we have recently been watching Storm Boy and the girls loved seeing pelicans in the flesh!
We called past T-Rex terrain and eventually ended up in the Sumatran tiger viewing area. The big cats were asleep but it was incredible seeing them behind the glass and we were able to capture a photo just behind the roped area thanks to the friendly staff. Moving on we roamed towards the Spike Garden and found ourselves mesmerised watching the light installations at Minchin House.
We had only planned for an hour visit but one hour quickly turned into three as we were having so much fun! The biggest highlights were being able to see one of our favourite places, the Adelaide Zoo lit up at night, the fun fairy floss, the incredible lifelike roving Mastodon and Thunderbird, all of the colossal creatures and being able to play on the playground at night!
We visited with a five and eight-year-old and both girls had the best time. During our visit we saw families of all ages enjoying Universal Kingdom: Ice Age but found it catered very well to young kids with the dinosaur theme, fossil dig and mammoth mountain snow.
So if you are looking for an awesome activity to do with the kids over the winter school holidays, we highly recommend you visit Universal Kingdom: Ice Age, not only will the kids have a ball, adults will too!
What we like about it
- The opportunity to see the Adelaide Zoo at night, the fun dinosaur theme and all of the light installations, performances and fun fairy floss
Things to Consider:
- We recommend booking in the earliest session especially if visiting with young kids. There are food options available on site as well as so many tempting sweet treats
- Being at the Zoo is very convenient as there are toilets, hand washing areas, parents rooms and baby change facilities available
- There are quite a few free parks available after hours near Frome Road
Our favourite nearby coffee spots/cafes:
- We had a delicious hot chocolate from the Wisteria cafe. Highly recommend stopping past to get a warm drink at the start to take around with you
Universal Kingdom: Ice Age at Adelaide Zoo is only on until 19 July 2026
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go (July 2026).
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