San Diego Zoo Review!

 

I love animals so any chance I get to visit a new zoo or animal spot, I am up for the adventure! For the fourth of July weekend we took a short vacation to San Diego to enjoy a beach day and made plans to visit the San Diego Zoo. They also have the San Diego Safari park which is a sister park to the zoo & is located within an hour drive from the zoo, we plan on visiting that one in the future. We arrived to the park just before opening, so we were lucky to snag a parking spot up from and we were able to get our tickets quickly. The Zoo puts on a small opening ceremony where they bring out a big box full of large parrots that they raise up above all the zoo guests & open it to let all the birds fly out. It was fun to see the assortment of colored parrots. Tickets into the zoo are a bit high compared to other zoos we've explore coming in at $74 for ages 12+ and $64 for ages 3-11, however that is mainly due to the size & number of animals they have at this zoo. The San Diego Zoo is one of the twelve largest zoos in the US.

This zoo is huge! When visiting you should schedule out several hours if not most of the day to explore everything they have to offer and to really take your time seeing the animals. One of the cool things about this zoo is they have several animals that few zoos in the US have such as the polar bears & the newest inhabitents that will be on display soon are the new Panda bears that just moved in. If you would like to leave the zoo to eat lunch at your car or simply go somewhere such as back to your hotel to take a break the zoo does all you to get your hand stamped & you can come back later in the day to show your stamp + ticket to get back into the zoo. This is actually something we took advantage of as it was very humid the day we went so after seeing half the zoo we needed a break, so we went to get lunch and cool down at the hotel for a bit before heading back to check out the other half of the zoo. 

The San Diego Zoo has a few enclosures that are the biggest I've seen at a zoo, such as the Elephant enclosure and the Baboons who had massive areas to live an explore. When we were looking at the Elephants, I also noticed that they have many more enrichment toys then other zoos I've been to. Each area of the zoo is set up to reflect a theme such as the reptile walk, or Asian passage. A few of the bird aviaries are also quite large, one of them towered above you with several levels to explore - we couldn't even figure out how to get to the lowest level. I loved the number of birds, waterfalls, exotic plants and spots to sit they have throughout the bird areas. 

While on your adventure around the zoo, you'll also find plenty of areas with souvenirs and spots to grab food + drinks. They have a souvenir cup you can purchase that comes with free refills all day; you just need to show them the receipt when you get a refill. They are $15 each, however if you buy more than one you will get a discount on all of them. We thought the cups were worth it, we were able to get a few lemonades and a few times I asked for just ice so I could get water & you get to keep the cup to take home which is a bonus. The zoo itself had lots of shady spots, plenty of benches and was over all a very clean park. They also have a small splash zone where kids can play and cool off, when it isn't super-hot out there is also a play area. 

We had a great time at the San Diego Zoo, it was quite the adventure! We spent a total of around six to six and a half hours exploring the zoo. I was very happy with the photos and videos I was able to get as well, I will of course be adding quite a few of them to my nature photography accounts on Instagram & Tiktok - So if you love seeing wildlife and nature content and don't follow me yet, please head over and follow my pages. We can't wait to visit the safari park the next time we are in this area of California. 

★ This is not a sponsored post, we paid for this on our own. I enjoy sharing new places we explore with my followers.