The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is an outstanding zoo. It has some very interesting exhibits in which they’ve worked out to duplicate the appropriate environs for what’s on exhibit. They’ve got a huge “desert dome” and a jungle building, for starters. It is ranked very highly on lists for family-friendly zoos. We went on a cold day, so we only went to the handful of indoor exhibits right near the entrance, and still felt like we’d had a worthwhile experience.
Brookfield Zoo just outside of Chicago in the same class as the San Diego Zoo (which I have also visited).
It’s been a while since I’ve been to the San Francisco Zoo, but I think it’s comparable to the above zoos.
Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon both have pretty nice zoos.
The St. Louis Zoo is very nice, but Its been getting remodeled for what seems like two decades (But its free, so no complaining here).
A roar and snore visit to Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo is quite an experience. The zoo has been created with hidden moats replacing walls and fences so that when you walk or cycle around you have the disconcerting sense that the animals could get at you if they wanted.
The Wilds isn’t technically a zoo, but the place is so cool. You take a safari tour through part of the 10,000 acres and see wild animals without cages or visible fences or buildings.
The last time I went to The Wilds, there was a giraffe in the middle of the road so the driver stopped and waited for it to move. It moved right up to the bus and licked the windshield.
The Wilds is in Cumberland, Ohio which isn’t too far from Columbus. It is also fairly close to Wheeling, WV where you can visit Oglebay Resort and the Oglebay Good Zoo and Planetarium. The Good Zoo is small, but great for children and they offer plenty of interaction with the animals.
About an hour from Wheeling is Pittsburgh, PA. I haven’t been to the Pittsburgh Zoo in years, but as a child, it was quite enjoyable.
All of the zoos in New York City are great - http://www.wcs.org/. They are well run, have very good exhibits, and nearly any animal you would care to see. Additionally, the WCS has a lot of history (over 100 years, they played a large part in saving the Bison from extermination). The Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, and Brooklyn Aquarium are probably the most bang for the buck. IMHO the Bronx Zoo is the best: it is huge and has the most diverse assortment of animals. The website indicates that some of the oldest parts of the zoo are currently under renovation, although that’s relatvely small part of the whole thing. Also, it is right across the street from the Botanical Gardens, which are even bigger and also gorgeous, plus it’s close to Arthur Avenue, where you can get some Italian food. Anybody considering visiting should set aside a whole day, and wear good walking shoes.
Sounds cool
Milwaukee has a nice zoo. http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/
We had a family pass there back when I lived in Milwaukee. It was a fun place to go.
I miss Sampson! My grampa used to take me to visit him, way back in the day.
Zoo fan here. I like the San Diego Zoo, the LA Zoo was a nice zoo, Cincinnati has a great zoo. I really think the Bronx Zoo is the best zoo in the US.
For a small zoo, the Turtleback Zoo in NJ is surprisingly great.
Jim
It does, but you have to hike for quite a ways to get around it, and if you visit KC in the summer, as we did, it’s HOT out there. So time your visit for early morning or late afternoon, wear sun hats of some kind (even a baseball cap made a difference) and TAKE WATER. Because the water fountains and refreshment stands are few and far between.
Also, we were forever grateful for a woman in the gift shop who advised us, “It’s downhill getting out there, but uphill coming back, but you won’t realize it until you’re halfway back and it’s too late, so figure on taking the tram back to the main zoo.” She was absolutely right.
The St. Louis Zoo is indeed quite wonderful, and is free.
Brookfield Zoo in Chicago is also wonderful, but it’s HUGE. In my opinion it isn’t physically possible for an adult to see the entire thing in one day unless you’re some kind of speed walker and you don’t stop to read the informational displays. So you have to decide, going in, which things are “Must Sees” and which things you don’t really care that much about. And then you have to stick to your itinerary and not succumb to the temptation to “swing by there, just for a minute, because it’s on our way”, or else you’ll end up at closing time absolutely exhausted and feeling like you never wanna “do the zoo” again.
I don’t know if I would suggest a trip from the Bahamas only for this reason, but I have such a fondness for the smaller Central Park and Prospect Park zoos. They are more like mini-zoos, located right in the middle of urban New York. They showcase a nice and varied selection of animals that are appropriate for smaller environments (although the more exciting animals are in Central Park). The current incarnations of the zoos have incorporated some of the original WPA architecture (a bit more successfully in Prospect Park, IMHO) which is great for design geeks. They are also very reasonably priced.
The Bronx Zoo is great, of course, but it’s hard for some visitors to fit it in their schedule if they are only in NYC for a short time because it does take up a big chunk of the day, so in that situation I always recommend the Central Park zoo.
And welcome to the SDMB, Furious_Marmot!
With all the mentions of the San Diego Zoo, I’m surprised no one’s suggested the San Diego Wild Animal Park. In my opinion, having been to both, the WAP far surpasses the zoo. Wait however long the line takes to ride the tram around the amazing, free-roaming exhibit where “herds of elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and antelope are among the hundreds of animals you can see roaming the scenic rolling landscape of Africa and Asia.”
They, too, have Roar and Snore Sleepovers.
And I’ll also give a shout out to my hometown zoo, mentioned by others, the St. Louis Zoo.
My finacee is from the Washington DC area and, while she talks up a lot of DC stuff, she thinks that Brookfield is a far more interesting zoo than National is.
I don’t really remember Milwaukee Zoo per se, but I remember taking several day trips to the area as a youth expressly to visit the zoo so my mother must have thought good things about it.
I’m not a huge zoo goer, but the Singapore Zoo is famous enough that I made a special effort to check it out when I was there. It’s got an “open zoo” design with no cages, only hidden moats. The animals are kept together in kind of ecosystems where I guess they try to make sure that there are not too many predator-prey combinations. It was certainly the most humane (animale???) zoo I’ve been to and was really pretty cool. I can’t remember how they made sure the lions didn’t try to escape but I seem to recall that jaguars are one of the few cats that like to swim.
There was an entertaining feeding of the Komodo dragons, but unfortunately, they didn’t throw in a live goat like I heard they do on the island of Komodo.
St. Louis Zoo! Free! And the penguin house is awesome. Smelly but wonderfully cold on a hot day. I’m from St. Louis so I have a major soft spot for it. A lot of remodeling is being done but the stuff they’ve finished is really cool. When my friends and I are bored in the summer, we’ll go to the Zoo, or the Science Center, or the Art Museum (gotta love Forest Park). They’re all free (minus some exhibits at Art Museum, they are free on Fridays though I think). But yeah the zoo is great. Best place to people watch.
Antwerp (Belgium) has a fantastic zoo - we go to visit the city several times a year and always try to make time for a wander round the zoo. It’s very well set out, has a great variety of animals and it also has some beautifully landscaped gardens.
I consider myself a zoo snob, after so much traveling and seeing a lot of different zoos. By no means does this intend to be a list of all the major zoos, just the one’s I’ve visited in the order of how much I enjoyed them.
Stoneham Zoo (Stoneham, Ma) - Should be called “animal prison”
Franklin-Park Zoo (Boston) - My family and I enjoyed watching squirrels eat popcorn there.
**Washington DC Zoo **- Very good, as other’s have noted.
Central Park Zoo (NYC) - Probably the first real good zoo I ever visited.
**Kakadu Zoo **(can’t remember if this was actually Kakadu, but an excellent Australian zoo in the NT) - Can you beat Australian wildlife when you’re a Yankee?
Liebe Tiergartenfreunde (Vienna Zoo) - Marketed as the World’s oldest zoo (I don’t know the veracity of this), it has nearly everything a zoo-goer would want to see.
Animal Planet in Disney World - Not a zoo, and not even a very good Disney Park, but the wild animal tours/exhibits are top notch.
**San Diego Zoo **- Maybe the World’s most famous… and worth that title.
Sydney Zoo - My personal favorite. Exotic animals, huge layout, overlooking the beautiful city. It has almost all of Australia’s jewels for animals and holds a very special place in my heart.
I think the Bronx Zoo is amazing.
It’s huge, and has a massive primate area. It also has a lot of enclosures that includes many different kinds of animals. It’s “enclosures” are really large and natural.
It also had a big naked mole rat exhibit last time I was there, but that was a few years back.
IMHO, the DC Zoo SUCKS!!! Last time I was there, the monekys looked sad, and browbeaten. It was smellier than other zoo, lots of dead landscaping. Crappy walkways. I really remember how sad the monkeys looked though. The whole zoo was really depressing.
I am a fan of zoos too.
National Zoo in Washington, as others have said
Oglebay Park outside of Wheeling. Nice display of otters, and my Uncle drives the steam train!
Zoo Atlanta (Ever hear about the Prarie Dog village in the old zoo?)
Berlin No, I take it back. I was just in nice company that day.