ZOO TRAVELER · THE WORLD’S WILDLIFE, CITY BY CITY
Find the animals worth the trip.
Reviews of the world’s best zoos and wildlife parks, city by city. The pandas and big cats of San Diego, Taronga above Sydney Harbour, the elephants of Bali and the reindeer of Arctic Lapland. We do the homework so you book the right day out.
Worth the trip
Three animal days you can only have in one place.
Most cities have a good zoo. But the pandas and twin parks of San Diego, the Arctic bears above the Circle at Ranua, and a hands-on elephant morning in Bali are encounters that belong to those places and nowhere else.
San Diego
Pandas, Big Cats and the Safari Park
No zoo on earth carries the weight of San Diego. Inside Balboa Park the canyons hold gorillas, polar bears and a famous big-cat trail; a guided bus and an overhead sky tram float you above it all. Then half an hour north the Safari Park opens up into open African plain, where rhinos, giraffes and antelope roam a valley you cross by caravan. One ticket, two of the great animal experiences anywhere.
- 1 San Diego Zoo 1-Day Pass: Any Day Ticket
- 2 San Diego Zoo Admission Ticket
- 3 San Diego Zoo: 1-Day Admission Ticket
Arctic Lapland
Reindeer and Bears Above the Arctic Circle
Out of Rovaniemi the forest runs to the Arctic Circle and Ranua Wildlife Park, the northernmost zoo in the world, where brown bears, wolverines, lynx and polar bears live in the snow they were built for. You walk a boardwalk through the pines as reindeer watch from the trees, the air sharp and clean, the animals utterly at home. There is nowhere else you meet the Arctic like this.
- 1 Rovaniemi: Ranua’s Wildlife Park Ticket with Transportation
- 2 Ranua Wildlife Park Day: Visit the Arctic Animals
- 3 Rovaniemi: Trip to Ranua Zoo with Tickets
Bali
A Morning Caring for Elephants
Bali turned the elephant encounter into something gentler: not a ride, but a morning as a keeper. You prepare the food, walk beside them through the gardens, scrub them down in a muddy river bath and learn each one’s name and story from the mahouts. Framed by jungle and rice terrace, it is the kind of close, unhurried animal morning that families fly across the world for.
- 1 Elephant Care Experience with Mud Bath at Bali Zoo
- 2 Bali Zoo: Breakfast with the Orangutans
- 3 Bali Zoo Entrance Ticket
The one everyone books
If you only visit one.
More families reach for this one than anything else on the site. A safe first ticket when you are still working out where to take the kids.
The famous ones
The World’s Most Popular Zoos
San Diego, Taronga, Singapore, Amsterdam, London. The collections and wildlife parks families head to first, in the cities they most want to visit.
Where to go
Pick your destination.
Australia for koalas and open-range parks. The USA for San Diego and its Safari Park. Arctic Lapland for reindeer, Bali for elephants, the UK for London Zoo and Chester. Each destination, with the wildlife days it does best.
Which kind of day
Pick the kind of zoo day you want.
A compact city zoo, a sprawling safari park, or a hands-on animal encounter are three very different days out. Choose by the time you have and how close you want to get.
Koalas, kangaroos & the open range
Australia does animals like nowhere else.
A whole continent of creatures you will not meet anywhere else, and the parks built to show them well. Taronga looking back across Sydney Harbour, the koala cuddles and quad-bike wildlife days of the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, Melbourne’s city zoo and Werribee’s open range out west. Hold a koala, hand-feed a kangaroo, and watch the bush come alive.
See the best zoos in Australia →Coast to coast in the USA
The great American zoos.
No country has more of them, or does them on a grander scale. San Diego and its open-range Safari Park lead, but the bench is deep: the big collections of New York and Philadelphia, the desert habitats of Phoenix and Sedona, the Central Florida parks near Orlando. World-class animal care, easy day tickets, something within reach of almost every city.
See the best zoos in the USA →The best part
The day the kids talk about for years.
A great zoo day is never just the animals. It is the gasp when the tiger turns to look, the keeper who knows every name and the funny habit each one has, the small hand gripping yours a little tighter at the glass. You head home tired and happy, the camera full, the kids a little more in love with the wild world than they were that morning.
Browse every zoo →Above the Arctic Circle
Meet the animals of Arctic Lapland.
Out of Rovaniemi the road runs north to Ranua, the world’s northernmost zoo, where brown bears, polar bears, lynx and wolverines live in real Arctic snow. Pair it with a husky team, a reindeer farm and the chance of the northern lights overhead. These are wildlife days with a different feel: colder, quieter, the animals utterly in their element.
- 1 Ranua: Wildlife Park Entrance Ticket
- 2 Rovaniemi: Ranua’s Wildlife Park Ticket with Transportation
- 3 Ranua Wildlife Park Day: Visit the Arctic Animals
By time with the animals
How long do you want to spend?
Some days you want a quick city-zoo morning before lunch. Some days you want a whole afternoon among the exhibits. And some days you want a real expedition: an open-range park, or the Arctic in the snow. Pick the day, we will point you at the gate.
A couple of hours
A morning with the animals.A compact city zoo you can do before lunch: the headline enclosures, a keeper talk or two, the kids fed and amazed and home for a nap.
A full day out
Take the whole day for it.A big-city collection you could wander all afternoon: pandas and big cats, a guided bus or sky tram over the canyons, and a picnic between the exhibits.
A real expedition
Go where the wild things are.An open-range park or an Arctic wildlife day: reindeer and bears in their own country, a guide who knows the animals by name, the trip you build a whole holiday around.
The best wildlife city in the world
Sydney puts the animals right on the harbour.
Taronga Zoo looks straight back at the Opera House across the water, reached by a ferry and a cable car, with koalas, giraffes and a Sydney skyline behind every enclosure. West of the city the Blue Mountains add wildlife parks among the gum trees and Featherdale’s hand-feed-a-kangaroo days. Half a day in town or a full day in the mountains, Sydney is where Australia shows off its animals.
See all 48 Sydney zoo tickets →By city
Pick a city and plan the day.
San Diego for the world’s famous zoo and its Safari Park. Sydney for Taronga over the harbour. Rovaniemi for the Arctic animals of Lapland. Bali for the elephants. Singapore for the rainforest zoo. Melbourne for the city zoo and Werribee’s open range.
By country
Find the wildlife wherever you are headed.
From the open-range parks of Australia to the great zoos of the USA, the UK’s historic collections to Arctic Lapland, Bali’s elephants to Singapore’s rainforest. Browse by the country you are travelling to.
Gates open to closing
A perfect day at the zoo.
First visit and want to make the most of it? Here is how a great zoo day flows, from the headline animals at opening to a hands-on encounter before the gates close.
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