Beardsley Zoo Reviews

Visited in July 2020. With all the precautions the staff has in placed, we felt very safe. It was a really nice way to spend the morning, visiting the animals and strolling through the zoo. Definitely recommend!

Great place to bring the family. Check out the tiger cubs.

Not really much to see here. Prairie dogs were cute though.

Nice clean zoo with healthy animals. The restaurant is nice.

They are a smaller zoo with beautiful animals and super friendly staff. Loved the wolves and the big cats!!!

Plain and simple, it's fun for: a single person, a couple, and a family, if you into seeing animals, taking pictures, tours, food, gift stores and walking. If any of these categorizes are not fun for you, then this is not the place for you! LOL. If you are getting hot they have these little statues that spray a mist of water to cool you off on you journey. They have a large variety of animals than I thought they would for being smaller than other zoos I've been to in other states. They are also introducing new animals! Worth the drive and the experience.

Nice clean zoo. Not too much excitement but then it was early in the season.

Perfect size! Great for little kids and the rest of the family.

Great zoo have visited many times over the yrs never disappointed

Small zoo, animals are very crowded, which is kind of depressing. Watching the big cats just pace back and forth in their little enclosures makes you sad. The place looks nice and seems well kept, so I think the staff does a good job with what they have to work with. The zoo is old, and they weren't really designed with the animal's needs, back in those days. Everybody was very friendly.

cool exhibits. wish there were more animals to see. you can get though it all in about an hour

First off this is a COVID review so it's not typical for this zoo but wanted to write it since it's relevant now. Wanted to take my baby to do something outside during these times and have a change of scenery. Paid 15 a person and baby (kids under 2) was free to get in. To get in now you have to reserve a spot early. There are two time selections a day that you can choose from. With your selection you get up to 3 hours in the zoo but with everything closed you won't really need it. It was nice to get out in the fresh air and walk around but only a handful of animals were out or visible which was disappointing. So if your ultimate goal is to see animals I would wait till this craziness is over. If your just looking for something to do in the present moment and maybe seeing an occasional animal as you walk and enjoy the outdoors and have the extra money to spend and support the zoo then go for it!

Perfect sized zoo for its intended audience -- small children and young parents. Fairly price, it's easy to view the entire park in under 3 hours, even while lingering to watch the otters at play. Food is expensive but they allow you to bring your own and that's recommended. Outside the zoo is Beardsley Park with sidewalks and nice views. A great place for the kids to run around.

It's a nice small zoo and lil kids will love to see everything that the zoo has to offer

A beautiful, small zoo just minutes from downtown Bridgeport. I have been coming here since I was a kid. If anything it has only gotten better as time has gone on. Lots of fun.

Went here for the weekend and had a wonderful fun time. The staff was great and following Covid procedures. The animals were all out as you can see from my photos. I ordered food and it was great and all done thru my phone. Love the chicken tenders!!!!! I would recommend this place to everyone, we had a nice day out here walking around on a beautiful day in the zoo.

Only really two interesting animals to see were the leopards and tigers. The rest is mediocre.

This is a great place for a family outing, better than ,many other zoos

Great place to spend time with the family. Very clean and well maintained.

I have always enjoyed the Beardley Zoo. Been there many times since I was a teen many years ago. The animals are well taken care of and the staff are courteous and friendly. I have been to many larger zoos, Frankfurt. Berlin San Diego, and Bronx and prefer Beardsley Zoo. Recently visited the National Zoo in DC, which is about the same size as the Beardsley Zoo. The Nation Zoo was not as impressive as the Beardsley Zoo.

I love the zoo. I have been a member for close to 30 years. The enclosures are a bit small, but the animals are well cared for.

For starters, this zoo has the potential to be an amazing gem for Connecticut. The animal variety is decent with the focus being on animals from North and South America. Ironically, their biggest draw, the Amur Tigers, is not from either continent. The carousel museum on site is a bit juxtaposed, but can enhance the experience for the right audience. I went with my two youngest daughters, ages 7 and 5, and they loved everything about the zoo, to include the carousel museum. With all that being said, there are some glaring issues with the establishment. First, I visited on a Thursday, and was completely taken a back at how many people were visiting during a week day mid-day. I'm not sure if this had any contributing effect on the ticketing lanes. The wait time to get in was abysmal for the size of the zoo. I shouldn't have had to wait 20 minutes to get my tickets. Secondly, this wait time was dwarfed by the wait time we suffered through at the cafe. This ended up being a 45 minute wait for two hockey-puck burgers and a side of fries. Again, not sure if the staff to park attendance ratio was off, but next time I will just bring my lunch and eat on one of the picnic tables provided. Lastly, I do wish the farm exhibit was open. It was currently unavailable for viewing. I can understand individual exhibits being closed, but having nearly a quarter of the zoo closed is a real bummer. Again, the zoo has some great potential for Connecticut day-trippers and I will definitely be giving the the zoo a second run, but maybe next year.

Quite a few of the Animals were not out for us to see! Didn't realise that there was so many hills walking the paved path through the zoo! Difficult when pushing someone in a wheelchair!

Good ideas for exploring the animals, nur at some points there is not enough space for them.

Not impressed expensive feel sorry for some of the animals to large for the enclosure. Need more to see.

Good place to visit. Only downside was that there weren't many bathrooms outside of the food area.

A great zoo with a variety of animals! It may be smaller than your Bronx Zoo, but it didn t disappoint. You could easily spend a few hours here - Attended a school field trip here and had to rush through so we didn t get to see all of the animals. Very easy to get to and get around. We got to watch wolves getting their midday meal, which had all of the kids attention!

Really nice zoo !
15$ entry per adult. Almost all rescue animal. Be ready to walk around an be amazed by small and big animal

Rather small, but a great zoo for it's size. There done a great job making it conducive to social distancing. Good for a morning or an afternoon outing.

I didn't even know there was a Zoo in Connecticut so this was pretty nice

I guess it's a nice little park but please be careful because at night things go down a lot of drug users ...one morning was walking with a friend had on sandals thankfully i always look down before taking steps i seen various drug needles and i feel bad because people go there with children and pets and someone could've stepped on it or fell on it not knowing and the needle could be infected...other than that the park is beautiful it's other people that's destroying it.

Great place to visit for walk, fish, bike ride, zoo, picnic, etc.

Nice zoo, they have a lot of animals to see for a small zoo. Easy to get around.

Not as many animals anymore. They removed the petting zoo. But still a fun day!

This is a great zoo for the family (and for the animals they rescue). Yes it's not huge with elephants of other large exhibits, but they still have a lot to offer. They bring in new exhibits seasonally or occasionally getting a new long term animal. The staff is friendly and helpful and the kids have a lot of animals they can see up close. An example is the prairie dogs where they have tubes for the kids to pop up through inside were the animals are to observe them. A "must go" for families in the area who haven't been with any interest in animals/zoos.

Our school had such a wonderful experience at this zoo! It is clean, the animals are well taken care of, and the staff go above and beyond to help out!

We are members of the zoo and my children love the zoo. It is small enough to be able to spend time with each animal exhibit without feeling like you spent the whole day there. Yet there is enough variety that you don't feel like you are just looking at the same thing every time you go. The new addition of tiger and maned wolf pups are great and the little ones are out playing and can be seen. The prices at the cafe aren't bad.

I love how it relaxes one water wind trees and lots of kids walking around playing. I really recommend them

Nice place to spend some wonderful moments with the family

Wonderful zoo, with crowds smaller than the Bronx Zoo.

Nice place to visit and see all the different types of animals they have. Great place to bring the kids for an adventure for the afternoon.

Kind of pricey for how large it is, many exhibits closed during winter. Exhibits are well laid out, but old and many are showing their age. Was very pleased to see two leopards and two tigers, and it seems that the zoo is very active in breeding programs and other conservation efforts.

High school volunteers were very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the rainforest house the most, and are looking forward to the completion of new exhibits currently under construction.

Hi this is Elizabeth and my family works here and I love it Soo much I am here on a field trip and it's Soo cool

The walking trail is now open , I believe is 13 miles!

It was good, there were lot of animals to see around approximately 2 hrs it takes... there were no kids playground or anything, it was closed due to COVID-19 and also didn't enter to buy food

Loved how they handled the virus restrictions. Very friendly

If youre going anywhere to see animals in CT go to Mystic aquarium and the Maratime aquarium over beardsley zoo, at least while they have their restrictions up. The aquariums are almost entirely indoors and basically everything is open and viewable because they limited the crowd size. The zoo had all indoor exhibits closed, a lot of their outdoor enclosures were empty or the animals were indoors. There was more of a crowd at the zoo as well as well as plenty of people taunting the animals, such as the owls and other birds of orey which had very limited enclosures, while employees were grouped together chatting. If the zoo limited the amount of people coming in like the aquariums they could have allowed access to the indoor enclosures. Also for some reason the way they have you walk through the zoo goes through an aviary with a narrow path which easily is (and was) blocked all up by people with strollers. You had to open the doors in a certain way to not allow the birds to escape which also lead to some congestion, and all just to maybe see a few ducks in the "aviary" which was really a covered duck pond. Spent all of an hour here most of which was being stuck in line to see the next exhibit

Nice little zoo with lots to see, but it's sad how small some of the animals enclosures are, like the tiger.

Hidden gem...in a park setting. Fun and informative.

Just the right size for a toddler. A great way to spend 4-5 hours.

Nice small zoo to go hang out with little kids. Not so much for grownups.