Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens Reviews

Small Zoo. Nice to kill a few hours though. We have an annual pass and take our toddler often. They have a train ride, splash pad and playground. As well as a zip line and ropes course and carousel.

We were there for a field trip and I'll admit it, I was disappointed. It felt like we were being rushed through the whole thing. Our guide was going so fast that he'd disappear and one of the elderly guests yelled at him to show down for the kids. He also never even asked if there were any questions just kept talking. It was a disappointing experience. However, I've been here before as a guest and found it to be a nice small little zoo with several interesting exhibits. I'm torn. If I could suggest people to go on their own but never as a school group, that's what I'd say.

I have gone to this zoo growing up its not the biggest and nices zoo around but it is still amazing. The people who work there the animals that live there as well to see how they onteract with eachother and knowing that the animals are being taken care of....its a wonderful place to visit.

Great for the family. Buy the family pack of annual passes for $99 total. It's good for 6 people. Can't beat that!

They didn't even have elephants.. just disappointed with the variety of animals. Also, a lot of the animals looked depressed and lonely. Lastly, it was the furthest thing from a botanical garden that I have ever seen. They seemed to have put more thought into their zip line then they did their animal exhibits.

A great day trip! Animals are active when it's cooler and they seem well taken care of.

My goodness go to Lowery park or Brevard zoo, this place sucks

The Sunset at the Zoo on the 3rd Thursday of each month through October is an incredible evening! Food, Drink and Live Entertainment make this a Fun, Festive and Fabulous night out!!

I love watching my son light up seeing the animals and playing in the zoo's little water park area.

Favorite part is that you get to feed the giraffe the cost for the lettuce it's a high $5 for three pieces of lettuce. But the experience it was great. Nice surroundings they have updated the bear walk way areas but other things needs to be updated soon. Plants needs maintenance. Loved all the animals that they had in this location. And most of all the staff was great but sadly the girls who were selling the tickets were so dry and depressed. I believe they need to do a parking lot. The parking lot it's currently pure dirt and going back to our cars was a terrible experience since the dirt/mud got wet and it got all over our car.

Nice n secured place to see some wild animals in an enrichment that's close to their natural habitat.

Fun activities with kids, water spout playground, bungee jump for kids, good animal visibility, giraffe feeding, zipline for adults and separate line for kids over 5.

Zip Line was amazing!! Big props to William for guiding us through the zip line courses safely. We had a blast!

Had a wonderful time. Everyone was so nice and helpful.

too expensive, not worth the price you pay, small selection of animals, might be good for small children, my kids were bored and asked if that was all the zoo

In the process of remodeling, so some exhibits are closed.

The central Florida zoo has a great value for families. My whole family can go to the zoo and visit the animals for a year for 100$. All the animal exhibits are clean and the environment is really natural with a lot of shade. I really like the rhino exhibit!

We love the Central Florida Zoo. Lots of loved animals in a beautiful area. No roller coasters or rides but lots of animals and caretakers who don't mind telling you about the animals or answering questions.

This is a nice little zoo to enjoy with the family.

Nice small regional zoo with lots for little kids to do and good options for adults, too. Feeding the giraffe is fun and there's a rhino experience, too, but I didn't try that. The bathrooms aren't great.

Excellent to enjoy with the family !! There are many super interesting animals !!

A wonderful experience. Special Thanks to All the Happy and Friendly Volunteers /workers. Thank you Happy New year

Quaint little zoo. They do so much with the little space they have to work with. Such nicer habitats for the animals than when I was a kid going there.

Absolutely loved this zoo. We have been to a ton of zoo's of all sizes and this is definitely one of the best. It's on the smaller size but has a good selection of animals. All the animals are very well taken care they take care of their pens and enclosures very well. The facilities were clean and well maintained. They are offer a ton of stuff for children to do. I absolutely recommend this zoo to everyone. I also live that they incorporate different gardens and plants into the zoo. It's the best of both worlds.

A small zoo but with plenty to see.The pathways are a bit disorienting.

They had a special evening event for adults only. They had few choices of wine and a couple choices for beer, plus other regular drinks to offer. My mom and I went to just walk around and relax and that is exactly what we did!! Loved seeing all the beautiful animals... Big cats, giraffe, etc. We had a great time!

Lots of fun for the young ones and you will get your steps in. The exhibits give you a great view to watch the animals.

Small but pretty. We like to spend the day with kids there

Even though there is new construction going on, we had a great time. Our grandson was amazed at all of the exhibits. Their Herpetarium was really nice, The splash park for the kids, the train ride around and through the woods, and the Sonny's Snack Bar were excellent for making this an all day affair.

Family fun, kids love it. It's low key but very friendly.

It is a small zoo and you have a big chance of seeing almost all the animals. It is an amazing place for the kids and their parents because it is small and not tiring and in the spring break time there are lots of activities for the kids. You can feed the giraffes and do a train ride which is really funny.

Surprising little zoo with some unexpected extras . . . Like zip line classes!

Amazing zoo. The staff was very knowledgeable and the presentations were very interesting. My son had an amazing time and had been asking to go back.

Great place to visit and see animals.You can feed giraffes and get icecream.

Great place for toddlers and small kids! The splash pad, playground, and feeding the giraffes were huge hits.

The enclosures reminds me of the San Diego Zoo and that's saying something. Zoo's are generally great places to bring kids and this one dedicates considerable space to interactive activities, rides and play areas. I recommend the rhino meet and greet. You'll have plenty of one on one time with them and a knowledgable zoo keeper. Plenty of trees give sun cover throughout the winding walkways.

I know it is a natural habitat but we saw very little animals. Hard to explain to a child the back end of something is a animal. The turtle that she could see excited her but nothing else.

Very fun place to bring kids. There is lots of shade and diverse animals. Several snack bars and a splash pad. Awesome!

Enjoyable zoo with lots to see and was surprised by the little water park area, NICE.

Kids loved it, its been at least 10 years since I've been here and it was amazing. I would recommend it to anyone! We got rained out but that just led us into the reptile exhibit for awhile. I can't wait to go again.

This place is great! I remember coming here almost 10 years ago with my oldest son riding the train and now we came back today with my oldest and his brothers and sister. We did the zip lining course and it was awesome! Thank you for a wonderful experience!

It have positive and negative,
Less walk, less animal, some of the animals were in side there shelters so it wasn't easy to see some of them, bear was informative,
It's not a ZOO its a zoe as a scale.
Clean.
Anyway my kids were expecting to see the lion, tiger and elephant to be a real zoo.
I still owe my kid a zoo trip.
Oh the train ride was soo silly short path and you see nothing at all cause the track is outside, around the parking lot.

Awesome place, beautiful animals, clean & gorgeous park. Florida at its best!

We came here for mothers day with our 3 yr old daughter and you would have thought that because they were so busy they would have had more stuff out. I was very disappointed in how much we had to pay and how little we got to see. There was NO WHERE to get a drink, found ONE vending machine and it was out of everything except Dr.Pepper and Mt. Dew- I am not a big soda drinker and it was SOOO HOT all I wanted was water and that was impossible to find. Every hut I saw that usually would sell drinks/snacks etc was CLOSED and said it was only opened on weekends...last I checked SUNDAY is part of the weekend, but whatever. Also, they had a petting zoo with NO animals out! There were hardly no animals and absolutely no shows going on. It was very disappointing and I will never be going back.

Nice little selection of animals. Nice playground for children

A very limited botanical garden. There is no order in the location

Great place to visit lots to see and plenty of shade.

It's really nice to be able to go to the zoo for adults only except for the fact that most animals are not available is the only thing that I felt was unfair it's more of a hangout for adults but it was still nice to be able to go and see some animal

Very nice park. Food and drink is pricey and all the vending machines are out of order. Pack a lunch and enjoy the picnic tables.

This is a very nice little zoo to take the family just for a mid week day out.

I didn't find this zoo that amazing. It doesn't have too many unique animals. It's hard to navigate and things tend to be all over the place. My favorite part was looking at all the different snake species.

This zoo is a joke. We drove 3 kids almost an hour and a half believing their "rain or shine and we stay open" advertising. Well, they lied. The zoo and their dozen animals are available to view but they close down all attractions and the 2 rides and zip line. So we paid $90. For an hour. Train was closed, carousel was 2 seconds long the giraffe couldn't be fed and the rhino I guess doesn't do rain either.
So in short this is a very poorly managed place. The employees walk around like they are bothered to be there and when we asked for a rain check they denied us even though we had only been there a short time. The zip lines were also inoperable as was the splash pad.
Total RIP OFF!!!
Waste of money.
The saving grace was the gentleman that operates the carousel and train who gave my kids a ride just so they wouldn't leave without doing anything.
He is a separate company. The Centeal Florida Zoo should learn a thing or 2 about kindness to kids from this guy!

They have alot of animals, however some exhibits were closed.

A wonderful place to take the kids! I live in St Augustine but have been coming to the central Florida zoo since I was a kid.
We just took our 3y/o for his birthday and he loved it! Highly recommend!

Great zoo. Beautiful. Animals exhibits are natural and awesome. Great way to take Sunrail with Choo to the zoo!

Underwhelming trails, does not have multiple difficulty.

Expensive for short trail.

Thrill and or challenge seeker, find a different place to go to.

I love going here with my granddaughter! I love the petting zoo! She has so much fun!
From animals to activities it's always a great time!

I got a year pass so I can take my son. He LOVES it. Well worth the money...but the cost of food is worse than Disney!! I paid almost $5 for a 99c ice lolly!! That s insane!! I d come way more if I didn t have to take a 2nd mortgage out just to buy snacks here!!

It s a bullish place. You going to waste your money to go there.