Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens Reviews

Great place for a child's birthday party. We were pleasently surprised about it hat was offered.

I only gave it one star because there was no choice to give it no stars. For the price you pay to get in there it should take more than 45 minutes to get through the entire Zoo. No animals to look at if I want to look at frogs, snakes and things like that I'll just walk the woods behind my house it's free. Everything the kids wanted to see had a sign on it staying it was temporarily off exhibit. Just a sad-sad zoo. Very disappointing. Save your money going to a park for free was better than going to that Zoo. From start to finish it took 45 minutes. I heard more people complain then have an excitement about anything. Will never go back. There's no point in having a year pass unless you're paying to let the kids play in the water..

Small zoo. But nice place to hangout with family and friends. Kids will have fun!! Entrance looks very old and remainds jurassic park!!

Kinda lacked in appearance and animals. But was a very chill place. The workers were very informative. I think this place would be better to visit int the warmer months.

Would zoo again. You can pay extra and they let you feed and pet the rhinos. Pretty sure you can do other animals to but the rhinos are the best.

Excellent staff. Fun day for the whole family. Very well managed area, safe and clean.

The Asian light festival was beautiful!! Highly recommended.

This is a very nice zoo. It's definitely a smaller zoo, but that's one of the things that makes it so nice. The staff is unbelievably friendly and approachable, and they will answer questions and provide all kinds of information well above and beyond what you get at a huge zoo. The animals are very well cared for, talking to any of the staff for a minute or two will assure you of that. They also frequently clean and rearrange the enclosures, as well as providing a daily enrichment task like a toy, food puzzle, treat, etc. to keep the animals engaged. There are some neat additional activities you can do for a few dollars more, like feed a giraffe or get up close to the rhino. For a bigger fee, you can also do a behind the scenes trainer experience with one of a variety of animals. If it fits within your budget, these are very cool and informative. They have a Sonny's BBQ with actually pretty reasonable prices for zoo food. A sandwich with a side and a large drink is around $10-$12. There is an abundance of shade throughout the zoo on almost all walkways, which is very nice on hot days. The plants and trees also add to the atmosphere and they have quite a few cool species. A few of the exhibits are also air conditioned. There is not an air conditioned place to eat though. There is a small splash pad and petting zoo for the kids too. Overall you'd struggle to spend an entire day here, but it would be a great afternoon for sure.

Go for the experience. This is a small zoo. There are butterflies all over. Great for little kids. The do try to keep people to keep their distance. A few places were closed. Never saw the Rino's. The bears we fun to watch. We were there about an hour.

It's pretty cool and I got the biggest bears exhibit going now.

Its a nice place to go during the week and see a hand full of animals. Small, yet made for a good day, or about 4 hours of a day. Good for little kids too. Playground. Decent snack bar options. The lay out is pretty.

From riding the train or carousel out front or playing in the splash pad inside my kids have tons of fun. They love all the animals to look at. Great entertainment for everyone.

The grounds are nice, it's a small zoo, but attractive to walk through.

My issue was the price vs. the size. At large metropolitan zoos we've rarely paid over $20 for 3 people. Only had 2 people when we went to Sanford, even with a discount paid over $30, was slightly surprised, but figured it must be awesome so gave it a shot. Walked through in just under an hour. Slightly more than half the enclosures had animals. Thought maybe it was due to the sun being directly overhead, so waited awhile till it wasn't brutally hot, walked through again, no change. Maybe something else was going on that we weren't aware of, but the kid was slightly frustrated.

If your child is over 3, skip the train. My 6 yo was so excited to ride around & see animals, like every other zoo he has ever been to (4 states so far, before sanford), unfortunately there are no animals to view from the train, just a parking lot & cardboard animals. I tried to play a game when we spotted the animals, but his disappointment was real. Can't win them all.

Note- the splash park is awesome. Definitely need to bring a change of clothes for the kids if coming during the summer months!

Wish they had more to see. The zip line looked like great fun

Great for a place like Orlando where there isn't any other options for a zoo, did find it small and I was in and out in under 2 and a half hours (I was taking my time too)

Worse zoo ever. Drove 1 hour 20 minutes no animals were out. They said there were tigers and loins..none of those. There was hardly no staff none of the exhibit buildings were open. We ended up only seeing about 6 animals. There was no feeding animals and no animal encounters as posted.

So we'll organized for physical distancing. Easy to follow the paths. Lots of help from staff.

This is a great place to take your family! We had such a wonderful time there.

Good, relatively inexpensive for a small family outing.

The staff is so friendly and variety of animals are a unique sight..a must see..we enjoyed a birthday party and a scavenger hunt around the Zoo

Amazing experience so close to home. Approachable and easy to navigate. Just big enough to make you want to come back but not so large that it is an ordeal. Love the variety of exotics and native animals in well thought out habitats. The boat ride is fun! Been taking my kids here for years. Support your local zoo! Wonderful learning resource for old and young.

Very fun and my daughter loved feeding the graffiti.

I like the splash pad area..and their interactive sessions too... great place to take your kids.

We really enjoyed the experience. Plenty of animals and information throughout the zoo. Bring plenty of water, comfy shoes and snacks and lunch! They do have kiosks but I only saw ice cream being sold.
They also have a tree top course that you could do, and they give you an option to feed the giraffe, which we did!

I dont know what they are doing over there. It's a great zoo if you've never seen a zoo. Like if asked to go you would answer "what is zoo"

There should be puppy zoos

Very beautiful and wonderful activities for children

Small zoo but nice to visit...good for families with kids....

This was a shockingly large zoo, especially being relatively hidden from view. It certainly blew away my expectations and found the experience amazing. Animals appear extremely cared for and the animal care-takers themselves seem to genuinely care for them. Will be back many times!

Not at all what I expected. Maybe I should go during a peak season, but there were barely any animals out! We got to see exactly, one of each cat and several other animals, except the cheetahs, there were two. Bear exhibit was closed.

On the other hand, my daughter is three so it didn't matter because there was still plenty to see. I wouldn't go here again, but it's fine for young children and if you aren't expecting much. My daughter loved feeding the giraffe and the goats and did have a good time.

It's small and missing a lot of animals. Some of the animals look so sad. Its heart breaking. They literally have no place to roam. The botanical garden is beautiful and the sprinklers looked very exciting for the younger kids.

Nice zoo. Good collection for its size. Nice play areas for the kids. Includes a splash zone area.

Not up kept, terrible zoo ,nothing like back in the day ,Jack Hanna had it were u could actually see more the a giraffe,or 1 fat old rino laying in muck,and 50 bucs for a 5 year old and 2 seniors,never again,don't waste ur time or money ,go to Brevard county zoo is half the price and u see more well kept animals and grounds

Not as interesting as it used to be. Waiting lines are terrible. Not much to see. Parking is ok.

Do not eat here if your hungry eat before you go to the zoo and stay away from the monkeys they throw poop

It is a nice friendly zoo and they now have Sonny's BBQ in the dining area

Sorry but this place sucked. Most of the animals there were all native to Florida! But I say this because I lived in St. Louis for 12 years and they have the 2nd biggest and best zoo in the US and I lived in Brooklyn, NY for the other half of my life and their zoo is amazing.

Go to the Sanford zoo to kill an hour of time. The place in Christmas, FL was wayyy better than this.. it's called Jungle Adventures.

The Sanford zoo is NOT work the price. I got it on Groupon and still feel like I wasted money. But we made the best of it and still had some fun

Great place for the kids. Fun, courteous employees, a lot to do here.

The boardwalks were great for walking around. A lot of the animals were out and about and we got to see them feed the porcupines. The giraffe feeding is definitely worth doing but be aware it's all based on the giraffes themselves and you might not get to do it (they'll refund your money if you don't get to). Afternoons are a good time to catch some feedings by the zookeepers. The zoo isn't huge and can easily be accomplished in 2 hours.

Great Atmosphere and very relaxing way to spend afternoon with the family

Great family fun. Zip lines, splash pad, amazing animal exhibits, but eat before you go because the food there leaves a lot to be desired.

It's ok, not the best for treatment of animals, the giraffe is a must, you can feed it by hand.

It was a nice couple of hours out for a change. I ve been to bigger and better zoos but this was still very nice.

Nice zoo for the family. Beat part was the giraffe feeding

We had a great experience as a part of a Girl Scout night at the zoo. We had the best camp coordinators who genuinely seemed to love their jobs and teaching the girls. I especially liked the guided tour that included all kinds of neat facts and stories about the animals at the zoo.

The zoo is in the Sanford area, maybe that's the only thing that is nice about the zoo. It's not a place for adults but it's a zoo for children. It's more a place for family or children outings. It probably has like 6 animals :) I would only do this again for the kids and family. The Sanford area of Orlando is very beautiful.

We've had passes for 2 years now! Our kids just absolutely love the zoo here!

Recently visited for the first time since I was in grade school and I m so impressed by all the changes! We had such an amazing time.

So much improved from when last there several years ago...AND the Asian Lantern displays are beyond awesome!

This was a really cool experience. The animals looked very healthy and happy. Loves the Gators. That's the closest I ever got to them.

Beautiful place to enjoy a day out with family and friends!

Great place to visit during covid. They have a mask mandate and social distancing is encouraged so your mouth breathing fellow citizens will have to be a decent human whether they like it or not. My toddler got to feed lettuce to a giraffe and it made his day.

We went there to see the Asian Lantern Festival. You stroll through the zoo at night so you won't see live animals but you will see lanterns that are shaped as a variety of animals and flowers. It was absolutely beautiful.

The Central Florida Zoo is a great place to take toddlers and young children. It is small enough so that you can see the whole place in either morning or afternoon, and it has great end of the day activities such as their water park (awesome), the miniature train, and the merry-go-round. While the animal habitats are not vast, there is enough that young children will enjoy them without getting overwhelmed. For the money, it is a great deal if your expectations are realistic.

The perfect size zoo! Not too big, but has almost everything you would expect in a zoo. Great place for young kids.

Great place to spend the day walking, looking at animals and just zipping along up in the trees.

This was a good little zoo for the family. Variety of animals was ok for the size. Kids enjoyed themselves very much here with the options of things to do. Definitely worth a visit.

It's a relatively simple zoo, but fun nevertheless. The black bear exhibit is definitely the nicest in terms of newest; the rest showed its age. However, there were still a lot of fascinating animals here! My fiancee and I had a good time.

Love this zoo! The activity portion before the entrance should stay open longer. By the time we left the zoo all of the activities my children wanted to do were closed. It would be great it they were open at least an hour after the zoo closes. Other then that it was a great visit and my kids loved it

A small zoo that s not crowded. Interesting exhibits, but some of the enclosures seem a bit small for an area with so much space.

So much fun!Staff was amazing,patient and knowledgeable.We have a great time Highly recommend it