Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens Reviews

This zoo is great. The Otters are the best and the workers are very friendly.

Great place to take the kids on a weekend morning. A good variety of animals to see.

Expensive, hardly any animals and not well taken care of!

Been visiting this zoo with my son since 1991. Now I bring my granddaughter

The zoo is so huge and they have fun activities for children to do. Also this place has a giraffes and rhinos! I would advise coming really early to see them because the ha does tend to send them to the back to rest before closing the zoo.

Doing upland and rainforest is a definite work out! Lots of fun though

Needs work and funding
The grounds needs attention
Small but a good variety of animals
Bathrooms are not the cleanest

It was nice but not what we were expecting after the zoos in ohio

It's awesome especially if you have toddlers. Bring a swimsuit for the kids. Lots animals

Extremely disappointing! I was personally attacked by a rude staff. They are making you were a mask to protect the animals! Ridiculous. Its 80 degrees out, sun and by the way there is NO scientific evidence that animals contract covid 19. So disappointing.

Sweet little zoo and garden. The giraffes were where highlight although the big cats and monkeys were fun too along with the otters and the black bears. I guess it was all good and hard to decide what was the favorite!

Very disappointed. Did not get to see any of animals up. I brought a two an a four year old. For the first time to a zoo. And not one animal was out.

An overall nice experience, however it had a lot more animals the last time we brought the family years ago. Now it seems more focused on extra paid activities that you can add to your visit. The zoo area has a lot of empty animal spaces that used to be filled. We packed our lunch and was disappointed that we were not allowed to bring our own lunch into the zoo. I would expect that from Disney but not from here .

Beautiful zoo, so family friendly and well put together.

This is a smaller zoo. Not many of the bigger cats, only some Cheetahs and Mountain Lions.

Really for the price you can t beat it. It s easy to get to. The staff is super friendly. FYI all the features like feeding a giraffe cost a little more. I think it was 3 or 5 dollars but they will let you share the lettuce. So it s really worth it! Oh and the petting zoo I think was a dollar so NBD. But for sure bring cash because it was cash only once inside the zoo or a 5 dollar minimum.

Kinda on the small size but great for young children

The zoo needs more land larger cadges more educational shows about the animals would love an are like the Bravard Zoo for the giraffe and a nicer water attraction and a baby swing at the park would be nice and the food is to exsensive the took away the refillable cups that was a nice to have

My kids love it here. I wish there was a little more opportunity to interact with more animals.

It's a very fun place to go to and has a bunch of exotic animals

Horrible! Have to walk 100 miles to find a smoking section. You pay a lot if money to see animals and there is NO activities included for that money. Just look at animals and 2 yr old splash pad! Never again!

Good zoo but small compared to others zoos. A little expensive for what they offer.

Decent variety of animals. Well done visually. Great family outing for all ages.

Clean facilities, good variety of animals and activities.

Zoo smaller than expected but easy to get around, especially for disabled husband on a scooter. Many keepers available and enjoyed answering questions and talking about the animals. Loved the up and close with the giraffes and big cats are gorgeous. Only complaint is the too small concession stand for the crowd. After standing in line for way too long, I just walked away.

The zoo is clean, it has a lot of shade, lots of tree, but you can hardly see the animals, they don t have much to see, not like in the pictures. The little animals they got, hardly come out, they hiding, sleeping, hot, and tired; it s almost sad. I gave it 3 stars cuz the place is beautiful and cool.

A little expensive for what you get to see. Be ready to walk.

We have been going here for years and noticing good improvement. We take our family kids here all the time. They have a lot of animals and you can spend days looking and learning at all of them. Most impressed with giraffes cheatahs, snakes, reptiles, monkeys, bears and of course alligators and crocodiles. Oh my!

Also, numerous areas to sit relax get out of sun and into AC!

Just a great place for the kids to learn about animals and conservation. Some pretty good food to eat (Sonny s and other concessions) with water parks and playgrounds for the little ones.

Great Fun!

This is such a great place for kids. There's plenty of room for toddlers to walk freely, it's never all that crowded (at least, it doesn't really feel crowded), and the animals are often up and about if you go in the morning.

This was a good experience. There were schools with small kids here at the same time, and we were able to avoid them. Small zoo, needs a lot of funding to get updated. The animals were asleep, since it was hot but we could see them all. None of the attractions or beverage carts, gift shop.. all was closed. That was frustrating, we could have gone to Sonnys inside there for $4+ per beverage, would have rather gave money to help the zoo.

Use Groupon for this experience, or it isn't worth it.

Took my 4 year old and 7 year old, they loved it. Many animals to see. Staff is great!

Home Zoo. Small and needs work. A lot of incomplete exhibits.

Love the animal shows and staff are great, very personable zoo

Not very large but it was peaceful and had some wonderful scenery.

Not much to look at, had poor up keep. Sadly was disappointed. Only spend 40 mins in the whole zoo

Loved it, first visit here and I was very impressed. We had a great time with our 1 year old and the splash pad was a huge hit obviously. I feel like you can get closer to the animals here and the smaller size of the zoo was nice actually. Staff we came across were all friendly and we can't wait to go back.

Worst Zoo Ever! Admission price is ridiculously outrageous being that the zoo is the size of a backyard.
Advertises elephants - but there's none to be found.
You can literally walk through the entire Zoo in an hour.
What's a zoo without - lions, tigers, chimps, and elephants?
I'd rather drive to the Jacksonville Zoo rather come back here, the animals even looked miserable. The leopard exhibit is smaller than my garage.

Wonderful , a must see when in Central Florida. Just a great place for a family outing.

We have a good time there. I wish there were more to see or do.

Love seeing all of the animals. Staff are helpful and friendly

Absolutely beautiful and it is very user friendly !!

Very expensive because of the few animals that I wish I had more lizards and bears

The zoo is great. It is a good half day, especially if you spend time at the splash pad.

Decent zoo, won't blow your mind...kids will love it though.

The animals look unhappy, especially the bears. The splash pad is nice, but I'm not sure if I would go back.

me and my friend and her daughter love this, even her daughter soooo in love with this place i would give a 10 star for it but only limit 5 star here but yah. this place is good for family and kids to enjoying viewing the aniamls and socialize with the elephants.

It was ok see more animals in the street you would think they would have more exotic animals but they don't

Recommend going on a weekday to avoid (Covid-19) crowds. Some shade with the trees canopy, but still hot to spend all day at end of October. Really nice for young kids (with 3 yo), has a playground and splashpad. A lot of the animals were napping mid-day but still fun to see. Hand sanitizer stations all through the park. Lots of tables to eat at and occasional open area pit stops where you can take off your mask. Bears, giraffes, leopards, birds, rhino, snakes, lots of animals here!

My second time at the zoo and this time was worse than the last time not many animals to see and the animals that is there are very small except the rhino , bear and giraffes not what the kids expected and we were all disappointed it s not worth the prices they charge I would never pay my money to go back there just not worth it

Great place to see animals a lots of trees water park for the kids to enjoy BBQ place to eat friendly staff

Nice little zoo for the price. The train ride, merry go round and zipline experience are all extra cost.

The crew was very nice and as accomadating as they could be, needed sunscreen and didn't carry it. So we had to end our visit early, so the 1 yr old wouldn't burn. So go prepared, they have a small water park so dont forget a suit!

We get season passes every year! We love the Central Florida Zoo!

Central Florida Zoo went above and beyond my expectations. When we arrived (10:30am) there was ample free parking which is rare these days! The young man at the ticket counter was very pleasant to talk to and was extremely patient with our disorganized group of 9. The walk into the Zoo was nice. Not too crowded, nice shady trees, beautiful artwork!

We walked around for a couple hours and still didn't see everything they have to offer. There's a very large variety of animals and reptiles! Our group consisted of small children and the elderly so we were happy to find there are plenty of benches, shaded places to rest and bathrooms throughout the park.

There's a Sonny's BBQ restaurant and quite a few concession stands, both were pretty reasonably priced for a Zoo! My son and niece really enjoyed the playground and splash pad as an added bonus. Even with the 115 heat index today, we had a fantastic time and will visit this place again.

A pleasant smallish zoo with a nice variety of displays.

It's a wonderful zoo, tucked away under a peaceful canopy of trees giving much needed shade in the Florida heat. The staff is so friendly and helpful. The animals are beautiful and well cared for and the new bear exhibit is well done and very informative. They offer many additional activities not generally offered by zoos like zip-lining, an awesome splash pad, a working miniature train, a merry-go-round, and so much more. We love it so much, we bought annual passes to go back with our little one whenever we want. We highly recommend it.

Very nice place.good for both kids and adults.had a fun time.lots of animals,birds,etc.will definitely visit again.

Such a cute zoo. Nice outdoor trip. Kids enjoyed it very much!

Went here expecting to be disappointed after some of the negative reviews but we were pleasantly surprised with the quality and diversity of this zoo. Animals and enclosures were all in excellent condition as compared to other regional zoos we have visited. The only drawback was that they did a poor job of letting you know when presentations were being done at the animal enclosures and a printed map would have been helpful.

Went today for our first zipline date with hubby and had a great time, the staff is pretty amazing and very well informed. Always checking on us and helping out. Worth the money, enjoy!!

Nice environment, but more animals there would be nice

Nice place to visit, not a lot there but a good place to kill a couple of hours

Great non profit zoo in Central Florida. Freindly, educational staff and a large variety of species that you can view up close. Amur leaopard, Black bears, rhino and otters to name a few. Don't forget to feed the giraffes and stop for lunch sponsored by Sony's BBQ.

Wonderful day, fed the giraffes, learned a lot about rhinos, beautiful natural environment. Very enjoyable.