Columbian Park Zoo (City of Lafayette, IN) Reviews

I love this animal-filled friendly place. The people are ok, too.

Great fun for the kiddos. We love the zoo and train ride.

My grandkids love going there over and over again. They enjoy watching the monkeys and petting the goats. It's beautiful and fun for children. Best of all, admission is free.

Always a great place. Amazing the changes over past yrs.

This is one of the most beautiful parks in town. There are lots of walking trails and play activities for the kids. The Zoo and water park are cool too.

Traveling through and LOVED this zoo. My favorite was the praise dog area. They have these tunnels you crawl through then pip up in a bubble so you can be face to face eith the cute critters. Loved the train ride. Haven't been to a zoo with a butterfly hut, besides butterfly palace in Missouri which was awesome. This place was fun. Do colorful and green. Cool art all around. Friendly staff, and I do mean friendly. Tjey go above and beyond. I watched a staff member take their time and use such great patiencevwitj a challenged child. Oh and this place is FREE. Also next to it us a park and a water park. Reminded me of hai Seville park, wonderful experience.

This place is sooo awesome!!! It is a great place for families to take their kids!

Fun FREE zoo with plenty to see. Many major improvements have been made recently.

I love this FREE zoo that is available to all! It is well maintained and the staff is knowledgeable. It s a smaller zoo but the animals are amazing; they have New Guinea singing dogs, which are extremely rare. There are also fountains for kids to cool off in, a farm animal petting zoo, and a butterfly habitat walk through. I recommend it to anyone!

Free, clean, and a good experience. The animals while not super exotic were exciting enough for my kids to be thrilled.

Spend a few hours there not very big but it's free! And you can pets the goats

**FREE** Nice place to take the kids, small but it's "free"

A few animals, very cute. Cant get better then Free

Its just not the same but still fun to take kids to

Small zoo without any of the large animals (elephant, lions, etc) but it was very clean, free, and even though it was small for an adult. It is the perfect size with the right amount of animals for small children that can't walk as much or handle a long day at a place like the Indy zoo. All in all very enjoyable

I was here attending a work party but it was a great time. The water park is of great quality and the zoo is amazing for being free

Just an okay place. Can see mini Kangroo live inside their habitat

We had a great time at the Zoo. However, I feel they still have a ways to go before they are assessable to everyone! Getting around with a stroller is a little difficult, I can't imagine a wheelchair!

A lot of fun for several age groups. Could use an update in their park system though.

Such a cute zoo! So many interactive things for the kids, and lots of opportunities for the kids to get close to the animals

Kids love it and it's free. I go here about 10 times per summer.

There is something here for everyone. There are plenty of places with shade, the park is designed to be enjoyed by all. The zoo and it's staff are welcoming and pleasant.

I love city park zoos. Columbian Park is big and wonderful. The zoo is nice for its small size. And it is free admission. Go see it.

The place was decaying back in the 80's so I'm glad they upgraded it.

Very nice zoo and friendly staff!! They were very knowledgeable when we had questions about the animals!! Loved seeing the majestic Bald Eagles and Spider Monkeys!! We had a blast feeding the Goats and they tried eating our clothes

Nice zoo and childhood memories. They are currently renovating a lot at the park.

It's a fun park/zoo for a short outing. Best for younger kids.

My grandchildren absolutely love going to the zoo! It has changed so much since I was a child

Great place to visit on a sunny day in the summer or for a winter stroll. Free zoo is a community asset to all. The pond provides fishing and the water park, a great way to cool off. Rides for the kiddies and a playground for little ones to run and play. Fantastic community location

Love this park! Wish my town had this park for my children, I literally drive about 25 mins just to come. First time here this year and defiently for see a lot of our summer days spent here

Walked around on Christmas day. Got out of the house on a beautiful day.

Do property is very clean but a lot of the animals were out at the time we were there.

Different than it use to be. They have a lot of animals there. There are newer buildings. Its just different.

Free park with emus, monkeys, wallabys, and cheap rides for kids under 42".

Great place and people! Activities like Zoo Snooze and Boo at the Zoo are great!

Super friendly staff, clean everywhere, very nice free place to visit.

Amazing place to take the kids. Fun and free. Animals are well taken care of. Beware of feeding the goats as they get overly excited and like to jump, but overall really fun. It's also right by the park so the kids can play afterwards. Only wish there were more places to eat nearby.

Love it! Just make sure to potty before you go! Bathrooms always have that outdoor used smell if you know what I mean.

Great zoo for kids. They pack alot into what is a smaller zoo, including a petting zoo and the water park near by is also great for younger kids

Cute little attraction, perfect for guests of all ages. Not particularly exciting or unique but definitely something fun for families.

We absolutely love this little zoo! So nice to have such a nice park with so much pack in it, right in town! Love getting to play with the goats!!

A beautiful little free zoo. Not a whole lot to see but they put so much heart into it.

Nice, clean and well kept grass areas, nice play ground for kids.

Beautiful Park!! Nice children's play area, and the pond is gorgeous.very clean and well kept!!

I wouldn't call it a zoo it's more like a petting zoo than a zoo

One of my favorite free zoos and keeps getting better every year

A small zoo in Lafayette. Nice for a short visit and interesting for the local animals. The prairie dogs were cute and we enjoyed watching them in their display area. Some enclosures seemed small for the animals inside.

As someone from Illinois, I was astounded to find a zoo that was free! Columbian Park Zoo had neat animals who seemed to be well taken care of. I loved the butterfly tea garden.

It's a real family park. There's plenty of wholesome activities to see and do.

Offers free WiFi that happens to be slow and spotty

Its always been a lovely place. The park was clean and tidy and the zoo kept the little ones entertained.

We live over an hour away from this park...and make the drive 3 or 4 times every summer to enjoy this wonderful park. Sure..the town we live in has quite a few decent parks...but Columnian Park blows them out of the water. First off...this park is extremely well maintained. I have never even seen litter anywhere. From the flowers to the pavement to the play equipment...everything looks practically new. We always start off at the pool which isn't that amazing in itself...but it is nice, it's part of the park, and very reasonably priced. The snack place has standard snack fare at a reasonable price. Then...we always head over to the free petting zoo. For a free petting zoo...this place is amazing. Sometimes some of the animals are not out...but today they were all out. Walabys, prairie dogs, a porcupine, monkeys, lamas, vulture, owls, pigs, donkeys, a butterfly exhibit, and all the goats you will ever want to pet. Then we catch a ride on the train. It's like $1.50 a ticket and rides all around the park. The kids love it. Then we head over to the massive playground. The main area sits atop a big hill which you can get to by a bridge...or just walk up the hill. All around the hill are a variety of different play areas that have different themes and are geared to different ages. We were there for 5 hours today and spend less than $30. We will be back for sure.

Nice clean park huge playground area and all age groups included, nice mini zoo area also

Very clean and beautiful park with some seriously impressive features. There is a free zoo (that's actually worth going to), a baseball field that holds city games, 3 play ground areas which go by age group (all the way through teens), 2 lakes, and a train that goes through it. There are also many outdoor grills and pavilions for events.

Very cute Zoo, love the goats but there is no need to keep a porcupine in a cage he looked like his brain had deteriorated cause he was pacing back and forth aimlessly, very sad as a well as the small monkeys. Get rid of these exhibits too sad!!

Ready for more variety in exhibits and monkey odor is a bit much even on a good day.

The zoo has surprisingly high quality engaging exhibits including interactive spider monkeys, crawl-underwater river otter tunnels, and a feed-the-farm-animals area to name a few.

The park has subsections suitable for varying ages perfect for sending a troupe of kids off to each while keeping everyone in eyesight.

And an ice cream and sand which shop right across the street, too. Certainly a half day of fun if not a full day.

I had to attend a family event at this location. It was hot and I hate family events. My review does not reflect my outlook on the park.

Small zoo but was a lot more than I expected. Hope to see what happens when the new exhibits open.

Monkeys was monkeying around. The Lion was lion, bears was bear and the train left its tracks