Oakland Zoo Reviews

Ha a great fun with family and friends last weekend . Food needs to improve a lot more with quality.

Small place all the animals we mia. Wouldn't come again during covid

Great for kids any age, nicely laid out animal enclosures. You can spend the entire day walking around and exploring the zoo. There is also the Australian outback train, and kids entertainment area. Worth taking your dslr with you. Parking is easy.

A lot of hills so it might be hard for wheelchairs and strollers. I went with a 11 month old and we got pretty tired after 2 hours. Beautiful spot, awesome animals and totally worth it.

If you haven't been to Oakland zoo in a while it is worth another trip due to the new gondola and the addition of the zoo on the top of the Hill with great views... recommend using Groupon Discount when available

The North American exhibits are really phenomenal!!

The new California boardwalk and gondola is amazing!!!!

Even though it's small, it's still quite enjoyable! A must go to experience~

Many zoos make me sad. Viewing caged animals isn t on my top ten list. The Oakland Zoo is an exception, the animal habitats are spacious and clearly the zoo has made an effort to recreate the natural habitats of each animal. The new California exhibit is wonderful, the gondola ride to the exhibit has stunning views of the entire San Francisco Bay, it s a not to miss experience!

Clean, spacious zoo, with many exhibits. The tiger pen is amazing!

The gondola is great and gives you an amazing view over the bay area. On a clear day you can even see the Golden Gate Bridge. Most animals have decent amount of space, but some cages are a bit antiquated. Parking and a confusing layout are the main downsides of this zoo.

Who doesn't love a fun trip to the Zoo? The giraffes and elephants are a special treat.

It was going to be a quick family trip, but we ended up making a day of it, ~ 4.5 hours at the zoo. For being on a very busy day, it didn't feel incredibly crowded, besides busy, but easy parking, when we rolled up at noon. There was a stacked line for the adventure landing train, $3.50 / person, but we timed everything else really well. If you have to choose, the take flight lift at $3 / person is a much better experience for animal viewing and relaxing than the train. The gondolas are free, and fast!, to take you to the new, and pretty big, area. We went to the new area with the zoo open for another hour and had plenty of time including playing at the playground up there.

Great for People of all ages. Nice friendly family atmosphere

The weather was cloudy and sprinkled a little so I understand the animls didn't want to be out and about. I went closer towards noon but the animals see till weren't as active. The birds were wonderful though.

Good family fun great for the kids and I enjoyed it already

Excellent place to bring the family. Lots of animals to see.

My service dog and I had a blast. Staff were super helpful and friendly

The gondola got stuck had to hear people make bad jokes out of it

This place is a small zoo, but they have plenty of interesting exhibits. The new gondola ridr and top view restaurant are great

Awesome zoo with a great variety of animals. Nice enclosures and well laid out, with things to interest children and grown ups. Plenty of amenities and also a train ride and gondola, which were both fun and let you see parts of the zoo which would not have been accessible otherwise. Refreshments were available, decent quality and reasonably priced, staff were friendly and helpful.

It was a really good experience to come here. Love the sky line ride for just $3 a person

The light show in December was a lovely family treat... Had a blast! We all did

This zoo is also a conservatory which means that they aren't just caging animals. They are giving them homes. It feels natural and their animals all look healthy and happy. For a moment, I was in the African Savannah. Tropical Rainforest and California Trail.

I have been coming to the Oakland Zoo since I was a child and all the best parts are still here. The new areas are awesome, and the sightseeing is incredible. If you can visit on a weekday, your trip will be less stressful

Not much to see. One gondola was broken but the other was free

Good place for very young kids, ages 3-6. I liked the sea otters the most as well as the gondola ride. I still haven't checked out the new upper portion of the zoo or the reptile house, and will save those for a later date. I did thoroughly appreciate the layout of the zoo and how much space the animals were given. They out a lot of thought into keeping the animals happy. My review is mainly for the membership. This membership is only worth it if you have a family with very young children and you live close to the zoo. I thought it was a well-thought out scam that the amount paid for parking on the day you buy your membership isn't applied towards your membership (since you get free parking with membership) instead you can either apply that amount towards the few dinky rides outside of the zoo or just eat the cost. It is partially my fault for buying a membership my first time at the zoo, without reading further into the consequences of buying a membership.

I am an auntie to about a million children, I have no children of my own, and thought to use the membership to bring my various comadres and their kids to the zoo so we could all spend the day together. I was annoyed that I had to buy the more expensive family plus membership (rather than the regular family), since you have to name both adults, and I needed a membership that would allow myself, 1 adult guest, and several child guests. If I weren't already there with a gaggle of kids, and if I hadn't already paid for parking, I would have just left and not bought the membership.

If you're going to buy a new membership, I would suggest buying the membership online first to avoid the additional cost of paying for parking or just take the bus there.

Fourth times a charm! Brought my son for his second time and my daughter for her first and it was a great experience. The gondola experience was out of this world!

My family loves to go there...its very calm and we enjoy every moment

The zoo itself is awesome. The kids loved it. The new gondola lift is really great. It is fast, quiet and you get to see absolutely beautiful scenery view of the entire Bay Area while you ride you ride up and back down to and from the top. At the top are all of the new exhibits. California mountain lion was only inches away. The zoo is a large area and the paths are fun to walk through. They have several types of animals and are currently expanding with more enclosures and different animals.

Fantastic place for families, lots of activities and animals to see. Unfortunately, the gondola was in maintenance.

Great place to bring kids that's pretty pandemic safety friendly as long as everyone can keep their mask on

Great place to spend Sunday with you family. Adequate parking, no long lines, and not crowded. Most animals were out to see. I thought it cost to much for what you get and isn't affordable for many families. Would like to see it be a lower price so everyone could enjoy.

you can not see any animal they have almost nothing of what they announce anything that because they had heat they said or sitome photo but to a dog that they had was the only thing all the people were bothered by that there was nothing

It's good, but I predict children in the future would not like it. It's a good place to be if you have children under the age of 4.

Many exhibits to visit, plenty of space to sit and some great spaces for kids to run and play.

My three year old son loves this place like most kids do. He especially likes riding a train. And he likes turtles now after seeing the reptiles exhibit. I was surprised he didn't get tired of walking. The zoo is so big.

Great place. Good viewing and the food at the top of the gondola is amazing

Pretty good. Could have some more animals. More food options needed. A bit overpriced for what we get.

A smaller zoo and a little tired, but worth a one-time visit.

One of the best, local zoos. There's a nice selection of animals to check out and even a petting zoo.

Great zoo. Lucky to have this gem for the animals and guests. Best to go on a weekday. Weekends get crowded. The zoo is following all the covid protocols.

Loved seeing the Elephants eat whole watermelons on Feed the Beast zoo event

Nice place to bring kids and people who would like to know more about animals. Admission coupons are sometimes available online!

We love the zoo. Really worth it to get a season pass. We did it 2 years ago but then we moved. Just moved back and going to get another pass. Need to try the new gondola thing!

Beautiful zoo this place is wonderful I recommend for the families

Great place to visit with the family or with friends.

Great place for kids. Go early if you go on the weekends. Avoid holiday weekends if possible.

I went to the Oakland zoo last Friday with my daughter s class for a field trip. The trip was well planned out. At the zoo they have classrooms for all of the guided tours. Our teacher/tour guide was supper friendly and had lots of information to give out.

This is my first time going to the zoo and I was surprised to see how nice the zoo was. It is a large zoo and the animals looked happy for the most part. The best part of the zoo was seeing all of the animals out and about. We saw the lions, elephants, giraffes and flamingos just to name a few. (Going early is probably the best time).

After the tour the kids were able to go back to the classroom and have lunch. They also have a nice courtyard for the kids to eat at. The day we went it had just rained, so we were not able to enjoy the outside area.
Next to classroom was a whole area set up for the kids to run and play. I loved how you could explore and find new areas of the zoo. The kids had a great time seeing the bug exhibit and crocodiles. I also liked that the exhibits were scattered throughout the park and exploring with the kids was so much fun.

My group had time to pet the animals which was a nice touch. I wish I had more time to explore the zoo, but the bus was ready to pick us up and go back to school.

A great place for families to experience wildlife and the zoo is dedicated to conservation efforts. Also expect to get a good amount of exercise in with the hilly and expansive property. We chose this zoo for the elephants but loved all of it.

Good experience and has a variety of new animals..I love this places good for Spend time with family

The docents are what gives this zoo a 4. They are very knowledgeable and I learned a few new cool things about chimpanzees. The animals rank a 3 out of 5. Some of them were in hiding, like the sun bears. Of course the food and drink were overpriced. Be prepared to do a lot of uphill walking. Overall, it was a pleasant experience. The ride in the gondola was nice.

It's a fantastic zoo. They don't have as many different animals as other zoo's, but I appreciate the fact that they give the animals large enclosures with lots of amenities like toys, swings, balls and water features. The new California section at the top of an amazing gondola ride is with the price of admission by itself.

Docents and volunteers are great, zookeepers are great. And while I wish the animals up the California Trail were more visible, I love that they have such amazing habitats to live in.

Also, the petting zoo is wonderful. I love goats and could happily spend all day petting those cute little buggers.

Smaller zoo. But loved the whole atmosphere. Has a petting zoo in the kid zone. The new sky track or whatever it's called is cool. You can see San Fran. Amazing

A really big zoo with tons of theme parks. The Africa park is excellent. The California and Australia parks are just ok

Animals in a very similar habitat some on the mountain equal to their place of origin. The view from the cable car!