San Diego Zoo Reviews

EXCELLENT place to just enjoy the amazing Plants and Foliage too

This place is HUGE!!!! Luckily you don't have walk the whole thing if you don't want to. They have a gondola & a bus service. I would recommend doing the free bus tour do you can decide what you really want to see. This is a whole day venture.

Hands down my favorite Zoo ever! So much interaction and fun, that you forget how much you've walked

Very impressed! Very clean, well kept up. Animal habitats are amazingly catered to the animals.

A ton of fun and a great go to San Diego for a day of fun!

San Diego Zoo does a great job. Find a coupon if you can!

Always happy going to the San Diego zoo! Love where my money is going.

Very nice place. They take a good care of an animals! Amazing place to spend a day!

Seeing the pandas make the trip worth going.. Many interesting & beautiful animals & attractions.. A must go for every zoo lover

This zoo is Amazing!!! I will post a more detailed review later. I just stopped in to get my membership!

Awesome park with something for everyone. Got to take a guided tour of the elephants which was amazing with an excellent tour guide. The vastness of the park really creates a good variety of animals to discover.

Great place for kids. Nice layout. Have been to many others zoos, but this was the best.

We are so lucky to have the best zoo in the country right here in beautiful San Diego!

The zoo is absolutely beautiful and amazing. This is definitely a must if you have kids. Pro tip- bring your own snacks and beverages. There are plenty of restrooms placed very strategically throughout the zoo.

Amazing zoo! Worth flying across the country to visit!

Love the San Diego zoo. Get a membership every other year!

Best Zoo Experience. The early with the pandas experience, totally worth it.

We loved the zoo! We spent 7 hours there and walked about 6.5 miles. I really liked all the info the zoo provided around the park. The map is a little confusing and we had to double back through a couple exhibits to see parts we missed. The sky tram was so cool though and food/souvenirs were reasonably priced. We got pizza from the Treetop restaurant which had great views while you eat!

This is an amazing zoo and worth every single penny. The animal enclosures are all well taken care of and beautiful. The plant life is also amazing.

We are from Albuquerque New Mexico, our zoo sucks compared to this one! The animals look happy and the place is so beautiful. The other people there are rude but that has nothing to do with the zoo. Thank you for creating an amazing experience for our family of fifteen!

We came on a tuesday and there wasnt a lot of people, which was nice. There we a few animals that werent in their exhibit which was a bummer but overall it was great. Tip: plan how your going to walk through the park so your not walking around in circles

Mostly good experience but no mask enforcement. We saw over a hundred people not wearing masks once inside the park (excluding the dining areas where you do not have to wear a mask while sitting).

Five stars, always. Travel the world, see all the zoos, and you'll still come back here. It's the best.

A great day out and admission fee of $60 includes a double decker open top bus with knowledgeable guide. Great walkways all around the zoo including treetop paths. Skytrams not to be missed. Major attraction of 2 giant pandas in their feature enclosure and polar bears in the Arctic area. Not to be missed.

We had a great time, our son loves animals just wish they all weren't asleep or off being fed for most of our trip.

We had the most delightful day at the zoo. We brought our picnic and snacks. A must do for every family!

I didn t visit this zoo and I m sure it s beautiful but why are u going there ? Those animals can t be kept in cages! Please don t support this ! This is just my opinion and nothing more .

The zoo is comparable to ordinary zoos we have been too. There was not anything that had a wow factor. I don t understand why this is so popular. I liked the Omaha zoo much better.

Great place to relax. That's why we are been a member for a while now. San Diego zoo, Safari Park is a great place to enjoy and relive my stress .

Awesome Zoo! Impressively designed child safe. I plan to visit again.

Great place. Spent 5 hours and still did not see everything.

Highly recommend this as a true gem on your adventure in San Diego. The animals were extremely active and well kept. The staff and experience far surpassed what was expected. The food prices and souvenirs are well priced as well. I loved that the San Diego Zoo is so engaged with conservation efforts and truely have a fond sense of their identity in having in active role on society through these efforts in protecting species of animals. Well worth the price of admission. Hint: Go when the zoo first opens as a majority of the animals were feeding which is a sight in itself.

Beautiful zoo. So much to see. Need the whole day to do everything and do all of the trails

Had a great time at the Zoo. Lots of hills so wear comfortable shoes!

Love this place. Kind of bummed out after renewing for a year, to find out that the Children's Zoo is being renovated and will not reopen until 2021! There should be some compensation?

Beautiful.. Enjoyed seeing the animals, although I wish the animals had more room, they seemed content and happy. Get ready for lots of walking, and at times, even very steep hills!

Very well organised Zoo, also very large, so you'll need at least 4 hours to move thru it all and take a moment for each specie. Download the San Diego Zoo app, super helpful when you can't find your way to any of the animals...or the exit :)

Even on a scorching hot day. Visiting the zoo was a great family adventure.

My favorite place to take the kids to walk around and wear them out hahaha. Plus yearly prices for residents is very reasonable

Be prepared to walk.
I personally prefer walking the zoo and spend as much time as I need at my own pace. Bus tour does not get you close to the zoo animals.
My favourite was the three polar bears playing in the water. You can get real close to the action.
Tigers were great and my kids loved reptiles.
Review the map and plan out the path. Easy to waste your time and miss exhibits.
I wish the map had recommended possible walking paths.
They let you bring your own food and drinks. Do bring your own. I saw a few people with wagon. May work for you, too.

Had an awesome time!! One can jump on a bus and listen to the guide intro or just walk around as it s not too big! Don t forget to grab a beer!

Wonderful experience. Feels almost like a Disney park in terms of the thematic experience. Loved the skytram. Great gift shops. Wonderful animal exhibits. Clean natural open habitats. Animals mostly out and about to see. Recommend highly.

Zoo is quite a large so it typically takes 3 hours to roughly see it and 5 hours to deeply dive it.

Beautiful experience. The habitats are beautiful and well kept. The buses give you a nice tour and overview. The zoo is arranged in a way that you take a path and see every exhibit without missing anything. Before you know it you've got half of the park down. You don't feel like you are walking back and forth or in circles. We finished our day by taking the skyfari, which takes you from the elephant exhibit and botanical garden to the exit or vice versa, since it is one way. Great day out with even small children. We took kangaroo bus on the kids naptime and had a nice little break. NOTE: they no longer have giant panda exhibit

This place is huge! So many great animals to see even though the Pandas are gone. I personally loved the aviaries. It was interesting to hear of the many species they are helping to preserve by breeding and returning to the wild. The eleohants and polar bears are wildly popular. Included with admission is the Skyfari gondola which you can take in either direction. Outside food along is allowed with the usual exception of glass bottles, alcohol and large coolers. Alcohol is served in many of their concession stands. Also remember to bring sunscreen!

It is laid out well. It is very crowded, but they handle the large volume of people well. The animals seemed well-cared for.

We love this zoo! By far the best zoo that I've ever been to. Have been there many times (once before kids and many times with kids and we hope to come again! One day is not enough to get to see all this place has to offer. When we were there last time, in May 2018, a new exhibit, called Africa Rocks, was still under construction. Anxious to go back and see it!

Our tour guide Ashley was very knowledgeable about what's new and upcoming at the zoo. June is also a great time to visit because it's baby season! Many animals are mating and therefore there are lots of new members at the zoo! Parking is FREE at the zoo which is a huge bonus. At first I felt iffy about the price of tickets, but remembering that the San Diego zoo is a non profit organization and all of our proceeds go towards helping these animals out of extinction really made me feel much better about spending and the prices of everything (still cheaper than Disneyland!). The only downside is the long line for the Pandas (we skipped the lines because we wanted to see everything else first) but the zoo is definitely somewhere I would go again! If I lived in San Diego I wouldn't think twice about getting an annual pass! I had the best time here, thanks San Diego Zoo!

Wow so much has changed. What a great day and time to spend with the kids. Get there early.

It's amazing but the only thing is you have to be prepared to walk a lot

Was a wonderful day everyone was very helpful. It was my son's first time at a zoo

Love the work the zoo does, have been a member for over a year.

More than enough to do in a weekend! We spent a full day here. Started off on the free guided bus tour, then we're able to walk the parts we wanted to see more of. Then we also used the kangaroo bus to take us to the other part of the zoo and walk back to the front. Lots of reasonably priced food options, that were healthy and kid friendly, or just indulgent. They really hit the mark on a great experience. Worth every penny of the admission price. The place is clean and huge!

Fantastic zoo with plenty to see and do.It is expensive but you do get to see loads.
Top 5 of things to see in San Diego.

Large zoo. Interesting bird area. Hard to see the panda bears but at least was able to see them a little. The kawala bears were more visible but also a challenge to see. The hippo tank was nice to be able to see them up close.

This is really one of the best zoos I ve been to. Really big amazing animals and the safari tours were exceptional l!

1st time at the zoo...I would take some comfy shoes. Had a great time!

Outstanding, a must repeat visit. Nice bus tours.

Nice zoo to visit, excellent place to visit for the entire family

I love getting on the bus and riding threw the zoo looking at the animals. Walking is fun too.

What a remarkable zoo! The variety of animals they house here is extensive. I took the kangaroo bus (the hop on hop off bus) one full loop just to get comfortable with the layout. Be aware this zoo is huge in the park it s contained within is massive. I also took the guided tour which provided information on the animals in general and the conservation efforts underway. Both busses are included currently in the day pass. I walked the hippo trail, tiger trail, monkey trail and aviary trail. You re going to be doing a lot of walking at this zoo. The price seemed high at purchase but I feel it s well worth the price.

Great place and was able to see sll the animals espercially the lions , cheetah etc closeup .

Welcome to the world's best zoo !

Massive zoo with exotic animals. They have most of the animals - includes Polar Bear.... It's easily a days plan.

First to explore what's where - take the bus tour - remember to sit on the right side(left has almost no animals) upper deck. Once you know this - take the Kangaroo hopper bus to go to the areas of interest. The tram / rope car is a good aerial view - but not for viewing animals( unlike Oakland CA zoo).

They also have good reptile collection.

Must see this zoo !!!

Huge zoo, took hours to walk around, large enclosures for animals made it not too bad, very crowded but was one of the best experiences I've ever had in a zoo

The best zoo in America, don't miss it, worth every dollar you spend, take a picnic lunch.

The World Famous Zoo is famous for a reason! Expect a full day of walking and learning. Food is predictably expensive.

A wonderful place to spend the day...you cant go wrong with a visit to the SD Zoo

Great zoo, seems like they are always improving it.

Our first visit and was a fantastic place for any ages.
We got our ticket online and was so Convenience we didn t have to wait in to the line so if you want you can buy your ticket on the zoo website we got one day pass which for adult was $56 and for kids under 3-11 years old $46 and $3 fee for online convenience which was worth it ( was a long lone and it was hot) with this ticket you can take a guided bus , kangaroo express bus and skyfari aerial tram. Its better when you enter to the park first take a guided bus and it take almost 15 min you get a tour of the zoo and after that you know where to started where you want to go first. The zoo has a app ( san diego zoo) so convenience and do not need paper map it shows where you are which places you missing what kind of animals are in the zoo and .... if you don t have a small kids you can visit whole the zoo in one day if you go to zoo at 9 am when the zoo open and stay there all they till 5 pm when zoo close but if you have small kids its better you buy 2 days pass tickets. We have 5 years old and we went by noon we almost visit most of the zoo so if we went in the morning definitely we were able to visit all the zoo. It was one if the best experience so many plant diversity and so many cute animals unfortunately we missed the panda ( they send them back to China).

It's more than just a zoo! It's a Botanical Garden, conservation program, and more. Seriously if you visit, takes a moment to notice all of the plants. The animals are super well taken care of. You have so much to see. My husband and I arrived as soon as they opened and were the last to leave. We got to see everything with some shoes in between. We visited on the last Saturday of January 2019, the weather was perfect and the park still accommodated 17 thousand people that day. It didn't feel crowded, THAT'S how big it is. We felt super satisfied with our visit. It is a very clean facility, the zookeepers are very knowledgeable and approachable. I've never met so many people that loved their jobs so much as this staff. The tours were amazing and enthusiastic, the enclosures are so well thought out, seriously it's just (may I say) almost as great as the animals themselves! The aviaries were breathtaking. They were hands down my favorite part.

One of my favorite places to spend a day. There is ample parking and for those willing to spend $22 you can have valet parking which allows you to text ahead and have your car waiting for you when you exit.
But the attraction are the animals and plants to view. You can imagine yourself in tropical jungles, or the plains of Africa, to the the outback of Australia. Plenty of places to eat, rest and take a pit stop. If you want you can take a bus tour.
If you are a local I recommend the season annual pass for the extra benefits. It pays for it self the second time you and your mate go to the zoo.

Seriously the best! We brought our 1 year old for his birthday and our 5 year anniversary. Best zoo we have ever been to! The pandas were so awesome and I LOVE that all the animals have so much room. In Texas their enclosures are much smaller and it's a lil sad. We will definitely be coming back!

Amazing zoo. Probably the best zoo in the world. Well managed & very caring service

New exhibit Africa Rocks is awesome. Monkeys, Bird aviary and the cool endangered African Amnr Leopard and asian snow leopard.

Fantastic zoo with horrible covid mask restrictions. They have staff everywhere to police visitors mask wearing compliance. Supposedly they restricted attendance but the zoo was about as crowded as I've ever seen.

Best zoo I've ever been! They also have great conservation projects.

Great site and plenty of free parking await you to the center piece of Balboa Park's world class zoo !

What is there I could post that has not been said before? There is a reason why it is called the world famous Zoo. The newest area, Africa Rocks, well, rocks! The aviaries in this part of the zoo are amazing!

If you take your time and don't try to power through it, you get to see so much more. Stop and watch the animals interact. The primates were the best to watch. The food was very good, though you do pay park prices, so expensive. Maps are tough to follow, but the staff and volunteers are very friendly and helpful.

The annual pass for the zoo is completely affordable and well worth it especially for families of small children and frequent out of town guests. It's such a large zoo that it's best enjoyed when broken up into several visits. There are also special events throughout the year included! I recently attended their HalGloween event and had a wonderful time with my nearly 7 yo!! Definitely dragging her Dad next year!!

San Diego Zoo is a must. We went on a Sunday. Best to arrive at opening, starts getting crowed about noon. Even busy it doesn't seem crowded. Well laid out and plenty to see. Dress for the wx and prepare for a little walking. You can bring in your own food and drink.

The best zoo I have ever seen... It needs at least 2 days to cover all the exhibits...

I hadn t been to this zoo in 15 years but decided to take my daughter here for her birthday. My kids and nephews are 10 and under and absolutely LOVED it. I had an amazing time, too. It is so different from what I experienced as a teenager. Some of the enclosures are gorgeous and the animals look so happy and engaged. The bear areas look kind of sad and exactly as I remember them from 15 years ago but I m honestly not sure what qualifies as a quality bear enclosure.

The aviary blew me away. The entire tiger/hippo/aviary trail is exciting. There was a huge crowd around the baby hippo and a rude family who laughed about their kids shoving to he front of the line and then blocking everyone s view for 5 minutes but that s not the zoo s fault.

What secured an enthusiastic 5th star from me is the fact that the woman ringing up our lunch saw my empty water bottle and offered to fill it up for free, completely unprompted. I m so used to parks/theme parks that feel so stingy and money hungry that this simple act of sharing cold, clean water with everyone made me feel really good about this zoo. The free parking is also a huge plus.

I would definitely come back here with or without my kids and look forward to trying the safari park next time.

The most beautiful setting in San Diego.
It has been about 8 years since my last visit.
Everything has progressed,newer displays, better walking trails.
Food service could use some work.
Better quality is needed at the price you pay.

Horrendous experience attempting to get lunch. Sent on a 40 minute walk for & then served incorrect food! Took a significant portion of our available time.Ruined the visit.
Park itself is amazing.
Be aware volunteers throughout the park don't always know better options. They are friendly and generally on target with information.

Absolutely lovely. Lots to see.it will take a big portion of the day to see it in its entirety. Well worth it. Summer time hours allow for the viewing of a variety of animal activities. Free parking however everything is rather pricey inside the zoo.