San Diego Zoo Reviews

Perhaps too must hype?

The lady driving the bus seemed like she was about to snap any minute.

There was really that much action from the animals and we went there first thing and spent all day there.

Hot dogs are like $14 so bring a lunch.

The whole experience was kinda lame.

So many of the animals' enclosures are so tiny. It's sad to see the lions and cheetahs cooped up in such small cages that they can't run around.

Everything was good except for mandatory masks. That was annoying, especially for the little ones and in the heat. Not safe

My Family had a fantastic time at the San Diego Zoo on our vacation. We will be back.

I haven't been to this soon since I was 2 and a half. So returning with my daughter and mother was awesome. The volunteers and workers were very kind. Definitely educational and exciting.

BEST ZOO EVER. The animals look so healthy and well taken care of, and the whole park is clean and looks like their natural habitat. The workers were so helpful and friendly. It's kind of hard to navigate but again, there were workers everywhere that were ready to help. Plan to spend the whole day there as it is very big but definitely worth the money, and I would even save extra money for spending. Very beautiful.

If you ve been here, you ll know this is a great spot to take the family and see some diverse and exotic wild life.

Great for a day trip, walk around and see the animals.

I d highly recommend the giraffe feeding experience for the little ones to get up and personal with a giraffe!

Great zoo, lot to cover and the animals are active roaming around. We saw the tiger, cheetah, eagles up close. Lots of information on animals and friendly staff.

Having seen zoos all over the world (10+ zoos) I found nothing extraordinarily different. But the zoo is very nicely spread out with easy to navigate paths. We visited just after new year so the place was not too busy.

As all attractions the food is expensive. So are the other attractions/ extra activities on offer. They do have a lot on offer apart from the beautiful animals.

What we enjoyed the most was the wonderful work the organisation does to rehabilitate and release animals back into the wild. A must see if your kids or you are big animal lovers.

Surely animals here are being treated with love and care as opposed to their free counterparts

Best Zoo I've ever been to. Very humane enclosures for the animals and a major focus on conservation! I've been going here since I was a child and it's amazing the amount of updates they make to enclosures to keep the animals happy.

Up and down 1000 hills not my kind of day. But beautiful zoo. And very friendly service.

Have gone twice. The most helpful person at zoo was the gentleman at the ticket booth. Have been to other zoo's and enjoyed those a lot more than here in San Diego. Some of the animals looked agitated. There was no lion, there were a lot of birds and snakes. The path was difficult to follow efficiently. On the plus side, they do give college student discounts with college ID, plenty of parking and bathrooms
were clean.

Great day, a little warm but lots of room to see the animals. They are only filling to 50% of capacity. Disappointed that the Giant Pandas are gone and the tigers wouldn't come out to play. Most of the animals, birds were out and active. The new areas are great, too. Love the Zoo.

Best zoo I have ever visited. Enclosures are nice and the park well thought out for guests. The Skyfari was also great fun and practical as a means of getting from one end to the other. It's a full day activity as well so leave plenty of time to explore.

Great zoo with wonderful, authentic habitats for the animals. It is very well laid out and even though it's very large, it doesn't seem like you're doing that much walking. My 6 yr old son really enjoyed it and was asking to stay even after walking around for nearly 7 hours.

Being an ex zoo keeper I have always wanted to visit here. I was always looking on the video cameras just to have a peek. When I finally got to visit I wasnt
Disappointed. The zoo is amazing even when we were walking through it in the dark it was beautiful. Just wish I had more time in it

What a beautiful zoo! I loved all the foliage. We saw a lot of animals. The bus tour was very educational.

Great zoo....very big area to cover, so wear good walking shoes! My suggestion is to first take the 40minute bus tour to get to know the zoo. Then identify what you want to visit again and take the kangaroo hop on hop off bus to those locations. Don't miss the animal encounter or the zoo keeper talks. They are very insightful.

Coming to the zoo has been a childhood dream of mine. Did the whole zoo in one day. Would absolutely come again, the ticket price is well worth everything that is included.

This has to be my favorite zoo! It's huge and has all the animals I could ever imagine. My favorites included the fennec fox, red panda, and koala. They were all so adorable. Parking: love that there is free parking and lots of it! Price: a bit expensive for a zoo but it was worth the price Food options: lots of counter options as well as a few sit down restaurants. We had the 3 chicken slider sampler which was okay, nothing remarkable.

San Diego Zoo was great.. All the animals love to see them

Always a great time. People wearing masks and social distancing

Albert's Restaurant - good food in a cool environment

The zoo is beautifully designed and the city really made the most of the space. The variety of animals here is also amazing, especially the pandas! The zoo does get pretty crowded, so plan ahead or set aside more than a day to enjoy all the exhibits. If you're from out of town, get a Go-Card and it'll cover admission to the zoo, safari, park and much more! Lastly, if you're doing both the zoo and safari park, keep in mind that the safari park is about an hour away and plan accordingly. Enjoy San Diego and the zoo!

Awesome place to see just some of endangered species!

I love this place because I have watched it grow over the last 50 years. My children love going here as well.

Just recently i visited the zoo with me 2 children. And i am pleased to say that the zoo did a very foos job of being safe during covid. They requires masks on everyone. Had hand-washing stations everywhere and also hand sanitizing stops.

Good place for foreigners to visit. Take the bus first. It took 40-50 minutes. And find the animals that you're interested in. Then spends 2-4 hours depending on your energy.

The price is well worth it for the huge variety of plants and animals you can see. Everything in the park shows their commitment to the animals' health and well being. Staff are very well trained and I appreciate how they work to ensure a great visit for every guest.

Its soo many wonderful animals to go and see. Exhibits on everything from Elephants to Rhinos to Birds. Be prepared to get your walk on tho because this is a very large zoo. Ive been to some that shouldn't be classified as such. You can also go its areas where you can even pet the animals so take the little ones to enjoy!

Beautiful clean park with wonderful tours, animals, and enclosures. Food stuff is a little pricey but its going towards animals. Everyone is super nice and helpful.

So big! So many exhibits! So much fun! Lots of hills and steep areas of walking so plan accordingly!

I'm a big fan of the San Diego Zoo and compare all other zoos to it. If you love animals and haven't been there, I highly recommend you check it out. The zoo takes such wonderful care of their animals and is always expanding exhibits to give the animals more room.

Went for our first day of our honeymoon and it was awesome. Theres people at every turn to help you. Took us a solid 8 hours and the margaritas were awesome

Good pkace for the kids they have a variety of animals the bus tour was good except some areas you couldn't see so imagine your kids but over all great place clean too.

Definitely worth a day trip or more. Take the tour bus at the beginning so you can map your own path through. The hippo exhibit was particularly impressive to be so close to such a frightening animal.
The cats here are also great to see although don't be mad if they sleep the whole time you're watching. The mixed animal exhibits like all the monkeys and apes were fun to watch and the sounds were great. One of my favourite little things was watching exhibit animals mixing with random wild life from the area. Like ducks. Ducks all up in the flamingo exhibit.
Come on a cool day in spring and you'll see a lot of movement and babies.
If you're in San Diego, this is a must see.

Best zoo in the world. Tip...take your selfie outside the zoo enterance in the morning before entering the zoo because at the end of the day sun will face your camera.

My favorite zoo in the world! So much history, you can really tell they care about animals and plants there. They are in part why I m passionate about conservation

It s a big zoo so if you plan to visit and are not a local with Annual passes then this should really be divided into 2 days, otherwise you will be rushed and you will do a lot of walking.
Some things we learned were: start early AM if possible to avoid huge crowds, go on week days vs weekends if possible because it is less crowded, take the tour bus to get a feel for the zoo and sit on the right hand side on the upper deck (more scenic and also more sun exposure and most things you will see are on the right hand side), then get a map and visit each area that interests you.
Also bring food with you in your purse of backpack because food there is super pricy and plenty of water since there will be a lot or walking.
There are lots of benches where you can eat or snack and lots of bathrooms along the way just follow the Signs.
No one will check to see if you brought food from outside into the zoo so don t worry about that.
They have more animals than any other zoo I have ever been to.
My family had a super amazing time.

Limited number of guests makes for a much less crowded experience. A thin, thin silver lining to our current crisis.

We had a great time. Though, I recommend staying at the zoo into the evening to see some of the big cats and such, as they feed them in the evening and are more active then. This is a very large zoo and will take more than one day if you plan to see everything. Pandas had a long line so we skipped those. Excellent zoo overall.

The bus tour was great. Also got to see some of the animals up close in one of the shows. Very informative and interesting.

Been to the zoo a few times and it gets better every visit. This time we did the penguin tour which gave us a behind the scenes tour of a huge portion of the park. Well worth the money and I highly recommend the tour.

San Diego Zoo was great!!! I went with my granddaughters class and it was a blast. Not too crowded. The animals were out and very entertaining. The guides were more than helpful. With the time spent we still didn't see everything. Wear your most comfortable shoes. I did and my feet are still aching, but it's a good ache.

The zoo has nice~size enclosures for the animals; is clean; the prices at entrance & gift shops comparable to other zoos; and has a wide variety of animals and good food. I had just flown in from Pennsylvania with a large family group, including my 1~year old granddaughter. Even with jetlag, we saw everything we wanted to, except for the pandas because the lines were too long to wait. We'll happily visit the zoo again when we're back on the West Coast.

Beautiful zoo. Massive sprawling park. Loads of animals to see in a great location. Buses and gondola to take you around the park or just walk. A great family day out.
Was fairly expensive for all of us to go, but we enjoyed it.
Good food options inside, especially the Chinese noodles near the Panda enclosure.
Free parking outside the zoo.

Love the pigmy hippo. He stood up out of the water and gave me a high five!

Real up close experiences with so many animals. Great Zoo!!!

Fabulous zoo! Simply the best. Only complaint is that their maps and app are pretty confusing. The app is extremely limited

Had a great time only one complain the needs better information

The San diego Zoo is a great place to spend a day. It is large enough to occupy and entire day of fun exploration. Or, if you have an annual pass, you can swing by for a short trip and some exploration for another day. There are food options all around the Zoo, and little craft beer spots sprinkled around as well. It can be a little humid there, but it's not bad. The Night time Zoo is also a nice plus during the summer months. I have been a member for many years and feel that it is well worth the investment.

This place is amazing! It's so awesome being so close to animals that you would normally never see in your entire lifetime. I especially loved the tiger exhibits. Will definitely be coming here!

Incredible place. Just way too hot for a northerner like me

Fun place, we spent the entire day here walking and seeing all the animals, well-maintained, and you can traverse the whole zoo on foot(good exercise) or take the different buses if you re tired. Observe the gorillas, they ll stare back at you if you re lucky!

Beautiful giant place, we were there all day and were able to see barely half of it! Well, we will be back! Wonderful way to spend famili day. Take snacks and drinks with you!

Love the San Diego zoo. I hadn't been in about 4 years and they just keep expanding and improving. Everyone has fun here!

Enjoyed just about everything of the zoo. Thought it would be bigger but spent an entire day going through all of the different exhibits. It is worthy of the reputation.

Big zoo! Plenty of animals to see and really clean!

Directions to I visited in the world. Except for maybe Australia. lots of walking if you feel like walking. If not there's a tram that takes you to most parts of the zoo. Great interaction area at the children's zoo also.my favorite part is playing with the goats and sheep.

This is a massive zoo. The best one I have been to in my life. We spent 5 hrs walking and talking tours trying to see the most we could. I m almost positive we still didn t see it all. Only reason for four stars is because the aerial tram was closed during our visit. Overall a great experience.

Lots to see and do. It's the biggest zoo I've ever seen. They have double decker buses that drive around the park. Very nice zoo.

Historically one of the better zoos out there (Ive been to many around the world), but I was a little underwhelmed when I visited.

Even with some rain, we had an amazing day touring the zoo.

MAKE SURE TO BRING WALKING SHOE'S, UP AND DOWNS, HILLS, SLOPES, IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN OR ELDERLY BRING STROLLER AND OR WHEELCHAIR. OF COURSE ITS A ZOO, SO ITS HARD TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ANIMALS BEING INCARCERATED. PEOPLE WORE MASK, SOME KEPT THEIR DISTANCE SOME WERE TOO CLOSE. NICE PLACE, SAFARI MAY BE BETTER.

I loved being able to take my family here worries free and enjoy the sights and sounds of being in the real wild. They're still young so the informative and educational stuff is a perk my husband and I enjoy for right now.

This is the best zoo on earth! In the summer it stays open until 9 pm, which I love. There are less people, it's not so hot, and the animals you don't normally see moving in the day finally wake up.

Amazing zoo! Definitely worth it's high ratings. Great value (adult tickets are $55) and we spent almost 4 hours there. A few tips... 1. Go early (obviously). 2. Park near a number/animal because parking isn't color coded or anything. 3. If you're going to do the skyfari, do it first because the lines get RIDICULOUS! 4. Bring water bottles. All in all, an amazing zoo. Really glad we went. 2 hour drive from LA on a Sunday, and definitely worth the drive. There are tons of things to do on the way and around the area so I'd go early and make a day of it. It will definitely be worth the trip.

The most amazing zoo I have been to. It's huge, beautiful with so many activities.

This place is awesome and the staff super friendly and helpful

What a beautiful zoo! So many different trails filled with exotic plant life and wild life to enjoy. Excellent weather was a bonus

Brought a friend here from out of town. This was the one thing they wanted to do on their trip here. And it did not disappoint. We immediately got on the bus tour as soon as we got here. Able to see a majority of the zoo and the tour was very informative. Helped us to decide which attractions we wanted to see more up close. Disappointed that there were no more giant pandas but everything else was here.

First time here...what a place! You have to check it out if you get a chance.

Such a fun place. I enjoyed the sky rise and seeing such a wide variety of animals. Staff is very friendly and helpful.

We live in San Diego and have season passes. It's a great place for a quick day trip to see some animals, or an entire family excursion to enjoy all the entertainment. Zoo Nights are some of our favorites as well (kids say goodnight to all the animals and fall asleep in the car on the way home).

My kids love this zoo. Better than Los Angeles or Santa Barbara one. Plenty of space to run around and a big variety of animals to see. A little expensive though . We visit once or twice a year

The best Zoo. So clean, so many differents species of animals. They have everything from Koalas, hippopotamus, Bears, giraffes and so much more. One day is not enough to see what this zoo has to offer. A Must go see.

The zoo was great and was so big we got lost a few times. Lots of helpful people all around and amazing animals. They had cool shows and other amenities too. This is definitely a place to check out if you re in town!

It was really fun to see animals up close and I loved the Bird enclosure were can get a bird to land on you

Best zoo I ve been too. Definitely worth the price!

It was nice they had plenty of buses driving around so you don't have to to do too much walking. And they did have a lot of animals packed into what seemed like a small space. Get a map and have a game plan and you can see everything.

They do have a cup deal, so what happens you buy this reusable plastic cup and you can get free refills all day. I think it was worth it.

The park is great, lots of vegetation, the staff is friendly. My favorite area is the bird enclosed area, feels like a piece of heaven. However, my 3yo doesn't last here for longer than 3 hours, not many areas for young children to play.

Had a wonderful time!! Great volunteers to help you find your way around and make suggestions. So glad we had a chance to come here on vacation.

Visit The San Diego Zoo, great place for the whole Family !!

The zoo is always a great place to visit! They're is always plenty to see and do, no matter how many times you go. The improvements they've made over the last few years are really showing through as well.

We were gifted an annual pass and we enjoy our family days at the Zoo! There are a lot of different animal exhibits but our favorite it Africa Rocks!