The Living Desert Review

Beautiful cactus gardens. Amazing large birds. Owls, eagles etc! Giraffe encloser is really great.

My 3 year old son really enjoyed feeding the giraffes.

The living desert is a gem. The encounter with the cheetahs and feeding the giraffes is phenomenal! Shout out to Allison, the cheetahs caretaker and Leon, our tour guide for such a memorable experience!

If you visit Palm springs, make sure you visit the living desert zoo! Reasonably priced and a lot to see.

It was 100+ degrees, but so worth it. Zebras, tigers, birds, giraffes, camels, ostriches and so much more. Give yourself at least 1 hour for viewing. It's huge, so we only ended up viewing 1 route! If you wanna see all of them, then you'll definitely need more time. They do have a place to relax, grab water or drinks and food, so you can take a break in between. Watch out for the huge red ants! No bites here, but in certain parts, they are running wild. They have a gift shop too with cute little stuffed animals and other souvenir items. Would definitely go again. I highly recommend it!

It's a great place and all the people are friendly and the animosity happy and healthy

Zoo and botanical garden with top-notch animal displays that allows access to open desert nature area with trails and vet hospital where visitors can view routine exams through large windows. When animals are too old for display but still viable, they are transferred to "retirement" care facility on premises rather than euthanized.

Disclosure: I am friends with one of the docents, who gave me a private tour. He is very passionate about the facility and it's work. So are the other staff I met over several visits. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

This is a wonderful Zoo based on the care for the animals and its quaint size allowing for us to see the entire zoo in one day. Kids will love the African village with a petting zoo, across from it an excellent viewing of cheetahs as well as the Butterfly House and carousel. There is even a playland area for them. Adults will love the several cafes moderately priced and the botanical gardens as well as the animals which are very easy to view. We also love the Wild Lights Christmastime spectacle, which is always a great time to meet Santa Claus. But make sure you dress warm.

We arrived early and the animals were like "look! Humans!" And we were like "Omg! Animals!"
It was great.
Be wary of the hyenas though. One of them legit though we might be food.
And we were like "No hyena... We're not food silly."

By far one of the best experiences in the desert for families! Have been multiple times - and they just keep improving the facilities and exhibits every time! A must visit spot!

Beautiful gardens. go in spring get or early summer for best viewing

Great family outing for four generations on Mother's Day weekend. Not necessarily an inexpensive place to visit and dine but a nice selection of desert/arid animals from America and Africa. Beautiful grounds. Keeper talks are nice, especially with the giraffes.

It has been awhile since we have been here. They have done great upgrades. We saw more animals up close on this trip.

Fun place to check out animals...Tour takes about 2h

Easy to see animals. Good information on all animals and reptiles. The animal hospital is open to visitors. Check all the scheduled events on the program before you start your visit.

It was ok. I've been to a lot of zoo's with more varieties of animals. There was really nothing memorable and they seemed to be pushing pay to participate activities more than displaying the wildlife.

Went for a school field trip and they explained the animals very thoroughly to the kindergarten classes. There was lots to see.

An excellent place to take your children or if you just want of zoos. They have a wide variety of plants and animals. I'd recommend giving yourself at least two hours or more, without kids, to see everything.

Really good. Would have liked to see more live animals, even though statues we're great.

Very nice zoo, not too big but a great size for a shorter day visit.

Really fun there was a baby giraffe and a baby bighorn sheep

This was a fun zoo, with plenty to do the entire day. You can feed a giraffe, ride a camel, and they have an adorable carousel. My girls loved it!

The Living Desert has a huge parcel on which the habitats for animals are beautiful, natural and expansive. They have a great many animals, birds, reptiles in a walk around (or tram around) setting full of native plants and trees that is a pleasure to be in. Many, if not most, of the animals are rescues: injured in some way that makes them unable to be released back into the wild. So we get to visit them and they avoid euthanasia, a pretty good deal. You can witness the love the park employees and docents have for all the animals when you sit and listen to the cheetah chat, the eagle chat, etc. These scheduled chats are presented all day long and are very informative. Feeding the giraffes is an all-time thrill. You are right next to them as you hand them a carrot. Their gentle tongues are astoundingly long! So fun. You will never regret visiting this zoo, and will likely revisit often.

Beautiful at Christmas time. Diffently will go back if in California