The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens Review

As far as Animal jails go, this one is pretty nice. A portion of your tickets and purchases there go towards conservation efforts in the wild.

The zoo is amazing It is so clean and it is very nice.

The biggest zoo ive ever been to...has a tremendous array of animals!

Watch out they are selling tickets 15 min before closing. And no refunds !!!

had great time, was not too crowded. Loved the fact that we seen many different types of animals. My daughter enjoyed seeing the lions.

I love this zoo. The giraffe and elephant pens are probably the best. The lions definitely need more space. Also, be sure to plan ahead if coming during covid19 restrictions. The zoo's process for getting a reservation for members and the process for normal admission are both confusing and aggravating. You may come and end up not being able to come in.

Great local zoo that has all the animals you'd expect from primates to reptiles to elephants to zebras. Giraffes are fun as well. Only thing missing which you'll find at San Diego zoo is penguins.

Too busy getting heat rash to pay much attention to the animals

Amazing experience, we were there over night and staff is amazing! So many diff. Animals to see and the exhibits are great. Very clean and wheelchair accessible.

Awesome place for family great peicess :) LA is awesome been going to the LA zoo for 40 years

Great park extremely well kept with super friendly and knowledgeable staff.

An ordinary Zoo. Exhibits and surroundings are not well maintained. Needs improvement on signage and markers. Trails were poorly marked. Staff is nice for the most part but you had to look hard to find anyone around if you had a question. Food was expensive but poorly prepared and overcooked. Don't mind paying higher prices but expect better tasting food.

The Los Angeles zoo was very disappointing. There were very few observable animals. No rhino, no elephant, and when there was an animal it was one or two in a giant habitat. At $20 per person I expected more. Next time we'll go to Santa Barbara.

Lots of animals locked up in cages. Probably won't be long till the people who screwed up Sea World catch on to these places. I'd go while you still have a chance. You can spend the better part of a day here. It's pretty nice.

Awesome and wonderful place, even though we did not get to visit all of the animals. Highly recommend taking a cooler with food,etc.

Great time. Meeting some of the smaller inhabitants up close.

Fun place to spend a night with a loved one.
Very lively!!
Could work on the snack bars but despite that
Chill place

The petting zoo in alone is worth it. The Safari tour or tram really just is an easy way to get around. It's not really that informative at all. If you don't mind walking, it's better not to pay for the tram and just walk it. The various shows are great.

All the "furry sweet hearts" here makes this place one of the best places to visit!! The residents who live here are beautiful and well taken care of!!

I still need more shade!!!
Good outing but during the summer there are only a couple of areas to hide from the heat.
Love the activities throughout the year.

Animals, and I wore a long sleeve at 89 or ninety degrees, not the best idea

Cages too small for those poor animals .. It made me sad

If you go there after 1:00PM you will hardly see any animal as most of them are hiding from the sun somewhere behind

This zoo is in a pretty great location but the layout is odd. There's a lot of stretches of hike with not an animal to be seen. Once you do get to an animal though almost all of their displays are very well designed to see them being pretty awesome. There's a surprising amount of pretty tasty food here and you can find some decent beer as well if you're willing to pay for it!

The zoo was worth visiting but there were a lot of exhibits being redone and the zoo map was somewhat hard to follow

we went to the zoo holiday lights and loved it. It was a great night to get outside walk around see a lot of beautiful light displays.

My kid enjoyed a lot in zoo .good place to visit with kids

I love the zoo for the animals in the educational experience that one can learn and take in.

The underrated Los Angeles zoo is a great place to spend the day. This is a beautiful zoo in a beautiful location. Zoo staff is wonderful. Much better than the overrated Diego County zoo which last time I was down there had snotty zoo employees.

Lived here for 17 1/2 years and never been to the zoo. A friend from Australia is in town and decides they want to go. Had a blast. Was very serene and relaxing on a Thursday afternoon as we arrived just as school kids were getting back on their busses to leave. Great variety of animals to learn about. Hand feeding the giraffes was AMAZING! Well worth the $5. Only suggestion would be more signage. It was a little confusing directionally even with the map sometimes and some sides of the animal enclosures didn't have signage, so we weren't sure what we were seeing exactly. Other than that it was a great time and would totally go again.

If I could give the customer service less than 1 star, I would. I have been calling for the last 3 days, trying to get a hold of someone to help me with a reservation issue. Each time I call, I am left on hold for more than 2 hours at a time only to get a recorded message saying "thank you for calling, good bye" and then I am hung up on. This is absolutely unacceptable. I will NEVER do business with this establishment, and refuse to donate any more money to this zoo

Parking is free and fairly easy to find a spot with the very large lot and there is also a valet parking for $7 if you would like to try that. Summer months is usually very crowded and makes it for a not so fun experience walking all thru the zoo with the hot weather plus most animals don't come out much either. but you will always see the flamingos and several other animals been playful and active. There are some events held at the zoo at night and on weekends depending on the schedule. Bring a camera and lots of water.

Fun and you get to see the Animals, not like the San Diego zoo were they are so far away your lucky if you see an animal butt. Meir cats here are Amazing and so friendly. They all come out and say Hi

Not enough exhibits open, prices at snack bars were all little pricing and no feeds for animals

I just rode a bike around the area but did not go in.

Not as I imagined, really strong smells from animals urine, you go to Denver's or Miami's Zoo, is a big difference: FREE PARKING, LESS EXPENSIVE AND BETTER LOOKING AND DOESN'T SMELL LIKE PEE.

Surprisingly large for a Zoo tucked into the Los Angeles area. Griffin Observatory is nearby as well if you want to head there for a sunset view of the Hollywood sign.

Saw many animals but the food is slightly expensive

I was so excited to go to the zoo with my mom. I thought it would be a fun-filled day so I even cleared my schedule to spend time with her at the zoo, but I got discriminated against. I never thought this would happen to me and it did and at possibly one of my favorite places to go as a child. I will never be attending the Los Angeles Zoo ever again because of this occurrence with one worker. Personally, I do not want to give out names or descriptions of this person because I do not know what negativity may be going on through his life for him to be so hateful and mean. I never write reviews for anything and this is my very first tome. This situation I find myself in, made me have to write a review because it is 100% not fair.

Good place only for rehabilitation but not a zoo. Animals looked sad and crammed. Very disappointing.

We went on mother's day. We enjoyed seeing the animals, however we couldn't find anyone to tell us where a certain animal was, or any information. The kid at the information booth pointed for us to ask someone else who wasn't around! When we went to get a snack, the kid at the counter said "we're only serving chicken strips right now, just so you know" then walked away. Ummm, that's actually what we wanted.... The bathroom was smelly and dirty. I've uploaded a photo. I certainly wouldn't go back or recommend this place.

The LA Zoo has been improved greatly since I was a kid. I grew up closer to the San Diego Zoo and visited there more often growing up. Since I went back to the L.A. Zoo after not going for several years, I sort of like the L.A. Zoo more than San Diego. It seems like it's q little more open/less condensed. And I talked to one of the workers, they're thinking of improving.

Up and down hill a hot and miserable day. The animal had it right lay in the cool shade and don't move. Over all the kids had fun.

Take it slow , enjoy the view , go with time , is nice ,alot of highs so take a stroker for the kids that is a most and lots of water , comfy shoes ,hats

Clean and green location...... animals seems very depressed in small cages.....very sad jail life to all animals....

It is a very nice place ideal to go with the family

My child was very happy. Many animals and everything is clean

They sucked they didnt trashy have any animals and they all looked like there dying

Little to no animals. Horrible and boring experience with family.

It was so Much Fun Excellent all four of the kids loved it & had a Fantastic time! I am so glad we got to see all the animals including the Roaring lion & tigers which I am glad they didnt put them right away at 4:00pm we drove far from the high dessert about 2 hours on Sunday afternoon & was pleased to see them! I recommend everybody to go there and see all the Wonderful animals!

Fun at the Zoo!! Bring your own food and enjoy a picnic at the park, Jam all your favorites in your cooler. Bring your phone ready for pictures, lots of places to make great memories.

And ALWAYS a great place to make children happy!!

Great ....kids and I love it.. staff was nice and masked..zoo was clean and not overly crowded ..

Above all else, this zoo provides value. Our family loves to visit different zoos because it gives us something to do as a family, we get out of the house and we get to see animals with the kids. The Los Angeles Zoo isn't the most polished zoo you'll find, but offers value unlike we've seen anywhere else. tickets are fairly priced, the real treat was seeing the fair priced food and drink. $6 nachos, $6 beers, $8 burgers and plenty of other treats that you don't feel upset buying because of the markup. Best of all, the food quality is way above what we have had elsewhere. This in itself, made the trip fun and a little easier on us parents knowing we weren't blowing money on low-quality, high-priced food. Although he value is there, the zoo itself, left much to be desired. The grounds are clean and staff was friendly, but the layout is he worst we've seen in a zoo. So many little roads that get you turned around. There are all kinds of issues where you get lost trying to see all the exhibits because there are paths that lead to nowhere or multiple ways to the same location. We would love to see an easier flow pattern built into the zoo's layout as it caused us to pull out the map way more than we should have. Layout aside, the animal exhibits just aren't that impressive. My kid loves seeing animals, but due to the amount of time in between seeing exhibits and the quality of the exhibits, she spent half the time on her tablet. The zoo does have an awesome playground for the kids. All in all, it was fun and we walked away not feeling ripped off. I'm sure we would go back sooner or later, but if we do decide to go to the zoo, we will likely just plan a bigger trip to the San Diego Zoo.

It's nice to have family time here! But beer is too expensive thou...

A lovely zoo but here are a few tips! Always buy your tickets online and the memberships are a great deal with good perks! If you buy tickets online you skip the massive line of people buying tickets at the park- and I mean massive! On popular days parking gets full but they offer 10$ cash priority parking. Wear comfy shoes and be ready to walk up and downhill. I like the food up by the giraffes best- their pizza is actually pretty good as well as their burgers. They used to have salads but they weren t there on 3/28/18 when last we went. It s a great zoo with lots of exciting animals! Don t forget to look for the Cerval- my favorite wild cat!

One of the BEST family spots in LA. We have an annual membership.