The Oregon Zoo Reviews

Purchased zoo membership and I plan on keeping my membership. Paid for itself in two visits

LOVE LOVE LOVE the zoo. We go as much as possible and we take all our family from California when they come to visit.

The events the zoo throws are great, and the zoo itself is a lot of fun. You can tell the people here love the animals and have a passion for them. Downside here is that the parking situation is bad. If you have kids, they will hardly notice it though.

Event to note: zoo lights (come early if it isn't raining! It will get crowded)

Zoo was working on upgrades and resettling some attractions.

Doing alot of construction right now alot of exhibits were closed

Paid for a year membership. They failed to mention half the zoo was closed for the entire year of the membership tho : (

We love this Zoo. Take the max to get here for added fun.

I ve been so many times in my life time and it never fails to exceed my expectations

Lots of exhibits closed for improvements. I felt the admissions person should have mentioned this to give the people an option to stay.

Fun place for the family. Most animals look happy some not so much.

The zoo did an excellent job! Everyone wore masks and it was enforced. One way only traffic also enforced, not crowds, assigned times to come in, lots of social distancing markers. I was impressed

This is Probably one of the BEST Zoo's in the area. They are continually upgrading their exhibits to ensure the wildlife have the best life in captivity possible. They also have one of the best Elephant Breeding Programs in the nation.

It was great but there's a lot of construction right now so several exhibits are closed.

Great Zoo but plan in advance for large crowds during special events. Parking is very difficult especially during the week when overflow lot is not open. Went to the Pumpkin smashing day with my 3 year old grand son thinking zoo was open for members at a special time as a thank you. We got there 30 minutes early and parking lot was full. Later found out there were over 700 field trip kids there as well as chaperones. We parked a mile away, walked in and of course missed the elephants smashing pumpkins. I would suggest in the future to have this event on several days and advertise on the web site the possibility of crowds and the parking problem.

I love animals, but I do love them in the wild and free far more. This said, I enjoy the zoo for the fact that the caretakers here take extra care of MOST of these precious critters, and the zoo is surprisingly expansive, even if it still also applies as compact. It's actually a great way to get in a substantial amount of walking & light "hiking" around, while you enjoy the sights of captive living beings who only want to know why you don't put yourselves in their shoes... Yes, I'm one of those semi "conflicted" types you may have heard of haha.

Most of the animals here seem to not get too bored, nor overstimulated & anxious, which is good for their sanity and health. But there are a few who are persistently bored, anxious, overstimulated, nervous and just plain lost as to the fact they're trapped and forced to live in these tiny little enclosures just for some people to make a large profit off of us, the visitors who come to FREELY spectate and provide the excess stimulus for them to be pushed past their limits.

The most notable ones are the Snow Leopards. Without fail every time I have came, they're pacing rapidly back and forth in their teeny tiny little enclosure while panting relentlessly, which cats only do when overstimulated, and extensively stressed and anxious. And hell, you'd be losing yourselves too if you were the ones forced to live out your lives against your own wills inside of a tiny little excuse for an enclosure while being constantly subjected to nonstop unavoidable stimulus and interaction with all these other creatures who clearly don't care about you or your state since they're paying to support keeping you captive in that very enclosure so they can continue to loudly spectate and even pester you for "fun" and "experience".

So every-time I come in, I feel the strongest urge to go and watch these poor beautiful babies pace rapidly and have my heart sink, churn & hurt for these precious creatures, while feeling just as anxious as them, and inevitably becoming wholly empathetic for them and this tiny excuse for a place to live they're stuck with. All of the other sites & critters are wonderful to interact, watch & even talk to. But as much as it really helps me to continue on after spending my initial time with the Snow Leopards, that empathy, anxiousness, anxiety & stress never fully goes away, and for good reason.

So obviously, if you're prone to these kinds of strong feelings of empathy & sorrow for these poor fellows only really there for our "amusement", then you really shouldn't go to any Zoo or Aquarium related place, less you are more like me, and you feel compelled to connect with the fuzzies who are not at all okay. But the average folk, this zoo especially is the pinnacle of what you've been looking for in a Zoo, for sure.

Great place for a family to spend the day. You can buy lunch here or you can bring your own lunch

Listened to the Chicago Band Concert. AMAZING. THANK YOU! Invite them back....soon

Beautiful place, well kept and enjoyable experience. Concert we saw was awesome.

Lots of stuff under construction right now... won't be visiting again until 2020. Train ride is about half the length. No primate exhibit, no polar bears, no black rhino. Lots of fun for the family, but too many things closed for renovation at this time.

Great zoo with lots to see, even during construction. If you are planning on visiting this zoo, plan on the whole day.

An amazing place for people of all ages they have a petting zoo and many enclosures. The Oregon Zoo is a place that I went to for years when I was growing up. Each time you go from one place to another you walk through a unique path with is both educational and beautiful. They have summer camp options for grade school kids and volunteer options for older kids all in all it is an amazing place I would encourage everyone to go to when they are in the area.

A great place to go, especially if you're willing to take the time to actually appreciate the exhibits. I watch so many people race by exhibits on their way to the next one. Slow down, read the signs, enjoy the sounds of waterfalls, watch the animals for more than fifteen seconds and the Oregon Zoo becomes something more than a small zoo in the middle of a very big park.

I love when the kids get to see the animals in person. The staff was very friendly. The location wasn't hard to find!

Over half the exhibits were closed... And will be until 2020!!!! Not worth it if you want to see animals

Under construction and remodeling when I went so not too exciting BUT, it should be a WOW Zoo when updated and finished!!!!!

Fun place for the kids and the animals are well treated. Parking is hard to find on warm days when it seems everyone in town is here.

We had a great time
It was the 1st time there

Zoo decorations were nice trian ride lights could use some work

A wonderful place for children and adults. A lot if renovation at the moment in the Africa exhibit making vast improvements in the animal enclosures to provide greater range, like they did for Elephant Lands. Much more room for them and opportunities for enrichment. Primate and polar bear exhibits also being renovated.

We love this zoo! It's not just fun but educational and we love the interactive experiences there!

Loved the fact that we could see the animals without a ton of people!!!

I love the Oregon Zoo! Cant wait for the new exhibits to open up in 2020

Visited to attend a concert and had a wonderful time. After getting within feet of elephants, condors, and penguins we enjoyed outstanding food and beer at the concert hall. They even opened the concert with an elephant pool party.

I have been going to zoolights for 10 years now. I have to say i am very disappointed in ny experience last night. My son and I went to zoolights around 7. I knew it was going to be busy but we couldn't even hardly walk together we werent even there for 20 min before we left. My son had been pushed over by many guest. He finally got pushed by an adult and he got injured. Im going to be calling today to request a refund because we didnt even make it all the way down the walk way before my son was hurt and we had to leave. I am very disappointed.

No accessible RV parking whatsoever, and no help from staff.

Great day with my family I love the lay out and feel of the zoo

Best Zoo on the west coast. Hot day, but lots of misting stations so easy to cool down. The animals seemed to be loving the heat. Great visit.

I had a wonderful experience at this zoo! Most of the animals were out, and the staff was very friendly.

Wonderful space, but seems to be missing something.... You get a discount if you ride the MAX!

Love the zoo and the ongoing renovations are top notch. Come see the new elephant exhibit!

Pretty cool exhibits. If you're I'm a group definitely plan on spending around 4 hours here, but the play stops in between really helped the kids in our group to get some energy out. We went on a Monday and I was really surprised at how busy it was for a weekday. I feel that some staff could be friendlier or more proactive than reactive, but overall a cool place.

We went on a sunday in the beginning of may, all the bear exhibits were closed . everything is being remodeled, new animals coming soon, I couldnt see half the animals. Prices were so high. I had,more fun at the gift shop than the actual zoo. And one of the zoo ladies was mad my husband kept calling the african spotted dog a hyena . she got offended as my hubby told are two year old its a hyena like lady, she doesn't even understand.

Not sure anything's changed or improved after our last visit. The ticket was extremely high compare with others. Not so much animals and attactive activities there.

Well-organized and fun! Lots of construction going on there right now, but it will be done in 2020. The elephant exhibit was our favorite. Overall, great zoo!

Such a great time at the Zoo!! Everyone was awesome... The animals were very cool

I know this is temporary but a lot of the animals my son would love to see are closed while they upgrade the habitats. He still likes it but no Polar Bears (right now) and very few (if any) Primates. Also I could have sworn there used to be wolves but can't find them now.

The Oregon zoo is a great place to go with your family. The little Grill they have right by the entrance has awesome food! Very nice to be able to sit down amd feed the kids without having to leave, plus everyone loved what they got! So the zoo is getting ready to open up some new habitats and you should definitely visit in 2020. With that being said there were about 5 different habitats that were under construction as well and had the animals inside. But what we did see we loved!

Good zoo but most of the animals were not out due to the weather

Some of the animals were unavailable because their "homes" at the zoo were being renovated.

OMG THIS PLACE IS SO COOL, I went with my grandparents when I was visiting them in Oregon. The foresty feel is something unlike most other zoo's. They have an impressive number of animals and it is not hard to spend all day here. Warning though in some parts of the zoo there isn't a lot of shade so be prepared for that. (Over by the elephants doesn't have that much shade)

It was fun but some lady was very rude pretending she worked there telling us to "shut up" and "the cheetah is nervous" ruined a small portion of our trip but we soon forgot about it and continued having fun and looking at the animals

Love everything about it, especially the elephants.

With the construction, few animals available to see. Should be better when the remodel is finished.

Can't wait until the rest of the Renos are done! Lots of "excuse our dust" right now which impacts the experience, but we're almost done!

The Oregon lights were so amazing with lots of variety

Gorgeous zoo with beautiful animals. I love the fact that they do feedings and talks that you can see

Alot of shaded areas easy to get to and very clean, snacks nicely priced.