The Santa Barbara Zoo Review

Santa Barbara Zoo might be small but laid out nicely and it takes only a couple hours to walk through. Nice areas to picnic

Love this place with my kids you get to go to the beach across right after

Beautiful ocean view, cute park for kids, and grassy area for picnicks. Annual membership is cheap

A little high prices for such a small zoo and parking is bad when it is busy.

Amazing Zoo right on the water. Our favorite is the giraffe exhibit that looks out right to the ocean. Very clean and helpful staff.

Amazing place with space for a picnic and awesome views. Park has a good size to walk with no problems and playground area for kids. We love it!

I always learn something new when I go to the zoo. We have been members for years so it's nice to be able to drop in for a quick visit during of hours.

Love to visit here. Wonderful little zoo that is well maintained and very clean. Happy to have an annual pass to support this gem.

Nice big garden with lots of cool animals. Perfect for the whole family getting together.

Beautiful, clean, great reasonable priced merchandise at the gift shop, but are lions and elephants have passed away and we missed out on visiting those two animals. Enjoyed our trip regardless!

Very nice. Small but lots to do an see. Enjoyed the day.

The nicest, neatest, and cleanliest zoo I've ever been to. I'm an active volunteer and I will say that these employees and volunteers are genuinely passionate for the animals and visitors.

Smaller zoo that could use a little updating. The weather of course is great though so still an enjoyable venture.

Waited for the leopards to wake up and it never happened

Went at 5pm and paid and instead of being told most of the animals are locked up for "bedtime" that we might not want to tour wasnt aware and wasted money on a empty tour

N ice place for afternoon at the zoo with the kids. Plenty of shady spots and benches to take a rest. Train ride pricy but helps feed animals. Clean and well maintained.

Great zoo to spend a couple of hours at. While smaller than I thought it would be, the exhibits are beautiful. The train is more entertaining for kids than adults, but you do get some good views of the giraffes and lion. The only downside is the costs, as the train and entry were a bit pricey. Still, it's worth the visit.

Tickets are overpriced here, not the best selection of animals for the money you pay.

The zoo was amazing. The animals seem to be well taken care of and that was nice. we really enjoyed the elephants and giraffes penguins and otters and the baby fox. The lion was cool too. And the gorillas. It was a first for me to see these animals in person. Never been to a real zoo before it was a very pleasant experience. We will definitely come back.

we recently we visited the zoo., honesty i think they steel money from people,
question is ,,why they charge $ 15.00 admision ,we looked for the tiger, was gone, then
we moved on to look for elefant, and do you what, was missing too, ,so they charge $15.00
just to see birds, even we can see the birds, for free...i just want people know,,

The SB Zoo is a hidden gem! All their animals are incredible lively and active. We got to feed Michael, North America's most genetically important giraffe (he's 17 FEET TALL!!!). The Asian small clawed otters were also precious and playful. All the best animals of the SF or LA zoo, with a quarter of the crowds and much more reasonably sized. Totally worth the price. Great COVID friendly activity, spent about 2 and a half hours there and enjoyed every minute :)

Liked it....was good and stuff...other than its small....these animals need bigger spaces..they are alive...not just for display.......they're like laying down from hot days I think....the big cats thou....they need to feed from live animals.....if not then if release they won't know any social skills in the wild and etc...the gorillas......it needs to be more jungle less concrete.....also when i was in the barn animals...i was petting one of the chivas and heard one of the workers saying can't touch them.......I'm like the f****? These are animals from ranchos.....guessing this gringo didn't know i was Mexican...smh....i share my life with chivas.....when i petted I think like 2/3 or 4 or just the same one.....didn't show no aggressive to me...just to a sheep named (peanut, or peanut butter) by looks of them poor hygiene see them shed...i didn't care about that when i was petting him anyways...ponds are dirty see the koi fishes are darker than their natural colors....

small zoo but kiddo had fun. had lots of the cute animals she liked. otters, foxes, leopards and giraffes. only bummed didn't see the lion.

Kids loved it.
Small Zoo,
But, overall great experience.

Nice intimate small zoo. Great places for picnics. Animals seem healthy and well taken cared of. Would recommend!

I love this place. Fun adventure for the family. Great way to spend half a day.

This is a beautiful small zoo. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. I'm from san Francisco and the zoo there was sad and depressing because the animals did not look happy at all. The animals at this zoo looked happy and are thriving. I highly recommend this zoo.

Great local zoo with a good variety of animals and activities for everyone in the family.

Nice encounter with the fauna, you feel a quietness in the enclosure and the animals are very well cared for !! Good dedicated staff and very loving with the animals.

Looooved it.. very clean and beautiful. Food was good too

Absolutely beautiful inside many wonderful places inside to picnic Not as many animals as other zoos but well worth the visit The walk around the grounds alone are well worth the trip

Small and quaint, but we'll kept and very relaxing.

I think this is the best zoo ever. It is perfect for children and adults of all ages.

The great Zoo if you don't like to do a lot of walking. Very beautiful

This is a very nice zoo. You can walk through the entire facility in a couple of hours and see just about everything. The snow leopard is over 20 years old. The gorillas are two half brother bachelors waiting to go into a group of females. Also, check out the rainforest display, especially the colorful but poisonous frogs. Really neat. Only $18 to get in but they stop selling tickets at 4pm, after which time I think it s free.

Was a good zoo for younger kids and older kids may get bored. We went on a weekday and it was almost empty.

Can do the entire Zoo in about 3 and 1/2 hours unless you are eating there. Get there before 2pm if you want to do any of the feedings. Last train ride about 4:40 pm.

Great Zoo. Visited with my family and the kids loved it. The compact size makes it really easy to navigate. Loved the train that takes you around the entire perimeter of the zoo for an additional cost. Don't forget to feed the giraffes! (Also at an additional cost). Only downside is the small parking lot, so plan on arriving early when it opens at 10:00 AM.

School field trips from 2 hrs away are pointless...

So enjoyable to see the wonders of creation. The koala bear exhibit was really nice.

We always have a great time here. They lost a lot of animals recently so I hope they get new ones soon!

We love this zoo! We have a membership and go once a month or so. The animals are great, it's clean, almost always has good weather, and it's small enough that we can see all the animals in one day. Staff are friendly and we love the train ride!

I love this place because since my both sons were babies we sometimes came here to enjoy watching animals.

Nice little zoo close to the beach. We had a really nice enjoyable time. Will most likely visit again.

Very nice and clean zoo. Enjoyed all the variety of animals of the great WILD....

I went to the zoo with my baby, my husband, and my brother. It was actually my baby's first trip to a zoo! The zoo was beautiful and well-kept, but I felt bad for some of the animals that were by themselves, like the lion and the gorilla. It was a cute zoo and had a lot of things catered to families.

It was a perfect day to go. Hardly, anybody was there?

Friendly and knowledgeable staff definitely recommend the train ride

Amazing creatures! Just as Jehovah intended them to be.

The zoo is small in comparison to other zoo's. However, it's very clean and the staff is friendly. Some even give you small facts about the animals your looking at. It's great to see a zoo that has employees who love animals and love to work at the zoo.

Absolutely beautiful, wonderful, educational place for everyone. Animals, fun gifts, shows, feed a giraffe, take a little train ride, mine for fossils, dinosaur show, they have beer now! I love taking my kids here.

Nice zoo with many different animals.
It is not so big, but suitable to spend a full day there.

First time coming i had a good time with my nephews

It's a cute little zoo. The train ride was a nice way to cool off. It is a little annoying that everyone has to pay to feed the giraffe. Like the parents have to pay even if they just want their kids to feed the giraffe. Or if one parent and one child wanted to feed the giraffe but the other parent or partner wanted to go with to take a picture..... they would have to pay too.
Definitely not an all day zoo experience.

The line for the gorilla exhibit was long and it was hot, not sure what we were waiting for. The train was sold out by 3pm, no elephants, docked 3 stars. More things were closed due to covid-19 so not docking for that, employees were nice and informative, very few animals were visible but also not docking for that, other animals were sleeping. All and all I think the price was a bit high for the 2 hours, but gave us something to do. Nice walking and hiking around the park

Raining, so lots of animals were sheltering. We did see elephants, giraffes, flamingos and some snakes and spiders. Still had a great time. The staff was super friendly and helpful. Great activity dispite the rain, with good weather would be 5 stars for sure! We will be back!

Went for a birthday party, this time, and the staff was helpful and attentive.

Not a large zoo but enough activity to entertain a family for a day.

Cute, quaint, the train is awesome and you can see the ocean from the zoo!

We went as a family and it was a very nice experience. I have a toddler ( 16 months ) and we have certain days where we go and explore different places in different cities & we happened to come across this place last month. It s a small zoo but it s so worth it. It has all the right animals to see, not too expensive and best of all it s not super crowded. It was a really nice way for us to start our day in Santa Barbara.

Fairly small but really cool zoo. Reasonably priced admission. You can feed giraffes.

This was my first time to the Santa Barbara zoo, and it was really fun. My wife and I brought our 16 month old boy, and we all had a good time. He really loved seeing the giraffes and I think he liked feeding them. When we first got there, we asked the parking attendant if we had to pay for parking if we were going to buy an annual pass, and he very nicely let us go in without paying for a parking pass. We did buy an annual pass, and it will pay for itself after just 2 visits. All of the exhibits were really cool to see, and I wish we could've stayed around more to see some of the "talks" led by some zoo employees at some of the exhibits, but we had to leave because my son was tired. I think you can see the whole park and all the exhibits in about half a day.

We ate food in the park, and it was expectedly pricey and average in flavor at best. I had a burger, and my wife had the turkey melt.

Delightful atmosphere; informative placards; helpful, friendly staff. Animals seem well cared for with adequate habitats. The dining options are limited and marginal, but plenty of space for picnics and areas specifically set up for such. Worthwhile.

It's better than I thought, and parking is good. But the food price is overpriced.

Luv'd it, small pleasent zoo. Small enough to cover the whole location in one day. More like a small park

Great place to take the kids. We live about half way between the LA Zoo and Santa Barbara Zoo. The drive is better, the weather is better. Smaller and easier to get around, less crowded. Great for smaller children. Lacking some of the heavy hitters of a larger zoo, but we always have a great time. Make sure to take a train ride and feed Mikey the giraffe. Tell him Lina says hi. They're best friends. At least in the mind of my 3 yr old daughter.

I have always loved this place. It's not a very big zoo it's actually quite the perfect size. You can take your time and see all the exhibits and there is a park for the kids to play at after seeing all the animals. They have a train that takes you on the outer part of the zoo. It's the thing to do while you're there.

Great zoo especially for little ones easily explore it in a few hours