- Everything you need to know to go to the San Diego Zoo.
In this video, I'm gonna tell you how to get in,
how to get around, what to see, what to eat, what to do,
and where to stay if you're coming to the zoo.
All right, let's get right into it.
First thing to know,
just a little bit more information about the San Diego Zoo.
And when they say it's truly world famous, it truly is.
This is the most visited zoo
in the entire United States of America,
and is one of the best zoos I've been to anywhere
and I've been to quite a lot of zoos.
What makes it really amazing is
that the San Diego Zoo has been a pioneer
in the open air, open attraction concept
so that the animals they don't feel like they're in pens,
they don't feel like they're in cages.
It recreates their natural habitat.
This is like the primate area,
and so there's some monkeys that hang out there
behind those ropes.
But when you look at them,
you don't feel sorry for them
because they've done a really great job
of creating the environments the animals live in.
Animals, there are 12,000 animals that live here,
650 species,
and on a property that is a hundred acres in size.
It's really big.
You should plan to spend
at least four hours at the San Diego Zoo.
If you're truly an animal lover,
you could easily spend two days here
and they've even got tickets that support that.
So speaking of tickets,
that's the second thing you should know.
The ticket prices here, one adult for one day at the gate
is gonna cost you $67;
kids, three to 10, $10 less, $57.
Kids under three are free.
If you wanna come for two days,
they've got cheaper tickets, $110 for two days.
You can do two days at the San Diego Zoo.
You can also split that and do one day at the zoo
and one day at the Safari Park,
which is the zoo's sister park up in Escondido
that has bigger areas, more expansiveness.
And if you want to come for three days
and you can use one of these days at SeaWorld,
it's about $170.
The San Diego Zoo is open 365 days a year, rain or shine.
You do not need a reservation to come in
so just buy your ticket and come any day you want to.
It's a pretty big place.
Oh, and if you're wondering
what's the best time of year to come to the zoo?
Well, in the winter, they close pretty early.
They close it like 5:00 pm in the winter.
If you come in the summer,
they can be open until 9:00 pm.
So if you wanna get the most money's worth for your ticket,
come in the summer.
If you've got kids,
then you might really wanna consider October
because in every October prior to this,
kids between three to 10 have gotten in for free that month.
The third thing to know is about getting into the zoo,
and you're probably gonna wanna drive here.
The public transportation options
to get to the zoo are pretty slim.
There is a city bus that'll bring you here,
route seven or 215.
It'll come from downtown San Diego,
but you're best off driving.
Big parking lot, free parking from downtown San Diego
or the San Diego airport.
It's about a 10-minute drive.
If you're at Balboa Park over there,
you can just walk over to the zoo
because the zoo is in San Diego's historic Balboa Park,
home of a whole bunch of museums
and other cultural attractions.
The fourth thing to know is about getting around the zoo
and you're gonna be doing a lot of walking here
because this place is really quite hilly.
Right now, I'm in the center of the zoo across this bridge.
That thing right there, that red roof,
it's an elevator that'll bring you down there
to where the pandas used to be.
I say pandas used to be, there are no pandas here currently
but do be prepared to go up and down hills
and use this elevator to help you go up and down
from the bottom to the top.
Now, some other great ways to get around:
there is a bus, a two-story double decker bus,
that's a guided bus tour that'll take you around the zoo.
It's a 35-minute narrated tour.
I suggest you do that right away
when you come in to get your bearings on the zoo.
In addition to the bus tour,
you can also take the kangaroo bus,
which is like a hop on/hop off bus
that's designed to get you around the park.
You don't have to be on that for 35 minutes.
That one's just transportation
as opposed to the full zoo tour on the guided bus tour.
There's the Skyfari,
which is a gondola that goes from the front of the zoo
to the back where the polar bears are.
It's about a five-minute ride.
It's a one-way ride.
So you ride it, you gotta get off, get back in line again
and then go to the other side.
You can bring strollers on it only if they're small.
Now I will say this place
is actually pretty stroller-friendly.
It's pretty flat.
They've got pretty good ramps everywhere.
It's also pretty wheelchair-friendly.
If you're not into the bus tour
or you want some more personal tours,
they do have smaller guided tours.
You can take like a golf cart around.
But those cost more
in addition to the standard ticket price.
Now, in addition to the zoo having really good signs
to find your way,
download the San Diego Zoo app to your phone
because it makes it really easy
to find where you're going
and even get walking directions from your location.
The fifth thing to know is about food
and there are quite a few eating options spread
across the zoo.
Burgers, pizza, fries, that sort of thing.
For adults, expect to pay about $20.
Pretty much all the restaurants are quick service
or cafeteria style.
There is one sit-down restaurant called Albert's.
It's in the Lost Forest area, kind of near the gorillas.
If you want to eat at Albert's,
you should make a reservation ahead of time on open table.
They also serve brunch on weekends.
But if you wanna save a little bit of money,
consider bringing your own food.
You can bring food and drinks into the zoo, just no coolers.
And if you're thinking you might leave the zoo
and get something cheap to eat nearby,
there's really nothing to eat
within walking distance of the zoo either.
Over in Balboa Park, everything's gonna be just as expensive
as it is within the zoo.
The sixth thing to know is about the shows
and look, it's a zoo and it's educational,
so they don't call them shows
but they call them wildlife talks
and wildlife presentations.
Talks are gonna be at the different animal areas
where they'll have animal specialists talking
about the animals.
And then they've got animal presentations,
which are the most showy.
The one here today was Wildlife Wonders, 2:00 pm
at the Wegeforth Bowl.
You can find the whole schedule on the app.
They've also got a 4D theater over by the polar bears.
It's a 10-minute show for $7.
That one's an extra price in addition to your zoo admission.
All the other shows and talks are included
in your standard admission.
And the seventh thing to know is about hotels
or where to stay if you're coming to San Diego
specifically to visit the zoo.
Unfortunately, there aren't really any hotels
within close walking distance of the zoo,
just like there's no good restaurants
within walking distance.
Your closest bet for hotels is gonna be
in downtown San Diego around the Gaslamp district
or in Mission Valley around Hotel Circle.
Those would be my recommendations of spots to look for.
In Mission Valley, Hotel Circle,
they're gonna be cheaper
than they are in San Diego's Gaslamp district
but they're probably gonna be nicer in downtown San Diego.
If you want some of the nicest hotels,
check out the Marriott Marquis
or the Hyatt Manchester Grand.
Both of those have really fantastic San Diego bay views.
Oh, and by the way, what am I standing in front of?
This is in the Elephant Odyssey.
This is a recreation of some of the tar pits
that are here in California
because elephants actually roamed here
in Southern California and they found many of their bones
in these tar pits.
One in particular, you can still see
that's an active tar pit is up in Los Angeles
at the La Brea Tar Pits.
But that brings us to number eight,
which is what are the best attractions to see at the zoo?
And my favorite animal attraction is Elephant Odyssey
where you can see the elephants.
No, that's not a real elephant.
The real elephants are just back there.
They're big
and they have a really big area where the elephants in.
Again, you don't feel sorry for them here.
It's a really nice place.
They got a lot of things to play with.
When we were here, we even saw them cutting the toenails
of one of the elephants
and they have a total of five of them.
My daughter, the Spunky Princess,
also really enjoyed the numerous bird aviaries
that you could not just look at birds
but actually walk in to be with the birds.
She also really liked Koalafornia,
which is the koala exhibit here.
The San Diego Zoo has the most koalas on exhibit
of any zoo outside of Australia.
And finally, the polar bears just at the bottom
of the Skyfari, away from the entrance.
The polar bears, they're just super cute;
and there's lots of really neat places to play in here
for little kids.
The Spunky Princess said her favorite thing
to do the whole day we were here at the zoo was
to actually crawl through the polar bear tunnels
over by the polar bears.
And the last thing to know is that I've got more videos
on San Diego Balboa Park and beyond.
If you wanna check out more of my San Diego series,
you'll find it here,
including my walking tour of Balboa Park
that you definitely shouldn't miss
when you're here at the zoo.
San Diego's best museums are right over there,
just the neighbor of the zoo.
Well, fellow explorers as usual,
I won't say goodbye because I'm gonna see you
in one of those videos.
Link's also in the description below.