Help us decide please!

bhyer

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
My adult daughter and myself are planning on going to either the San Diego Safari park or the zoo in September and we cannot decide! We will be staying at an Anaheim area hotel and renting a car. Was thinking that we could do the zoo or safari park for most of the day and then go to La Jolla Cove to relax and see the seals before heading back to Anaheim at the end of the day. We were thinking the Safari Park because it's a different type of experience and we could do the two hour Caravan tour to see the Giraffes up close and then walk over to see the Elephants (those are the two species we are really interested in seeing). And apparently baby elephants are only at the safari park and not at the zoo. Apparently the early caravan tour is the most popular and is already almost booked for the day we want to go so we need to decide. I hesitate to buy tickets so far ahead because I've heard it can be very hot there and if it's a 35 degree day I could melt (or at least be really crabby). BUT then we were thinking the drive to the zoo from Anaheim would be nicer than the drive to the Safari Park and you don't have to buy tickets ahead of time for the Zoo and it's a bit closer to La Jolla Cove although I don't think by much. And the zoo has elephants (although not the babies) and Giraffes (although we wouldn't be able to see them as close up). Please oh please save us from ourselves! We have discussed this too much and are stumped so looking for opinions!!
 
Unfortunately it’s really hard to say which you should do. We’ve done both a few times and they are very different experiences. The Safari Park feels a lot smaller with less to see but I absolutely love tigers so that part is worth the price of admission to me! I have never been impressed by the Safari tour portion of the park but we have just done the regular ones. Both parks can feel unbearable when hot and there is a lot of walking to get places which did make me crabby in the heat!

The Zoo itself has a lot more to see but our experience has really varied depending on the animals. On my first trip we saw the polar bears really active and it made the whole trip! But the next time we went they were just laying around, as were most of the animals because of the heat. I love big cats so having them waking around over our heads was a lot of fun.

I would recommend going with what you really want to see so if it’s baby elephants and giraffes go to the Safari Park. Although I don’t know that it’s an all day place but I went with younger children so obviously a different attention span! Have a great trip!
 
Thank you! We did just that - booked the Safari. We are only going to do the two hour Safari and then see the elephants and we don't want it to be a full day thing because we want to make it over to La Jolla Cove so I think this works! Thank you very much for taking the time to give me your thoughts on this.
 


I know this doesn't address your question, but have you given consideration to spending the night at a San Diego hotel? It would give you more time in the area and make for a more enjoyable, less tiresome day. Its nearly a two hour drive from Anaheim to San Diego with traffic. On the days we commuted from LA to Anaheim (and back), it was only about an hour's drive and I was glad we had done a split stay. The traffic makes for a longer commute, but also a more stressful, white-knuckled one.
 

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