San Diego Zoo plan of attack?

[corinne76]

Anyone with zoo experience care to share their plan of attack? I haven't been there since I was a kid so I remember nothing. I have heard there is a ton of walking and a lot of hills. We have a 7 and a 4 yr old if that makes a difference.

 

[PHXscuba]

I'd make sure to see the pandas early on before they develop a Disney-sized line. Get there at opening as you would at a theme park, if possible.

The bus tour and sky tram will save you some walking -- take the bus tour all around to see much of the zoo and figure out what you want to walk to afterward. We took the sky tram up to the top of the hill and then worked our way down through the exhibits.

When we went our youngest were a small 6-year-old and a 3-year-old and they did fine with the walking, no strollers. We are big zoo people and stayed 6 hours!

PHXscuba

 

[corinne76]

thank you! We love zoos too

 

[Plasticletters]

Are both your kids really excited about animals? Their enthusiasm is going to play a lot into how you get around the San Diego Zoo, how long you stay, and which order you do things in.

If you want to see the whole park (a mammoth undertaking to be sure) I recommend something like this...

Get there early (at opening!) and watch the bird "flyover". Walk immediately to your right and go through Australia (Tasmanian Devils, Koalas, Wombats), then circle the Urban Jungle -maybe in time for giraffe feeding! (giraffes, rhinos, cheetahs, a few exotic cats and birds). From there, continue on the main path around the camels and birds and stay on the high ground through to Elephant Odyssey. This area has a LOT of interactive children's activities, so if your kids are into that kind of thing this is where they'll get to play a bit. If you walk all the way through that exhibit you'll end up by the mountain lions and maned wolves facing the skyfari tram. At this point a rest might be nice, so take the skyfari back to the front of the zoo. Immediately exiting the skyfari is the reptile house and reptile walk, and that's very well shaded as well (a nice place to hangout if it's hot out). After going through that, keep going straight (past the stadium) and you'll end up at the hummingbird house and children's zoo - which is another great interactive area for the kids. From there, tackle the gargantuan interior of the zoo ("Lost Forest") - there are multiple trails to take here that will take you past the Orangutans, Gorillas, Bonobos, Tigers, Hippos, and all kinds of other charismatic animals. All the trails eventually run back into each other, so look at a map and plan according to the animals you want to see most. If you finish up back at the top, you can walk down the hill and see the bears through the "sun bear tropics" area as you go back into the canyon. Immediately at the bottom of that trail is where the pandas are.
I know the conventional wisdom is to see the panda's early to avoid the queue - but in the summer you're likely going to have to wait no matter what and the zoo has set up a really nice area (with red pandas, snakes, and Takins) to view other animals while you wait to see the giant pandas - this will also be one of the most memorable things at the zoo for you, so doing it next to last I think helps to build up the excitement.
From there, you can continue to take the outside path towards the skyfari tram in the back of the zoo and see the Arctic Area (Polar Bears, Arctic Fox, Caribou) before riding the skyfari back to the front of the zoo again to go home.

That's an all day event. Just a suggestion.

 

[LizzyS]

When we went, we did the bus tour first and I do recommend that. The Pandas WILL draw a large crowd, so the advice to do that earlier rather than later is good.

 

[tzeitel]

Anyone with zoo experience care to share their plan of attack? I haven't been there since I was a kid so I remember nothing. I have heard there is a ton of walking and a lot of hills. We have a 7 and a 4 yr old if that makes a difference.

This is quoted from my SD trip report -

"If you want to see the pandas and take your time (and some nice photos) go first thing in the morning. We were there at rope drop and before the park opened I asked one of the zoo volunteers the best way to get to the pandas. We went straight to them and had them to ourselves for about 15 minutes.

Best way to get to the pandas - When you go inside the park you are by 2 gorilla busts - this is where the rope drop is. Right across from them is the guided bus tour ticket booth (you do not need to buy a ticket for the guided tour if you get the regular 1 day admission since it is included), to the left of the booth is a path. Take the path (Easy Street - actual name), then take the first path to the right (if you miss it the second path to the right will take you there as well) just follow that down (on the map it shows like you are going up but it is actually down a bunch of steps) past the aviary (you might see some birds but they were asleep when we went by). You follow it until you see Hua Mei Café (on the map it has a big red circle with the #13 on it. It will be right infront of you so you cannot miss it. On that road (Park Way) you take a left, you pass the café and the gift shop and there you are! You first see the exit so walk a little more to the entrance. It took us like 5 minutes to get there. Check the map below (Easy St. is between the red parrot and the flamingos).

Map of the zoo - http://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/content/map

Admission includes the guided tour (sit on the right side of the bus, left side as you walk down the aisle), express bus (on/off bus that takes you around the park) and the Skyfari which goes from the back of the park (near polar bears) to the front (near the kids playground and petting zoo)."

 

[corinne76]

Thanks everyone!!!

I'll be printing notes you all are giving me. I forgot to say we're going in October, probably a Friday since we're hitting DLR for 5 days before driving to Carlsbad to do Legoland and the zoo.

My kids love animals!! We live in Hawaii and our zoo isn't huge. They are excited to see animals they can't see here.

 

[PHXscuba]

Thanks everyone!!!

I'll be printing notes you all are giving me. I forgot to say we're going in October, probably a Friday since we're hitting DLR for 5 days before driving to Carlsbad to do Legoland and the zoo.

My kids love animals!! We live in Hawaii and our zoo isn't huge. They are excited to see animals they can't see here.

I am not sure if they are still doing it this year, but as recently as a couple years ago, they had a "kids entry free" promo running the whole month of October. Maybe wait a bit to buy tickets to see if they offer it again?

... and be sure to check the days/hours for Legoland. It is often closed on Tues/Wed during the off season and the waterpark is only open on weekends.

PHXscuba

 

[DCDisney]

We also did the bus tour first to get the lay of the land and then the sky ride to the back of the park so it was mostly downhill from there to go to the panda area. We were there at opening and we waited less than 5 minutes for the pandas.

 

[GoBears 1980]

Be in the zoo for the rope drop. I head first to the gorillas, then down the Hippo Trail to see the tigers. Both the gorillas and tigers are pretty active first thing in the morning. Then I'd head to the pandas before the lines get long. I would NOT do a bus trip first. It is too busy and to many others have the same idea. The gorilla path is very quiet and almost hidden. Many of those who don't do the bus tour, do the Monkey Trail right next to the flamingo pond.

If you find yourself at the bottom of the zoo (pandas, hippos, etc) there are moving sidewalks that can return you to the top pretty easily, but they are out of site, so ask a volunteer where they are.

 

[twodogs]

Realize this is an older thread, but wanted to add that we live in Texas, and bought our tickets ahead of time directly from the zoo online. Googled for a coupon code and save some money that way. Biggest savings however, was that they did not charge sales tax on the tickets since we live in Texas and they were "shipping" the tickets to me here. But, there was a print at home option, so I used that, and it still did not charge me sales tax (I guess based on my billing address in Texas). Since we did the Backstage Pass tour also, this really saved us a lot of money in tax. And, we got to bypass the lines of folks waiting to purchase tickets that morning and go to right in through the gates with our print at home tickets. I highly recommend the Backstage Pass tour if you can swing it. Best part of the zoo trip for our family!!

 

[sara74]

[QUOTE="twodogs, post: 54634965, member: 425850 I highly recommend the Backstage Pass tour if you can swing it. Best part of the zoo trip for our family!![/QUOTE]

Glad to hear you liked this tour - we were considering it for our trip. DH wants to know if it always includes a close encounter with a cheetah. Do you remember what you saw?