Where-To-Go Wednesday - The Philadelphia Zoo

We were not financially compensated for this post. We received free tickets to the zoo for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are our own based on our experience at the zoo.

 

 What: Philadelphia Zoo

Where: 3400 W. Girard Avenue

            Philadelphia, PA

Who: All Ages

Our view: The Philadelphia Zoo is the oldest zoo in the U.S. It opened with approximately 1000 animals. There are not much more than that there now. There are, however, a wide variety of different animals. It is a good zoo for small children or people who are easily overwhelmed. There are enough animals to see at the zoo to spend a few hours but not so many as to not know which way to look first when viewing one of the exhibits. Instead of having many of  each animal at the zoo, here you will not find more than a handful of each animal. That is not, however, a bad thing because it is possible for a zoo to have too many animals and be too overwhelming. Besides, there are a lot of different kinds of animals at the zoo even if there are not so many of each kind. The zoo involves quite a lot of walking and even with the signs it is not always easy to tell which way to go to get where you want. The zoo employes are friendly and helpful, however. The zoo is large in area and to cover the whole thing you will need to do quite a bit of walking so we would recommend bringing strollers for young children. While there are food and souvenirs available at the zoo, you will not find yourself as bombarded with places to buy food and souvenirs as you may at other places which can be a good thing. One especially nice feature of the zoo is that you can bring in your own water bottles, and there are water bottle filing stations throughout the zoo. Another nice feature is that there are signs throughout the zoo telling you when the trainers will be in particular areas in case you are interested in learning about a specific animal. The zoo is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day, New Years Eve and Day. Hours are 9:30 to 5:00 March through October and 9:30 to 4:00 November through February.Tickets are $20.00 for 12 and up, $18.00 for 2-11 March through October. Tickets are $16.00 for 2 and up November through February. Children under 2 are free at all times. With proper I.D., active military can get a $2.00 per ticket discount. Parking is $15.00. For more information go to http://www.philadelphiazoo.org/.

And that's our view. Tune in to tomorrow's Talking Topics post for more about the Philadelphia Zoo.