San Antonio Zoo, San Antonio

Ok, I am going to do my best to give you an accurate detailed description of our trip there. We drove 2 1/2 hours to this zoo. We went today (3/24/10) The parking was a complete nightmare! We got there and the "free parking" was full. The police dept. was blocking the entrance and told us to drive around, & good luck on finding a spot. Boy, was he right! We ended up driving around that entire area down there before giving up & paying $5 for a parking spot. Im not really complaining because $5 wasn't that bad. Walking from the parking lot to the zoo entrance my children encountered a dead (very smelly) cat. You would think one of those police officers would dispose of it. When we got to the entrance of the zoo a very rude woman (who looked like she absolutely hated her job) directed us to a line to purchase our tickets. In order to purchase the tickets we had to go up some stairs which was a burden because we had a wagon with 2 toddlers and a small ice chest in it. We went on a Sunday so I did expect it to be a little crowded, but wow! does the zoo have a capacity limit?? The zoo was OVERLY crowded. I mean we were literally shoulder to shoulder with people MOST of the time at the zoo. & just to put it out there the people who were visiting the zoo had to be the rudest people that I have ever met in my entire life. They weren't making their children behave. I actually watched one boy climbing over the bars into the exhibit while his mom just watched. Children at times pushed me or my husband and at one point a child told my husband to move. This was annoying but not horrible. My breaking point was when my child was holding my hand and a man pushed passed my child to see an animal and knocked her over. No apology or nothing. Just stepped passed her and continued on. My children are very well behaved. They sat in the wagon or stood right next to us. What ever happened to southern hospitality? For the record, i don't blame the zoo for these rude people LOL The zoo has a special section for kids which is fantastic, but the rest of the zoo is not kid friendly. Most of the exhibits have high rock walls and landscaping that obstruct children's views of the animals. This required us to lift each child up to see animals. We had four children so we became worn out rather quickly. As some of the other reviews stated there are a lot of birds! My eight year old son asked me if I was sure this was a zoo. I asked him why and he said well I mostly just see birds. Even though the temperature for the day was only 80; quite a few of the animals were sleeping or just laying there (almost all of the bears and a few monkeys) Because of the amount of people in the zoo it made it almost completely impossible to see a lot of the animals. Quite a few of the walkways were VERY narrow. It is for sure NOT stroller,wagon, or wheelchair friendly. Why in the world would you put stairs in a zoo?? I give them credit.... some areas with stairs have ramps next to them.... but others do not. Some areas don't even warn you that you are coming to a spot where your wagon won't be able to go. Before I sound like a Debbie Downer there were some things that were really nice. The hippos were amazing. We were able to seem them under water, and my children absolutely loved it. They do have a wide variety of interesting looking birds. Even though there seems to be a little too many birds; quite a few of them are really exotic & I had never seen them before. The zoo was clean as were the restrooms that we used. There were plenty of places to sit and rest when we needed a break. **My husband says we may be a little biased because we have been to the Columbus, Ohio zoo and they totally blow this zoo out of the water. I'm sorry to say that we will not be making that 2 1/2 hour drive back to San Antonio nor will we pay $44 for our family to visit again. I do recommend this zoo to adults and very tall children. Maybe try going on a weekday.

need to find people who were at the zoo march 27, 2010 there was an Estrada family reunion and a science fair that day

i came in to the zoo in 1988 i was with the marines then at fort hood i told the lady there i would let her know where im at . im matthew johnson awarded full metel jacket red beri marine. we took part in bringing some crockadiles to the zoo from the river walk. it was a lot of work but we got them. but i'll be back to visit nice place. im in kingsport tenn 505 dale st 37660 but for know all hopes i don't go back into war so i can have some fun there again thanks.

I think that the San Antonio Zoo was the most depressing thing I have ever seen. The animals were so skinny and dry it was so sad that, I didnt finish walking the whole zoo. Scince then, I have never been back and the most sad thing is that I just moved here to San Antonio. Family and freinds that ask me how is the zoo, I tell them that it was the most depressing thing I have ever see.

This is a nice and beautiful zoo but it is in AFRICA THEAME so their are only animals that you see in AFRICA. So ther are no peguins polar bears. There are tons of birds!! I f you are a bird person you would love this place but other than that they need more variety. Oh and the people at the front gate are rude! they had a rope up to contain lines and with kids you know kids are going to grab the rope well every time some one would grab the rope they would yell at you and my boyfriend was paying with his credit card but i handed it to the cashier because he was holding kids and watching them while i took care of it and they flipped on me because they thought i had stole his wallet but he was only 4 ft away from me and i informed the cashier that he was right there and also showed hisid for him and she said she would not accept it unless he handed it to her and she did not tell me in a nice way!! so finally we got it taken care of but they need nicer employees to great the guest.

I have been to many zoo's around the country, and this zoo is average at best. With a city this big, I expected more large animals. For the animals they have, we felt the ticket price was very high $8 for adults $6 for kids. If you are visiting and want to see a good zoo, go to San Diego (huge) or St. Louis (free). I have been told it is the best zoo in all of Texas, which is really sad for Texans. That said, my family purchased the annual pass, which makes it more reasonable, and we go at least once a month. They are making tremendous improvements in the layout and putting in more activities for young kids, but still don't have the large animals to make this a top rated zoo.

Just got back from a trip to San Antonio. We went to the zoo and was disappointed. I think we are spoiled by the quality of Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. You don't realize what you have until you see what everyone else has. Half of the zoo was under construction and other exhibits were just closed for no apparent reason. I can say they have more birds than any other zoo I have visited but if I saw another bird in a cage I think I was going to pass out. It was so hot. We were hoping to see gorillas and orangs, tigers, lions, giraffes, etc. Did I mention we saw lots of birds!

WELL THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ZOO I REALLY WANT TO GO AND IF IT IS CROWDED THEN ITS BECAUSE ITS A GOOD ZOO ITS SO FUNNY HOW PPL (LOOK DOWN TO NEXT REVIEW) ARE SO RUDE ITS NOT THE DAMN ZOO'S FAULT YOU DROVE 2 1/2 HRS.!! AND HELLO!!! IF YOU KNOW THE PARKING IS FREE WAKE URSELF UP EARLY TO GET THERE NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE AND BE MAD AT THE ZOO OVER SOMETHING YOU DID!!! YES..I DO FEEL BETTER...AND I AM GOING TO THE ZOO!!!

I really expected the zoo in S.A. to be much larger than it was. There really was not anything that made this zoo stand out, but any zoo is a good value when you have a family.

Our family visited this zoo last year and really enjoyed ourselves. It was sad to see a beautiful black panther isolated in a small cement cage, but other than that, we had a great time. The zoo has a special exhibit for butterflies. My daughter was able to hold a moth as big as an adult's hand! We'd go there again, but would avoid the panther cage.