The Akron Zoo, Akron

This zoo shouldn't be called a zoo. There are no zebras, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, elephants.. There ARE goats, fish, birds, ie; flamingo and stork.. The best part about the zoo was probably the lion I saw; but even that was sad. The lion's exhibit was small and depressing as with all of the other animal exhibits. The nachos I bought at the zoo's cafeteria were horrid. Weird type of cheese. It didn't taste at all like nacho cheese. The tortilla chips were stale. I do not recommend this zoo. The only thing I do recommend this zoo for is probably for exercise. There is a picnic area, too, if you want to have a picnic there.. you can bring your own food. Keep in mind that there is nothing keeping you from sun exposure, so I would go on a cloudy day, which shouldn't be too hard in Ohio.

Thanks for the community day tickets. It allow my 3 year old granddaugher and 90 year cousin to enjoy a wonderful day at the zoo from Clinton

It sucked im 14 and it was way to small i see having it small for kids but wat about us we need somewhere to go i and my friends hated it

It was an ok zoo for Akron not being the the size of Clevland but it's nothing great. I would recommend it for for small children 2-7. The animals they had for being a smaller zoo were impresive though. Overall the Akron Zoo was ok ***.

I love the Akron Zoo! It is great for small kids because you can see everything in just a few hours. We go in the at opening, stop for lunch and can be home in time for afternoon nap time.

We brought our little ones, 3 year old and 6 month old to this zoo while we were visiting relatives just this past week. It was GREAT! We spent about 5 hours there and my 3 year old loved this zoo more than any others we have ever been to. Very clean, helpful staff - we had a great, affordable lunch in the Komodo Cafe. There are many play areas for the kids, a train ($2 per ride), a flower garden that is gorgeous, a petting zoo area. We had a great time and will go back again when we visit the area next time. Highly recommended for younger children - the zoo is a decent size without being so large that the younger ones would get tired or bored.

I loved how intimate this zoo was! You can get right up to the animals and the staff is wonderful! Perfect for families!

While it has been awhile since I have been to the Akron Zoo, I finally got a chance to go this past week and wow... When they said that they had made improvements and changes over the past few years they were certainly not kidding! I honestly now prefer the Akron Zoo to the Cleveland Zoo. While there are fewer animals (the Akron Zoo has just over 700, with around 100 being various ducks, birds, and flamingos), the difference between the Akron Zoo and others is amazing. For one thing the animals are very close, as in the viewing area between the Sumatran tigers, the Jaguars, and the Snow Leopards are simply a pane of reinforced glass, and that is it!!!! At other zoos there are usually large indentations in the ground, and a good 40 feet between where the visitors stand and where the animal habitats begin, but at the Akron Zoo there are mere inches! As my husband and I walked around there were kids with their noses pressed against the glass, and in one case a jaguar cub (10 months old) was pressing her nose right back! There are not just animal fact sheets around the zoo, but fact sheets including the various animals actual names!!!! There are even up close pictures of the jaguars so that kids and adults can take turns trying to identify with jaguars are out so that they know the names of the ones that they are looking at. There is also never a lack of help if you need it there, even if all you desire is a simple question answered. EVERYONE, and I do mean everyone who works there is knowledgeable regarding the animals. We had a college student who had sold us our tickets taking her lunch right by the Penguin exhibit, and she was able to answer every question about the warm weather penguins that we could throw at her! The Humboldt Penguin exhibit is VERY cool because they are in an open air exhibit, and there are stairs you can climb to look down into the exhibit. Plus, and perhaps this is my imagination, but all of the animals seemed very friendly. Nearly all were right up against the glass, and others came up to it when you walked up their exhibit. Having learned the names of the two otters there (Slip and Slide) my husband and I walked up to the exhibit and called, "Hey Slip and Slide!" and both otters jumped up and literally RAN over to the glass to flaunt for attention! The only sad thing was that the zoo lost two animals recently, a Gibbon and their male lion, due to old age. The zoo is apparently looking at expanding though since it owns 25 more acres of land, and if the next levy passes they will have even more animal exhibits to come! This is also a GREAT place to go for the elderly, or for anyone who cannot walk far since the zoo is not spread out at all. The gift shop is a bit limited for the kiddies, but I doubt any parents will be complaining about that! So on a scale of 1-10 I would give this zoo an 8. It is not big enough with enough animals yet to be a 9 or a 10, but I definitely prefer this zoo to many of the others that I have visited (such as the Bronx Zoo, Cleveland Zoo, Toledo Zoo, and the Pittsburg Zoo), and that is saying something since I realllllly enjoyed all of those zoos as well.

I visited the zoo this week and was pleasantly surprised with the extensive landscaping and overall improvements the zoo has made in the last 8 years. Most of the exhibits were well done, albeit somewhat small for the nature of the larger animals (lions & bears)they held. I found the pony enclosure and riding path most distressing. As a 30 year horse and pony owner myself, I am well aware of the painful hoof problems that develop from walking a pony on gravel. When I saw gravel again in the barnyard with no natural grass to graze upon nor relieve the footing problem, I was further disturbed.I hope in the future that the zoo will consider the pony's natural habitat and make improvements as they did with other animals.

Akron Zoo is a wonderful place for children, Our family had a blast! We went two days ago. We enjoyed it so much we bought a family membership pass. We loved the Penguins and watching them dive into the water. The children are still talking it, because they enjoyed it so much. The train and pony rides are an extra but well worth the money to see the joy on our children's faces. My enjoyed seeing the bats and the river otters, My hubby enjoyed Komodo Kingdom and the children loved seeing the lemurs. We spent five hours there and now we have a day that we will always remember as a family. We plan on going back this Saturday and every week this summer and plan on going a few times when it gets close to winter. Money very well spent.