Hotels & Trave

As long as the animals aren’t hiding or sleeping, the zoo is great! Columbus Zoo

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We live in Ohio and Columbus is not far away from us. We have gone to the zoo at least once every summer. We recently went back to Columbus Zoo a few months ago. It’s a great place to take our kids and if you see every animal exhibit, you will have walked just a little over 2 miles. It’s great exercise with all the walking!

Every time we go up there, they are always doing some kind of construction always adding more things or changing some things. One of the new additions to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is Zoombezi Bay. It’s a water park inside the zoo. There used to be another water park there called Wyandot Lake but the zoo bought the park. The water park was to open at the end of May or beginning of June so when we went to the zoo, we didn’t go to Zoombezi Bay.

Admission

The admission prices are a little higher now. General admission is $10 a person. Admission for children ages 2 years to 9 years is $7. If your child is older than 9 years old you will have to pay the General Admission price. There is a discount for seniors. Ages 60 and older are $7. Any child under the age of 2 is free. The admission prices didn’t go up that much. Only by a dollar I believe. We had to pay to park too and I think that was $5.

You can buy a Zoo Pass if you live close enough to go all the time. They have all kinds of events throughout the year. I don’t know what the prices are on a Zoo Pass but they start as low as $59. I’m also not sure about the admission to Zoombezi Bay either. The water park is a separate admission. You can buy a season pass to the water park separately from the Zoo Pass but if you are a zoo member, you get a $20 discount for admission.

You can also rent a single stroller for $7, a double stroller for $10, wheelchair for $8, wagon for $10 and an electric cart for $20. They also have storage lockers that you can rent to lock up any person items that you do not want to carry around. This makes more sense if you are going to the water park. You can rent a locker for all day for 75 cents to a dollar depending on the size that you rent.

The food is a bit expensive. You can choose to bring your own food if you like. You can even bring your food in the zoo with you. There are 5 places that you can order food. We chose to get lunch at the zoo instead of making the long hike back to our car because we don’t have one of those coolers with wheels on them. The 5 places are:

Java Stop which includes Starbucks coffee, ice cream and danishes.

Asian Café where you can get rice bowls and other chicken selections.

Prairie Dog Outpost where you can order pizza, hot dogs and slushies.

Flamingo Bay is a Chic-fil-A stand

Congo River Market is an indoor seating area unlike all the others. There are more options when ordering food here. Plus it’s air-conditioned! You can order subs, hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza, ice cream, salads and more.

We chose Flamingo Bay to eat. We haven’t had Chic-fil-A since we lived in Virginia for a short time. It was so good! We only had 2 choices though. There were only 2 combos to choose from for $8 apiece; a chicken sandwich or chicken nuggets. Our 2 kids shared a chicken nugget meal because they got a lot of nuggets with it. It’s still a bit pricey but the price on the food or gift shop benefits the zoo anyway and it was in the right spot when we got hungry.

The Zoo/Animals

The zoo is just over 2 miles. When you first get into the zoo, you will get a zoo map. They layout of the zoo is really easy to follow and we never really had to use our map. The only time that we used it was when we wanted to know where we were at. Throughout the zoo there are also rides that you can ride. There is a Carousel, Boat ride, and a Train ride. Each one of them costs a dollar which is down a buck the last time that we went. The Huntington Train Ride runs through the North America section of the zoo. On the train, you can see different kinds of animals as the train runs through the area. It’s actually pretty old because it is the same train that they had when I was a kid. There is a speaker that tells you what animal you should see but it isn’t very clear. We also never really saw any animals while on the train either. It’s just fun for the kids.

The only other ride that we had ridden was the boat ride. It’s in the Australia section of the zoo. The boat doesn’t move fast and you can see some of the animals while on the boat. It is kind of neat seeing things more closely and everything. They also have trees and rocks along the way so that it looks like you are really in the animal exhibits. There are also a couple of bridges that you go under. Of course you can also see the same animals as you are walking the paths too so if you don’t take a boat ride, you won’t miss anything.

At the start of the entrance, there are to ways to go. If you go to the right, you have 2 options. One path takes you to North America where you can see the trumpeter swans, Mexican wolves, pronghorn, a petting zoo where you can also ride ponies, the train ride, prairie dogs, bears, timber wolves, wolverines, cougars, bobcats, songbird aviary, eagles, the wetlands with the river otters and then the bison. Then you are back to the 2 choices that you had after you chose to go right from the entrance. We have never seen the bison and I have always wanted too. He is never around when we go to the zoo. Watch out in the bird aviaries too because you will probably get pooed on. When you go into one, there is a door that you open and you stand in a small area and then there is another door that you open after the first one is closed as to not let the birds out.

The other direction on the right side is Asia Quest. In Asia there is a building called the Naomi Coyle Dempsey. You also see the sun bears, elephants, red pandas; which are really neat looking and fun to watch, pheasant aviary, pallas cats, the Siberian tigers, lions and cranes. Then you are back at the entrance and you can move on to the left side of the zoo. I do have to say I was very impressed with being able to see the tiger this time around. The last time that we went to the zoo, they had the area closed off for one reason or another. The tiger was right up at the viewing window. He was walking back and forth like he was showing off to everyone. I’ll tell you, that made my day! He was beautiful! The lions are always hard to see. The females are always sleeping somewhere but this time the male lion was right up against the fence as you are walking up the wooden ramps to get to the other areas of the lion exhibit. He had his back to everyone but we could see him. He was sitting up and looked amazing sitting there. I was able to get a picture of him from the side of his face. The lion and the tiger are my favorites and I was saddened that we didn’t get to see them last time and was so happy that we did this time around! They are beautiful creatures!

Going to the left side of the zoo requires that you walk through a tunnel. Riverside Drive (St Rt 257) runs through the center of the zoo. You can’t see the road but every now and then, you can get a glance of it. That’s why there is a tunnel so that you can get to the other side of the zoo. They do a pretty good job at keeping the visibility of it at a minimum. After you get through the tunnel you immediately see the flamingos. They have a pool of water and there is a mirror wall behind their pool. When they are grouped together like they seem to always be, it looks like there are millions of them in there. Then you see the alligators. There is also a reptile house where you can go inside and see all kinds of snakes. I don’t like snakes myself but they have a lot of really big snakes and even rattle snakes. We always look at them as we all like to see them.

There is a Shores section. This is a building where you can see all different kinds of sea creatures. You can sea starfishes and the reef. You can even touch some of them too. Then there is an aquarium. It’s a short walkthrough but they have all kinds of big fish that live in the sea. They even have a few small sharks as well. When you get through that building, there is another building called the Manatee Coast. Inside there you can see different plant life and great big trees. They have a big tank with a manatee and a couple of giant sea turtles. Our 2 year old loved this. The turtle swam up close and it was huge! Our son loves turtles! There is only one manatee there now as there used to be two of them.

There are also the penguins and aldabra tortoises. There is a section down by the water’s edge where they hold events throughout the year and there is also a boardwalk. For a regular zoo trip, there isn’t much going on down there. The African Forest is where you will see the African grey parrots, okapi and duikers, African forest aviary, Congo River Base Camp where you see the colobus monkeys, leopards, drills, the outdoor gorilla exhibit and also an indoor gorilla exhibit. You cannot take pictures of the gorillas inside because the flash can upset them. Our daughter got scared because there was someone in there taking pictures and one of them actually started running around and hitting the glass. The outdoor exhibit is really neat for both the gorillas and the monkeys. You can see them climbing all over the place on ropes and jungle gyms. Usually the big gorillas just sit there. You also see the red river hogs.

Then you can head over to Australia. In the center there is a play park for the kids if you need a break. This playground is really cute. The slides and all the playground equipment is made to look like bugs! In Australia we got to see the koalas, kangaroos, another bird aviary, komodo dragons, there’s the Henry Edward Coyle Gibbon Exhibit, Asian small clawed otters and the orangutans. There isn’t much to see in Australia. The kangaroo section was really neat. You actually got to walk through their exhibit while they are walking or jumping around! It was really cool and our kids loved this a lot!

My thoughts…..

We love the Columbus Zoo! We have a lot of fun and the zoo is easy to navigate through. All of the sections have big signs so it is easy to know where you are at. Like going into Australia, there is a big sign that says Australia and so forth. There are a lot of animals to see. We got to see everything this time around except for the bison. He is never around when we go. The pathways are wide and they are really easy for our kids to walk in front of us without losing sight of them. Of course our son only being 2 years old spent most of his time in his stroller because he got tired of walking. All the pathways were really easy to push a stroller through. All of the animal exhibits are easily accessible even with a stroller. Most of the viewing areas for the animals even have benches so you can sit and watch them for a while.

The food is expensive but what we ate was really good! We go out and get some exercise, wear out the kids and see the animals. The kids really enjoyed it. The zoo is always clean too and they have enough bathrooms and they are spaced out perfectly throughout the zoo. All of the food courts are also evenly spaced out so that if you get hungry, there seems to be places close by without having to look for a place. The gift shop however, is very small. It’s hard to even move around inside the gift shop. The prices on everything is a bit pricey too but I never expected any less.

The Columbus Zoo does not have pandas, zebras or giraffes. I wish that they did. They used to have them at the zoo when I was a kid. There isn’t much to the aquarium either and I wish they had a little more. The animals that always take my breath away is the lion, tiger, leopard, and the American Bald Eagle. The eagles, there are 2 of them, have a humongous nest and they are clearly seen sitting there. It is amazing! The leopard has a tree stump that he loves to sit on and he is so pretty when he is sitting there!

Some advice that I would like to give is that if you plan to go to the zoo, try to go on a cooler day. The best time to go is about mid may when the temperature is about 70 degrees. When it is too hot, it is harder to see any of the animals. They hide in the shade and sleep or they will go inside when it is too hot and you may be limited to what you are able to see. We all like the Columbus Zoo and we always have a great time! If you live in Ohio or are visiting Ohio, I recommend visiting the Columbus Zoo if you get the chance!

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