Was It Worth It?
San Diego Zoo

​Posted December 30, 2025, by Janet Wolfe

What It Is

A 100-acre wildlife park.  According to the zoo’s website, San Diego Zoo houses “more than 12,000 rare and endangered animals representing over 680 species and subspecies.”

Where It Is

Balboa Park in San Diego, California

When We Went

June 2024

What We Did

The San Diego Zoo spans the equivalent of 75 football fields, so we were a little strategic in our approach.  

First, we took the guided bus tour.  The buses load just inside and to the right of the entrance, so finding it was quick and easy.  The route doesn’t take you through the entire zoo, but it does circle roughly half of it, and we saw plenty of animals during the 35-minute, narrated ride: flamingos, bears, monkeys, leopards, a camel, lions, elephants, a polar bear, and koalas.  If you take the tour, ride it early, sit on the top, and choose seats on the right side of the bus: you’ll see more animals than the folks seated on the left side will.

After the bus tour, we walked through Wildlife Explorers Basecamp, where we saw some komodo dragons and other creepy-crawlies in addition to our target animal: the red panda.  

From there, we rode the Skyfari aerial tram, which took us to the back of the park.  There, we got to see the other, more interesting side of the polar bear habitat, hippos, and guerillas (my favorite).  We also made our way to the rhino (we’d never seen one in a zoo before), the giraffes (they were so close, not tucked away or barely in sight like at other zoos we’ve visited), and Hamadryas baboons with eerily human-ish and stern faces.

Tired and ready to move on to our next destination of the day, La Jolla Cove (we like to jam-pack our days and see as much as we can), we hit the souvenir stores and headed out.

How Much We Spent

When we went in 2024, tickets were $74 for anyone 12 and older and $64 for kids ages 3-11.  My husband works for the Navy, so we were able to get discounted tickets through the Navy MWR (Moral, Welfare and Recreation) office.  We paid $59.50 each for my husband, son, and me, and $51.25 for our daughter.  

If you plan to spend more than a day in San Diego and want to visit four or more attractions—specifically SeaWorld, LEGOLAND, USS Midway Museum, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, City Cruises, Birch Aquarium at Scripps, Old Town Trolley Tours, and/or Maritime Museum of San Diego—a package from San Diego CityPass may help you save a little.

How Much Time We Spent There

About five hours.  We arrived at opening, around 9:00, and left around 2:00.

What We Liked

There’s a reason this zoo is so world-renowned: it’s impressive in its size, in its diversity of animals, and in its landscaping.  It really is, despite some seriously steep hills, a beautiful park.  In fact, the San Diego Zoo is also an accredited botanical garden featuring more than 700,000 individual plants representing 3,100 species.  

We loved the guided bus tour because it gave us a great introduction to the zoo and access to quite a few animals in a short amount of time.

We also loved the aerial tram because it got us quickly and effortlessly to the back of the zoo.

What We Didn't Like

The San Diego Zoo isn’t the easiest one to navigate.  Prior to our trip, I had looked online for tips from other visitors about must-see animals, parking, etc.  One mother talked about the “hills” in the zoo and recommended strategizing a route through the facility that utilized the elevators and minimized the number of “up” hills.  The problem is that the online map doesn’t give any indication where the hills are or which way they’re going.  Some of the inclines were ridiculously steep.  In fact, one path had a caution sign, warning visitors, "Path not recommended for guests using mobility devices, including wheelchairs, electric scooters, walkers, knee rolling devices, canes, etc."

Was it worth it? 

Yes.  Normally, we don’t visit zoos while we’re on road trips, but because of the San Diego Zoo’s reputation, we felt like we had to.  We were not disappointed.  If you go, keep the following tips in mind:

Tip #1: Bring your own snacks and water bottles.  The zoo limits cooler size, but a small backpack should get you through, especially if you don’t plan on being there all day.  

Tip #2: Don’t hesitate to ask any food vendor to refill your water bottle.  I had read this ahead of time and didn’t quite believe it, but the very first person I asked happily filled our collapsible bottle and told me that anywhere we saw sodas being sold, we could get free water refills.

Tip #3: If you're worried about the hills, stop by an information booth with your list of must-see animals for help with a route.  We did not do this, but I wish that we had.  

For more information, visit https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/.