Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Address:	3400 Vine St, Cincinnati, OH 45220, USA
Phone:	+1 513-281-4700
Site:	cincinnatizoo.org
Rating:	4.3
Working:	10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 6

Tyler Bules

Great zoo. This place is great fun no matter your age. The good: The entire zoo can be walked several times over without getting exhausted. The exhibits are packed closely together so you wont get bored or too tired. There are plenty of shady areas and benches to rest if needed. A fair variety of food is available at several points throughout the zoo, including Larosas and Skyline. They have a lot of exotic animals and the exhibits are handicap and child friendly. They have catered to families with children by including a play area and petting zoo. Season pass is reasonable and includes up to 8 children at no extra cost. There are parking lots at each end of the zoo, plus several overflow lots. The bad: There are some hilly pathways that are difficult for some. The park is especially crowded on weekends and can be a little stressful with a stroller. The food is a little expensive, but this is better if you get the season pass discount. If you dont buy tickets online ahead of time, expect to be waiting in a long line just to get tickets. Some of the exhibits are tucked away in the far corners of the zoo and not worth the extra effort to reach. Many of the animals seem stressed or unhappy; pacing continually for hours. I am not an expert but this behavior looks unhealthy. I hope the zoo does work to fix this. Overall I know they take great care of the animals, so this may be beyond there control. It could be that some of the animals just shouldnt be in a zoo.

Nicholas Claypool

This was our first visit to the Cincinnati Zoo and everyone we spoke to said it was such an awesome zoo. We were there on a Saturday so that might have something to do with it but the place was just crowded. So many people that many of the exhibits you couldnt just stop and enjoy, you just moved with the herd onto the next thing. They have the audacity to charge $10 for parking on top of the $20 per adult to get in. The ticket counter we went to had the slowest moving line in the world, only two windows open and they were spending unnecessary amounts of time trying to upsell customers for package deals, meanwhile my son is losing his mind waiting to get in. Once inside the bathrooms and places to eat without long lines are few and far between. While the size and detail of the exhibits are really good there was a lot of empty ones all over the place. They have several animals that cant be found at many smaller zoos which is nice. The downside is that this zoo feels like it at one point began growing quickly and little thought was given to where things should go so they went where there was room. We ended up only seeing about half of the zoo as we were all worn out and basically tired of all the people. Even if I had seen the entire zoo Im not sure Id feel like I had gotten my $60 out of it for my family.

Benjamin Thompson

This zoo was clean, modern and looks like a lot of time and consideration went into the planning of the zoo. The flowers planted around grounds gave a wonderful ambiance to the park. Ive been to some zoos that were run down and a bit antiquated, but this zoo has to be one of the most well taken care of zoos Ive ever seen. Additionally, all of the animals looked very healthy. Our favorite section of the zoo was the "World of Insects." We were able to see a plethora of different types of bugs and we learned so much from all of the well organized information panels throughout the building. I would have to say that the price of admission was pretty steep at $18 for an adult in spring of 2016. However, once in the park, I could see that the money was well spent. I really liked the solar panels over the parking lot that generated energy and kept our cars cool during the day. My only gripe about the parking lot that there was no turn lane or light to direct traffic into Parking Lot A, causing a line to form that stretched down about two blocks.

Tawnya Prewitt

We went on 4/7/17 alot of the exhibits were closed or didnt have the animals out due to the storms the day before I think. we should have only had to pay half price because of this and none of the small face paintings or snow cone things were open. But I loved the beautiful white lions polar bear and black bear. We also had a few squirals follow us around lol.. We just took our time we went there after standing in line at Newport Aqurium for tickets but had to wait til next day. Anyway all in all it wasnt bad it would been something to do on a nice May or June day though. If the zoo sees this Id like to get part of a refund for everything being closed but Im sure that wont happen lol.. if your close to the zoo please do go see the animals! They seem to enjoy visitors! I am contacting the Zoo. I would McCall the Zoo before u go & ask what all is open. Thabks!

Kevin G

Soon as we pulled into the zoo we realized that we had a flat tire. On a whim I asked the gate keeper if their maintenance crew had an air pump. He called security for us and within minutes a nice, really nice young man showed up. He attempted to air the tire but we both thought it was of no use so instead of packing up and leaving he stayed and helped us get our donut tire changed out and then made sure it was pumped up. Inside the zoo we went to the pink vanilla/blueberry ice cream shop where although busy and by herself met an awesome young lady who was very patient and kind young lady. It is Saturday so it was really busy and we didnt get to see Fiona but we understand that the zoo has no control over that and I was actually pleased that they let the animals decide if they want to be out in the hot or in the a.c. overall we had an awesome day and highly recommend our friends and family make a trip. We will Definitely be back in the fall! Thank you Cincinnati Zoo!!

Penny Fox

The zoo has a great variety of animals but I drove 2 hours to get to the zoo and had no idea a bunch of the animals wouldnt be viewable. There should be something on their website or app warning people that a lot of animals arent out. It reached 70 degrees today so it wasnt cold. Also, I hate their map, its not detailed enough. They need a ton more signs throughout pointing people in the right direction. They also need to hire more employees. We waited about 35 minutes in line to purchase tickets because their app and website wouldnt let me buy online. Then once we had tickets, we had to wait 20 minutes in line to enter the zoo. We had to wait 45 minutes in line at the cafe. They need to add drinking fountains throughout the zoo. We saw 3 drinking fountains and 2 of them were broken. I found two lists online rating the zoos in the USA, Cincinnati made the top 10 and thats not correct. There is just no way there arent better zoos out there. Its good but not fabulous.