Zoo Gdańsk Oliwa — Attraction in Gdansk

We visited Gdańsk Zoo during our trip to northern Poland, and it turned out to be a memorable stop on our itinerary. It is in the leafy Oliwa district, the zoo is huge—over 120 hectares!—so be prepared for a lot of waddling. The setting is scenic and peaceful, making it a lovely way to spend the day surrounded by nature. Getting there was pretty easy using public transport. We took bus 179 directly from the central station—affordable and efficient. Just remember to validate your ticket! The zoo itself is home to an impressive range of animals, but the star of the show is undoubtedly Kokosanka, the world's only albino African penguin in captivity. She's become quite the celebrity and was the clear highlight of our visit. Her exhibit, like others in the zoo, includes educational signage and is thoughtfully maintained. We also enjoyed the indoor tropical house, which has a fascinating mix of birds and reptiles. Outdoors, we saw everything from Amur tigers to mandrills, camels, and zebras; although some animals were hard to spot in their spacious enclosures, binoculars would have been a smart addition! Facilities are decent, with a few food stalls and plenty of toilets, though dining options felt limited for a zoo of this size. Also, keep some cash handy, especially for souvenir stands. A few things to note: The zoo's size makes it ideal for a full-day outing, but it's not great if you're short on time or mobility. While we appreciated the space for animals, the design sometimes made it tricky actually to see them. Some areas of the zoo appear somewhat outdated in their layout. Still, it's an excellent family-friendly attraction and offers a mix of wildlife education and outdoor adventure. We'd recommend it—just come prepared (water, snacks, walking shoes, and...

This zoo left me with mixed impressions. To address the animals first, there is a good selection, but the animal confinement areas are of very different sizes. Some animals, such as the monkeys had great cages and loads of space to have fun in. On the other hand the tigers were pacing back and forth in a cage smaller than the apartment we rented for this trip. The eagle has so little space it will most likely crash into the wall before it spreads it's wings, where as the lions seemed spacious enough. The park it self will most likely be very beautiful in summer as it has many trees and seems to be a very green and enjoyable place to walk. Note the park is large, took 4hrs just to see the animals. As for facilities, then there is a pet zoo that opens in May, toilets are in several places, but not necessarily more than one at each place. There are food and drink vendors and picnic area as well as several benches around. There is also a dinosaur park and and action park with climbing paths, but these are all subjects to extra pay. As beautiful as I imagine the park is during summer, prepare for staring at vast amounts of green fences and cages. Some mate seeing the animals hard. All together, this is an old zoo that carries the mark of lack of fundings to better the living conditions of the animals. This zoo isn't anywhere close to the one in Paris or Copenhagen, but it's a nice trip for the kids. And the zoo probably badly needs all ticket income they can get if anything is to be...

This is the largest zoo in Poland and takes around 4-6 hours to see everything, depending on if you stop for photos and food etc. There isn't an insect house and there's a small reptile house but plenty of cats big and small) wolves, deer, elephants, giraffe etc. Some enclosures were closed when we went, some were being cleaned but overall the zoo was fairly full. There's a petting zoo at the entrance for kids, it opens at 11am.

Some enclosures I felt were far too small for their inhabitants, especially the crocs who were basically housed inside a small glass box. Others, like the lions, had a good amount of roaming areas. The wolves were pacing continuously and looked very unhappy in their small reserve, however they seemed to be watching the fence line so maybe food was coming and they were being impatient.

Overall though, we really enjoyed the day. We stopped at the restaurant and had a buffet lunch, not a huge selection of food and some of it was a bit colder than ideal but otherwise tasty. The ice cream/sorbet from the cafe was also very nice, although pricey at 8zl per scoop (but expected in a tourist attraction).

We went during off season and encountered no queues, arriving at around 10:30am and...