Borås Zoo — Attraction in Borås kommun

One of the best family-friendly zoo experiences in Sweden. Not as vast and expansive as the Kolmården Zoo or Öland Zoo, but still with a large selection of African, Asian and European animals.

The size of the animal enclosures are on par with the standard size of other Swedish zoos. Visibility ranges from poor (wolves, lynx and a few other) to excellent (bears, African Savannah, buffaloes).

There are plenty of playgrounds, benches and resting stops scattered around the zoo, but the main playground and play fountains are concentrated at Simba's playground. If I could ask for one thing though, it would be a denser coverage of WC's, especially with changing tables.

There are several kiosks and restaurants around the park, but the information on what each stand is selling is extremely sparse. Looking at the map will only tell you it is serving food, not whether that is only ice cream, hot dogs, anything vegetarian or dinner.

By the entrance, there is a dinosaur park as well as a giant causeway which lands by the African Savannah. The dinosaur park was not that impressive, with both a rather limited selection of statues and an outdated view on how we thought dinosaurs looked 30 years ago. The causeway on the other hand is impressive with a spectacular view, though sadly you can pretty much only spot African wild dogs from the causeway.

I would strongly advice that you arrive later in the day. You may miss out on a few of the animal feedings, but the park will be virtually empty for you. No waiting to order food, board the train or get a seat at a table. No crowding by the popular animals in order to get a quick glimpse. And as a bonus, there will be friendly and helpful staff around nearly everywhere, who are more than willing to tell you about the animals. You can easily walk through the park in 2-3 hours and view all the animals in near privacy if you do it after the morning buzz has died down a little.

During the ongoing Corona pandemic, some restrictions may apply. When we visited, the monkey palace as well as the predator house was closed. However, both lions and tigers were out and about and could be viewed from the sides of their respective enclosure. Hand sanitizers were widely available and...

Borås djurpark is a good zoo with its main focus on African and nordic animals. If you take the grandiose bridge from the entrance you'll start your visit at the African savanna, featuring grazing animals, elefants and giraffes. The tour continues with cheetah and rhinoceros by the savanna restaurant and then monkeys and apes, ending the African part with lions. Then nordic animals like wolves, bobcat and brown bear become the main focus. Here you can have a meal, bought or brought (BBQ available for cooking own food). The nordic part continues with seals, elk and wolverine, ending in a great playground updated with water attractions in 2018 (bring bathing suit or at least extra set of clothes for the kids). At this playground (called the Simba playground) there is also a stage where the mascot, Simba, appears and sometimes also music acts perform. The latter part of the park features barnyard animals and some assorted animals from around the world, including penguins, hyena, red panda, alpaca, bongo (antelope, not drum) peacock and flamingo. There is also a petting zoo here. Before exiting the park you will pass fiberglass versions of various dinosaurs and wolly mammoth.

All in all this zoo is a great time...

Went there with our 3-yo, expecting the standard zoo experience. We were very positively surprised. This is definitely a place you can spend a whole day at - provided the weather is good. The whole zoo is more like a huge park, so expect lots of walking (most - all? - of it seems wheelchair-accessible, though, and you can rent small pull carts). It's a beautiful walk, too! There's also a little train going around, but you pay extra for that. The enclosures for the animals are large, the animals look healthy and - as opposed to most zoo animals I've seen in other places - not completely listless. There's a petting zoo and there are lots of playgrounds, so if you come with kids, make sure to plan for enough time to get past those! There are many kiosks and three or four "restaurants", as well as many places to sit and eat your own food. There are enough toilets scattered around the place, and the ones I saw were clean enough. The ticket booth closes at 4 (5 during high season), but you're allowed to stay and wander through the zoo after that time. In all, what I at first found quite a steep price for tickets seemed justified in the end. (Season tickets are only the price of two or three...