Franklin Park Zoo — Attraction in Boston

Overall, it was a mediocre experience. The management appears to have decided to spend money on major projects but ignore upkeep.

During my last visit with the family, there were areas of the park that were cordoned off with large construction vehicles moving about, and the sound of trucks backing up signals and jackhammers were deafening in some areas. Yet simple, important things like the lettering describing animals or exhibits would be worn off and some exhibits, interactive buttons didn't work, and the lettering was worn off on some as well. At some exhibits, the glass was scratched and cloudy, making it difficult to clearly see that animals.

They don't offer paper handout Maps, insted they encourage you to take photographs of a few static map signs around the park, which sounds good in concept but, in actuality the bright sunlight makes even the most expensive phone difficult to see. There's not necessarily a clear path to be taken without a map. The entrances to some exhibits are kind of obscured, and you really need to know where to go to find them. One example is a building near the Aviary, on the outside there are some cages attached to the building that have cockatoos and other birds, but pthere is no signage or information posted on the outside to let you know that it has attractions inside and no clear path to get to the entrance.

My other complaints are the immense price gouging that takes place there and the lack of opened food or refreshment booths. While walking through the park, we noticed five different refreshment booths with products ranging from ice cream to nuts and empanadas, and none of them were open. Two of them were on the path, and three of them were adjacent to the one brick and mortar refreshment location that was opened in the park.

To give you an idea of the price gouging, a single serving bottle of soda or filtered water sells for $4 in the vending machines. A dippin dots knock-off version that sells for around $2 in the supermarket here they are charging $6. The ice cream is available in vending machines with a limited selection. And all vending machines only accept credit cards, no cash. We eventually found a larger selection at the gift shop in a freezer. We've been to a lot of theme parks with gift shops, and souvenir stores in tourist locations and in all of our experiences this was the most overpriced gift shop we have been to they were offering a small backpack with a character on it for $40 they also offer medium-sized, stuffed animals for $150. We buy refrigeratormagnes almost everywhere we travel for 4 to 6 dollars, here they wanted 10 dollars.

There was one particular issue we had that really bothered me. Inside the building that housed the gorilla habitat, there was a vending machine selling commemorative coins for $5 a piece. There were four coins to choose from with different animals on the face of each. You could buy all four for $15. We attempted to buy one after swiping a credit card and selecting the desired coin a light flashed saying select another so apparently you're automatically signed up to get all four, well we tried to select all four but one was out of stock so we had to get a duplicate. We called the number on the machine, and they said that there possibly could be a chance to exchange one of the duplicates at the gift shop, but they weren't sure if they carried the coins. We went to the gift shop and they did not carry the coins and were unable to help us in any way they could not give us a refund for the coin and they could not exchange it for anything so we ended up with a duplicate of one and two other coins we didn't want it all.

I understand this is not some multimillion dollar theme park experience in Orlando or some vacation destination, but even a limited Zoo like this could do a better job of staffing, upkeep and taking care of their customers without pringing every penny out of...

Most enclosures are too small and barren. The park itself has a lot of space used up by long paths from one section to another and large entryways into buildings that feel like could be better used to give the animals more room. Seeing the giraffe licking paint off a pole in an empty pen was upsetting. Only animal we saw that didn't look depressed was the roaming peacock who showed off for visitors.

The stench of the animals is overwhelming. We know animals pee and poop and can be stinky, but I've never experienced a zoo that smelled this bad. One restroom had yellow water in the toilets and sinks. I wanted to wash my face off but decided not to after seeing that. Another restroom was completely flooded (possibly to clean the floor?) and I opted to wait till we left to use the facilities elsewhere.

It was difficult to figure out how to even enter the park. There are very few signs and the entrance we wound up at was tucked so far away from the road that we couldn't see it. We had to flag down pedestrians and ask them where to go in.

To top it all off - and I know this isn't the zoo's fault - there was some sort of summer camp field trip happening that day. Every building was packed with screaming, running, shoving children who banged on the glass and were horribly rude to the animals. We spent far less time in exhibits than we would have otherwise just to escape them.

Ironically, the best exhibits were of common animals. I guess city children have never seen a monarch butterfly or a budgie. I also appreciated the wide variety of plants and trees used in the indoor and outdoor landscaping. Seeing a Monstera growing as it would in its natural habitat was cool enough to add a whole star to this review.

The playground is pretty awesome and the fabric sculptures used for the light show are also beautiful in the daytime, and the few employees we talked to were friendly and helpful. We drove 3+ hours to visit this zoo with our young children and spent less time than that looking at everything....

This was such a fun zoo. Lots of great animal exhibits. Over the course of the years many of the exhibits have opened and closed. A large part of the zoo is closed due to construction. However, plenty of animals to see. I was able to attend quite a few keepers' chat. I learned about the gorillas during a special afternoon chat. The zoo does a lot of cognitive play with the gorillas. It was interesting to hear about them teaching one to use a blood pressure cuff. I did not see the silverback, but a lot of his brothers and sister. I learned about their diet at the zoo. The zoo presenter show us the gorillas nests. My favorite animal was the pygmy hippopotamus. The hippo was sleepinf the hay. A new addition was a leopard who was exploring their new habitat. Make sure you look in each nook, cranny, and around as exhibits can go missed. The playground(s) were a highlight for my travelling companion. I was travelling with a young person under 10 (my nephew). He was thrilled with all the tunnels and slides. We had lunch on site at the Farm Cafe. Lunch is outrageously expensive. I ordered a BLT ($14); bottle of water ($6); rice crispie with brown butter sea salt ($6), Cheetos ($4), and a container of grapes ($6). Be prepared for other costs. It was $3.00 per person to ride on the Merry Go Round. The carosel was great fun for my travelling companion. He went twice opting for different animals each time. He had to have someone stand next to him due to his height. It was $3.00 per ball of birdseed to feed the Budgerigar. As for entrance, The tickets without a discount should of been $104.34. I actually used another membership from the Museum of Science for 50 percent off.

The diversity of animals to see makes this a great zoo! I am going to visit...