El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens — Attraction in El Paso

Where to begin with this.. the highlight of the WHOLE visit was potentially the penguins. The exhibits, majority, were "open," but I only saw the following animals: zebras, mountain lions, orangutans, the aviary, wolves, penguins, sea lions, and a bunch of deer. The majority of the exhibits do not have the animals available to see, I got there at 2:15 PM, which means most animals should still be visible? Wrong. Only the ones above. The animals, they seem neglected, the ones that I could see, there is nothing for them be stimulated by. The sea lions, could someone please explain why their tank is all green? The female sea lions was at the trying to play, but she seemed so bored. The male sea lion was only at the "cascade" they had only 1 ball to play with. The penguins seemed great, but really, there's nothing much to see. Around 3:15 PM I was going to the reptile exhibit just to find out that that was closed as well.

Now the food.. The food is overly priced, the cheeseburger. It was great, but I was told they do not have any mayo in the entire zoo (no reason just wanted mayo on the burger). Prices $13 for a cheeseburger with fries Fries $7 for a "basket" of fries Seems dumb right? But I spent $53 dollars in food, and honestly? It's not worth it in any way, shape, or form.

Overall, I would not recommend going to the zoo unless you like to see neglected and bored animals.. I feel like if I would have been told we only have 1/4 of our exhibit available to see I would have just gone elsewhere.

I genuinely feel like it was a waste of time and even more precisely money.

There were tiny flamingo looking...

Really want to love this zoo but even though some exhibits have improved, many have not. It's become a lonely little zoo missing a lot of animals. Our most recent visit had no giraffes out for viewing. Only one lion, only 1 tiger, 1 alligator, many monkees off exhibit, no more elephants and a recent loss of the bear. In the bird aviary a lot of birds are gone, that was a waste to walk through. The south American Pavillion was hopefully under some renovation, there were many empty exhibits there. Reptile house exhibits were difficult to see with the glare. The Asian forest exhibit was closed. The sea lion exhibit was filthy making it difficult to see much there. After spending 3 hours there we left feeling disappointed. The wolf exhibit is great to see and though hit or miss if you can catch the mountain lion or jaguar that's good too. The addition of the painted dogs was nice also. On our visit the recent addition of a rhino and penguins had not opened but hopefully we'll get to see those. Overall, there's a lot of improving this zoo needs. The zoo also needs to have more choices for refreshments actually opened. We saw stands but none of them were open, the food near the elephant was closed and one other stand available had no cold drinks. I'd recommend not bothering with their selections and just...

Recently, my family and I visited the El Paso Zoo on a Saturday morning and our experience was a mixed bag. While we enjoyed seeing the various animals and spending time together as a family, much of the zoo was under construction, which detracted from the overall experience.

On the positive side, the zoo was well maintained and the animals appeared to be well cared for. We particularly enjoyed the giraffes and the elephants, which were fascinating to watch up close. The staff was also friendly and helpful, answering any questions we had and providing additional information about the animals.

However, the ongoing construction throughout the zoo was a major downside to our visit. Many of the exhibits were closed or had limited access, which made it difficult to see all of the animals we had hoped to. The noise and dust from the construction also made it difficult to fully enjoy our time at the zoo.

Overall, I would give the El Paso Zoo a 3 out of 5 stars. While the animals and staff were impressive, the construction limited our ability to fully experience the zoo and made for a less enjoyable visit. I would recommend checking the zoo's website or calling ahead to see if any major construction is taking place before...