Frank Buck Zoo — Attraction in Gainesville

edit: i added a screenshot of what information is added for the capybara experience on your site. nowhere does it state anything about no open toed shoes. if it’s somewhere hidden on the site elsewhere, please enlighten me. yes, the employees are “supposed to tell me over the phone that closed toed shoes are required”, but they didn’t. :( i understand safety is the priority, i get that aspect of the situation. but people (like me) spend their time, money, and gas to come see you. y’all should really try to be more proactive in the future to make sure your visitors are given all of the correct information beforehand. i’d hate for this to happen to anyone else. especially a kid!

i booked a trip here 2 weeks ago for a capybara encounter for me and my bf for our 7 year anniversary. i love capybaras, so i’ve been so excited. we drove an HOUR to the zoo today just to be told i cant enter because i have open toed shoes. here’s the thing, NOBODY over the phone when i was booking made this clear to me. it doesn’t explain that on the website either. that’s something i’d remember if i was even told, especially with how excited i was. so they refunded us, i cried, and we left. an hour drive back home. the 2 girls we talked to in the front didn’t seem to really care at all about how upset and confused i was. even though the fault was on THEM because they didn’t tell me i couldn't wear open toed shoes before i arrived. you’d think a better system would be in place to make people aware of things that wouldn’t allow entry for the feeding experience. so extremely disappointing, and their nonchalant reaction says A LOT. i guess i’ll tell y’all here since they won’t, WEAR CLOSED TOED SHOES IF YOU BOOK ANY TYPE OF ANIMAL ENCOUNTER AT THIS PLACE. words can’t explain how upset i am right now. so much time...

It's a nice little zoo. We were there for about an hour. We took a break from the heat to sit down under a shelter and we were walking kind of slow. It was hot when we went and there are long stretches with no shade so that wasn't great. Those long stretches happen to be inclined so if you have little ones you want a stroller. They do rent them, but we brought ours. You can bring bottles of water, but the rules say to not bring in food or snacks. The policy on their website is pretty clear.

Parking is weird. You basically park at the adjacent park. There is no parking lot or I didn't see one. There are also no signs that say 'park here for the zoo'. Everything is one-way with a roundabout so I imagine a lot of people go back out onto the street after they realize where they should park. We ran into a few people, but the zoo was mostly empty.

There is a really nice jungle gym setup at the adjacent park and a water park of some sort. There is a kid train that goes around that park. Dairy Queen and Rib Crib are right across the street.

As of today the train stops at 2:30. The zoo stops selling tickets at 4:30. We looked at the price for a family pass. It's $65 for the year. It cost $24 for a family of 4. 2 kids and 2 adults. The pass doesn't sound bad if you can make the time to go out there at least 3 times. Prices can change so check the website. We do plan to go back. We get to the aquarium in grapevine more than enough to make it worth buying the passes.

In the summer you want to go early in the day. In the winter the afternoon is better. There is a sign that says this...

I love this Zoo, I have been all over this country and attended quite a few Zoos. It is number two on my top five list of zoos, New Orleans Audubon zoo being number one. Sure it’s not as big as the Dallas zoo or the Fort Worth zoo but all you’re paying is six dollars and you can see practically the same thing you would at either the Dallas zoo or the Fort Worth zoo Being that the Fort Worth zoo in the Dallas zoo are always under some type of construction and you don’t get to see the whole park. Not to mention you going to spend $25 per person at either the Dallas zoo or the Fort Worth zoo. Frank Buck zoo has my vote! I gave it five stars because it is an amazingly great zoo, great park, great train ride, just all-around great!!

The only thing I wish they had that they don’t, is a reptile area. I would’ve loved to seen more reptiles such as snakes, lizards, frogs... things like that! Other than that, no complaints whatsoever. I still give it five stars because the workers make up for that definitely. Everybody I came across was super nice and super helpful. There are really good people...