Como Park Zoo & Conservatory — Attraction in Saint Paul

My family went to the Como Zoo yesterday. The Zoo itself is amazing and the layout is very easy to walk. The layout itself is very nice because even though it's a pretty sizable place it doesn't feel daunting to navigate like some larger places we have been to in the past. The walking paths are maintained better than most places which makes it awesome for people with gate issues with walking. Lots of things for people to see that will impress both the young and the old, and of course sparky was my kids favorite.

Como Town which is located right next to the zoo wasn't as great of an experience. If you don't do your research prior to going to the zoo there is an amusement park basically right next to it. I am still confused if it's part of the zoo or separate due to when I got home and looked it up it kind of said both. The Como Zoo/Conservatory logo is on their website as well. Anyways, you come out of the primate building and right next to it is a theme park, and of course my oldest child wants to check it out. The park itself lends one to believe that this is a way for the zoo to build revenue being they only suggest donations for entry. I figured why not get some points to do some rides to support the zoo. It's really hard to do rides that are within the height limit of your child when everything is out of order. The small kids race track only had two cars working out of at least 6, and the faster ones weren't available either (my kids power wheel scoots faster). Bumper cars only were running three of their units out of six/nine, so if a family of three were ahead of you the wait was long. It's a tremendous lack of effort and maintaining a standard that matches the zoo. The last part that made the experience bad was some of the staff. Look I get that they're probably 14-17 year old teens running the young kids rides because they're less of a liability. You still need to give somewhat of what you're doing and put down your phone. Also, when you have parents who can't figure out lines a teenager probably doesn't want to get into it with a parent who already looks frazzled with their multiple young children. We ended up walking away from the bumper cars after waiting in line for 45 minutes while other parents ignored the line everyone was waiting in, and the attendant did nothing.

To sum it up, our experience. The zoo and conservatory are amazing and will be worth the distance to visit. On the other hand as a person who bought points for an attraction that is either tied or not tied to the same organization I find it relatively to be subpar. When you see the standard of the amusement park to the zoo it's nowhere close. We still have points to use, but I don't think we will be going back to use them. My biggest pet peeve no matter where I am staying or visiting is capital improvement and customer interaction. It makes no sense to have something so nice next to something that doesn't seem well maintained. Lastly, the gift shop is great and the pricing is better than most. The Cafe is what it is with a place to get food and drink with the pleasure of air-conditioning. Food pricing isn't bad at all, and what I could see coming out of the kitchen looked good. So, go to see the zoo and avoid the amusement park. For what I paid at Como Town I could have gotten passes a Nickelodeon Universe...

I love Como Zoo and Conservatory! You see the animals up so much closer than the MN Zoo. Today when we visited, they had knowledgeable staff and volunteers at many of the animal exhibits, offering helpful info on the habits and behavior of the animals we were looking at, even their names, how old they are, what they like, interpreting their behavior, and willing to answer any questions we had. They even gave us tips to get the animals to come up closer and interact with us! There were baby animals and you can see them very close up with their parents.

It's beautiful walking through the zoo and there are also walking paths nearby, many trees and flower gardens, so beautiful. We took a break and sat and had a snack as there are shady picnic areas very close by. Parking is free! The conservatory is Absolutely Beautiful and so interesting! And, Everything is FREE! A small donation is appreciated, $3/adults, and$2, I think, for children (FREE on Thurs until April). There's a great Visitor Center. I can't say enough good about all the staff. They're so friendly, helpful and knowledgeable!

There's a cafe and gift shop, and clean bathrooms, all in the Visitor Center. Today, there also was a very interesting Bonsai exhibit and we learned so much from the staff member who explained about this art and answered our questions!

It's a great zoo, for all ages, a beautifully landscaped conservatory, and also a lovely area (many weddings photograph there), it's easy to get to and centrally located (near the State Fairgrounds), and did I say it's Super Cheap! I went there as a child, I enjoy it as an adult, I've brought groups of mothers and children and I look forward to bringing my grandchildren to Como...

Very very cool place, hopefully more people will support it with donations to keep it running, considering the fact that it's the only FREE zoo I've ever been to in my life. Which is impressive, given the variety of animals they care for here.

The place is massive, and has a plant conservatory and a small amusement park attached to it as well. Across the street is mini-golf, and a huge park.

The fact that it's free means it's only natural that it would be so busy on a Sunday, but honestly we never found it to be cumbersome or crowded. They have giraffes, lions, tigers, servals, cougars, gorillas, orangutan, spider monkeys, zebras, bison, gray wolves, and a whole host of others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

We stuck around for the Blaze Sparky Show, the sea lion or seal show, which was delightful, but short (10 minutes in total), but I get it, they're animals, not performers. There was a particularly adorable, hilarious, very active armadillo who was apparently redocorating his pen before feeding time. When the zookeeper entered to feed him, it looked exactly like our cat running up and following me at meal time.

The gift shop has everything you would expect, the prices fair and on-par with other zoos, if not a bit cheaper. The food offered is typical American theme park foods-- nachos, pretzels, icees, fries, etc.

The plant conservatory is really awesome, such a huge variety and the Japanese garden is amazing. I think there's about 1.2 miles worth of walking if you see everything here in the zoo and the plants.

You really cant go wrong at Como Zoo, perfect place to take the kids for a free day of distraction and outdoor activities. If we lived in Minnesota, we probably be...