San Diego Zoo Safari Park — Attraction in San Diego

I think this is the worst animal park I've ever experienced. Definitely seems more of an adult day drinking spot than an animal learning safari situation. We went when it was relatively empty. Not a super busy day and got there shortly after it opened.

I'm happy we supported the animals with our entry. Our Safari guide herself was amazing. The only thing in the park I enjoyed was Kelly providing information about the animals and how much my son loved her/she interacted with him. She was also super kind to the kids and gave everyone stickers. She's fantastic and the best thing about the entire park.

The safari itself was lacking. The truck was nice but there was a total of 5 or 6 animals in the safari. We stopped briefly by a Rhino encounter and you could almost see the elephants. The giraffes were cool. There were some buffalo, a couple of gazelle type animals and that was it. There was almost nothing for kids to eat in the park except ice cream. After searching for simple food at several huts, I tried to order one of the $13 hot dogs at lunch time but they didn't have any. There weren't any after that hut either.

I may be overly critical as it was humid and hot in the park with little to cool my kids down, but for the distance we walked it was particularly lacking in animal areas. The animals were also in exhibits similar to that of our smaller zoo so it didn't quite feel like it was anything new. For the cost of everything, I would have rather gone to Disney.

We love animals and like supporting zoological experienced with 0 expectations that the animals humor us but the lack of opportunity to see things was disappointing. It seemed more built for adults to day drink (since they weren't lacking for beer and margarita spots amongst all the ice cream stands) than to have a family educational safari experience.

I would not recommend driving more than 10minutes to get to this place for those looking for activities in the San Diego area for kids. Not a lot of food options in the area otherwise. We ended up driving 10min out to Costco for a hotdog. My kids were also grateful for the free cow and horse viewing of the farms just outside the park area.

Plenty of photo opportunities for adults who want to dress up and pretend they're doing a safari activity

If you still want to bring your kids, definitely bring a wagon, a fan, and lots of your own food.

In total what I saw included: a glimpse of an elephants ear and white flamingos, rhinos, giraffe , a couple gazelle type animals, a type of buffalo, some squirrels, a cat bear outside the safari check in, a few ducks, a sand cat, a monkey, some snakes, and when in the aviary a few types of duck that you weren't supposed to really be near. My mom and brother paid to do the tram safari which got them the bonus of the singular cheetah. Lions were closed and elephants were under construction. I'm not sure what else is in the park because within 3 hours my kids were starving and exhausted from the heat with no reprieve.

If anyone of influence sees this: Please increase the amount of children's food available Please include more animal time on the safaris Please include more areas with either fan misters or air-conditioning Please give Kelly a raise because she was amazing The wall with the sand cat and some snakes was neat. That would be cool to have more of so that it feels like you're seeing more animals while trekking through the adult beverage hits to...

This was our first experience visiting San Diego Zoo Safari Park and we had been looking forward to this for many years. We only had less than 3 hours for this visit due to this being a work trip to San Diego. Tickets were full price at $69 each adult. It would be nice if they offered a half day ticket at a reduced rate but more entities like this do not. Since we were in a time crunch, the ticket agent suggested that we see the Platypus as this is one of the only or the only places in the country to see this animal. He also suggested that we take the Safari Tram tour. These were on complete opposites sides of the park. He also suggested that if we need to refill our thermal water bottles that any restaurant would refill them for us at no charge. This was great except since we entered the park after 2 pm, most of the restaurants were closed so we only found one open. All of the staff and volunteers we encountered were friendly and helpful. Our ticket agent was particularly helpful and the two staff members we met at the kangaroo encounter were wonderful. The kangaroo experience is a walk through where the kangaroos and various waterfowl walked freely among park visitors. Of course this day was so extremely hot that they were resting in the shade. I love this type of encounter where you share space with animals….you cannot touch them but you are in the same space. The Platypus exhibit is under cover and is a large aquarium and we saw one platypus swimming in circles. It was kind of dark inside so it took a few minutes to see this little platypus but it was really cool. We walked through the Tiger exhibit and saw one tiger resting in the shade. Big cats sleep or rest most of the day so we expected that if we got to see any tigers that most likely they would be in this position and especially because it was sooooo hot. On our journey over to the Safari Tram Tour, we saw bald eagles, Toucan, California Condor and parrots and even saw a wild hummingbird feeding in flowers. The Safari Tram Tour was a walk on fir us as we made it onto one of the last tours of the day. On Safari we saw many hoofed animals including different antelope, Masai Giraffe, Eland and Orynx. Our Driver/Tour Guide seemed knowledgeable and did a great job talking about the animals and the conservation work that the zoo Safari park is doing there and around the world. After the Safari we walked around a construction area to see the African Elephant exhibit. We saw two elephants a short distance away and two others further back in the exhibit. My only critiques of the park are that the restaurants closed way too early and the water faucets in the restrooms are mounted too far back where in order to rinse your hand there was no way to avoid touching the back of the sink. This is counter productive to cleaning your hands. My last critique is that on the way out we wanted to walk through the gift shops. There was only one open. The one at the entrance had something that I wanted to buy (plush lion with rainbow mane) but it was not available in the only store open. We will return to the park in a future visit to San Diego when we have more time to spend and on a cooler day. I guess we will have to bring more water with us and shop first to make sure we have the opportunity to purchase what we want. This is a bit of a drive outside the big city and it’s a...

Out of all the parks in San Diego we visited, San Diego Zoo Safari Park was my favorite.

They were the most accommodating and friendliest of all the parks, in my experience.

If you follow my reviews or have read a good portion of them, you’ll notice that there are several visits/reviews of carousels. Well, over the years, it’s sort of become my granddaughter and my “thing”. So when we go to an amusement park, we make sure to ride the carousel! I know she doesn’t really enjoy it but I also know she does it because she loves me! Making sacrifices has been 1 of several things I’ve been trying to teach her so this “lesson” applies perfectly!!!

Anyway, when you enter the park there’s a carousel and you can ride all day for 6.00 with a wristband. I was only interested in a ride (mainly for photo memories) and after explaining it to the attendant, she gave us complimentary wristbands! So, thank you Bri, for making our day!!

We went on the Safari tour and it was excellent! We were able to view all the animals that were out and take pictures too. The route winds through the area and is such that if you’re not near a particular animal on one side of you, it will be eventually (as long as it doesn’t leave the area). There’s also the opportunity to walk various paths to view them for as long as you’d like.

They even have a hot air balloon ride that I wish we went on but we were so busy with other parts of the park, we didn’t get the chance.

The Bonsai Gardens need a review of their own…. I have so many pictures of them I can’t post them here. I’ll post a separate review (if I can) on just the Bonsai’s, so if you enjoy them as much as I do, be sure to check it out! I ended up getting souvenirs on our way out and forgot to get one. We ended up returning to the park and after I explained my situation, the park even allowed us to go back so I could get it (even though we didn’t get our hands stamped for re-entry!! *See my SeaWorld review on the bad GoCity experience *

There was always a park employee available for directions or to answer questions, which I found to be outstanding and the map that was provided upon entry was very easy to follow.

This was by far the most accommodating and fulfilling experience out of everything we did in San Diego!!

I highly recommend this park if you’re ever in the area, go for the day…. you won’t regret it!! I know I’ll be back...