Over the winter holiday my family made a short jaunt down to San Diego for a few days of adventure. I have spent very little time in San Diego and after having family in town for a week and making a last minute decision to go to San Diego, I did minimal planning ahead of time (which is very unlike me!). Although I basically didn’t plan anything, I knew we’d do Legoland (which I covered yesterday) and the San Diego Zoo.

I had heard great things about the San Diego Zoo and as a zoo fanatic, I was pretty excited to check it out. And I’m seriously not joking about loving zoos. When I was in 6th grade I was in “The Animal Care Club” at school and we went to the zoo every single week for half a year. I was obviously super cool back then (I even subscribed to Dog Fancy Magazine). Anyways, I digress.

After a day at Legoland we were feeling pretty relaxed about scheduling since we knew that even if it was crowded, at least we wouldn’t be waiting in line for upwards of an hour for a one-minute attraction. We arrived at the zoo after a delicious breakfast nearby (at Great Maple - highly recommend) within an hour of opening and we were able to park very close and I’m happy to report that parking was free which was sort of mind-blowing to me. We bought our tickets at the automated kiosk and headed straight into the park.

When you first walk in you are greeted by dozens of flamingos so my daughter was instantly happy (as was I). After taking a ridiculous amount of flamingo pictures that I will never use for anything, we made our way via the wooded trails through the zoo. The zoo is huge and you can get where you want to go through a variety of little paths or larger parkways. We weaved our way around looking at all the animals until we arrived at the bridge that takes you to the other side of the park.

As we crossed the bridge we saw a giant double decker bus giving a tour and then an aerial tram. My two-year old was instantly smitten with both unusual modes of transportation but we were headed toward the polar bears and decided to stick to the plan. The polar bears were absolutely amazing and I was totally transfixed watching them swim around mere feet away. From there we made a decision that we later regretted which was walking down a huge hill to keep looking animals when my daughter really only wanted to ride the tram.

So back we went up the giant hill (because the will of a toddler is much stronger than that of adults) and begrudgingly made our way to the tram. It was a short wait and we were able to fold up our travel stroller and fit our group of five into two separate trams. It doesn’t sound that impressive to take an aerial tram at a zoo, but it was SO COOL! I loved seeing an overhead view of the zoo and I even saw an orangutang (it was itching its head!) and it left me giddy with excitement.

The tram took us back to the front of the zoo and from there we went in the opposite direction to see a different section. After three or four hours we were really pooped and decided to call it a day, but not until we got to watch the lion feeding which impressive although at that point my daughter was basically asleep with her eyes open. Side note: I am totally jealous of people with toddlers that nap in strollers. You are so lucky!

Overall I was super impressed with the zoo, highly recommend it and am very excited to visit again. The thing that blows me away the most about the zoo and what makes it feel so special is the landscaping and layout (especially the monkey trail). That section of the zoo never felt crowded and felt really different than most zoos I’ve been too. One other note, I loved that the railings were really high or the enclosures had thick glass walls so you could push a stroller up to them and kids could actually see animals without riding shoulders or constantly being lifted up. I love the LA and Palm Springs zoos but I do feel like I have to do a lot of in and out of the stroller so my daughter can see the animals.

Definitely book a trip to the zoo, check out Legoland, go to the beaches and explore the dining scene. Next week I’ll be covering the tide pools and everything else we hit up on our trip.

Happy travels!