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Our Zoo Atlanta Visit and Review

Does your family love to visit zoos? Ours definitely does – and I’ll let you in on a secret – but shhh – don’t tell the kids!! I think Hubby and I like zoos just as much -if not more than the kids. While planning our trip to El Salvador we realized that we would need to break up our flying time to make it more manageable for the kids (and us). I looked at a lot of options for where to have our overnight layover and still have a direct flight to El Salvador. Atlanta topped the list.

Our flight into Atlanta arrived right around noon so I wanted to do something fun for the kids (and us!) and that would tire the kids out so they would sleep well in the hotel. I knew there was a zoo in Atlanta but didn’t know much about it. After doing online research I knew I wanted to visit – they have pandas 🙂

Upon arrival at the Atlanta airport we took the shuttle to our hotel, had a quick lunch and headed out to Zoo Atlanta. We visited on a Thursday and it was awesome. We saw a few other people but it almost felt we had the Zoo to ourselves. I had visited the Zoo Atlanta website prior to our trip so I had a general idea of the zoo but I didn’t make any plans for what animals to visit (other than the pandas). We got maps at the entrance and headed out. We let the kids lead and had a relaxed and fun time.

We went to the left at the entrance and made our way around the entire zoo. The paths were easy to follow and navigate. As we visited in November some of the tropical animals were relocated to their winter habitats. Below find photos from each section of the zoo.

The African Plains

Giraffe #zoo #onlyzooatl @zooatl #Sponsored

A photo posted by Shannon Arce (@craftymamainme) on Nov 12, 2015 at 11:16am PST

Our Zoo Atlanta Visit and Review

Scaly, Slimy, Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience

The Ford African Rain Forest

Our Zoo Atlanta Visit and Review

Asian Forest

Our Zoo Atlanta Visit and Review

Kid Zone

Our Zoo Atlanta Visit and Review

Our Experience

We had a great time on our visit. The highlight for me was seeing the giant pandas. Buddy loved the Scaly, Slimy, Spectacular – he was happy to see me squirm when we went by the numerous snake exhibits. Boo Boo loved the giraffes – especially seeing one with its tongue sticking out!

If you get a chance I would recommend visiting on a weekday as the crowds were so low. In the cold season a lot of the food stands are closed (they are only open seasonally) so be prepared for that – (the main restaurants are open year round). You could easily spend an afternoon or the whole day depending on the amount of time you spend in each exhibit.

I would recommend Zoo Atlanta as a fun family day. We had a blast and would definitely visit again if we were in the area. If we lived in Atlanta I would probably think about a membership to the zoo as it would pay for itself in less than two visits for our family.

When we visited the Zoo was open daily from 9:30am-5:30pm. Admission prices were Adult (12+) $22.99 and Child (3-11) $17.99. There are additional fees if you choose to do any of the rides – $3 per attraction or you can buy combo passes (pricing information here).