Bronx Zoo Review (and tips)

For the first time ever I along with my son DJ, his sister Amber and my good buddy Laurie went to the Bronx Zoo. From North Attleboro it is about a 3 hour 15 minute ride on days with no traffic. Since we went on Memorial Day weekend ( as opposed to a Friday morning commute) traffic was fairly light. We left home at 7 am and pulled into the parking lot before 11. Note: we missed the parking lot turn the first time because a NYPD van was blocking it, so we drove around the Bronx for about 20 minutes looking for another entrance. So there I was driving through the Bronx, a country boy with Massachusetts plates and a RED SOX bumper sticker on my Santa Fe, yeah I was a little out of place. Luckily all the Yankee fans with rabies must have been passed out from a hard night of drinking and learning how to spell there names to be up that early. I safely made it into the parking lot.

The zoo is open from 10-5 Mon-Fri and till 5:30 on weekends and holidays. We tried to be there by 10:30, but didn't want to leave home so early we would be exhausted all day and not have any fun. Adult ticket is $ 15 but if you buy the total experience ticket it goes to $ 27. The total experience includes a walk through the Congo Gorilla Forest, butterfly Garden,a bug carousel, childrens zoo, and a monorail ride through an Asian species part of the zoo. Some species included on the monorail were elephants, a tiger, and many types of deer. We chose the total experience ticket.

Choosing a day to go to the zoo can be tricky. Your choice is between going on a weekday where there will be less people at the zoo, but having to deal with NYC traffic, also taking the chance there aren't to many field trips. The other option is going on a weekend dealing with more people at the zoo, but traffic will be lighter. Also going on the weekend means not taking a day out of work/school for most people. We obviously chose the weekend and the zoo was very crowded. I think the perfect time would be a weekday in mid September when everyone is back in school.

First off the zoo is huge. I usually take about 2 1/2 hours to get through Roger Williams Zoo. Just one glance of the map will tell you that isn't going to happen. Since we didn't start when the zoo opened we did not get completely through the park in 5 hours. I do think it is possible though. If I ever go back I will have a planned map route through the zoo hitting all the animals but doing very little backtracking. The zoo is set up more like a town with intersecting roads then a loop. You can't see everything by staying on one or two paths.

The coolest thing about the zoo is that there are so many animals that I've never seen in other zoos. All zoos have elephants these days. Most have a reptile house, a bird house and the usual deers, giraffes, and zebra. The Bronx Zoo had everything you'd expect but so much more. I saw more animals for the first time today then any other zoo. Some of my favorites were GRIZZLY BEAR, and COBRA and CONGO GORILLA FOREST. There was plenty of other awesome stuff too. Lions, Tigers, and ( polar) bears. There are at least 5 places for birds including a sea bird aviary.

Here are some tips to make your trip more fun/productive if you go.

1. When we got to the parking lot we ate a early lunch of sandwiches and chips. This saved us the price of expensive zoo food.

2. If you go on a crowded day, don't expect to ride the zoo transportation, line is pretty long and its quicker if you walk.

3. The monorail through the Asian animals is nice, but the line was very long. It took about an hour of our day ( ride is about 10 minutes). I wouldn't do it again unless there wasn't a line. Although its cool to be on the monorail, it doesn't stop at the animals, so you have no time to look at them and get good pictures, it just moves down the track slowly.

4. Have food for the ride home.

5. I was told when there is a chance of rain in the forecast, there is hardly anyone at the zoo.

6. Stay hydrated.

7. Like I mentioned before, try to put a route together before you go ( you can get maps at the Bronx Zoo website). This will keep you from backtracking to much.

To sum up, the Bronx Zoo is DEFINITELY worth the trip. It is an expensive daytrip. If you count gas, food, admission, parking ($13) it was about $160. I could probably go on 6-7 normal daytrips for that. It was a once ( maybe twice) in a lifetime place to go.

Obviously "the zoo" is not part of my normal outdoors blog. The animals are in pens and not "wild". I did manage to see a wild black crowned night heron hanging around the zoo. I would not count going to the zoo as a wild experience like fishing in my canoe in the ocean or going hiking in the White Mountains, but it was a daytrip and a fun one at that.