Our game-plan for enjoying the fun-packed Oakland zoo! It has animals from Africa, Australia, California and Tropical rainforest. And also a train ride, a gondola ride and a cafe with the bay view!
Where: Oakland zoo | 9777 Golf Links Rd · Oakland · CA 94605
Open: Monday through Sunday | 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Visited: Saturday, October 6, 2018 | 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Website: https://www.oaklandzoo.org/
Tickets: Buy online or onsite
He is very observant and coo's to show excitement and points at the animals so we don't miss what he is seeing, it's always a very lively trip.
It's a Bay Area known fact that Oakland zoo is much bigger than San Francisco zoo. So we decided to test it out. We visited the Oakland Zoo and fell in love with it and brought the membership the second time we visited. Yes that means we never visited the San Francisco one. The win win is with Oakland zoo membership you have discounted access to tons of zoos and aquariums across North America. Mostly all are 50% off and some even FREE! So I will review the SF one when we visit it in future.
Ticket costs about $24/Person + $10 for parking and the membership is $99/person or two memberships for $139 which includes the parking and some bonus adventure ride tickets. What a steal!
Its huge not as intense and dense as the San Diego one but pretty big. It resides on one of the Oakland's hills but the slope is gentle so walking uphill or down isn't a issue in any way. It covers all kinds of animals, reptiles, and amphibians. It might take you 2 hrs to cover it as an adult; with kid/s it can be a whole day activity.
To make your day more eventful they also have an area called Adventure Landing which has six kiddie rides for super subsidized rates almost $1/ride. This includes a train that takes entire family to the Wild Australia section, with Emus and Wallaroos roaming around. The train is quite a zoo highlight for the lil kids. They enjoy waving to the other zoo visitors and at an unexpected turn a new surprise awaits of some lovely Australian animals. So much fun!
If you are still not impressed they also have a free 4 minute gondola ride. Which take you to the newly opened section called California Trail. It opened this year, 12 July 2018. It has american bison, american black bears, california condors, eagles, gray wolves, grizzly bears, jaguars, mountain lions. Very vibrant display, we were luckily to spot all the animals when we visited.
Talking about spotting! We have devised our own strategy to successfully cover the zoo and enjoy it as a family with a infant. In our first visit we noticed smaller animals like monkeys, meerkats, frogs, or camouflaged ones like alligator, turtle, lizards do not really catch the eye of our one year old.
So now we park our car at the lower entrance, go to the petting zoo and pet the goats walk right to the bigger animals display at the African Savanna elephant, baboons (super active so get noticed), camels, elephants, lions, warthogs, zebras.
One thing we always do is try a couple small animals on the way to see if he is noticing them. He is 16 months now and still not interested; so lets see when he does.
We take the train ride see Wild Australia.
Last we take the gondola to the top of the hill, visit California Trail and end that with lunch at the cafe on top of the hill. The cafe's got a five star view of the bay. The simple pizza or sandwich lunch feels like a luxury lunch date venue especially if Bubu is napping. Side tip: I feed him as we see the California Trail so by the time we reach cafe it's his nap time and he comfortably can nap in his stroller and as we enjoy our lunch. A win win! The cafe has decent pizza, sandwiches and salads and all have vegan choices too.
And we end it by heading down to have soft-serve ice cream as dessert at the Adventure Landing which is right beside the base of the gondola ride. Well this is only our treat. Bubu doesn't notice as he is sitting/sleeping in his stroller.
And then walk downhill to the car (very important we walk downhill, not uphill after such a heavy lunch). What a perfect plan :)
I always carry a book on wild animals we have. It was gifted by his Granddad. Bubu loves to see the animal in the book and then in real life. He is always mesmerized by it. Over all he loves the zoo, the animals always excite him. He is very observant and coo's to show excitement and points at the animals so we don't miss what he is seeing, it's always a very lively trip. Definitely worth buying a membership!
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