My family visited the San Diego area of California and we visited many places. One of our favorite attractions was the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I enjoyed how the park was set up and I was pleased with all the options. I loved what the zoo offered for family entertainment and education. We were all thrilled to see many animals happy and playful. I look for those factors when exposing my children to a zoo situation. I’m sharing our travel experience to this awesome zoo to tell you Why Your Family Should Visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California.

We loved this experience because as I mentioned above, we saw many animals happy and playful. The animals appeared all to be in very good condition and well taken care of. I prefer to see animals in the wild, but for animals born in a zoo environment, I am so much happier when I see them well taken care of and  happy. Zoos are a great way to teach people about animals, plus zoos are an important part of conservation.

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Why Your Family Should Visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park:

What this post will cover:

• Why Your Family will LOVE The Cheetah Run
• Information and pictures of the animals and park exhibits: the park is huge and offers many animal viewing and learning experiences
• Info and park link to customize your visit to fit your own family’s needs: Overview of the options for planning your day
• Advice for your Family based on what my family did on our visit to the park

Your Family Will Love The Cheetah Run

Our favorite show by far was the cheetah run. The Cheetah Run was just awesome! Cheetahs are the fastest animals on the planet. Watching a cheetah go from 0-70 mph in 4 seconds was both thrilling and exciting. I have to admit it was a little scary realizing that there would be no way a human could ever outrun a cheetah. Cheetahs are amazing and beautiful animal’s and being able to watch one run free was an unforgettable life experience.

The cheetah had a dog friend. It was so sweet to see this animal friendship. The dog came out with the cheetah when it was time for him to do his run and he remained out with the cheetah. The staff informed us that they were companions and always hung out together. I loved seeing how the staff cared so much about the cheetah to consider his social well-being. That is the kind of zoo I want to expose my children too, one that cares about the animals in all regards.

I loved watching the cheetah run. It was so entertaining and educational for my boys to watch. We took pictures, but even though we have a good camera, they still turned out a bit blurry, but I’ll share them anyway just to just to give you a taste.

 

 

Loved seeing the strong bond between the cheetah and the trainer. After the run, the cheetah went right to the trainer. The connection they shared was obvious.

 

 

The Animals and Park Exhibits: So Many Animal Viewing and Learning Experiences for Families

We learned so much about the amazing animals of our world during our visit!

We saw many beautiful and amazing animals during our day visit to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I appreciated the cleanliness of the zoo and the cages. My family rode the Africa Tram which brought visitors around on a road above the valley where many animals were housed together in a giant open field enclosure.

We saw several baby animals as well which as so much fun. We all really enjoyed watching the baby elephants and seeing the mother gorilla holding her baby.

My family watched elephants playing together too which was so much fun to witness!

The exhibits to walk around to view animals and activities include the following:

• Condor Ridge
• World Gardens
• Asian Savanna
• African Plains
• Elephant Valley
• Safari Base Camp
• Nairobi Village
• Lion Camp
• African Outpost
• Gorilla Forest
• petting area
• aviary
• play area and water play
• various animal encounters

Here are some pictures of the animals we were fortunate to see during our visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the camera I use. It is a DSLR and it takes great pictures, especially outdoors. I love it because of its versatility; I can shoot in manual mode or automatic. This is an affiliate link.

Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens, Built-in WiFi and NFC – Black (Certified Refurbished)

 

 

Visit Tip: We did quite a bit of walking so if you have younger kids, be sure to bring a stroller.

Customize Your Experience: Overview of Options for Planning Your Day

There are several options for all price ranges for people to choose from when planning their visit to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Check out their website at San Diego Zoo Safari Park to see their descriptions, prices, and videos for all the available options. The park offers several options to add in extras to customize your experience to make your visit perfect for your own family, or simply choose the day pass.

There are many extras people can choose to add to the regular admission ticket including a hot air balloon ride over the park, jungle ropes safari obstacle course, flightline safari zip line, and an overnight experience. There are also various safari treks to choose from where visitors can ride up close to the animals within their enclosures. Someday I’d love to bring my boys back to do the obstacle course and zip line (they would LOVE to do those activities).

Check out their website, right now they have an adorable video of the baby tigers.

The new exhibit coming in 2018 is a Walkabout Australia exhibit.

 

 

Advice Based on What My Family Did at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

There is so much great adventure to be had at this park, plus it’s educational and fun too!

My husband and I researched the park online and viewed the park map on their website. We could see there was so much to do so we didn’t add in any extras to our passes. We chose the regular pass without any safari or other extra additions. The regular day pass included walking around the exhibits, the Africa Tram ride, the Cheetah Run, and other scheduled shows. However, the package we chose to purchase was a two pack admission so we were able to visit the Safari Park one day and San Diego Zoo another day. This was a good deal and I would do it again.

We liked the tram experience. The tram ride made it nice to rest while still viewing animals. We enjoyed seeing many species together in one enclosure which is more like they would be living if in the wild.

 

 

 

While we walked around we also encountered staff members with a hyena on a leash and jumping cats on leashes. The staff member with the hyena answered our questions and talked about the hyena. The staff member with the cats did tricks with two different species of cats to illustrate for us how high the cats could jump.

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed our visit to the park and look forward to visiting again someday when we are back in the San Diego Area. We visited in November and temperatures were around the sixties. It was warm to us because back home it is always colder than the sixties in November. Keeping a sweatshirt handy was plenty for the weather. We had sunshine every day. It was wonderful!

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