Reviews of Santa Barbara Zoo (Zoo)

Loopy Lyle

The gardens are gorgeous. My grandson had so much fun looking at all the animals. I really liked the environment of each animal. *The enclosed areas required masks.

MirandaRivera5

Love this little zoo! It is right off the ocean and has beautiful views everywhere. Very nice areas for families to have picnics. Cute train that takes you around the zoo.

Dora Gomez

Visited on

Anthony Mcqueen

I am new to the state. My son and I took the kids and this place is amazing. It's bigger than I imagined. My grandbabies had a blast. Unfortunately, we missed the Gorilla and lions. Overall, we REALLY enjoyed ourselves!

Alex Gutierrez

Wait time

phainesp

Visited on

Susanna Martinez

Smaller than I expected but the weather was great given that it's by the beach. There's a playground for the kids in the center and a picnic area for families. Wagon and stroller rentals was good price. $8 for the wagon we rented. Helped a lot. My kids are too big for strollers but perfect for the wagon. We walked the whole zoo in about an hour though. Some of the exhibits were closed. Not sure why for some but others said baby bonding for the animals. Over all we had a really good time and my kids loved to see all the animals.

Tara Avila

Reservation recommended

Robert Netzel

Weekday

Omkaar Shenoy

Yes

Rose Pollerana

Took our 3 year old and 2 mos old with Granny. He loved every minute. From the train ride to the Masai giraffe and gorillas. Pretty neat place:) if you have a toddler bring a rideable piece of cardboard for the play area. You'll Thank me!

Gene Solis

Had an amazing time here ???? the weather was beautiful. So many wonderful animals to see, stores to go thru and wonderful displays of fun, from all the animals. Definitely wonderful place to spend the day. Adults and kids ,families of all sizes will definitely enjoy. The animals are so happy ???? thanks for a fabulous day ????

Carina Ann Mostert

Price for adult entry

Scott Lundy

Although this zoo is considered small, I have small kids so it is perfect for them. They loved the penguins ????????????????. Can't wait to see the ???????????? kangaroos coming soon!! They love the train ride and there were plenty of tables to sit and have a snack under shady trees. Spent almost 4 hours here just taking our time. You can run through it in an hour and a half but I wanted to enjoy the weather and relax. Hitting the photo booth and gift shop on the way out was best for us.

Armando Castellanos

We love the SB zoo. Perfect size, never crowded and just enough wildlife for the kids to enjoy. Plenty of spots to sit down and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

Josh Greenwald

No wait

Maddison Brinson

Visited on

John Ma

The worst zoo experience I’ve ever had. The place is a rip-off for non-members. Size-wise it’s more like a park than a zoo with a limited amount of animals. Worse yet, even those limited amounts have more limits due to exhibit closures. You’ll probably see more animal statues than real animals there. My kids went in excited and came out so disappointed. The entire visit took us less than an hour.

Micaela Morgan

The Santa Barbara Zoo has been around for quite some time. It's a smaller zoo, the animals and park are very well taken care of. This place is a great learning experience for kids & adults. They host weddings on weekends & learning events as well. The zoo sits across from the SB Beach, which is within walking distance, as are a few large hotels on the frontage road. Some of our family members met here to get together for a weekend outing, & a day of fun. :) I always get a kick out of watching the animals, as well as taking a peaceful walk through the park. There's grassy area for a picnic (they allow drinks & food to be brought), a play area to get out your childrens excess energy, & a train ride for all. You must purchase tickets for the train, the kids love this part of the trip! We've been here many times over the years, it's fun for children, and big "kids" (adults????) alike. I'm sure we'll go again sometime for another relaxing day out... Just a matter of time. :)

Angie Neuberger

No wait

Eugenio Aguilera

Reservation recommended

Sam Shafer

Reservation recommended

Anamarie

Awesome little zoo to spend the day with the fam bam!! And not to far from State street to spend the evening having a couple of drinks and having good food!!!

Ramon Z.

No

Jesse Bailey

Definitely recommending to family and friends to visit. The zoo is clean, well maintained when I visited with my family and I cannot wait until they open the Australian zone. The experiences you gain from such a small beautiful zoo is something you will always remember and hope to visit again.

Michael Chatterton

Weekend

Ana Gonzalez

Went to the first time to this zoo with my husband and such a unique experience!! Beautiful place!! The train ride was fun too!! If you buy the tickets online definitely purchase the train ride along with and the parking pass to save you time! Not a big zoo so the walking wasn't bad. The whole walk-around was about 2-3hours but because we took our time and took so many pictures!!! I took my canon camera and realized I took over 300 pictures cause I was so amazed by it all!!!

Saul Dudley

No wait

Melissa Rodriguez

Reservation recommended

Bharat Chandrahas

Yes

Jess H

Weekday

Christina King

The best little zoo around. You cannot be the cleanliness of the park, the friendly staff. The animals all look very well taken care of and happy. They have a train that runs the perimeter which is a great time for kids and adults. They have giraffe feedings as well! Plus many other seasonal activities throughout the year. Not to mention all the coastal views from within the park. A must if you have half a day to spare.

Caitlin Rippner

No wait

Dani Cabrera

Wait time

Jason de Leon

Wait time

Amanda Hunsaker

There's a lot of animals you can see at the zoo, they have a large variety of large mammals. However when I went they were under a lot of construction and inside enclosures were closed.You can feed and pet some of the animals such as the giraffes

Roberto Cano

Always such a fun family experience. Our 14 month old loves it. The Australian Walkabout was fantastic.

Aserret Sommar

Visited on

Heather Roth

Lovely little zoo. The perfect size to do in about 2 hours and you can get up close views to beautiful animals. It was easy to walk around as well. Several of the exhibits were closed for construction/upgrades but there was still lots to see including a nice butterfly garden to sit in and take a break. Really enjoyed this zoo.

hervi estrada

A lot is closed, but they are still charging the full price. Don't bother with the train ride: it's a rip-off. While there, we saw giraffes, lions, gorillas, penguins, and rattlesnakes. Everything else was either closed or under construction. Photos below.

Keisha “KeiKei” Way

Friendly staff and clean grounds ablutions and food was satisfactory ... regrettably the train and track was not in service on our visit but lots of youngsters were newly born ...

Vero Leon

$16–20

Adarm Plerm

Nicer than the average Zoo. We loved the train and the giraffe feeding. It was a nice place to walk and relax with some views of the beach nearby. Oh, and the animals were awesome too!

Noemi Ferguson

Santa Barbara Zoo is a good time. It's not a huge zoo. I was able to see everything in less than 3 hours. There was a play area for kids and a snack stand called Buzz that served coffees, lemonade and hard lemonade etc. There are also vending machines with Gatorade and water etc. Also candy bars and chips in the vending machines for a dollar or two. The lemonade was $4.25 I believe. Not too pricey. It's a fun zoo with leopards, penguins, gibbons, vultures, turtles, black swans, goats, sheep, peacocks, an enclosed free range bird area, and more. There's a giraffe feeding dock you can pay extra in order to feed the giraffe. There's also a train. Members and accessible parking are free. Otherwise, it's about $11. The train ride was short and sweet. We all had fun on it. It was a really good time at the zoo. Not too much of a workout and the weather was very pleasant. It usually is nice weather in this area. Enjoy

A Martinez

Price for adult entry

William Garcia

Yes

Mike B.

This is a great little zoo! It is well maintained and the animals seem more content than other places we've gone. Note you do need reservations in advance due to COVID. It wasn't very crowded when we were there and it was a lot of fun. We have two teenagers and it took just over 2 hours to see most of the exhibits. Great, safe place to go if you want to get out with COVID. Also, the food was actually really good. Not some traditional theme park fare. We got burgers and they were really delicious! We will be back!

Trevor Merrill

We had a fun trip with grands and a 2 year old. Good stroller/wagon rental and concessions. Boring train ride. Nice selection and quality of exhibits for a mid size zoo. Good access to views of gorillas, lions, snow leopard, fun giraffe feeding (although that was $$$).

Bryant Cruz

Weekday

Ibjan Doe

Wait time