San Diego Zoo Voted the #1 Zoo in the World

Such a fun day trip!

Location: San Diego, CA / Southern California

• Bring: Water bottle, comfortable shoes, light weight jacket, hat or visor, healthy snacks
• Parking: Lots of parking, random drop-and-go rental bikes all over

PROS: Clean. Organized. Wide variety of animals. Clean cages. Tour bus options or walking.

CONS:  Lacking healthy food options.  Bring your own food and drinks in a cooler and carry in backpack or put in locker.

BRONZE LION AT ENTRANCE

My Mini - Me, Kiana Jr. and I went and had the best time ever! Excited to share our fun day with you! We decided to visit the zoo while having breakfast. Packed a backpack and headed to San Diego, CA from my mom's house.  We arrived around 1pm and it was plenty of time to see the entire zoo! Such a fun relaxing day!

The bronze statue at the front of the Zoo is H U G E ! You mus take a photo!  I thought the 6' tall driftwood birds my mother the artist makes were big, but this is gigantic~!

MUST SEE & DO: FEEDING THE GIRAFFE

This was so much fun and such a wonderful experience! What a unique thing to do especially right here in the USA! 🙂 We were so lucky, we were walking around and happened to see the opportunity. They said usually there is a long line but not this time. It's $5 for 3 Giraffe biscuits. I recommend checking out the exact days and times this unique opportunity is offered. It's not offered all of the time. They have photographers there taking photos for you to purchase $30 per photo or you can have someone take a photo / video with your phone.

I was surprised how long and super slimy the Giraffe's tongue was! I held the biscuit a little far away from him because I wanted to see his tongue! They are huge animals. 3 of them came up to us at once.

Such beautiful animals.  Love the pattern and colors!

Loved this creative Giraffe Costume at the Zoo, the little girl was adorable too!

NO PLAN IS THE BEST PLAN

The best part of the day trip was going with the flow. We didn't have a plan, didn't follow a map, we just roamed and wandered without any time limit. I have been to the Zoo many times and we usually follow the map, take the tour bus and end up rushing around. I recommend walking. Wear a backpack so your hands are free. Get exercise, take your time watching the beautiful animals.

Wear comfortable walking shoes. Since Kiana Jr is very fit, she and I looked at the day as a walking workout with lots to see! We wore our workout shoes.

WALK OR TOUR BUS?

The Tour Bus is good if you aren't comfortable walking. We love exercise, so we wore walking shoes and set our goal at 15,000 steps! Pros of the Tour Bus: you sit, no walking. Cons: if you want to stay and enjoy watching various animals longer, you cannot. People often get in the way of your seeing the animals or your taking photos when you're on the bus.  I like walking because we can stop whenever we want & take cute photos in a cave...

MUST SEE! BABY HIPPO

My FAVORITE animals we saw at the Zoo were the Hippos. The mommy and baby were precious. We stayed and watched for an hour. I loved it.

SO MUCH TO SEE!

There are so many beautiful animals to see. The Zoo is very clean. All of the animals appear so well cared for. The elephants seemed lonely. One elephant kept hitting his or her head on a food sack as if to say feed me 🙁

FLAMINGO

I see every opportunity as a little learning experience.

Did you know that flamingo's feathers are actually gray and they obtain their wonderful rosy pink color from pigments in the organisms they eat. The flamingos' feathers, legs, and face are colored by their diet, which is rich in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments.

Love her costume!

BIRD SANCTUARY

There is a beautiful caged area with so many beautiful birds to see. There are clearly marked signs that show you images of the birds and tell you about them.  Such fun try and find the birds hiding in the trees!

We loved watching this little bird eating a healthy apple!

MUST SEE: GORILLA!!!!

We love gorillas they are so fascinating! They are massive and don't seem real. We stayed and watched them for about an hour. This one was so funny, wondering where the fruit went?

Fun getting a Gorilla souvenier! Kiana jr loves these pennies - she has them from all over the world! Great little treasures.

So many great photo opportunities! Love the bronze statues all over the zoo!

So many cute little photo op places.

MUST RIDE: SKY RIDE

A relaxing way to see all of the zoo from a sky high view!

ALLIGATOR...BEAR...

ZOO FOOD?

So...the food is not so healthy.  Very over priced.  Junk food city. Think fried food & processed meats. Ew. I recommend bringing your own food and healthy snacks.  I asked where the healthiest cleanest food was sold. The best we found was a sandwich shop that I do not recommend. Next time, we will bring our own food since they allow outside food. So happy I brought Kiana Bars in my backpack!!!

Have a fun day!!!!