As you can imagine, the zoo industry took a big hit during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the zoo market is back and booming bigger than ever. These days, people spend more than $3 billion visiting zoos and aquariums every year in the United States alone!
After an unforgettable trip to the San Diego Zoo, it is easy to appreciate why there is so much demand for these attractions. At the same time, not everyone who visits the zoo enjoys it as much as they could. Failing to make a plan for your San Diego Zoo visit can make it much harder to see everything you want to see.
It can also lead to distractions and annoyances that can detract from your zoo experience. On the other hand, these zoo trip planning tips will help you have the most fun possible on your next trip to the San Diego Zoo.
Read on to learn all about the most important things to keep in mind when you are planning your zoo trip!
List Your Top San Diego Zoo Attractions
Start by making a list of all of the San Diego Zoo attractions you are most interested in visiting. Your top attractions should make up the center of your plan around which you plan the details.
If you are planning a group trip, make sure to get input from everyone who will be attending. Ask them about the types of zoo animals they want to see. It can also help to ask people to list the attractions they are most interested in from most important to least.
That way, you can make sure that everyone gets to visit the attractions they care the most about visiting.
Make a Zoo Touring Plan
Once you have this information, you will be ready to start making a zoo touring plan. This is a good time to pull up the San Diego Zoo map so that you can see which attractions are close to each other. You don’t want to be walking back and forth across the whole zoo when you can enjoy shorter walks with a little planning.
It can also help to group people together based on which attractions they want to visit. For example, if half of the group is more interested in marine animals than the other half, they can visit the marine section of the zoo while the other half focuses on the rest of the attractions.
Try Buying San Diego Zoo Tickets in Advance
The last thing you want is to put together a detailed plan only to find out that there are no tickets available when you arrive. This is not likely to happen, but you can make sure of it by buying your tickets in advance.
This has an added benefit as well. Instead of spending some of your precious zoo visit time waiting in line to buy tickets, you can arrive and move straight on to see the animals!
Plan Your Trip During the Week
If at all possible, try to visit the zoo during the week. On weekends, the zoo attracts many more visitors.
Visiting during the week will allow you to enjoy a calmer and more relaxed experience. It will also mean that you get to see the animals when they are not distracted by huge crowds of people.
Arrive as Early as Possible
The earlier you can arrive at the zoo, the less of a rush you will be in to see your top attractions. You can always leave early if you finish seeing everything you want to. On top of that, arriving early can give you the time you need to take a meal break during the hottest hours of the day.
Ask Zoo Workers for Advice
When you arrive, be prepared with questions for the workers at the zoo. They can provide you with a wealth of advice about when to visit certain attractions.
Bring Your Own Food and Water
Keep in mind that the food and water you can buy at the zoo will often be extremely expensive. You can save a lot of money by bringing your own food and water.
On top of that, zoos are not necessarily known for their amazing cuisine. You can often enjoy better food by preparing it in advance.
Bring Plenty of Sunscreen
You want your trip to the zoo to be unforgettable. However, you don’t want a bad case of sunburn to be what burns the visit into your memory. Make sure to bring more than enough sunscreen for everyone.
Rent a Charter Bus
If you are planning a group trip, you might want to rent a charter bus to help the trip go as smoothly as possible. When people travel to the zoo separately, they miss out on the opportunity to express their excitement and make the travel part of the experience of visiting the zoo. Traveling together in a rented charter bus can add an extra layer of fun to your unforgettable visit to the San Diego Zoo.
Enjoy Your San Diego Zoo Trip With the Right Planning Tips
The San Diego Zoo has so much to offer that it is worth making a plan to make sure that you enjoy your trip as much as possible. That goes double because you do not even need to spend too much time planning to give yourself an unforgettable trip.
To learn more about how you can rent a charter bus for your next trip to the zoo, reach out and get in touch with us here at any time!