San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Safari Park Tours

JessKimber

JessKimber

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Hi all,

Which are the best safaris/BTS tours at San Diego Safari Park? We did the rhino feeding tour in 2019 and it was fantastic!!

Will be going on a week day in September. I’m mostly interested in a tour that will take me to the sections of the African and Asian Savannahs that you can’t walk to, or can only see by tram. I want to take natural photos of the animals in their habitats, and will have my 600mm tele lens. An animal encounter would be nice, but not essential.

Travelling from Australia, so I have no interest whatsoever in any Australian wildlife (sorry, mates). Taking photos from a moving vehicle is a nightmare, so the tram is not ideal.

The info on the website is too thin considering the prices! I’d love to have whatever details you all can provide :)
 
@Kudu21 is frequently at the San Diego Safari Park and may have some useful insights.
@Julio C Castro is also a regular San Diego visitor and a photographer, and may have some ideas.
@betsy is our star San Diego photographer and maybe has an opinion.

I am a regular visitor, but I have never done any of the behind the scenes tours.
 
DavidBrown said:
@Kudu21 is frequently at the San Diego Safari Park and may have some useful insights.
@Julio C Castro is also a regular San Diego visitor and a photographer, and may have some ideas.
@betsy is our star San Diego photographer and maybe has an opinion.

I am a regular visitor, but I have never done any of the behind the scenes tours.
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Thanks for summoning the experts, I appreciate it!
 
Thank you for tagging me @DavidBrown! As you mentioned you’re from Australia, I won’t suggest the Walkablut Australia BTS tour although my fiancé and I loved it :p

The ideal tour with your bazooka of a lens would be a Wildlife Safari, I’ll link this page to this reply. The ideal tour would be the Deluxe Wildlife Safari. I’ve taken this tour quite a few times, I carry a 70-200mm lens with a 2X teleconverter. It’s a caravan tour that takes you into the large field exhibits the Safari Park is known for. It usually will taken you into any 2 of the large exhibits, it’s dependent on what the park employees are allowed to tour into at the time. Your lens will do superbly well in that tour!

Going during September and a weekday as you said is a solid plan. Fall/Winter time is the best time to see most animals as active as possible and not burn as easily in the SoCal sun. Even during Fall, I highly recommend to carry sunscreen and water at all times as area the park is located in can still get warm up especially carrying camera equipment. Best of luck to you and enjoy your visit! :)

PS, there are two variations of that tour I mentioned. The Twilight one is when the park is about to close for the day and never taken that one, usually have to catch the train at Oceanside so I leave before the park closed :oops:

Wildlife Safari
 
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Julio C Castro said:
Thank you for tagging me @DavidBrown! As you mentioned you’re from Australia, I won’t suggest the Walkablut Australia BTS tour although my fiancé and I loved it :p

The ideal tour with your bazooka of a lens would be a Wildlife Safari, I’ll link this page to this reply. The ideal tour would be the Deluxe Wildlife Safari. I’ve taken this tour quite a few times, I carry a 70-200mm lens with a 2X teleconverter. It’s a caravan tour that takes you into the large field exhibits the Safari Park is known for. It usually will taken you into any 2 of the large exhibits, it’s dependent on what the park employees are allowed to tour into at the time. Your lens will do superbly well in that tour!

Going during September and a weekday as you said is a solid plan. Fall/Winter time is the best time to see most animals as active as possible and not burn as easily in the SoCal sun. Even during Fall, I highly recommend to carry sunscreen and water at all times as area the park can still get warm up especially carrying camera equipment. Best of luck to you and enjoy your visit! :)

PS, there are two variations of that tour I mentioned. The Twilight one is when the park is about to close for the day and never taken that one, usually have to catch the train at Oceanside so I leave before the park closed :oops:

Wildlife Safari
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Thank you so much for such a detailed write-up!

I just checked availability online and the Wildlife Safari Deluxe, Wildlife Safari Deluxe Twilight and Wildlife Safari are all completely sold out for September, sadly. Must be a popular month!

We managed to get a booking for the Cart Safari Deluxe, which seems to be only around the outside of the habitats, but at least it stops so we don't have to shoot from a rickety, bumpy, moving tram so I'm happy about that. At least we don't miss out completely :)

Now I know to book earlier and snap up a Wildlife Safari Deluxe tour when we come back another year!

Really appreciate your help!
 
JessKimber said:
Thank you so much for such a detailed write-up!

I just checked availability online and the Wildlife Safari Deluxe, Wildlife Safari Deluxe Twilight and Wildlife Safari are all completely sold out for September, sadly. Must be a popular month!

We managed to get a booking for the Cart Safari Deluxe, which seems to be only around the outside of the habitats, but at least it stops so we don't have to shoot from a rickety, bumpy, moving tram so I'm happy about that. At least we don't miss out completely :)

Now I know to book earlier and snap up a Wildlife Safari Deluxe tour when we come back another year!

Really appreciate your help!
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You’re most welcome! I just had a peak and I actually do see availability for both the regular Wildlife Safari and Deluxe Wildlife Safari, with exception of one day in September. What it could be is perhaps the website being glitchy, usually these tours don’t sell out that fast or far out in advance unless a special event or perhaps on a busy day if you booked it that day at the park. I would certainly give them a call to book them, they can help you book a day for any of those tours :)

Attached a photo of the deluxe one as I just seen it a few minutes, the number in the photo is the main number for any tours or inquiries for regarding either park :)
 

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Julio C Castro said:
You’re most welcome! I just had a peak and I actually do see availability for both the regular Wildlife Safari and Deluxe Wildlife Safari, with exception of one day in September. What it could be is perhaps the website being glitchy, usually these tours don’t sell out that fast or far out in advance unless a special event or perhaps on a busy day if you booked it that day at the park. I would certainly give them a call to book them, they can help you book a day for any of those tours :)

Attached a photo of the deluxe one as I just seen it a few minutes, the number in the photo is the main number for any tours or inquiries for regarding either park :)
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Julio, you legend, I love you! Thank you so much, you were right and suddenly the calendar was full of availabilities. I've decided to keep the original Deluxe Cart Tour as well as the Wildlife Safari Deluxe - bit of a splurge but we're so ungulate starved here in Australia! Maybe I'll write up a comparison of the two to share with other people :).

I appreciate your help so much, I could send you chocolates! Thank you.
 
JessKimber said:
Julio, you legend, I love you! Thank you so much, you were right and suddenly the calendar was full of availabilities. I've decided to keep the original Deluxe Cart Tour as well as the Wildlife Safari Deluxe - bit of a splurge but we're so ungulate starved here in Australia! Maybe I'll write up a comparison of the two to share with other people :).

I appreciate your help so much, I could send you chocolates! Thank you.
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That’s what us fellow zoochatters ought to do: help one another out! No need for chocolate but I do think the best treat would be to see a fellow zoochatter as yourself post photos of their visit and letting us all know what you think of it :) You definitely will get your fill of ungulates with both tours, many beautiful species mingling. To this day, my fiancé and I hold the Safari Park in a special place in our hearts and hopefully will get to go back together soon :p
 
Julio C Castro said:
That’s what us fellow zoochatters ought to do: help one another out! No need for chocolate but I do think the best treat would be to see a fellow zoochatter as yourself post photos of their visit and letting us all know what you think of it :) You definitely will get your fill of ungulates with both tours, many beautiful species mingling. To this day, my fiancé and I hold the Safari Park in a special place in our hearts and hopefully will get to go back together soon :p
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It's such a great community here :D

Haha, well that I can do! It's awesome that you and your fiancé both love the park, this trip is part of my husband and my honeymoon and we lovingly compete with our photography, so I needed to get a good safari booked for us! Hope you guys get to go back soon :)
 
JessKimber said:
It's such a great community here :D

Haha, well that I can do! It's awesome that you and your fiancé both love the park, this trip is part of my husband and my honeymoon and we lovingly compete with our photography, so I needed to get a good safari booked for us! Hope you guys get to go back soon :)
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Congratulations on your wedding and wish you both an awesome honeymoon! :)
 
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