Artis Royal Zoo Amsterdam Zoo - non zoo nerd - what to recommend ?

[zoospud]

Hi

I last went to Artis over 15 years ago.

I remember enjoying their new African plain, being surprised by the slanting glass of the aquarium and admiring their blue duiker.

A non zoo nerd friend is visiting Artis in a month. They are on an odd Manchester > Rome > Amsterdam plane trip.

What 5 enclosures should a recommend to them ?

Furthermore they know Amsterdam well so have done the main attractions. Anyone know any hidden gems to recommend. Or even good real ale pubs for them to check out. Not seedy !

Cheers, Paul M.

PS. this is the twin to a matching Rome zoo query !

 

[vogelcommando]

My personal top-5 enclosures at Artis are:
The Bird house
The Butterfly-hall
The Small mammal house
The Aquarium
The Monkey-walk-through house
For other Amsterdam attractions, I alway love to visit the several Flea-markets which can be found at several places in the city.

 

[lintworm]

Fortunately Artis is uncomparable to 15 years ago and has made huge improvements, but I can only agree to VC's suggestions, although I also really like their insectarium.

Their newest attraction is Micropia, a very fancy museum about microbes, with a lot of intelligent displays and hi-tech stuff and off course a lot of microscopes to look at living microbes. It is not part of a standard ticket, but there is a combi-ticket for artis + micropia for 27 euros.

I personally always like the small inner courts (hofjes) in Dutch that are hidden throughout the inner city, with the begijnhof as the most well known.