July Zoo Tour!

[DelacoursLangur]

Hello all! I am finally getting a chance to visit Europe and its myriad amazing zoos this July. I have a timetable now and am piecing together an itinerary, and would love for any advice and feedback to help create a plan! I am seeking to see as many rare species as possible, so zootierliste has been helpful. I am also a big fan of historic and innovative exhibit design. I plan on using all public transportation, so proximity to transport links is also important when deciding what zoos I will visit.

I will be arriving in Berlin at 1pm on the 22nd.

The 23rd I plan to visit Berlin Zoo

The 24th Berlin Tierpark

I am looking at taking a morning train to Leipzig on the 25th, exploring the zoo, and catching a train to Prague before nightfall

The 26th will be solely dedicated to the Prague Zoo, and exploring the city

The 27th I plan on a day trip to Plzen from Prague

From here I see two possible routes for my remaining 2 days, as I have to fly out by the 30th. I am strongly considering heading north to Wroclaw and its impressive collection. From there I would travel to Krakow to visit Auschwitz and fly out from there the next day.

Alternatively I could head south towards Vienna. I have heard amazing things about the palace, and having the zoo on its grounds makes this option also tempting. Thoughts?

 

[twilighter]

Great that you coming to Europe @DelacoursLangur Based on your preferences, Budapest and Vienna would be very natural choices for the last two days. Amazing cities with great zoos. You can travel form Budapest to Krakow with Flixbus. The other option is of course Wroclaw (especially if you want to see the Hartebeest) and maybe to consider Dvur Kralove or even Zlin.

Hope you have a great time

 

[DelacoursLangur]

Great that you coming to Europe @DelacoursLangur Based on your preferences, Budapest and Vienna would be very natural choices for the last two days. Amazing cities with great zoos. You can travel form Budapest to Krakow with Flixbus. The other option is of course Wroclaw (especially if you want to see the Hartebeest) and maybe to consider Dvur Kralove or even Zlin.

Hope you have a great time

This is so hard I wish I had time to visit them all Wroclaw has a crazy reptile collection, so thats pretty hard to skip. Dvur Kralove and Zlin are both off the transportation main route quite a bit.

It really boils down to Wroclaw and one other zoo in the Area (Opole and Ostrava seem most convenient). Or Vienna and Budapest. How do they compare in your experience?

 

[twilighter]

This is so hard I wish I had time to visit them all Wroclaw has a crazy reptile collection, so thats pretty hard to skip. Dvur Kralove and Zlin are both off the transportation main route quite a bit.

It really boils down to Wroclaw and one other zoo in the Area (Opole and Ostrava seem most convenient). Or Vienna and Budapest. How do they compare in your experience?

This will come down to the priorities and to the species you want to see. If your main priorities are mainly rare species and you have already been to Prague, Plzen and Berlins, then Vienna is out of the picture. If you skip going south to Vienna, then you respectively skip Budapest as well.
Dvur is just between Prague and Wroclaw There is a bit of a transport hassle, but you can do Dvur 28th and travel to Wroclaw. Do Wroclaw on 29th and travel to Krakow. I have been at Ostrava, Katowice and Krakow zoos. They are all good zoos, but not Europe's top tier, so again it will come down to the species list. You can check here, if the species you are aiming are actually on show. Check the Poznan species list, just in case.

If you want to combine a zoo tour with some of the finest samples of European Architecture (Zoo Architecture including), then Vienna and Budapest are obvious choices. Keep in mind, that Berlin, Leipzig, Plzen and Wroclaw will not offer much of this level of experience. Only Prague will.

You can actually do Vienna and Wroclaw with more night travel, I believe

 

[lintworm]

Hello all! I am finally getting a chance to visit Europe and its myriad amazing zoos this July. I have a timetable now and am piecing together an itinerary, and would love for any advice and feedback to help create a plan! I am seeking to see as many rare species as possible, so zootierliste has been helpful. I am also a big fan of historic and innovative exhibit design. I plan on using all public transportation, so proximity to transport links is also important when deciding what zoos I will visit.

I will be arriving in Berlin at 1pm on the 22nd.

The 23rd I plan to visit Berlin Zoo

The 24th Berlin Tierpark

I am looking at taking a morning train to Leipzig on the 25th, exploring the zoo, and catching a train to Prague before nightfall

The 26th will be solely dedicated to the Prague Zoo, and exploring the city

The 27th I plan on a day trip to Plzen from Prague

From here I see two possible routes for my remaining 2 days, as I have to fly out by the 30th. I am strongly considering heading north to Wroclaw and its impressive collection. From there I would travel to Krakow to visit Auschwitz and fly out from there the next day.

Alternatively I could head south towards Vienna. I have heard amazing things about the palace, and having the zoo on its grounds makes this option also tempting. Thoughts?

Many tempting choices, but your current itinerary is too full... There is no way you can get from Prague to Wroclaw and visit a large zoo the same day. Similarly seeing Zoo Leipzig properly and traveling 5 hours is not realistic. What would be realistic is skipping Leipzig and doing Dresden when travelling to Prague. You can travel to Vienna from Prague but as the train journey alone is 4 hours, it doesn't leave enough time for a larger zoo, so day 7 could be a traveling day + Haus des Meeres.

Your zoo visits will be much more enjoyable if you don't feel rushed or tired because you have a overflowing schedule. In the end it is your plan, but with a 10 hour jetlag and several very large must see zoos on the list, it is better to pick wisely and don't do too much....

If you would really like to see a concentration camp, Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen lies on the outskirts of Berlin, the same village has a up- and coming zoo when it comes to rarities (think agile gibbon & greater white-nosed guenon).

If I were you I would do the following:

Day 1: arrive
Day 2: Oranienburg / Berlin
Day 3: Zoo Berlin
Day 4: Tierpark Berlin
Day 5: Zoo Leipzig
Day 6: Zoo Dresden + travel to Wroclaw OR Prague
Day 7: Zoo Prague / Zoo Wroclaw
Day 8: Zoo Plzen / Auschwitz

This is still a full schedule, but one that is at least realistic.

 

[remar]

Wroclaw and Vienna are two completely different zoos. If you wanna go for rare species, Wroclaw is the place to go. Vienna however offers an unique experience when it comes to zoo architecture. So the question is what are you more interested? Sadly it is not clear whether the new terrarium house at Vienna will already be open at the time you would visit (originally spring 2024 was planned). Personally i would think about staying at Vienna and skip Budapest. The city is nice and Haus des Meeres also offers some rare herps and fish to see. And like Schönbrunn, Haus des Meeres is also located at an unique location.
If you're going to Wroclaw. I really enjoyed my day trip to Opole. As i havn't been to Ostrava yet, i can't say which of this zoos is better.
(However, i would also think about lintworms idea, as it seems a little bit more relaxing.

 

[DelacoursLangur]

This will come down to the priorities and to the species you want to see. If your main priorities are mainly rare species and you have already been to Prague, Plzen and Berlins, then Vienna is out of the picture. If you skip going south to Vienna, then you respectively skip Budapest as well.
Dvur is just between Prague and Wroclaw There is a bit of a transport hassle, but you can do Dvur 28th and travel to Wroclaw. Do Wroclaw on 29th and travel to Krakow. I have been at Ostrava, Katowice and Krakow zoos. They are all good zoos, but not Europe's top tier, so again it will come down to the species list. You can check here, if the species you are aiming are actually on show. Check the Poznan species list, just in case.

If you want to combine a zoo tour with some of the finest samples of European Architecture (Zoo Architecture including), then Vienna and Budapest are obvious choices. Keep in mind, that Berlin, Leipzig, Plzen and Wroclaw will not offer much of this level of experience. Only Prague will.

You can actually do Vienna and Wroclaw with more night travel, I believe

In terms of priorities, my favorite area of every zoo I visit are the reptile and bird houses. I'm like a kid in a candy shop with a bunch of terrariums to explore. Which is making the prospect of Wroclaw hard to resist, especially with that impressive Chelonian collection .

Dvur definitely does sound interesting, although I am unfamiliar with what species they hold of interest. Geographically it makes total sense as a stop. I am intimidated by the estimated travel times on RometoRio however. Looks like around 4 hours train then bus from Prague, then another almost 5 to Wroclaw. Does this sound right to you? It would almost seems easier with less complexity to visit Vienna then take an early morning bus up to Wroclaw. Alternatively depending on my energy levels at this point I could just skip it and head directly to Wroclaw.

 

[Philipine eagle]

In terms of priorities, my favorite area of every zoo I visit are the reptile and bird houses. I'm like a kid in a candy shop with a bunch of terrariums to explore. Which is making the prospect of Wroclaw hard to resist, especially with that impressive Chelonian collection .

Dvur definitely does sound interesting, although I am unfamiliar with what species they hold of interest. Geographically it makes total sense as a stop. I am intimidated by the estimated travel times on RometoRio however. Looks like around 4 hours train then bus from Prague, then another almost 5 to Wroclaw. Does this sound right to you? It would almost seems easier with less complexity to visit Vienna then take an early morning bus up to Wroclaw. Alternatively depending on my energy levels at this point I could just skip it and head directly to Wroclaw.

If you like birds and reptiles, still consider Vienna. The zoo has 2 main bird location (Birdhaus and Regenwald) and a reptile house. And the city has second zoo location with the Haus des Meeres, which is very intriguing, both in terms of species and architecture (and it's close near the historic center should that interest you).
Moreover, a two-day stop gives you a bit of a break, I'm with Lintworm in that. Everyone here intends to cram as many zoos as possible into a trip (I certainly do too), but especially when you come from overseas and only have a week, you risk getting completely overtired.

 

[DelacoursLangur]

If you like birds and reptiles, still consider Vienna. The zoo has 2 main bird location (Birdhaus and Regenwald) and a reptile house. And the city has second zoo location with the Haus des Meeres, which is very intriguing, both in terms of species and architecture (and it's close near the historic center should that interest you).
Moreover, a two-day stop gives you a bit of a break, I'm with Lintworm in that. Everyone here intends to cram as many zoos as possible into a trip (I certainly do too), but especially when you come from overseas and only have a week, you risk getting completely overtired.

It really boils down to Wroclaw vs Vienna/Budapest. If you had to pick?

 

[Philipine eagle]

1. Vienna 2. Wroclaw 3. Budapest

But I've been several times in Budapest and never in Wroclaw. So the latter is high on my list.

Between Budapest and Vienna, it would always be Vienna for me: it's packed with history, has a wide range of both historical building and modern facilities and a very pleasant garden.
Both are very beautiful cities (which were once part of a dual monarchy) with great uniformity in classicel architecture. And lot's of other things to visit.

You should check species lists (on city level) on Zootierliste when it comes to decide which zoo suits you better. I think Budapest is slightly better in terms of mammals, but then again Vienna has koala and giant panda.

 

[PossumRoach]

I don’t have the expertise well-traveled European users have but when I had my Euro trip back at 2022, I had Budapest first followed by Vienna the next day. Needless to say I while I didn’t leave Budapest feeling underwhelmed, despite there being flaws that stuck with me and the more zoos I saw during the tour, the lower Budapest ended up on my personal list. In retrospect this feels awkward because I was very excited about Budapest, albeit I was most excited about seeing brush-tailed possums more than anything else about the zoo so…

Vienna on the other hand was so great I forgot that I had a crappy morning that day. I probably was also very satisfied because I didn’t have too much expectations other than “oh I am going to see the oldest running zoo ever, let’s see how this goes.”

 

[DelacoursLangur]

1. Vienna 2. Wroclaw 3. Budapest

But I've been several times in Budapest and never in Wroclaw. So the latter is high on my list.

Between Budapest and Vienna, it would always be Vienna for me: it's packed with history, has a wide range of both historical building and modern facilities and a very pleasant garden.
Both are very beautiful cities (which were once part of a dual monarchy) with great uniformity in classicel architecture. And lot's of other things to visit.

You should check species lists (on city level) on Zootierliste when it comes to decide which zoo suits you better. I think Budapest is slightly better in terms of mammals, but then again Vienna has koala and giant panda.

How did the Wroclaw and Vienna collections compare?

 

[amur leopard]

How did the Wroclaw and Vienna collections compare?

Wroclaw is one of the largest on-show public reptile collections in Europe, if not the world. Cape hartebeest another big plus. Surprisingly not that great bird-wise but herp-wise and fish-wise a great collection for sure.

Vienna has a lovely bird collection with some real rarities in beautiful surroundings. The herp collection is moderately strong but depends on opening of the upcoming house for the confiscated chameleons. Vienna also has a nice aquarium, but not on the scale of Wroclaw's. Having said this, Haus des Meeres in Vienna has an excellent fish collection plus a number of cool herps.

Of course it's a highly subjective thing, but I'd go with Vienna - both the city and the zoo are really great places with a lot to see and a real aura about them.

 

[remar]

I have never been to Budapest, so i can't say anything about it.

But comparing Wroclaw to Vienna is currently quite easy for me. Regarding mammals, Viennas stock is more ABC like without anything that is really rare. Wroclaw is missing some of Viennas ABC species (most notable panda, koala, polar bear) but has way more rarities. Not only the hartebeest but also some primates and the hammerhead bats.

Regarding birds: Although their stock is completely different i would say that they are somehow equal. Personally i like the bird house at Vienna more (but only because of the design).

I'm surprised that @amur leopard says the reptile collection at Vienna is moderately strong. Personally i think, that the current visible collection shows many attractive species, but only few of them can be considered rare. ZTL isn't a good adviser therefore, as most of the rare reptiles (and fish) are kept behind the scenes. Most likely this will change with the opening of the new terrarium. Unfortunately there is still no opening date known yet as construction is still going on. Right now, the reptile collection at Haus des Meeres is probably more interesting than Schönbrunn.