Recommend a zoo or two for my road trip

mweb08

mweb08

Well-Known Member
Ok, so I'll be going down to the Smoky Mountains National Park, the Tenn Aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium, and the North Carolina Zoo. What do you guys recommend out of Zoo Atlanta, Riverbanks Zoo, Knoxville Zoo, and the Chattanooga Zoo? Will only visit 1-2 of these at most.

Note that I don't care that much about ATL having pandas since I used to call the SD Zoo my home zoo, and now the National Zoo is one of my home zoos.
 
I've visited both Atlanta and Knoxville, and on this summer's road trip will see both Riverbanks and Chattanooga. Knoxville has its famous black bear exhibit by the front entrance, an excellent reptile/amphibian collection, and the opportunity to see at least 5 red pandas in "Red Panda Village", but overall the zoo is not one of the more notable in the United States. I'd recommend Zoo Atlanta, a 35-acre zoo that is quite impressive for its size. The giant pandas are always a hit with crowds, the 10 or so orangutans and 20 or so gorillas make it amazing for ape lovers, and in general there is a high quality of exhibitry.

When visiting the Georgia Aquarium I highly recommend the World of Coca-Cola, which is directly next door and available with combo tickets. My wife and I spent 4 hours there! We also walked down the road and took the one-hour tour of the CNN news building, as all four major attractions in Atlanta (zoo, aquarium, Coca-Cola, CNN) can be bought via a single CityPass ticket.
 
I have only been to Zoo Atlanta out of those four, but from research it sounds like Riverbanks would be the best option, it sounds more diverse. Based on your interest in aquariums, I know there is one in Gatlinburg, pretty close to Knoxville, that is called Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies and it looks pretty nice. In looking at Tennessee zoos, I took one look at Chattanooga's and kept on looking. Knoxville looks nice, but I trust snowleopard's assessment that it is not as good as it appears.

If you are cool to pandas, and don't care about apes, some highlights in Zoo Atlanta are Monkeys of Makakou, the black rhino and African savanna exhibits, and the small but delightful naked mole rat exhibit and play area. If you like cockatiels do not miss their feeding aviary...it is absolutely swarming. However, as a whole the zoo seems like half a major big-city zoo.
 
snowleopard said:
I've visited both Atlanta and Knoxville, and on this summer's road trip will see both Riverbanks and Chattanooga. Knoxville has its famous black bear exhibit by the front entrance, an excellent reptile/amphibian collection, and the opportunity to see at least 5 red pandas in "Red Panda Village", but overall the zoo is not one of the more notable in the United States. I'd recommend Zoo Atlanta, a 35-acre zoo that is quite impressive for its size. The giant pandas are always a hit with crowds, the 10 or so orangutans and 20 or so gorillas make it amazing for ape lovers, and in general there is a high quality of exhibitry.

When visiting the Georgia Aquarium I highly recommend the World of Coca-Cola, which is directly next door and available with combo tickets. My wife and I spent 4 hours there! We also walked down the road and took the one-hour tour of the CNN news building, as all four major attractions in Atlanta (zoo, aquarium, Coca-Cola, CNN) can be bought via a single CityPass ticket.
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Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I was thinking about going to World of Coke and the CNN tour along with maybe the MLK historic sites/museum and maybe another museum there. Did you use the city pass for any of the museums? I see the citypass provides a quick dip tour of the aquarium, did you do that? Guess it depends on how good that is and how much time I'll have for the other attractions as far as getting the citypass. I can get into the zoo for half off with my National Zoo membership.
 
geomorph said:
I have only been to Zoo Atlanta out of those four, but from research it sounds like Riverbanks would be the best option, it sounds more diverse. Based on your interest in aquariums, I know there is one in Gatlinburg, pretty close to Knoxville, that is called Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies and it looks pretty nice. In looking at Tennessee zoos, I took one look at Chattanooga's and kept on looking. Knoxville looks nice, but I trust snowleopard's assessment that it is not as good as it appears.

If you are cool to pandas, and don't care about apes, some highlights in Zoo Atlanta are Monkeys of Makakou, the black rhino and African savanna exhibits, and the small but delightful naked mole rat exhibit and play area. If you like cockatiels do not miss their feeding aviary...it is absolutely swarming. However, as a whole the zoo seems like half a major big-city zoo.
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Yeah, that aquarium looks nice, but not sure about 3 aquariums and 2-3 zoos in a one week trip, my girlfriend may not be keen on that. And I'm pretty sure which one is the aquarium that should be left out of the three.

Yeah, Chattanooga doesn't look impressive. Knoxville and ATL zoos seem expensive for what they're, but my National Zoo membership helps with that. Riverbanks seems like it could be the best option.
 
I have not been to any of them, but if I were to go I would go to Riverbanks because they display and breed black-footed cats. If you have a particular area of interest (as I do with wild cats), then you may want to go with whatever has the most or best of your kind of favorite animals.
 
I bought the Atlanta Citypass when I was there and took the behind-the-scenes Georgia Aquarium tour that was included. It was a nice look at the tops of the rivers exhibits and the ocean explorer. However, it would not be worth it to buy the pass if you were only using it for two of the attractions. Zoo Atlanta is included in the citypass so perhaps that will steer you to go there instead? Plus it is an easy half-day visit so you could combine it with seeing CNN and Coke in the same day. CNN only takes an hour, Coke is at least 2 hours, and its nice to walk through Centennial Olympic Park between the two.
 
Hmm, well I'd have to go to all of them... well, I have been to all of them, but that's me with a life goal of getting to every zoo. You might as well go to the Chattanooga Zoo if you're going to the Tenn. Aquarium. It's not that big and has a few cool exhibits. Have a look in the Gallery for it. I really like Zoo Atlanta, but then I was there before they revamped (while they were considered one of the worst zoos in the country), so I love to see what they've done. Again, as long as you're IN Atlanta, might as well!
I remember being disappointed by Knoxville Zoo, but it's been several years, so they could have improved. It has also been several years since I've been to Riverbanks, but I remember liking it.
 
Having visited nearly 500 zoos and aquariums around the world Georgia Aquariums "Ocean Voyager" exhibit is quite simply the greatest zoological exhibit ive ever seen.Knoxville is better in warm weather when the impressive chelonian collection is out.Chattanoogas freshwater aquarium is brilliant,the marine portion only decent.Zoo Atlanta suffers from the "just a few mega exhibits syndrome" so doesnt take long-for me the best bit is still the 60s Reptile House.Ive not been to Riverbanks for 8 years,and its good if perhaps a little crammed in.
 
I have been to Riverbanks and Zoo Atlanta.
Riverbanks absolutely blows Zoo Atlana out of the water. It has a larger foot print, more activities, more animals, an incredible botanical garden.
There is a reason it is a one of the top zoos in America.

Also, you don't have to deal with going to downtown Atlanta. Riverbanks is easier to get in and out of. Zoo Atlanta is nice, but Riverbanks is an experience

I have never been to Knoxville zoo and would love to hear opinions.
 
Russ212 said:
I have been to Riverbanks and Zoo Atlanta.
Riverbanks absolutely blows Zoo Atlana out of the water. It has a larger foot print, more activities, more animals, an incredible botanical garden.
There is a reason it is a one of the top zoos in America.

Also, you don't have to deal with going to downtown Atlanta. Riverbanks is easier to get in and out of. Zoo Atlanta is nice, but Riverbanks is an experience

I have never been to Knoxville zoo and would love to hear opinions.
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