Zoo Travelling Advice

O

Otter Lord

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Time for another Zoo Road Trip Thread. I am heading back to Syracuse and driving this time again. This time it is a different route and my stops are in Denver, Omaha, Chicago, and Cleveland. So I'll be stopping in each city's zoo with the Brookfield and Lincoln Park combination in Chicago. I wanted to consult you guys about some things in regard to each of the zoos.

I need times for about how much it takes to get through the each zoo. I'll be getting there at about opening, and I was wondering what the best routes would be for some of the zoos, especially Denver and Omaha, which will probably be the largest. Any tips to escape crowds, or the heat; I do not have my Zoo Chatter handbook called, "America's Best Zoos," so I do not know really what to expect from most of the zoos. I like hitting the best parts of the zoo at the end so I leave on a high note too.

Chicago is a bit of a special case, because I will be seeing Brookfield first then Lincoln Park all in the same day. The situation is that we do not really want to be going into the city and possibly park somewhere and take the train in. Does anyone from Chicago or who knows about the zoos know if both zoos have ready access by train?
 
Brookfield is located right along the BNSF Burlington Metra Train which runs from Aurora IL to downtown Chicago.The zoo stop is Hollywood ave and is a 5 min walk through the suburb of Brookfield.Once downtown you would have to connect to a CTA train and do a bit of walking ,doing Brookfield and Lincoln Park in the same day is going to be tough but is possible.Any questions let us know.Also what day are you visiting Cleveland?

Team Tapir
 
Omaha is easy to visit in one day, but I would really suggest trying to go on a weekday, as the buildings up front can get extremely crowded. Also, If you arrive at opening time, I would suggest doing the large immersion exhibits at the front (Lied Jungle, Desert Dome, Kingdoms of the Night), because they also get very busy later in the day. If you really want to the best parts at the end, I would suggest the Lied Jungle, as it never gets as busy as the Desert Dome/Kingdoms of the Night. I go 2-3 times a year, so feel free to ask me any questions.

Regarding Chicago, I just took a nice trip there a month ago, and have a few suggestions. Firstly, I think it would be extremely hard to visit both zoos on the same day. Brookfield takes 4-5 hours minimum, and Lincoln Park 2-3. Add over an hour of switching between them, I don't see how you could do it.

As for the transportation, Metra is like an actual train and only leaves at certain times, unlike the "L" which is an actual "subway." It depends on where your staying, but it was actually pretty easy for me to just drive to the Brookfield Zoo. As for Lincoln Park, you need to get off at the Armitage station (Brown and Purple) and walk several blocks east and you arrive at the zoo. It is about a 20 minute walk.

Again, feel free to ask me any questions.
 
Visiting Brookfield and Lincoln Park in the same day is insane! If you can only spare a day for Chicago, choose Brookfield and spend the whole day there, it is huge! Gate to gate, you would spend more like 2 hours traveling between them, during prime visiting hours.
 
My sister and I once did Brookfield and LPZ all in one day but keep in mind that we have been to both zoos dozens of times.We just wanted to see if it could be done and after wards we were exhausted.That being said I would tend to agree with the others pick one or the other I would suggest Brookfield.As for Cleveland I would say its about a 5 hour zoo.

Marty of Team Tapir
 
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Thanks a lot for the help.

Hmm, guess we aren't going to be stopping at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It is rather hard to gauge how big the zoo is from the zoo maps and such, Brookfield's zoo map is awful in showing how big things are. After scanning the photos from here, LPZ looked better than Brookfield, but I heard that that is not the case. What are the high points at Brookfield?

@Team tapir, probably be at the Cleveland Zoo Friday the 26th.
 
Brookfield is a huge zoo, with tons of exhibits. High points are (in my opinion):
Tropic World (great collection of primates, but poor for gorillas and orangutans)
The Fragile Desert (nice exhibits for small African carnivores)
The Swamp (nice collection of both birds and reptiles)
Australia (Good collection of Australian creatures, best being wombats)
Pinniped Point (Great exhibits, with underwater viewing, for three pinniped species)

Those are the best exhibits imo, but there are many more good ones. Geomorph has extensivly reviewed both zoos, if you want to read thoses
http://www.zoochat.com/22/review-brookfield-zoo-157283/
http://www.zoochat.com/22/review-lincoln-park-zoo-155924/
 
KCZooFan said:
Brookfield is a huge zoo, with tons of exhibits. High points are (in my opinion):
Tropic World (great collection of primates, but poor for gorillas and orangutans)
The Fragile Desert (nice exhibits for small African carnivores)
The Swamp (nice collection of both birds and reptiles)
Australia (Good collection of Australian creatures, best being wombats)
Pinniped Point (Great exhibits, with underwater viewing, for three pinniped species)

Those are the best exhibits imo, but there are many more good ones. Geomorph has extensivly reviewed both zoos, if you want to read thoses
http://www.zoochat.com/22/review-brookfield-zoo-157283/
http://www.zoochat.com/22/review-lincoln-park-zoo-155924/
Click to expand...

@KCzoofan What are your thoughts on Great Bear Wilderness we saw it during Zoo Lights at Christmas time but being that it was at night it was hard to really get a feel for the exhibit what did you think of it

Team Tapir
 
team tapir said:
@KCzoofan What are your thoughts on Great Bear Wilderness we saw it during Zoo Lights at Christmas time but being that it was at night it was hard to really get a feel for the exhibit what did you think of it

Team Tapir
Click to expand...

Great Bear Wilderness was pretty good, but nothing amazing. The two polar bear and one brown bear exhibit were spacious, but kind of boring. I did like the building with both underwater views of polar and brown bears, as two brown bears were in the water on my visit. The bison exhibit is really nice, but has a poor fence. The best part is easily the gray wolf exhibit (which I think was there before Great Bear Wilderness.) I also enjoyed the walk around the lake. Even saw some hooded mergansers. Like most of their exhibits, the immersion is done pretty well, and all the buildings have a very rustic feel.
 
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