hi everyone, I'm going to be visiting Texas with my family soon and the kids that will be going are all under 3 years old. We only have time to visit one zoo during our trip. Has anyone been to both the Austin zoo and the dallas zoo that can tell me which one is worth going to if I could only choose one? Pros/Cons? Food choices/restrictions? Thanks! -Kate
Austin Zoo is a small-ish not for profit that houses rehab and rescued animals. Dallas Zoo is a traditional major metro zoo. Which you prefer depends on how price-sensitive you are (Dallas is a bit more expensive, but still cheap) and what sort of experience you're after.
Austin Zoo is unaccredited by AZA and only exists as a rescue zoo. Whereas Dallas Zoo focus more of their resources on conservation and breeding programs. Dallas Zoo is huge in comparison. But you'll find it easier to get a good look at everything in Austin without the crowds that the Dallas Zoo has on weekends. You'll probably walk the entire Austin Zoo in less than four hours (even as a slow looker). Which leaves plenty of time to drive down 71 to the Capital Texas Zoo Almost empty any day of the week and plenty to experience. It really comes down to the kind of experience you want to have.
If you're visiting Texas and have to choose between two zoos, those are not the two to compare. There are 4 major zoos in Texas (Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio), 4 medium (Caldwell, Cameron Park, Gladys Porter, and El Paso) and many smaller ones. Austin Zoo really doesn't come into the mix unless one is stuck in Austin.
I've visited 45 of the 51 "zoos" in Texas (including approximately 10 aquariums) and the above paragraph is a succinct summary. In my opinion Dallas Zoo is the best zoological attraction in the state and with small kids it could easily be an all-day visit. It is clearly one of the very best zoos in the nation and any comparison with Austin is negligible. Austin Zoo can be toured in less than 2 hours and most of the enclosures are simple wire cages. Dallas Zoo has a wonderful African section and the children's zone all by itself is of a higher quality than anything Austin Zoo offers the public.
Hi everyone, this is really helpful. We will be going during a non peak season time (before spring break and after the new year), so I'm hoping that it won't be so busy. From the descriptions, I'm thinking we will check out Dallas zoo to make sure it's worth stopping by. I had on idea that there were 51 zoos in Texas either. I definitely need to look into this more. We are though only visiting 2 cities on our trip, so Dallas zoo looks like the winner!
