Cougar Rocks

It is interesting that a theme park with such high entrance prices still has enclosures like this (and the penguins is no better...). I would expect something better even from a theme park if you see the amount of money they take in....

@lintworm I totally agree! Someone told me that on a good day Six Flags makes $75,000 just from parking fees but I've no idea how accurate that information is. If they get 10,000 people through the door and maybe 2,500 vehicles (perhaps 4 people per vehicle) and then take that 2,500 and times it by $25 parking per day then that equals $62,500. The amazing number of food outlets and gift shops has to be seen to be believed...with long lines everywhere during my visit.

@Chlidonias Yes, $25 for parking and then $69 per single admission ticket for a grand total of $84 US ($108 Canadian) but if you pre-book online then you still pay the $25 parking but at least the facility knocks off $20 for a single ticket...but then they sneakily add in a $10 "service and processing fee" and so you only actually save $10 per ticket. Alas, the world of capitalism these days.

@Chlidonias There are certainly many public buses that come and go from the park, although I suspect that 95% of visitors drive themselves. Most major zoos in America have an average ticket price of around $20 but places like Safari West and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom are not the norm. In fact, I think that I'd go broke in Europe with the extravagant prices!

@snowleopard As long as you do not visit Switzerland (though you can visit Basel and Zurich while staying in Germany ) or the UK you won't go broke, most major zoos in the Netherlands charge around 20 euros, ones in Germany mostly vary from 10-20 euros and Eastern Europe is just cheap, Prague costs about 10 USD.....

@lintworm Well, 20 Euros is $30 Canadian and so if I visit at least 20 zoos then that is $600 in admission fees, plus $1,500 in flights, plus car rental fees, fuel, travel insurance, plus souvenirs, guidebooks, food, etc. I really need to start buying lottery tickets! I can drive around California for a lot less money.

@snowleopard , Sorry I was thinking you were using USD not the canadian dollars... But still I think you overestimate the costs of Europe. You might pay an average of 20 canadian dollars per zoo entry as an average across all of Europe, but that is still much cheaper than some of the Californian places you are visiting and you are overestimating the cost of flights as well. Especially for Vancouver, KLM sometimes has offers starting from 500 euros return, but that would involve booking far in advance, though even for coming October there are direct flights available for 650 euros return (with Air Transat next year the flights can be under 500 euro return, so 750 canadian dollar). And if you travel in Europe, I would not bother with a rental car, which is very expensive if you are on your own, we have a functional public transport system with especially cheap bus tickets and overall affordable train tickets. I am not saying Europe is a cheap place to travel, but it is not as expensive as you make it sound. For less than 4000 canadian dollars you should be able to tour 3.5 weeks through the Netherlands (Amsterdam - Diergaarde Blijdorp - Apenheul - Burgers Zoo), Belgium (Pairi Daiza - Antwerp) Germany (Cologne - Duisburg - Leipzig - Magdeburg - Berlin Zoo - Berlin TP - ), Poland (Poznan - Wroclaw), Czechia (Praha - Plzen - Zlin Lesna) Austria (Vienna) (Possible to go to Budapest for a day) back to Germany (Munich - Stuttgart), Switzerland (Zurich - Basel) and then back to Amsterdam via Frankfurt. This is a full schedule, but it is possible and would show you many of Europe's best and most interesting zoos.

@lintworm I've been itching to get back to Europe but for various reasons, I haven't had the time. Your itinerary makes me even more eager to get back there.