I have Scottish friends who will be visting Berlin in June and they want to visit a zoo. They are only occasional zoo visitors so will not want or have time to visit more than one. So, on their behalf, which is considered better, Berlin Zoo or Berlin Tierpark?
It's all personal choice really; both collections have their strengths and weaknesses but I personally rank them equally for different reasons. One important factor is that both really require two days to see properly; however from what you have said, they will not want to spend two days visiting either collection. As such, it may be better for them to visit Zoo Berlin as this is the smaller collection and thus they will be able to see more of it. However, one could also suggest that if they are only occasional zoo visitors they may not care about how much they miss - in which case I think Tierpark Berlin might be the better choice as it is set within a large expanse of parkland and woodland, being sited in the gardens of one of the old Imperial palaces, and as such they might quite enjoy spending time there for its non-zoo merits as well as the zoological collection. Moreover it will be a lot more quiet and peaceful than Zoo Berlin. The other important factor is what animal groups they might be particularly interested in - Zoo Berlin is probably the better collection for birds, fish and primates, but Tierpark Berlin is the better collection for hoofstock and carnivore species. Both are good for reptiles.
For occasional zoo visitors from abroad, Berlin Zoo is the better choice. Why? Because it's way easier to travel to by public transport and aimed at international visitors.
There have been other threads discussing this. Roughly summarized: Zoo: Great general zoo and the one most typical zoo visitors probably would prefer. They have members of virtually all the animal groups most ordinary zoo visitors would want to see. Includes an aquarium with an excellent collection of especially fresh water fish but lacking a big ocean tank. Also a good insect collection. Tierpark: Great, especially if you're interested in seeing some serious diversity of various mammal groups. This is perhaps also its disadvantage for ordinary zoo visitors (as opposed to us animal crazy zoochatters!): many ordinary people really don't care about seeing 3 different takin, 3 different tigers, etc. A small easily missed aquarium in the cafeteria. If just enjoying a slow, quiet stroll through woodlands and parks the tierpark is superior. If the person has a special interest in some animal or animal group just check ZootierlisteHomepage, e.g. bonobo (zoo) or aardwolf (tierpark). For ordinary zoo visitors you could do the zoo or the tierpark in a day, but if you really want to have a good look at almost everything two days at each is necessary. It's easy, cheap and fast to reach both by the U-Bahn (underground/metro). The stop for the tierpark is "Tierpark" and the one for the zoo is "Zoologischer Garten" (not Tiergarten, that's an earlier stop!).
@TLD: it's one thing if your zoo is located right in the city centre, with plenty of options to get there and other sights closeby. It's another when you have to travel through half the city to get there, and have no other attraction closeby (except for the Stasi Museum). The occasional zoo visitors I know prefer the first option. Another reason why the Tierpark is currently struggeling.
Of course the Zoo is the much better choice for ordinary zoovisitors. First, the zoo is within the city center and most people visiting Berlin live in a hotel within the city-the journey to the Tierpark takes from the city 45 Minutes, and you have to change the U-Underground lines. The Zoo is defenitley much better to reach. 2.The Walking distances between the favorite species for ordinary visitors-elephants,rhinos,hippos,giraffes,zebras,seals,penguins,polar bears, big cats, apes and monkey, are much shorter than at The Tierpark, and the Tierpark houses to much "boring"animals... 3.The Zoo has a lot of animal houses-so it is the prefect choice for a rainy day, and the zoo has the Aquarium. 4.I may be wrong, but I could imagine, the zoos landscape with the old animal buildings in it could be more beautyful to ordinary visitors than the Tierpark-which is, of course, also beautyful, but diffrent.
Normally the zoo is the better choice. If they however want to visit a zoo to get away from the crowds and enjoy a nice walk in a nice woody park landscape, then Tierpark Berlin would be your better choice...
They're visiting in June Chlidonias, so there's no way to read all of those huge reviews before then.
My reviews of Tierpark and Zoo comprise about 50,000 words so that's pretty much a short novella which one could read in a night.
What is the gaur situation in the Zoo? Do they have one or more full grown gaur bulls with huge dorsal ridge ?
What is the financial situation of the Zoo ? They atractact a lot of visitors, but there haven't been a lot of new exhibits opening it's mostly rennovations. Are zoo and tierpark realy one organization ? If yes wouldn't it be better to invest in tiepark to remake it as erlebnispark ( the same relationship as Planckendael and Zoo antwerp) Or close down Tierpark and rebuilt it in it's entirety like Zoo Vincennes Paris. There is enough room to rebuilt and keep a large part of the collection on site.
