I'm going to Dresden this summer and will of course visit Dresden Zoo and Leipzig Zoo. I'll be there for a week and will not visit zoos all the days, but I'm looking into the possibility of visiting a third and maybe a fourth zoo. Are there other interesting zoos within an hour's (public) transport time from Dresden? I could maybe extend the transport time if the zoo is interesting enough, but going to e.g. Berlin is probably a bit too far for how interested I am. I've considered Chemnitz Tierpark a bit for its collection (have never seen Rocky Mountain goats and bear macaques before), but looking at pictures, it doesn't seem that impressing. Is it worth the visit? Any other suggestions?
Zoo Usti nad Labem and Zoo Decin in Czech republic are very close to Dresden i think about hour and half by a car.
Görlitz is supposed to be a very nice, but small, zoo and that should be reachable from Dresden. 36 km from Leipzig is also Halle, which is nicely situated on a hill (so means climbing) and has a nice south-american and mountain animal collection, allthough most enclosures are not that special. Chemnitz has also the best amphibian collection of Europe, but the enclosures are not that breathtaking, which is not strange looking to the financial position they are in at the moment.
You would either have to decide between traveling just beyond the border into Czech Republic and do both Usti (quite a big zoo to go round and up …) and Decin. Or you would have to stick to the SE corner of the lower east Federal States and take in both Goerlitz (a nice somewhat little known gem of a zoo) and Chemnitz (this latter is worth it for its collection, pennywise your visit will be most appreciated … it sadly lacks the much needed financial backing)
Thanks for the tips! I've forgot that Dresden is so close to the Czech border, so I'll take Usti and Decin into my considerations! Which of the two would you recommend the most? Usti is obviously larger, but there's always the thing of quantity not equaling quality... Again, Berlin is probably a bit too far away. I've been to the Zoo, and even though I want to revisit it sooner or later, I guess I want to see some new zoos this time. I haven't been to the Tierpark, but my impression is that it takes more than a whole day to fully do it justice, and adding to the fairly long transport time, I'll postpone it to another time.
