Virginia Zoo

There are a lot of reviews saying that you never see any animals. In reality, the zoo is a natural habitat facility like many zoos that care about their animals. You have to look hard to see many of the animals as they hide in the foliage. Also, the animals are usually hiding inside or in the shade when it gets hot. Go early in the morning when they first open and you can catch them just after they feed. We saw several babies...giraffes, rhino, and one of the smaller apes. The tiger, zebras, and orangutans we're viewable if you wander around the exhibit and look through one of the many windows. A lot of the birds were off exhibit due to avian flu danger. There's a small train ride you can take for $3 each, but you don't get a good view of the animals. What you do get is a great commentary about the zoo, it's animals and various programs. The reptile house is one of the best I've ever seen in the many zoos I've visited over the years. It keeps on going with all kinds of lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, fish, and views of the lab areas. Definitely worth going through if you want to get real close to pythons, and other things that will kill you if you meet them in the wild.

Came here at the beginning of August with my boyfriend and his sister and we had a great time. They had some very cool and interesting animals including lions, tigers, giraffes and rhinos and more. There were some enclosures that we didn’t see any animals in which was kind of disappointing but other than that we all had fun and would definitely come back again. I loved the giraffe exhibit and how they had it where you can be up close to the giraffes face/head and see them eating. And they have a college student discount on zoo tickets as long as you bring your valid school id

This is a nice Zoo with a variety of animals for a family or couple to enjoy. The prices for admission are reasonable and I even received a discount for showing my college identity card. There is a cool little train ride that is great for kids and a fountain area near the entrance to cool you off. Some animals were not visible or were out of their exhibits but that was mainly due to the heat.

Lovely zoo. $18 ages 12+, $15 ages 2-11. Lots of parking spaces in the lot.

Exhibits are clean and well-kept. Particularly the open giraffe and rhino exhibits were great. We also really enjoyed the reptile area which is near the exit…a lot of interesting things in there that you can get pretty close to.

Café (the one opened at the time) was about average, both in food and prices, for what you’d expect for a zoo. ($5 hot dog, $7 chicken tenders, $5 fries, $8 hamburger, $3-5 drinks)

All staff members were very nice.

I love this zoo. My parents used to bring me here as a child and I have such fond memories of those visits. I still enjoy it now. It's a well designed zoo with basically a single route through all of the exhibits. My wife and I can walk it easily in several hours and grab lunch about halfway through. Compared to the national zoo in DC and the Baltimore zoo I actually prefer this one for both exhibits and size. If you are in the area you should pay it a visit.