The sheer volume of fun and educational activities at the San Diego Zoo for kids and toddlers makes it the top San Diego family attraction. We’re active members, and I strongly believe that arriving armed with some knowledge of what to do, time-saving tips, programming to plan around, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s conservation initiatives will help you maximize your day.
The must-see kid-friendly activities are rated by me, my family, and readers I work with to help plan San Diego family vacations. Remember that I also have a list of general tips for visiting the San Diego Zoo and can also help you buy discount San Diego Zoo tickets. For trips with an overnight, I also keep a list of San Diego Zoo hotels that work well for families.
Be Prepared to Spend a Lot of Time in Wildlife Explorers Basecamp
I used to believe that the Zoo was a one-day experience. That is until we visited Wildlife Explorers Basecamp, the area dedicated to kids built on the site of the former Children’s Zoo, with a young child.
There is a lot to do across more than three acres. It is a giant playground of rope bridges, tunnels, caves, a waterfall grotto, and splash jets woven through four habitat zones: Desert Dunes, Wild Woods, Marsh Meadows, and Rainforest. Each one is home to the wildlife that lives in that kind of place.
Interactive exhibits await in the Spineless Marvels Invertebrate House, a two-story greenhouse showcasing insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. Sure, you can balance an ecosystem by playing a video game or doing crafts, but the highlight is the giant beehive at the end of the building.
There used to be a petting zoo in the former Children’s Zoo area, but those animals now live at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where the Petting Kraal in Nairobi Village lets kids brush the goats.
See the Giant Pandas at Panda Ridge
Giant pandas are back at the San Diego Zoo. Yun Chuan and Xin Bao arrived from China in 2024 and live at Denny Sanford Panda Ridge, a habitat inspired by the mountain landscapes of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces.
My guide to seeing the San Diego Zoo pandas covers how to get in front of them. If your kids are 5 or older, the Early Morning with Pandas walking tour gets you into the habitat before it opens to everyone else.
Guided Tours/Upgraded Experiences Make Exploring With Young Kids Easier (And Interesting)
The top reason to consider upgrading your day with one of the San Diego Zoo tours is to minimize walking and maximize up-close animal viewing, which is incredibly helpful for kids.
Inside Look and Inside Look Deluxe both travel by cart, so a Zoo educator drives you between habitats answering questions while everyone feels like kings of the jungle, and you step off for the up-close visits. A few experiences start before the Zoo opens to the public, which is great for early birds and anyone short on time.
Inside Look runs 90 minutes and is open to all ages. My San Diego Zoo tours guide compares the rest, including what each one costs on the day you want.
Use Skyfari Aerial Tram to Go From One Side to the Other
Skyfari Aerial Tram also cuts down on walking by transporting you from near Reptile House uphill to Northern Frontier by Polar Bear Plunge and back. It’s a terrific shortcut and very relaxing. Mind your children, but have your camera ready as the view from above is spectacular.
You’ll spot a few animals, see Balboa Park, and it does feel a little bit like a slow-moving theme park ride. The tram has been open since 1969 and is included with admission. Children younger than 8 ride with an adult, and folded strollers are allowed on board.
Ride the Guided Bus Tour to Save Some Walking
The Guided Bus Tour is included with every admission ticket and membership. It’s a narrated, round-trip loop through the Zoo on a double-decker bus that takes about 35 minutes, and it boards near the entrance on a first-come basis.
Strollers do not go on the bus, but there is stroller parking at the queue. Ridden first, it gives everyone a look at a big slice of the Zoo from the top deck before you decide which areas deserve a walk.
See Polar Bear Plunge Early
My favorite San Diego Zoo exhibit is the Polar Bear Plunge. Sure, they’re immense, graceful, and adorable creatures that can adapt to icy environments and San Diego sunshine, but how you view them here is unique.
From the main viewing area, which is nicely shaded and offers some bench seating, you can see the polar bears on land and underwater because the glass windows here cover both viewpoints.
If you are lucky, they will swim up to the window, an event I have seen many times but have never taken a decent photo of. As you might imagine, people tend to crowd the area.
Even if you don’t see the polar bears plunge into the water, it’s still rewarding to see them. Nearby, kids can crawl into a faux polar bear den and explore the play area (more on this below). A docent is often on hand to answer questions like what a polar bear eats.
Don’t Miss the Koalas in the Outback
The highlight of the Outback is the Zoo’s koala colony which is the largest outside of Australia.
The first two koalas, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, arrived in 1925. The deck from which you view the koalas is raised so that you don’t have to strain to look up to see where they are usually sleeping in the eucalyptus trees. Popping the kids onto your shoulders, though, still helps them get a better look.
You’ll see other marsupials here, including wallabies and tree kangaroos, plus a chorus of Australian birds.
Keep an eye out for the group of aboriginal-style totem poles that are topped with an Australian species. Young kids love looking up to these to ramble off their animal knowledge.
Or, Hippo Trail
The San Diego Zoo is home to river hippos and pygmy hippos, and you can see them on Hippo Trail in the Lost Forest. These mammals spend most of the day in the water, and their nostrils close so they can stay under for five minutes or longer without coming up for air.
Hippopotamuses are actually very aggressive creatures. You and the kids will learn all about them on Hippo Trail, seeing a hippo family from up close (but not dangerously close), as well as a truly adorable pygmy hippopotamus.
Cool down in the Reptile House + Tortoise Friends
If you have young kids, this is one of the best places in the zoo to bring them. It’s the closest attraction to the entrance, and while there are outdoor exhibits, the Reptile House is indoors, so it is a nice place to shield from the afternoon sun.
The Reptile House has snakes, lizards, and bugs. Sometimes, the bigger animals, like elephants and lions, can be a rather daunting thing to start with, so spending time with these smaller creatures is a nice way to ease in.
Behind the Reptile House, you’ll find the tortoises and turtles of Discovery Outpost. Don’t miss the Galapagos tortoises. I could watch them for ages.
Watch Elephants Play
San Diego Zoo’s Elephant Odyssey is home to African elephants, and the signage around the habitat explains how they differ from their Asian cousins, from their ears to their trunks.
What creature in the world can compare to the elephant? They’re so immense, with lovely intelligent eyes and skin that makes you feel good about your heels, even on your worst days.
You may catch the care team at the Elephant Care Center scrubbing an elephant’s foot or running one through its wellness routine. It’s a great deal of fun to watch, and the kids will marvel at their hulking figures.
See Baboons, Meerkats, More in Africa Rocks
Africa does rock. The continent has a wealth of biodiversity, with animals and plants found nowhere else. This exhibit celebrates that, with six different habitats, you can immerse yourself in and discover.
There are a lot of highlights here. The meerkats are usually active and easy for kids to see as the viewpoint isn’t too far from where they burrow.
Several clans of hamadryas baboons live here, and their antics can be quite funny when they’re all out and active in the exhibit, which is quite large.
In the Cape Fynbos habitat, you’ll see African penguins waddling on their beach and zipping through the water. In the Madagascar Forest, spot lemurs swinging from the trees.
You’ll also get to see the leopard, one of the most magnificent predators in the world, as well as dwarf crocodiles and baboons.
This is a very big exhibit, so I suggest planning to spend at least an hour here.
Learn About Rhinos and Big Animals in Urban Jungle
Rhinos are some of the most important animals you can see at San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park because of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s rhino conservation work.
The San Diego Zoo is home to greater one-horned rhinos (formerly called Indian rhinos), which you can see in Urban Jungle.
The Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is where scientists are working to bring the northern white rhino back from the edge of extinction.
Only two are left in the world, both females that cannot breed, so the team is developing embryos from genetic material banked in the Alliance’s Frozen Zoo, to be carried by southern white rhino surrogates.
Back at the Zoo, Urban Jungle is also home to Masai giraffes, and you may see a cheetah out for a walk with its wildlife care specialist.
Learn More at Wildlife Presentations and Care Specialist Talks
One of the best things about visiting the zoo is that it is both super exciting and truly educational for your kids. They can learn so much about the world and its animals just by spending one day here.
The Zoo runs three wildlife presentations every day. Africa Rocks Encounter happens on the Africa Rocks stage, ambassador animals appear at the Rady Ambassador Presentation Area, and Wildlife Wonders at Wegeforth Bowl is a 15-to-20-minute show where care specialists bring out the animals they work with.
Shorter care specialist talks happen at habitats around the Zoo throughout the day.
Times are posted in the San Diego Zoo app and on the Zoo’s presentations page, and they do change, so check the day’s schedule when you arrive and build your route around the ones you want.
Walk Through Bird Aviaries
San Diego Zoo isn’t confined to the ground. It also has an incredible array of bright feathered birds. Just prepare for things to get a little loud. The aviaries are lush with diverse plant life and have a great many birds flying all about. They’re constantly communicating, and you’ll find they can get louder and more boisterous than the kids.
The Owens Aviary in the Lost Forest is the big one. It’s an impressive structure enclosing everything while remaining light and wild-feeling, and you stroll along a walkway above the trees, spotting birds and listening to their calls.
The aviaries are an excellent place to cool down on hot days. You’ll also find the Scripps Aviary in Gorilla Tropics, the African Aviary in Africa Rocks, and the walk-through Hummingbird Habitat near the entrance.
Take a Seat in the Mostly-Shaded Monkey Trails
Another fun attraction for kids of all ages is the Monkey Trails. This elevated walkway provides some shade, which is helpful on sunny days.
Here, you can see adorable capuchin, spot-nosed, and colobus monkeys, among others.
These lively creatures are extremely social. Watch them interact, and see how many different species you can all spot, noting their different behaviors.
The trails move through multiple exhibits since monkeys come from around the world and have varying habitats and social behaviors. This trail is also shaded in many parts.
Burn off Energy at the Playgrounds
Aside from the amazing animals, San Diego Zoo toddlers have plenty of fun working off some energy at the Zoo’s three dedicated play areas, and that is before you count Wildlife Explorers Basecamp:
- Tree of Dreams: Inside Basecamp’s Wild Woods, an ancient oak dripping with Spanish moss that kids climb by rope bridge, spiral staircase, or fallen branch.
- Elephant Play Yard: This open-air playground offers puzzles, a play fossil dig, a maze of elephant tracking collars, and plenty of space to explore. It’s opposite Elephant Odyssey, so you’ll hear some fun toots and bellows.
- Polar Play Area: Do your children love storybooks or polar bears? This impressive play area takes the cake, with supersized illustrated storybooks, life-size polar bear statues to measure up against, and a polar bear den to crawl into.
Plus, there are various statues to climb all over scattered throughout the Zoo.
Use the San Diego Zoo App to Get Around
Let’s say your kids want to see the baboons, but you’re on the other side of the Zoo in Polar Bear Plunge. The app will tell you how long it will take to walk from exhibit to exhibit.
This way, you’re not left to guess, which is valuable when the kids are tired of walking. I use this feature all the time, even though I’m familiar with the layout.
Shop the San Diego Zoo Kids Store
A treat after a day at the Zoo for children is a visit to this fun San Diego Zoo Kids Store. You will walk by it as you visit exhibits, but try to keep it as your last stop as a positive way to end the day if a souvenir is on your itinerary. You can pick up plush toys of favorite animals, T-shirts, games, educational activities, and more.
My favorite thing about the San Diego Zoo Kids Store is the Sweets and Treats cookies and ice cream stand inside, one of my favorite San Diego Zoo food outlets! You can grab a gourmet coffee and reset sad faces with tasty treats.
Of course, you can also pick up a variety of stuffed animals and other souvenirs to remember your visit.
Ride the Balboa Park Railroad Miniature Train
Just outside the San Diego Zoo exit, you’ll find this cool miniature train replica of a real diesel locomotive.
Its hours are seasonal, so check the Zoo app before you walk over. It typically runs weekends and holidays, with a longer schedule in summer, on a half-mile loop that takes about four minutes.
It’s short but terrific, with a friendly train conductor and lots of excited kids enjoying the ride. This is a great way to close off an adventure-packed day. Or start it. Tickets are a few dollars for everyone age 1 and up, and children 5 and younger ride with a paying adult.
If you leave the Zoo to ride it and would like to return to see more animals, be sure to get a hand stamp, which allows you to reenter for free.
Or, Take a Spin on the Balboa Park Carousel
Another attraction just outside the Zoo is this beautiful 1910 carousel. It feels rather magical, with every menagerie animal except four miniature horses still the original hand-carved piece.
It’s well-maintained and lovely, an enjoyable ride for all ages. It runs weekends and school holidays, and daily in summer, so check the schedule if it matters to your day. Go for a ride with the kids and take a few photos. After all, it’s not often you get to ride on the same carousel generations of families have enjoyed.
The kids can choose their favorite animal after seeing the real deal at the zoo. Pick your racer: horse, camel, lion, or zebra.
Utilize San Diego Zoo Kids’ Programming
Other San Diego Zoo kids’ activities extend beyond a park day. I especially encourage locals to take a look at them.
Summer Camp
The Zoo offers an amazing variety of summer camps for kindergarten through ninth grade. Campers spend most of their time outdoors, learning about and interacting with animals, doing arts and crafts, and playing games.
Teen Programs
The Zoo also runs summer internships and other programs for teens, and they open by season, so the youth programs page is where to look for what is currently taking applications.
Tips for Visiting the San Diego Zoo With Toddlers and Babies
Having a baby or toddler on your visit to San Diego Zoo won’t be an issue. With years of experience, I’ve put together a few tips to make things easy.
Use Available Rentals
If you did not bring a stroller on your San Diego vacation, you can rent one on a first-come-first-served basis. They also have double strollers.
Lockers can be rented at the entrance so that you can leave everything you don’t need there. They range in size, so you pay for the space you need. These are also first-come-first-served.
Bring Your Own Food
You can bring your own food into the Zoo in small containers, which helps families with dietary restrictions. And, of course, you’ll likely save money by doing so. Large coolers are prohibited.
Glass, alcohol, and straws are all not permitted to be brought in. Straws are unavailable at park concession stands as they are unsafe for animals should they blow away. We’ve pulled out some of the highlights from the food and bag policy at San Diego Zoo for you to review.
Manage Animal Expectations
If the kids feel sad that their favorite animal isn’t in view, tell them the exhibits were created to mimic their natural habits, including hiding spaces that help them feel safe.
Wagons Are Allowed
You can bring wagons for kids to San Diego Zoo. Many people do. Just be mindful that there is some uneven terrain. The Zoo’s mobile phone app will help you navigate it.
Save On San Diego Zoo Children’s Tickets and Annual Passes
Kids Free Promotions
First, children ages 2 and under always get into the San Diego Zoo free.
Every October, in honor of the Zoo’s founding, kids 11 and under get in free. For 2026 the offer runs October 1 through 31 at both the Zoo and the Safari Park.
Each adult with any valid form of admission (a ticket, a membership, or one of the discounted tickets below) can bring up to six kids free. My Kids Free San Diego guide covers the other participating attractions.
1-Day Kids Tickets at a Discount
Children ages 3 to 11 pay the child rate, and everyone 12 and older pays the adult rate. You don’t have to pay full price for either.
My exclusive San Diego Zoo discount code takes the same amount off both adult and child 1-Day tickets at San Diego based aRes Travel, an authorized San Diego Zoo ticket seller. Tap the code below to copy it.
1-Day Pass — Use My Exclusive 2026 Promo Code
Skip the ticket line and go straight to the gate with a mobile or printed ticket. Valid for one year from the purchase date.
Adult (12+) $70 $78
Child (3–11) $60 $68
Save $8 per ticket with my promo code
Tap to copy your $8-off code:
You can add ticket insurance for $25 at checkout, full refund.
Annual Pass for Kids (Highly Recommend)
San Diego County residents and those considering visiting San Diego Zoo or Safari Park should take a look at the Wildlife Explorer membership for ages 3–17.
It costs a little more than a single child’s 1-Day ticket. In addition to other perks, the child receives a year of admission to the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, with the Guided Bus Tour, Skyfari, and Africa Tram included.
This is a great deal because you will save big if you visit a San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance park twice.
FAQs About Visiting the San Diego Zoo With Kids
Are kids free at the San Diego Zoo?
Children ages 2 and under are always free. Every October, kids 11 and under get in free with any adult who has a valid ticket or membership, up to six kids per adult. The rest of the year, ages 3 to 11 pay the child rate.
Is there a petting zoo at the San Diego Zoo?
No. The petting area in the old Children’s Zoo is gone, and its site is now Wildlife Explorers Basecamp. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has a Petting Kraal in Nairobi Village where kids can brush the goats.
Can I bring a stroller or wagon into the San Diego Zoo?
Yes. Wagons and strollers are allowed, single and double strollers rent first-come at the entrance, and a folded stroller can ride the Skyfari. Strollers do not go on the Guided Bus Tour, but there is stroller parking at the queue.
Is the Guided Bus Tour included with San Diego Zoo admission?
Yes. The Guided Bus Tour and the Skyfari aerial tram are included with every admission ticket and membership, subject to availability.
If you have questions about what to do at San Diego Zoo for kids, please leave a comment and I’m happy to answer them.
Hi dear
I have 2 toddlers under 3 and I would like to know if I can bring in a wagon for them ?
Hi! I have seen wagons in both the Zoo and Safari Park though I do not know of any official rule about whether they are permitted or not.
Hey thanks for all of this great info! What is the best time of day to see certain animals when they are most active? We are particularly excited about the polar bears! Is there stroller parking? How do you handle stroller for the Skyfari Aerial Tram? Should we just carry baby and make our 4yo walk? Thanks for everything!
You can take a small fold-up stroller on Skyfari. I would definitely bring a stroller because it’s too much walking for small kids otherwise.
Your insight and tips for traveling to San Diego with kids is PRICELESS!!!! Thank you for doing this! We are so excited for our first trip out there in a few weeks!