Toronto Zoo
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| Toronto Zoo – tiger; courtesy of Tourism Toronto |
Actually, the last time my sister and I went, we did manage to plan it a bit better. We focused on just a couple of sections. The zoo provides a map showing you where the animals are located. They're all clustered according to the regions of the world, such as Africa, Americas, IndoMalya and Eurasia (the last one sounds like a trendy type of cuisine, actually). So you can pretend you're going on safari for a day and choose your favourite destination and just do that on this visit. If you're really adventurous you could fit in THREE regions, but I wouldn't recommend pushing beyond that.
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| Toronto Zoo – polar bear; courtesy of Tourism Toronto |
Since I'm Canadian, I'm rather partial to the Canadian animals, like the moose, the lynx, and the bears, etc. so we did that section last time. And we saw most of Africa (but not all!). It's hard to beat those African giraffes for their sheer novelty… how exactly do they keep those heavy heads balanced on those long skinny necks?
The Toronto Zoo has been advertising a special temporary exhibit lately, Sharks at Stingray Bay. I haven't seen this yet, but I plan to do it soon. Having been "traumatized" by the Jaws as a young teen, I'm a little nervous though! According to the zoo's website, in this special "supervised" setting, visitors will be able to gently place their hands in the water, and if they're lucky, "a stingray will swim by and gently brush up against their hand." This show is temporary and was on last summer and is being offered this summer again until October 12 so you'd better hurry if you want to see them.
FOOD & OTHER FEATURES
There are plenty of places to eat at the zoo (Harvey's, Pizza Pizza, etc) but to save money you might want to bring your own food. You'll find lots of picnic benches scattered around.
One of the neat things I learned about this zoo is that they offer camps for kids. The program is called the Serengeti Bush Camp. I bet your little critters would be thrilled to camp out overnight in the wild! (And haven't you just been telling them they belong in a zoo?)
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| Toronto Zoo – flamingo; courtesy of Tourism Toronto |
LOCATION
The zoo is on Meadowvale Road, Scarborough, north of Highway 401. It's about 25 km from downtown Toronto.
You can drive of course and there's lots of parking on-site.
You can also get there by taking public transit, but it does take a while. We took a Toronto Transit bus from the east end of the city last time and our trip took over an hour and a half. You can also take GoTransit to Rouge Hill GoTrain Station and then a Toronto Transit bus.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For hours, admissions, etc see the Toronto Zoo website: http://www.torontozoo.com/
You may also be interested in:
Marineland Niagara Falls
Bird Kingdom Niagara Falls
Zooz (Safari Niagara)
return from Toronto Zoo to Family Fun
return from Toronto Zoo to Zoos in Ontario
return to Ontario Travel Secrets home page
