Brookfield Zoo

But Lincoln Park Zoo is much better.

it was fun, went with the whole family! we all had a good time.
will go again, and going to go this summer.

3 years after it was originally supposed to happen. I finally got to go to the Brookfield Zoo for my birthday in November!! It was a grey 50-degree day but not too chilly and all the buildings were extremely warm. Still, the weather kept others away so there was practically no one else there—exactly how I like it! I LOVE the zoo but I hate zoo visitors.

Talk to the workers. In particular the younger ones in maroon shirts. I worked at this zoo and learned so much and shared so much of my knowledge. We were trained to be able to inform kids and their parents (and everyone else for that matter!) using games and skeletons and feathers and quills. Anything and everything. So in short, if you want to get something out of the zoo other than seeing monkeys’ matting rituals, talk to the people working there and you will learn fun things that most won’t forget.

I live literally half a mile from the zoo…I can smell the animals if the wind is blowing in a certain direction. Although I am pretty much sick of the place, whenever I have out-of-town visitors, I make sure to bring them to the zoo!

if you like animals and heat then enjoy!

Another local family and I shared the cost of a $90 membership. Since parking and the children’s exhibits are included, our 1st visit paid for our 1/2 of the membership. On my non-pay weekends, packing a picnic and heading to Brookfield made some of our best Chicago memories.

An incredible zoo, that is amazing because it’s within sucha large city. Living in Jax, Fl the zoo here is really nothing to be compared with the Brookfield Zoo. So much to see and do—it’s one of the greatest things I miss about living in Chicago.

Brookfield Zoo beats Lincoln Park Zoo hands down! Located just twelve miles from Downtown in the southwest suburb of Brookfield, Illinois, Brookfield Zoo is home of the first performing dolphin show ever built away from an ocean. At over 200 acres, it is larger and has more to see than it’s cousin in the city. Just take the Eisenhower Expressway from Downtown and exit at First Avenue. Proceed south to 31st Street.

Here’s the website:

http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/default.asp

Seriously, there’s so much to see here that you should plan two full days to see everything, if you’re interested in animals, or if you have kids (who will tire of walking after half the zoo). You can certainly breeze past everything in one day, but if you actually want to observe the animals in their routines, you have to spend some time at each exhibit.

For the most part, the exhibits bring you into the animals’ world, rather than the reverse, and you don’t feel that the animals are uncomfortable (especially since they’re medically cared for, and safe from poachers and natural predators). In particular, the monkey house is very well designed, and I’m looking forward to when my son’s old enough for the petting zoo.