What are the best zoo's in the US, and in Europe. WE are making vacation plans.

For me best Zoos in
the USA : San Diego,
germany : Berlin Zoo ( don´t miss the orang utans and gorillas- every year they have babies ) and Stuttgart " Wilhelma " both are the oldest zoos we have and are beautiful,
austria : Vienna " Schönbrunn " is right next to the castle Schönbrunn, great if you like to combine both...
spain/ canary islands/ Tenerife: Loro Parque- largest collection of parrots in the world, features even very rare parrots ( which they also successfully breed ) that are nearly extinct...

if you are looking for an absolutley amazing aquarium try the one in Lisbon/ Portugal- even beats Monterey...

1. By far my favorite zoo is The Wild Animal Park that is on or near the east side of Escondido, California, about 30 miles north of the San Diego Zoo. It is the big brother of the San Diego Zoo (same organization) and you feel like you are visiting the animals in their huge home.

2. There is a interesting and probably controversial article about zoos in the June 19, 2006, Time Magazine this week (starting on page 50)--about how elephants, giraffes, and some bears need more space than traditional zoos offer. Other animals such as lions, tigers, and chimps (some experts claim) can do quite well if they have proper spaces in zoos.

3. Milwaukee and (I keep reading) Santa Barbara have nice smaller zoos. Saint Louis and Cincinnati are supposed to have wonderful zoos, but I can't verify. (If anyone reading this has been to either--or to Grant's Farm in St. Louis, please fill us in!) Ditto for the Bronx Zoo in New York.

I rather enjoy the Bronx Zoo. the Central Park zoo is also pretty neat for what it is. I also like the National Zoo in DC which had its share of problems but is coming back in a big way.

the problem I have with San Diego is.. yes, there's an old school type of zoo and the newer zoological parks that try to distance themselves from the word zoo. San Diego is somewhere inbetween. you can see exhibits which - if built today - would be apalling, but the newer exhibits are great too.

Toronto and Chicago are also supposed to have decent zoos.

for me, one of the major attractions is the specific collection. for example, there are only 4 zoos in north america that have giant pandas. only 9 that have koalas (SDZ happens to have both). they demonstrate what zoos should be. edutainment on the face, opening your eyes to what you can't normally see while helping to preserve and proliferate in the background.

if you want to see which zoos have a specific animal, you can visit isis.org . ISIS is a program most zoos and aquariums subscribe to in order to help locate specific species to borrow or trade.

I've been to the St. Louis Zoo many times and it is pretty good. Nowhere near San Diego's though! I love the San Diego Zoo! I live near Atlanta Georgia now- and the ZooAtlanta is terrible! I hope that having built the new Aquarium downtown might help them out some, but it is really really lame. It has an overall atomosphere of 'help us, we need money'. Sad.

zoo atlanta is on my list too.. giant pandas. already been to national zoo and san diego, leaves atlanta and memphis.

In addition to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park (of which I'm a card-carrying member), I can also recommend the San Francisco and Seattle Zoos.

In addition to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park (of which I'm a card-carrying member), I can also recommend the San Francisco and Seattle Zoos.

I agree with the San Diego Wild Animal Park! It is amazing! If you come to the Seattle area, I actually recommend Northwest Trek (http://nwtrek.org/ (http://nwtrek.org/)) over Woodland Park. Woodland Park is really quite nice, but NW Trek reminds me a lot of the SD Animal Park. You can take a tram around and all of the animals are species that you would find in the NW. I love it there. Plus afterwards you could head up and stay at Paradise on Mt. Rainier (Walt and Lillian Disney honeymooned there). The only disadvantage to it is NW Trek is a ways out from downtown Seattle (around 1 1/2 hrs maybe?). But it really is worth the trip!

It's been a number of years since I've been there, but while I'm not generally a "zoo" type of person, I loved, loved, loved the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. A friend and I were on vacation, and we figured we'd go there for a few hours and then find something else to do. We stayed there all day, and at closing time, we weren't ready to leave. Instead of cages, they did enclosures. Better for the animals and better for us. Would love to go back sometime.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned 'The Los Angeles Zoo'.

It's one of the best.

And, Travel Town, and the Observatory!

i found the LA zoo to be small, cute, but very hot. i found a couple of spots to cool off, but the line to get in when i went was horrendous.

the koalas were the highlight for me (this was before i went to san diego).

Not that I would make a special trip to Oakland for this but I feel like I need to mention the Oakland Zoo as a great small zoo. We have a nice large elephant exhibit, great primate area and a wonderful new childrens zoo. If you come to the Bay Area the SF Zoo is a must but the Oakland Zoo should not be overlooked!

i found the LA zoo to be small, cute, but very hot. i found a couple of spots to cool off, but the line to get in when i went was horrendous.

Have you been recently? I've thought about going back to the zoo for a couple years now, but my memories of being there were mostly that it was really hot and very little shade. I think I remember that the enclosures weren't as I'd like them to be - not easy to see the animals and didn't seem to be particularly comfortable for the animals. I keep saying I want to go back and give it a try (it's probably been 15 years or so since I've been), but every time I think of it, it's summer, and summer is definitely when I don't want to go.

When my husband and I talk about the L.A. Zoo, we always talk about the wax animal figures you could buy out of a vending machine. Those were cool. But there was always the dilemma - do I hold it until it cools so I'll have the cool animal, or do I mess with it while the wax is still warm and then end up with a science experiment gone bad?

Unfortunately, the San Diego Zoo is out for me. I could never bring myself to go back after seeing their polar bear exhibit for the first time.

i was there a year ago. i wouldn't expect it to be much different. i don't really recall having issues with visibility on their animals that I recall, but the heat and lack of places to cool off is what stuck out at me the most. and the fact that i spent $70 or so for a taxi from LAX to get there.