04/18/09

Not much of a "zoo"

by Veronica333

This could barely be called a zoo. Sure there are some animals but you have to hike to get from one to another. When you do get to an exhibit you have about as much chance of seeing an animal there as you do if you're hiking in the wild. There aren't a lot of impressive exhibits, either, though there are a couple. Like the white tiger, if you can find it. The elephants are always too far away. The giraffes seem to be the only exhibit right sized for seeing the animals.

If you have little children the experience can be boring or frustrating for them, depending on how badly they wanted to see some animals. Really this is just a long, expensive walk.

• Pros: nice indoor exhibits
• Cons: not much else, now they're charging the 2 yr olds

09/05/08

Where are the animals?

by AyatiN

I have lived in Middle TN for 29 years and never went to the Nasville Zoo just because of what it looked like from the entrance. Not much to write or talk about. Finally in August I decided to take my daughter, my cousin and her kids there for the ICE event. I thought the entrance price was reasonable. My first thought was, "were are the animals?" We had to literally SEARCH for the animals. The kids were asking us what were they suppose to be looking at. The best area was the AFrica safari area where the giraffes and elephants were. There are WAY too many trees and bamboos....it should be called the Greenhouse instead of the Zoo. But for Nashville, TN I guess that's as good as it gets.

05/23/08

Nice and getting Nicer

by fly46

Okay, I grew up sandwiched between Erie, PA and Cleveland, Oh. The Cleveland zoo is large and has the Rainforest bio dome. The Erie Zoo manages to make up just 15 acres...

But I'm not entirely sure you should compare Nashville to those zoos... First of all, N'ville's layout is much better. The animals are spread out in natural looking enclosures instead of smushed in rows of cages.

No, there aren't currently a lot of animals, but the zoo is on phase 1 of a 4 phase plan to massively increase their size and exhibits. Also, the zoo has 100 acres currently developed and is on the way to developing the other 100 acres.

Also, in addition to the zoo animals, there's a historical home (Tours are April-October, plus Christmas weekends, then Memorial Day - Labor Day all week long...) with it's out buildings, gardens and cemeteries, and the farm.

So yeah, the price is a little higher than some 'zoos', but there's a uniqueness to Nashville that makes the zoo worthwhile.

• Pros: Croft House and increasing size
• Cons: a little pricier than other zoos