The Louisville Zoo surprised and delighted us. We are members at the Nashville and go fairly often. We expected this zoo to be really similar to it, but we were thankfully mistaken. A special thank you to our friend Grace and her family. We visited the zoo as her guest, and we were grateful to her for the experience, and for helping us navigate. She guided us through like a pro!

One of the things that stood out most to me, were the animals we saw. So many that we don’t have at our zoo like lions, polar bears, gorillas or sea lions. I planned on taking tons of pictures, but it’s the videos that really get across how amazing the animals were so that’s what I will attempt to share here.

Lion

I could have stayed here for the longest. I loved how active he was while we were there and how close up we were able to get!

Polar Bear

Check on the zoo website before you visit. Our group was able to see the polar bear and grizzly bear feeding and demo. I was so impressed with the knowledge of the staff and that there were experts at almost every station to teach us more about the animals.

Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear was so much fun to watch. We not only got to see it’s feeding and demo, we also got to watch him eat a melon and play a little head nodding game with it which made more sense after watching the demo and seeing that was part of it.

Tiger

I can’t tell you how many times we said “perfect timing” while we were at the zoo. It rained twice. Once while we were under the cover of the carousel and once under the cover of the tiger exhibit. We were able to see the tiger feeding and demo and the tiger was also very active for us before and after putting on such a great show.

Gorilla

When we first got to this exhibit neither of the gorillas that were visible to us were active: one was sleeping and the other was over in the corner. I’m so glad we waited and were patient. The sleeping one woke up and the kids played a head scratching game with him.

Splash Pad + Food and Beverage

If you visit the zoo in the summer, be sure to have your kiddos wear swimwear under their clothes. There is an awesome and sizable splash pad where they can cool off. They also sell Dippin Dots and frozen wine in this area. The splash pad is well-placed because we encountered it about the time our crew was getting tired and hot.

As far as lunch, there are burgers and chicken sold near the splash pad, or there is another food and beverage location in the Africa area which is where we ate. You really can make a day of being here.

Zoo Favorites

Our favorite features of this zoo were that there were many animals we can’t find at our zoo, the demos and being able to see them fed, and the splash pad! This will definitely be on our list when we return to Louisville. And we will return!

Noteworthy things to try next trip that we missed this time: pony or camel ride, sea lion show, train ride (wasn’t operating the day we were there).