That seems really high! The St. Louis Zoo has free admission although there are fees for some of the attractions (Children's Zoo, train, etc.) and parking. The St. Louis Zoo is supposed to be one of the best in the US too.

The Atlanta Zoo admission is $18/adults and $13/children.
It would cost me $93 just to get my family through the gate. And I don't even think it's that impressive. At least parking is free.

The Georgia Aquarium admission is 29.50/adults and 22/children. That would cost us 154.50 just to get in the door. And we'd have to add parking there, plus gas and food (never cheap at those places, we'd eat somewhere else). There would be no souvenires!

Six Flags amusement park is right now running a special price where everyone gets kids' price... 29.99

The Columbus Zoo, Ohio, is just $10/adults and $7/children (rides are extra). And THAT is a good deal! If I remember right, they do charge for parking... yep, $5/car. Still, we'd get in there for $46, including the car. It's a fantastic zoo! Seriously, it's hard to see it all in a day. Wow, I think we'll need a stop at the zoo next week when we're "home" in the Buckeye State! It's been too long.

Ooops, yeah, I forgot about the parking fee. I think it's around $9, plus our lunch, which I'm sure won't be cheap either. Gee, it's pricey to go just about anywhere today isn't it?

We just went to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha a few weeks ago and the prices are very reasonable; $11 adults and $9.50 for Seniors. It was worth every cent!

The last Zoo I went to was The San Diego Zoo about 12 years ago. It was worth the price as I recall. But, that was good enough. No need to go to another one.

Gayle

Gayle - the San Diego zoo is the one we want to go to. We were there yrs. ago, as you can tell from my shock at the prices. LOL!

Look around and see if you can get some discount coupons. That seems pretty high.

Yeow, that does seem high. The last zoo we went through was the OKC zoo in October of last year. Seems the tickets were moderate, not too bad. And, they were under construction, so you would have expected them to be higher to pay for the renovations, but that wasn't the case.

if you are going to do other things in san diego you should look for a city pass card if they have one. we went to atlanta last labor day for a week and dh & i used city passes for something like $65 ea and used it for the High Museum, GA aquarium, botanical garden, fernbank natural history museum & zoo. it was a bargain! we're going back to atlanta just before thanksgiving to do it all over again.

those prices you quoted thou seem on par. heck we pay $65 each for seaworld and way more for disney and we're fl residents. zoos are one of my favorite travel stops, i intend to see almost every good sized one in this country along w/ most aquariums before i die. i grew up going to brookfield zoo in the chicago burbs and i think it's close to $45-50 each and well worth it but it would take 2 days to see everything. san diego is on my list to see again, i went as a child in the 70's and loved it. we recently went to the central fl zoo, we've been here for more than 10+ yrs and never went. it was cheap and barely took 2 hrs and not anything to talk about lol. search around for city passes, they are well worth it ~ liz

Small no fee zoo in Cape May County New Jersey, very nice.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Cape May County Zoo

Cost of tickets and parking for the Philadelphia PA zoo.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Philadelphia Zoo

I bought a family visitor pass (online from a zoo in another state) for $60. It includes free or reduced admission to over 200 zoos and science centers all over the U.S. Every zoo and science center that we have used it for gave us free admission for all 5 of us (except Jacksonville Zoo would only allow 4 in-we paid a childs admission for the 5th person).
Orlando Science Center
Central FL Zoo
Jacksonville Zoo
Lowry Park Zoo (Tampa)
Museum of Science & Industry (Tampa)
Riverbanks Zoo (Columbia SC)

Still waiting to go to-Atlanta Zoo
Miami Zoo and also the Childrens Museum
Brevard Zoo

Don't want to ruin a good thing by posting it. Look on the west coast!

Detroit Zoo Fees**

Admission Fees:
$11.00 - Adult, 13 years - 61
$7.00 - Child, 2 - 12 years
$9.00 - Senior, 62 years+
Free - Under 2 years
Free  Members

Honolulu Zoo Admission Costs:

General (13 yrs. and up): $6.00

Kama'aina - Residents(13 yrs. and up): $4.00

Children (6-12 yrs.): $1.00

(5 yrs. and down): FREE!

Family passes are $25.00 for two adults and any children under 17 living in that household.

The major zoos are pretty expensive--it's extraordinarily costly to acquire and maintain the exotic animals, and the grounds as well can be expensive to keep looking beautiful.

Have you checked around to see if there are any small, local zoos in your area? Someone already mentioned the free Cape May Zoo in NJ (which isn't in Cape May, btw, but Cape May Courthouse, I believe). There's also a small free zoo in Bridgeton, NJ. And Popcorn Park outside of Tom's river isn't free, but it's extremely reasonably priced, and parking is free. Those are just 3 that are day trips from my front door. There are little zoos all over the country--some are municipal-sponsored zoos. Maybe you can find some in your area? They're really fun to visit, because they're not usually too busy. I especially like Popcorn Park, because it's a rescue zoo. They take in animals that no one else wants. So nice to support something like that.

The San Diego Zoo is an internationally recognized zoo. It has exhibits that other zoos can only dream of having -- I'm particularly thinking of the pandas, but there are other animals that they have that are extremely rare. They also work hard to ensure that their exhibits are suited to the animals. A lot of the zoos that have been mentioned here are inexpensive to get into...and it shows in their exhibits, and the enclosures for the animals.

I went to the San Diego zoo last year, judy_jay -- you can easily spend the entire day there, and personally, I found it to be worth it, price-wise. Additionally, the $34 per person you are seeing mentioned on their website is for the "deluxe" ticket. Regular tickets are only $25 -- but you don't get to ride the tram or get the guided bus tour (and I believe you can only buy these regular tickets at the gate, not online). If you're good walkers, you don't need the deluxe tickets, IMHO.

Look into discount tickets. Some Zoo's offer discounts for seniors, or on certain days, groups, coupons in the paper etc. Just ask. Also check Triple A--using a AAA card sometimes gets 10%off.
Our Zoo in Minot is not bad, but they really don't have alot either and their souveniour shop is a joke as to prices. Very little for the kids but T-shirts and hats are out of sight!!!

FYI, the Columbus Zoo is an exception to the get what you pay for theory. I think they get a lot of corporate sponsorship and can keep their admission low. It is a phenomenal zoo, worth twice the price. The primate exhibits are especially great, and they are always adding something new.

Other than the pandas, the Atlanta zoo isn't impressive.