A visit to Bucharest Zoo

When we were spending 48 hours in Bucharest in April 2023, we wanted a mix of city and more chilled out things to do, so decided a visit to Bucharest Zoo was a must for us. In this post I’m sharing our thoughts, so that if you’re in Bucharest you can decide whether you want to visit Bucharest Zoo.

Getting to Bucharest Zoo

Bucharest Zoo, when we looked at maps, was nearly 2 hours away from our hotel by public transport. We would have needed to walk for 20 minutes and then get 2 buses, which felt a bit ridiculous when a Bolt taxi was around £6, so we went for the taxi. The line 783 bus will get you to about 20 minutes away from the zoo if you’d rather do public transport but honestly, taxis are so cheap in Romania it’s probably easier to do that. There was a car park, so if you’ve hired a car it should be easy enough to get there that way.

Ticket prices

Bucharest Zoo was really, really cheap. We paid 13 ron, about £2.30, for each adult ticket and, other than a couple of pounds each on a vending machine drink and snack, we didn’t spend anything else. It’s a really budget friendly activity for tourists, although it is very small.

How long to spend at Bucharest Zoo

The zoo is definitely not big enough for a full day, it’s pretty small and we’d walked around, seeing everything and spending a good amount of time watching our favourite animals, in a couple of hours. There were a couple of children’s playgrounds so kids may have been occupied a bit longer but for us, no more than 3 hours would be needed for the zoo.

What was the zoo like?

The zoo was quite small but well laid out, and it was easy to make sure we saw everything, following the maps that were dotted around. It was nice to see how much street art they’d added, making things on walls (like a drain pipe) into something else (one was painted as a cactus, for example) and adding a bit of colour and personality to otherwise boring walls.

In terms of the animals there was a wide variety of cats (a few different tigers, a jaguar, a lion, a puma and a lynx) as well as a brown bear, a wolf, and then some more generic zoo animals like camels, zebra, deer, horses, and a lot of birds. We love cats so were very pleased to see so many in one place and the bear was a particular highlight for me, he was amazing-just look at him!

There were a few empty exhibits and some animals were kept alone when it felt like they would’ve wanted a friend, which wasn’t great, and I do wish I’d researched the zoo a bit more-it didn’t feel like any animal was being mistreated, but I’m not an expert and it doesn’t hurt to make yourself aware of these things before visiting somewhere like this.

The zoo didn’t have a cafe, which I would’ve expected, or a gift shop, which was weird. There were plenty of vending machines selling snacks and drinks, these took cash or card, and there were plenty of free, clean toilets in the zoo. It was odd leaving without a small stuffed cat to add to my stuffed cats from zoos collection though so I’m disappointed in the lack of gift shop at Bucharest zoo.

Would I go back?

If I was in Bucharest again I don’t think I’d return to Bucharest zoo, it feels like I’ve seen everything there and I wouldn’t be fussed about returning. Compared to some of the UK zoo’s like Chester Zoo, where I have been multiple times, Bucharest zoo is just a bit sad and small, although I do think it’s a nice way to spend a couple of hours if you want a break from the city.

Have you been to Bucharest zoo? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.