Four Hours In Berlin Zoo

Last summer when I was in Dublin I visited Dublin Zoo, and I spent an enjoyable four hours taking photos of the animals. When I found out that Berlin Zoo has Pandas I knew I’d be visiting during my 3 days in the city, so I could cross seeing Pandas off my bucket list. I also wanted to see other animals I’ve never seen in the flesh, like the Hippos and Polar Bears. My hotel was just across the road from the zoo, so I decided the most sensible time to visit was when I’d checked out on my last day. I thought I’d spend a couple of hours at the zoo then head into the city centre to cross a few more touristy places off my list. It turns out, though, that my planned two hours at the zoo (I was aiming to just see the Pandas, Polar bears and Hippos, then my favourite animals like the Giraffes) quickly became four hours in Berlin Zoo and very sore feet!

Berlin Zoo is a bargain-15 euros for an adult ticket, and I got 25% off through my Berlin Welcome Card, making my ticket just under 12 euros. I could have done the zoo in about three hours if I hadn’t kept sitting down to rest my feet, but equally I could have spent more time there, looking at each animal more. There were far more exhibits than I’d expected, and each was more tailored to the animal than most zoos I’ve been to.

The Penguin enclosure ended up being one of my favourites. The ‘fence’ was glass, and so you could see them swimming under water, and right up to you. If I’d waned to, I could have easily stolen one-it’s so easy to see how that happened in another German zoo if they’re all as easy to get close to.

There’s also a petting zoo, with very greedy goats and feed machines where you can insert a small coin and get some food to hand feed them. Sadly the goats have grown wise to this and as soon as you put money in the machine, they stick their open mouth at the bottom of the machine so the food pours in! Slightly defeats the object of hand feeding them, but that’s goats for you. I still enjoyed the petting zoo part, they were very funny with their clever tricks.

Most of the zoo was step free, so easy to get round with a wheelchair or a pram. The zoo has small carts you can hire to pull young children or bags around, which is a fantastic idea. Some of the exhibits had beautiful buildings inside, like the Giraffe enclosure below-making the zoo feel a bit like a theme park or a museum, as even if the animals were sleeping I was taking photos of their building. I tried the cafe too, food was reasonably priced and there were more healthy options than you’d see in a British zoo.

I probably wouldn’t go again, and if I did I would be visiting the pandas, not spending four hours in Berlin zoo-but I would recommend other people go, if they haven’t before.  I enjoyed the morning and it was well worth the 15 euros I would’ve paid for my ticket.