Last October my family visited my husband's cousin's family in Fort Worth, Texas. We spent some time together, and some time on our own. One of the places we visited without her family was the Fort Worth Zoo.

The zoo is open 365 days a year, from 10am-5pm Monday-Friday and from 10am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday. However between November and February they close at 4pm.  Admission for adults (13+) is $12, children (3-12) are $9 and children under 3 are free. Seniors (65+) are $9 and parking cost $5 per vehicle. Unfortunately the zoo did not do any sort of discount for reciprocating zoo memberships.

The zoo is pretty large and had lots of different animals to see. They have many of the popular examples you'd want to view like lions, tigers, elephants, and gorillas. They also have kangaroos and penguins, which are my son's favorite animal. There is a raptor area, animals from Texas, and an indoor aquarium area that was pretty cool too. Also the Museum of Living Art which houses their amphibians and reptiles was pretty impressive.

We went to the zoo on Halloween and there were lots of activities around the day, with shows, candy, crafts, and games. There was an extra fee of $3 a person to do the Boo at the Zoo. Throughout the year they have special events like this, especially things geared towards the preschool age crowd. In the summer they have zoo camps for children ages 3 years old through 6th grade.

There are also animal encounters (shows mostly) that are included with admission. They are keeper chats, or feedings, or even a stage show with an animal mystery.

There is a train ride for $2 a person, a rock climbing wall for $3 a person, a carousel for $2 a person, a laser shooting gallery that takes quarters, and a petting zoo which was free. I didn't like how you had to pay for all these things individually and we skipped them all.

There were quite a few food options to snack stands, to Burger King, Dickey's BBQ, and Pizza Hut. It's a little disheartening to see zoos get so commercialized by big chains, but I guess it sells. There were also a few ice cream places too, though it was a little cold for us to want any ice cream.

Overall this was a pretty nice zoo with nice enclosures for their animals, and lots of different options for things to do. I wish it didn't feel like we were being nickled and dimed (especially after our local zoo membership wasn't reciprocated), but we spent several hours at the zoo and it was large enough to spend more, just we had plans so couldn't stay the whole day.

Recommended: Yes