San Diego Safari Park or San Diego Zoo?

[Ombud]

Ticket prices the same, uber $11 or zoo & $45+ for Safari Park. Kids are 6&14 .... 6 yr old will be more impressed (favorite shows on Animal Planet). Both are athletic. Which site is better?

[martincath]

If this is a port-of-call stop, I'd definitely go Zoo for simple practicality of being closer so less risk. If it's a Pre- or Post-cruise excursion where's there's no time issue, I think I'd bounce this back to you and ask whether you've been to both other zoos & safari parks before or not? If you've done one but not the other type, do the thing you haven't done before - they're both very good examples of their types and we enjoyed both.

 

If still in doubt, do the zoo - with modern kids short attention spans/social media posting of everything, the more separated exhibits at the safari park mean more waiting between animal sightings, more issues of 'OK I can see that the zebras are in their big field but they're all the way over there where my selfie for Instagram won't pick them up well' compared to the zoo, where smaller habitats mean none of the beasties can be far enough away they look tiny. Plus the drive up & back to the safari park is pretty boring, whereas the zoo is in Balboa Park so there's a TON of other sites close by you could also visit if you have time.

 

[Ombud]

Fortunately no selfies. Their mom doesn't allow that and they're so sheltered they believe her. In fact I'm not buying the MedallionNet. My 150 free minutes will suffice. But you've got a valid point about Balboa Park.  If we went to Safari Park that'll be all we could do 

[OneSixtyToOne]

Definitively the Zoo. It's in Balboa Park and there are tons of things to do there besides the zoo. It's much more compact and you'll see more with limited time.

 

Safari Park is  on a large swath of land that was annexed by the City of San Diego so it's legally part of the City of San Diego but is really closer to Escondido. It's a good 30-45 minutes drive from San Diego without traffic and much longer if it's during rush hour. There is no practical public transportation so you need a car to get there.

 

Balboa Park is the largest urban cultural park in the country. Your six year old would enjoy a visit to the Model Railroad Museum, a hidden gem and my favorite museum in the park. It's 20,000 sq ft of model trains and steps from the zoo.

https://www.sdmrm.org/permanent-exhibit

Edited January 7, 2020 by OneSixtyToOne

[Ombud]

Balboa Park = zoo, carousel, tram, aerial tram, hiking, close to town if they tire of it ..... sounds like a better day.  Tomboy might really like the train museum. 

 

Anywhere around there with reasonable eats? 

[OneSixtyToOne]

3 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Balboa Park = zoo, carousel, tram, aerial tram, hiking, close to town if they tire of it ..... sounds like a better day.  Tomboy might really like the train museum. 

 

Anywhere around there with reasonable eats? 

 

Food options in the park are limited. The zoo has several places to eat but the rest of the park are small snack stands in the museums and one restaurant. The city has resisted letting fast food franchise enter the park. All the buildings are historic and the facades are protected. The Park was built for the Panama Exhibition that celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. The collection of exotic animals on display for the event because the San Diego Zoological Society.

 

Shots of buildings in the park as well as the zoo aviary were used in the movie Citizen Kane to represent Zanadu, John Foster Kane's estate in the movie. This is based on William Randolf Hearst's Castle, located in San Simeon.

[Ombud]

Will bring granola bars & water.  That'll hold the kids .... it'll be a full breakfast, snack, treats, dinner day 

 

Thanks for the heads up! Love info from locals

[OneSixtyToOne]

19 hours ago, Ombud said:

Will bring granola bars & water.  That'll hold the kids .... it'll be a full breakfast, snack, treats, dinner day 

 

Thanks for the heads up! Love info from locals

 

Here is the Balboa Park food guide. As I stated above, very limited.

https://www.balboapark.org/explore/eat-drink

[Ombud]

20 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Food options in the park are limited.

 

43 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Here is the Balboa Park food guide. As I stated above, very limited.

https://www.balboapark.org/explore/eat-drink

Thank you for everything.

 

I'm from just outside SF and those are VERY reasonable charges for food. No reason to pack anything. The other thing is it's close to the ship & uber is only $22rt. We could do that & old town or gaslight district. 

 

Where does the ship dock?

Edited January 8, 2020 by Ombud

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

 

Thank you for everything.

 

I'm from just outside SF and those are VERY reasonable charges for food. No reason to pack anything. The other thing is it's close to the ship & uber is only $22rt. We could do that & old town or gaslight district. 

 

Where does the ship dock?

 

The Gaslamp is mostly night time dining, drinking, etc. catering to the convention center and the ballpark crowd. 

Old Town has more for the kids to do and plenty of Mexican restaurants. BTW You can take the trolley right there from the Gaslamp or the Santa Fe Depot.

 

The ship docks a short distance from the trolley line and the Santa Fe Depot.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/International+Cruise+Ship+Terminal/@32.7176158,-117.177443,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80d954aca9ecb9c9:0x6fed643b4482ecd5!8m2!3d32.7176158!4d-117.1752543

Edited January 8, 2020 by OneSixtyToOne

[martincath]

21 hours ago, Ombud said:

Balboa Park = zoo, carousel, tram, aerial tram, hiking, close to town if they tire of it ..... sounds like a better day.  Tomboy might really like the train museum. 

 

Anywhere around there with reasonable eats? 

FWIW we lunched at Alberts in the zoo and then hit Prado in the park for Happy Hour during our day at Balboa - both seemed very decent value for the quality of food, especially given the very limited 'sit down' options in the park (we've learned to expect mediocrity, price gouging, or both when there's limited dining options in popular tourist areas). An adequate selection of local beers in both too, which was nice.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

Unless you take a public bus to the SD Zoo, you'd need a booster seat for the 6yo and Uber and cabs don't provide them. If you have more stops in CA and plan to use cabs and Uber look at portable booster like Bubble Bum

[Ombud]

Thanks for the reminder. So I guess it's mass transit 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

If time will allow do the Safari Park by far.  Do the Caravan Safari to the outback.  We hand feed giraffes and got within 50 feet of baby rhino's.  

[Ombud]

I completely forgot that I wont have her car seat and that uber's might not as well. It's the only stop where we will need transportation.  I'm not sure mass transit (trolley) goes there, googling that out 

 

Added: think the easiest thing to do is the zoo and then an overnight this summer at Safari West (about an hour from my house in Santa Rosa) 

Edited January 11, 2020 by Ombud

[Ombud]

Letting the 14yo decide.

 

Safari Park: It's an additional $250 for princess transfer or buy a bag / carry the bumble seat for $90 uber + $40 seat (frankly I think the ship transfer is better)

 

Balboa Park: carousel & international museum closed

 

Ok. Done. Thank you everyone for your advice. Much appreciated 

[kaiiak]

Just so you know... if you choose an Uber X you can then choose an option of a car seat.  Yes, Safari Park is too far and dealing with San Diego traffic could be troublesome. We live in OC and have been to both parks. Both times we went to Safari Park it was a really hot day and we ended up leaving early.  You can do the tram ride there but I found that the animals always seemed far away.  I like the SD Zoo better, plus it is in Balboa Park and there's lots to do there. Very close to Old Town SD as well with great Mexican food and shops.  

[KeepCalmBearOn]

On 2/17/2020 at 6:05 PM, kaiiak said:

Just so you know... if you choose an Uber X you can then choose an option of a car seat.

 

Have you gotten a car seat from UberX in LA? Last I heard only NYC had Uber Car Seat?

[kaiiak]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:02 PM, scottca075 said:

 

Have you gotten a car seat from UberX in LA? Last I heard only NYC had Uber Car Seat?

No I haven't needed it. I just read about it.