Day Trip To The Richmond Metro Zoo

On Saturday we took the kiddos to the Richmond Metro Zoo for the day! Here’s a recap of the animals we saw and how we planned our visit! 

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Our Day Trip To The Richmond Metro Zoo

We went back to Richmond on Saturday – this time with the kids to visit the Richmond Zoo! We couldn’t have had more perfect late spring weather, and the kids had a total blast!

This was actually my second visit – I took Mazen years ago on a cold, rainy morning when he was Birch’s age!

Tickets + Arrival

We bought tickets online (total of $67 for the 4 of us) for a 9:45 a.m. entrance time. We left Charlottesville around 8:30 and made the trip in about an hour and 15 minutes. 

Parking was free and easy, but we found quite a long line to enter. (Not much social distancing either, so we all put our masks back on.)

We are “up and at ’em” types and like to get an early start, and we were so glad because as we were leaving at 1 p.m. the crowds were pouring in!! TIP: go early!

The Animals!

The Richmond Zoo is small enough that you get a more intimate experience but they also have a wide variety of animals! The only two animals I can think of that they didn’t have were gorillas and elephants. 

Birch was a little unsure at first…

But then he warmed up when we saw two bears wrestling!

We saw lions and tigers and the bears.

The boys even loved seeing all of the wild turtles swimming in the chimp area : ) 

This fella was howling at us!

The up close and personal with these rhinos – amazing!

Feed the Animals

You can purchase food to feed some of the animals from little cups or your hands. That super long tongue…giraffes are so funny!

Mazen loved the aviary! 

We saw wolves, deer, camels, and buffalo.

Picnic Lunch

I researched food ahead of time and knew a picnic would be our preferred dining. I was SO appreciative that outside food was allowed. So many parks don’t let you bring anything in. We saw lots of other families enjoying picnics, too.

Thomas and I had turkey + cheese sandwiches, and Birch had a PB&J. We shared pretzels, trail mix, and veggie straws. And Mazen the 8-year-old bought a hot dog and fries (!). 

Extra Rides

There are four rides, including a ski lift across the park and a safari train. The rides required extra tickets and had long lines. We gauged the kids’ interest and since they didn’t seem to care either way about the rides, we decided to skip them. 

We did watch several people on the above-the-zoo zip line adventure called the Treetop Zoofari, and that would be something to come back for! The zip lines go from tree to tree over the whole park.

We loved the hippos <3

I think they were a mother + baby pair snoozing together.

(Thomas was there – I promise! Just never took his pic 😎 )

We had such a great day!!