Visiting the Singapore Zoo with kids

When you start traveling with kids, you have to include options in your trip which are kid friendly or attractive to them. We try to do that on our trips. Like, when we planned for spending 3 days in Paris on our trip to Europe, we included a one day trip to Disneyland in Paris for our kid. Zoos and national parks are other major attractions for the kids. So, time to time, we take ours to one.

Having said that, we are not at all in support of captivating animals. In fact, we prefer to watch the animals in their real habitats. (For instance, I will prefer the Wildlife Observatory in Alaska anytime over a zoo. And for the same reasons, we take our kids to places like the Martin farm in Bangalore or the TherPup dog cafe, near where we live. But it is not always feasible to pull off an outdoor adventure trip with kids. And equally difficult is locating an eco friendly and ethical animal shelter. In short, for various reasons, we settled for the Singapore Zoo when visiting here with kids.

Why Singapore and Singapore Zoo?

In fact, our whole trip of 4 days in Singapore with kid was planned with the kid being in the center. We planned to see places as per her interest. Since there was so much of interest for the kid. And also, considering the fact that just a couple of months back, we had an awesome 4 days trip to Meghalaya. Although we explored the living root bridge in Meghalaya, feasted our eyes on countless gorgeous waterfalls of Meghalaya and also sailed over the Umngot River in Dawki. But you see, most of these experiences were adult oriented. Although our little one never complains about the choice of places, as long as she is on a holiday :). But we felt the next trip should have as much for her to explore and enjoy as the previous one was for us. And what better destination than Singapore could have served the purpose!

Considered one of the best zoos in the world, the Singapore Zoo is definitely a must visit. Even more so when you are with kids. However, as much fun as it is, i.e., visiting the Singapore Zoo with kids. But, at the same time, it requires a little planning so that you can get the most out of your time at the zoo without exhausting your kids. Given the zoo is so big, although smaller than the Mysore Zoo in India that we have been to earlier, still planning ahead will be good as there is a lot to explore here. So, here we focus on the ways to maximize your fun and make optimum use of your time when visiting Singapore Zoo with kids. 

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Booking your tickets for Singapore Zoo with kids

The official website for Singapore Zoo provides a very convenient way to book the tickets online for adults as well as kids. In fact, you can book your ticket from anywhere in the world as long as you pay using an international card. Booking the tickets in advance means you won’t have to wait in the queue to get the tickets when visiting Singapore Zoo with your kids. And you can directly enter inside the zoo when you arrive, and start your exploration. Here are some other cool things about booking your ticket at the Singapore zoo:

• If you plan to visit other attractions like Singapore Bird Park, Night safari and River Safari along with the Singapore zoo, you can take a combined ticket to all the attractions. As, it comes at a discounted rate.

• Also, when you book your ticket online, the ticket that you get will be valid for up to 7 days from the date you mention while making the purchase. This means, in-spite of booking the tickets online in advance, you do have the flexibility of choosing when you want to visit the Singapore zoo with kids, during the period of your travel. 

• The tickets are non refundable, so, you can book them just a couple of days before your travel or even after you arrive in Singapore.

• Take a printout of the tickets (one per person) or just save the pdfs in your phone or iPad. It can be directly scanned on the Singapore Zoo entry gate and there you go – hassle free entry to the Singapore Zoo.

Plan your day around the Singapore Zoo with kids

The other really cool feature that I found on the Singapore Zoo website is the app which helps you plan your day at the Singapore Zoo with kids. You can see here the list of all the available animals, animal zones and other attractions and fun activities. And then you can choose online what all you intend to visit. After you make your selection, the app will generate a map for you which is optimized as per the choices that you made. You can easily save this map on your phone or iPad, or take a printout of it and carry with you when you visit the Singapore Zoo. And then it will be really convenient for you to go around the Singapore Zoo with kids.

Moreover, here are some tips for you to optimize your visit to the Singapore Zoo with kids.

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Optimizing your visit to Singapore zoo with kids

• If you intend to combine visits to the Night Safari and River Safari along with visiting the Singapore Zoo, then start your day a little late. Although the Singapore zoo opens at 8:30 am. The night safari starts at 7:00pm. So, if you arrive as soon as the zoo opens, you will have to spend a really long day here. And it is guaranteed that your kids will be totally exhausted by the end of the day. So, in case, you want to go for the night safari and the evening river safari as well, then we recommend you arrive at the zoo around or after 12:00 pm.

• You can carry strollers inside the zoo. You can take the strollers conveniently all around the zoo. So, don’t have second thoughts if you are carrying a stroller with you. You can also rent a wagon inside the Singapore zoo, which kids find to be a real fun to ride. There are many different options to rent out strollers and wagons inside Singapore Zoo. You can check them out on the official website as well.

• There is a guided tram route inside the Singapore zoo. So, if you yourself also don’t want to walk and rather sit with your kid while enjoying the site of all the major animals, you can get onto the tram. Tram tickets are priced at S$5 per head at the time of this writing. And they can be purchased right inside the zoo or on the spot as well. The tram gives a hop on hop off kind of experience inside the Singapore Zoo without tiring your legs.

Decide on the activities when visiting Singapore Zoo with kids

• At an additional cost, you can book a buffet breakfast with the Orangutan family inside the Singapore zoo on the terrace of the Ah Meng Restaurant around 9:30 am – 10:00 am. This is definitely an experience that your kids are going to remember forever.

• There are animal feeding sessions done in different zones of the zoo at different timings. Once you enter inside the Singapore zoo, take an information booklet and lookup the feeding sessions timings. You will most likely not be able to catch on all of them but see if you can catch some of them. It’s another memorable experience for the kids to be able to feed the animals. Our kid had a gala time feeding the Giraffes as we happened to be visiting their enclosure at just the right time.

• There are many shows also hosted inside the zoo. Trained animals and birds perform in these shows. Not required to mention, the shows are a big hit amongst kids as well as adults. So, you can again try to match your timings with some of these shows. At least a couple are a must see when visiting the Singapore zoo with kids. Here’s the link to the official website of the Singapore zoo where it contains the information and timings of the shows organized in the zoo: Shows in Singapore zoo

Make it an educational drive when visiting Singapore zoo with kids

The Singapore zoo is home to some of the rare and endangered species. Also, it has many species which we normally don’t get to see otherwise. The thing that I really liked is that near each animal enclosure there is a lot of information included about that animal. But not in a boring way, rather a fun story – telling way. This provides for a great opportunity for kids to learn about the different animal species while having fun at the same time. So, when visiting the Singapore Zoo with kids, do make a point to fill them in with some information about the animals they see. What can be a better way to learn than to have fun while you learn! Actually, it’s not just for the kids, even for us adults there is a lot of information about the animals. I definitely didn’t know many a things before visiting the Singapore zoo. And I am sure each one of us will get something to learn here.

Food & refreshment options when visiting Singapore Zoo with kids

There are plenty of food options in the Singapore Zoo. Both outside and inside the zoo.

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Food options at the entrance

At the entrance of the zoo itself, there is a food court on either side of the ticket counter. It has plenty of options of native food, Malaysian food, continental food, desserts and some limited option of Indian food as well. You can either reach here and have your breakfast, or you can have breakfast with orangutans as we mentioned in the earlier section.

Food options inside the zoo

Once inside the zoo, there are plenty of mobile carts at regular interval on all routes selling snacks, chips, ice crushers, and soft drinks. Similarly, there is plenty of option for drinking water and restroom at each nook and corner. So, if you have a bottle of drinking water with you, you can keep refilling it. And do take the restroom stops when visiting the Singapore Zoo with your kids. Since, they will need to keep drinking water as the weather is hot and humid for most part of the year. Hence, keeping yourself hydrated becomes important.

In almost the center of the zoo is the Ah Meng Restaurant which has many different cuisines from across the world.This is where the breakfast with orangutans is also held. And it is very near to the zone where the orangutans are present. So, even if you stop here for lunch, you can enjoy your meal with some orangutan activities near you.

Things that you can carry

Also, if you want to carry some packaged food for your kid from outside, or their favorite drinks, you can do so. Overall there are plenty of food options. But if you are vegetarian, and you are not that inclined to junk food, then your options will get very limited. In that case, I would highly recommend carrying at least some packaged food from outside, like dry fruit box, energy bars etc. You can also get packaged cut fruits on most of the mobile carts.

Our experience visiting the Singapore Zoo with kids

We visited the Singapore zoo with our kid this summer. As, we wanted to combine this visit with River Safari and Night Safari, so, we reached the zoo around 12:00 pm. We didn’t opt for the breakfast with orangutans option. Also, we had booked our tickets in advance. So, we entered right inside the zoo, grabbed a booklet with a map of the zoo and started exploring. We kept ticking the zones and animals that we spotted, on the map. And also prioritizing which ones we wanted to must see and which ones we could give a pass. Below is the order in which we went around the zoo:

The route we followed inside Singapore zoo

• We started near the treetop trail and proceeded on the route towards Australasia. On the way, we visited the otter, malayan Tapir, Babirusa, Pelican and white tiger. Then we visited Australasia.

• From there, we proceeded further to visit the great rift valley of Ethiopia that lies just on the opposite side of Australasia. Then we proceeded to the Elephants of Asia

• After visiting the elephants, we were just in time to catch the second half of the “Rainforest fights back” show. Which was really impressive. After the show, we proceeded for lunch at the Ah Meng Restaurant. We decided to skip the primate kingdom as we were pretty familiar with the birds and animals here.

• Post lunch we proceeded to wild Africa and Cat Family on tram route 3. On the opposite side of the road we spotted zebras and giraffes. And luckily, we were just in time for the feeding session for giraffes which our kid totally loved.

• We went to the reptile garden, the fragile forest and then the Tortoise Shelter next in this exact order. Thereafter we took a small snacks and refreshment break, again, at the Ah Meng Restaurant.

• After the break, we visited the Splash Safari. From here, we decided to return back. So, we didn’t go to the entertainment zone that has farm animals, pony ride etc. We came back, crossing the Ah meng Restaurant and continued towards the main gate of the zoo. On the way, we visited the Frozen Tundra.

• Finally, we exited the zoo around 4:30pm. So, it roughly took us 4.5 hours to visit the whole zoo.

In Conclusion

Overall, we had a very good time visiting the zoo. We didn’t take the tram or the stroller. As our kid was too excited to be confined to one. She had no issues walking around since we kept taking sufficient breaks in between and walking around slowly. I would definitely rate the Singapore zoo as one of the best I have visited so far. And you should definitely visit the Singapore zoo with kids when planning a trip to Singapore.  For me, some of the things that set the zoo definitely apart are:

• Very neat and clean and well maintained.

• Interactive sessions with animals, particularly the feeding sessions.

• Animal shows at different time intervals.

• The way the interactive sessions and shows are spread all through the day so that you can catch one no matter what time of the day you visit.

• The information present about the animals in story telling fashion which is really fun & educational for the kids.

• Presence of trams, strollers and electric vehicles for the specially abled so that no one faces issues getting around the zoo.

• The presence of sufficient refreshment options at each and every corner of the zoo.

• Advance ticket booking option on official website from across anywhere in the world

• Lots of information on their official website to make your visit efficient and all the more memorable.

• Breakfast with orangutans. Although we didn’t go for this option, we got very exciting reviews from our friends who have opted for it.

Hope the information we compiled here will help you plan your own trip to Singapore Zoo with kids efficiently. Drop in any further questions that you might have, in the comment box below. And we will be happy to respond.

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