Franklin Park Zoo

I got a free pass from school so decided to give it a try. It is accessible through the bus.
A pretty cool, spacious zoo, not so crowded. Everything has little signs with cool info. The flamingo was so stinky so definitely prepared for it.
My favorite highlight of the trip for me was the bird cage. I saw the biggest bird with lots of colors compared to the rest. I told my friend, look at the size of that bird. She gave me awkward silence. I looked at it again, it was two birds getting busy. No wonder why it was colorful and big. Yeah, I was quite near sighted.
Quite sad that I didnt see any giraffe though. I think you have to book a tour but not sure.

Frankly (HAR HAR HAR), this zoo is probably more of a 3-​star place, but I have been there so often with my kid that I’d be a hypocrite to give it any less than 4 stars.
We bought our zoo membership in the fall of 2015, meaning that as of now, April 2016, I have been there approximately 700 times. Even though it’s the «off season» for the zoo (aka hours are shorter and lots of things aren’t around — I miss you, giraffes!), it’s still one of my go-​to places when I want to get out with my son.
Highlights (sort of in an order from the giraffe entrance to the zebra entrance):
–Flamingos — my son talks about flamingos all day long, and these guys never disappoint. They are stinky with a flair for the dramatic.
–Peacocks — those peacocks are always just walking around making a delightful racket! They roam free and we recently saw one spread its tailfeathers — very cool!
–Tropical Forest building — this is where everyone is when it’s freezing cold but you can’t stay at home any more. The gorillas are the highlight, but the other animals are great as well. Some birds fly free! Also, it’s warm in there. Exit out the back and walk up towards the camel and lions/​tigers, usually good for some roars.
–Giddy Up Grill — their veggie burgers are surprisingly fantastic!
–Playground — the big playground in the middle is great for a wide range of ages. Not awesome when it’s really cold or wet, but a great way for him to run around.
–Merry-​go-​round — it stopped I think in December, but is so cheap and a good time.
–Farm area — those goats are always there, ready to feed their fat little bellies with more alfalfa pellets from you. The chicken area is warm and smelly, but still worth it.
Things I’m excited for when it’s warm:
–Giraffes!
–Aviary
–Butterfly house
–Zoo train
–more animals in the Australia exhibit
–additional food options
Also, the volunteers here are great! You can ask them lots of questions and they seem to know a great deal. Definitely an added bonus.
Easy walking from Egleston Square and many other neighborhoods. Playground inside the zoo as well as outside close to the giraffe entrance. Parking at both the giraffe and zebra entrances.
Get the membership that lets you have extra adults. Totally pays for itself when you can drag your parents/​in-​laws/​visiting friends along with you at no charge.

Third time at the Zoo — this one was for Brew at the Zoo. What a blast!
Great idea to get folks out late in the day/​early evening. Nice selection of food and microbrews. Perfect for a hot summer night. We’ll do it again.

Franklin Park Zoo is a fun place to go because there is a ton of activities to do if you’re bringing children. The activities may vary but if you look closely you can find different animal footprints to follow along the sidewalks. While I was here, I had a good time playing a makeshift detective game with my niece and nephew and having them try to figure out which foot prints belonged to which animals.
One of my favorite exhibits was the lion enclosure. While it wasn’t anything entirely different from other zoos, Franklin Park Zoo had a safari style jeep that was built into the glass wall in which you can sit in it. Sitting in the jeep made it feel like you were in some sort of African safari driving among the lions (although the lions were just lounging around when we sat in the jeep).
If looking at animals is not your thing… you could also lounge around the food areas and eat things like hot dogs or dip and dots (idk why you’d opt to do this though). Either that, or you could play on the various animal themed jungle gyms around park.

Great cool day in September to see the animals very active. The Gorilla exhibit was fabulous as was the Lion Exhibit! The building that houses the gorilla exhibit was beautifully created to give many vantage points to view the animal and many different kinds of animals under one roof! Bravo!
Overall the zoo needs some major TLC. Lots of areas that look neglected and closed areas not open after Labor Day.
The only terrible experience was the Giddy-​Up Grill. For almost $ 50 we got three cold cheeseburger (think they had been cooked days ago), 3 fries, 3 waters and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich served on a stale hamburger bun! Really! Avoid the food it is a total waste of time and money but do see the animals and support the zoo so that Boston can have a world class zoo like other major cities. It looks like it needs a real shakeup and I hope Boston will step up and support it as the treasure it can be.

This was a nice visit for our toddler, but there wasn’t too much going on. The petting zoo is a nice touch. We enjoyed the carousel for only $ 3/​pp (cash only). The camel ride seemed a bit short for $ 8/​pp so we decided against it. After visiting larger zoos in other major cities, it was a little bit of a disappointment.

This is a true diamond in the rough. And I mean ROUGH.
We decided to come here for opening time on a Saturday morning. The neighborhoods we had to drive through were nothing short of SCARY. We saw people sick from drugs, people with signs looking for cash, and folks sleeping on the side of the road still at 9:30 am. Lots and lots of gang activity in the area too. Had it just been my husband and I, I would have been ok, but I worry when we have our little with us…
Watch your colors, stay with neutrals. This sounds crazy, but I really am being honest here.
Now for the zoo! I LOVED the zoo. It was really good sized and took a few hours to see everything. My son loved it and it is definitely stroller friendly! BRAVO!
I’m not a huge fan of zoos in general, I just don’t like the idea of them, but it’s a good way to show my son a ton of animals that he’d never get to see other than in a book.
The lion recently passed and they were waiting on 2 new lions, so we missed out on that, which was sad.
The staff was all friendly and of course you have to deal with the general public, but it honestly was not all that bad and everybody got a turn to see the animals.
Some of the exhibit areas were very smelly, especially the enclosed ones, but that’s par for the course I guess. The gift shops were cool. Teachers get in for half off.
Me likey.

Perfect zoo for the family day, alot to do park is full of interesting parts and attractions.

The zoo was bigger than I thought especially since it’s right in the middle of a major city. The cool thing about this place is that they have several picnic areas as well as kids’ play areas and small shops where you can grab a bite. So for those of you with kids, this looks like a good place for them. The one thing that I didn’t like was that the gorilla section is indoors and they didn’t have the ceiling fans running so it smelled awful in there and it was extremely humid, so even the animals seemed sluggish. They should really have better ventilation. Other than that, this place was pretty cool (p.s. they have a butterfly exhibit).

I was very shocked and saddened to see the zoo in such despair when I went today. we had taken our two kids to that same zoo ten years earlier and it was very beautiful, Today June 29 2015, we showed up at 11.00 am and could clearly see they were short staffed, which was okay, that was not the problem, the problem was seeing animals in cages much to small or without very clean environments, the zoo looked very run down and a lot of area’s that once held animals was now empty. the animals them selves looked in poor condition, in our opinion– not to mention just sad and depressed, the look in the eyes of a hippo was frightening and sad, those animals need some water and this one had very little. The camel was probably rare and the last of it’s kind but looked to be in very poor sick condition,
the tigers and lions of course naturally look fat and lazy but should have had more space– the park itself felt grungy and even my kids favorite place the butterfly house was almost completely empty of butterflies, when my kids were little we would walk through there and be covered with a few butterflies and a few hitched a ride out the door with us, now we barely saw one and the zoo keeper/​worker was inside texting instead of giving any info out. I heard a rumor the zoo was short of funding but paying people to stand around and text could be one of the reasons why.
I just felt so bad for the animals sitting there, I mean of course it’s a zoo and their not going to look or feel happy but they shouldn’t look dead or lifeless, so in my opinion from what I see of the place now I do not think they are being taken care of properly,
normally i would say stay away from this place but I think if everybody goes and donates enough money maybe these beautiful creatures could be saved, for their sake we owe it to them, we took these creatures out of their natural environments and put them in a cage. they should live out the rest of their lives in a clean healthy environment being happy and at peace, please help the Franklin Park Zoo

1. There are some exhibits where you can really get a great look at the animals. The giraffes and zebras seem to be every where, the gorillas, lions, tigers, all great.
2. This zoo is not sad and falling apart like Stone Zoo. All the animals seem safe, well cared for, with a decent amount of space.
3. The staff was helpful and knowledgeable about the animals.
4. The staff running the rides are idiots and act inconvenienced when expected to do their job. The camel ride is fun, but you pay per person and that includes a 1 year old you have to ride with.
5. Bring your own food. It took 20 minutes for them to cook a veggie burger!
6. The playground is fantastic.

We were at the Zoo for 4 hours with our 3 year old son and didn’t get to see hardly any animals (most of the exhibits were empty) It was the worst Zoo I have ever been to!

It was my first time at Franklin Zoo. Loved the tropical Forest and the Bird’s world.
I will definitely come back but at summer time though, i did not see the Giraffes, they were off exhibit because of the cold weather.

More of a 2.5. It really depends on what you’re going for. if you have kids and live in the area, then I think an annual pass would be great. There is a huge playground, I believe there is a petting zoo type area, and there’s enough animals for short, repeat visits. If you’re visiting Boston, I would not recommend spending time here. It is pretty small, and there are not enough animals for a long, full day. We spent maybe 2 hours here (2 adults, no kids) and had seen everything. Some of the enclosures are sad and dirty, particularly the flamingoes. I feel the zoo could use a makeover and upgrades throughout. I did enjoy seeing the baby sloth. I would have been upset paying full price admission of $ 18, we got passes from the Somerville library and paid only $ 6 each.

It may be time to close this place soon. It has always struggled to make money, as any New England Zoo does, since they are only able to be open half the year at best. It’s far too big and in the terrible Dorcester neighborhood of Boston. I know of parents who will not let their kids attend field trips here because of the crime.
The zoo itself houses lions, tigers. gorillas, and giraffe as it’s main exhibit animals. The enclosures are small and in disrepair. It’s dirty and has little staff. There are better zoos like Roger Williams, Park Stone Zoo, and Southwick’s that are local and more friendly to the animals with newer enclosures. If this place closed down, it wouldn’t be the worst thing.

Haven’t been here in years and happy I did not have to pay to get in. Most of the exhibits are dated and could use some updating. Not much has changed since the last time I was here.

Every event I’ve attended at Franklin Park Zoo
has been 5 STARS all the way… every year.
THE DEAL: I highly recommend «Brew at the Zoo»
Feeding Beau the Giraffe and Breakfast with the Zookeeper!

I haven’t been to this zoo since childhood but recently got reacquainted through the Brew at the Zoo and Run Wild 5k events. These two events reengaged my interest in this zoo. Sure, it’s on the small size but it’s time people realize city zoos shouldn’t be the place to see every known animal on the planet. Small focused exhibits where you can get up close to me are what matters. On my recent visit this week, only had an hour to spend before the start of the 5k race and still got to see so many cool species. The keas (alpine parrots)! The active kangaroos! The curious emus! A whole prairie dog colony! And, to my biggest surprise, the elusive red pandas from Bhutan! Sure, the giraffes weren’t out and the lion was away but lots more to explore. Great place and size to take young kids.

First zoo I’ve taken my kids too. It was great all the animals were out so we could see them. The gorilla exhibit was awesome! Most exhibits had multiple views. We did get a few snacks. My only complaint was the staff at the restaurant was lost and frankly rude. But the rest of the Zoo was very entertaining and worth the price. We will come back and may also check out the smaller zoo in Stoneham.

We visited the zoo while in Boston for a few days. Our 10 year old daughter is an animal lover so it was a must visit for us. We had a great experience. The standout highlights are the gorilla exhibit and the budgies. They have over 200 budgies that you can feed. My daughter would have stayed in that exhibit alone for 4 hours if we let her. The giraffe exhibit is excellent as well.
The playground is easily the most impressive one we’ve seen, anywhere. If we lived in Boston, we would definitely be members of this zoo.
Every time my daughter saw a keeper, she ran up to her/​him with questions. Every one of them were very friendly and happy to talk with us.
We would highly recommend a visit for out-​of-​towners or locals.

I suggest going on one of their Free Fun Fridays! Why pay more when you can not pay at all haha
Playground area gets crowded but it is a nice feature for kids. There’s a bigger kids area and a smaller children area

It’s bigger than I expected and there were plenty of animals. The playground is a nice touch and the layout made it easy to see everything in 3 – 4 hours (even with 3 kids). The entrance fee isn’t terrible but the refreshments and whatnot inside the zoo are outrageously overpriced (i.e. $ 2.75 for a candybar) and (this obviously doesn’t pertain to everyone) the restaurants have practically nothing vegetarian (which is a little ironic really). None of that ruins the experience though because they don’t care if you bring outside food, so pack a good lunch and you can picnic your hearts out. Also, I was saddened by the paltry selection of pachyderms.