Thursday's Travel Tales & Tips: Chattanooga Zoo

Today is Thursday again and time to link up your travel posts.  I can't wait to read about your travel stories, hear your travel tips, or share your travel dreams.

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One of our favorite family things to do over the years has been to go to the zoo.  Several years we would get zoo passes so that we could enjoy it all year long.  Right before we came overseas we lived in Chattanooga, TN for five months.  It was a wonderful place and we loved living there.  Smaller zoos usually have very reasonable "membership fees" (which allow you to get into the zoo an unlimited number of times in a year's span).  The Chattanooga Zoo was no exception and we got a family pass for $55 for a year (where as it would have been $31 for our family each time we went to the zoo, $8/adult & $5/child).  This made for great and cheap entertainment for the year!  The awesome thing about zoo passes is that they are reciprocal and you can often uses them at many other zoos across the US.  This was great for us because the Knoxville Zoo was much bigger and nicer and even though the Chattanooga Zoo pass was cheaper (Just a one time visit to the Knoxville Zoo would have been $72.75 for our family to go one; more then we payed for a year's membership), we still got into the Knoxville Zoo for free the few times that we went there as well.

Chattanooga Zoo Fun

 Hank is definitely the star of the Chattanooga Zoo.  He is a chimpanzee who was once a circus act.  When you go to see him at the zoo he will come right up to the glass and play with you.  He might even give you a "kiss" or "hold your hand" through the window.  Mr. Sojourner had lots of fun playing with him and this entertained us all!

The "Misunderstood Marvels" exhibit had lots of interesting creepy crawly things to see.

There is lots of  fun animals to see in the "Himalayan Passage" including one of our favorites: the red pandas.  They have a really cool indoor/outdoor exhibit to watch them in.

The Little Sojourners enjoyed the "Warner Park Ranch" exhibit and thought the camels were extra cool (little did we know we would soon be seeing them on a regular basis in Africa!).

And they had a cute little petting zoo with lots of farm animals like goats and donkeys.  (Little did we know the streets here would be filled with them.)

We also loved to see the jaguars.  Towards the end of our time in Chattanooga they started building a new bigger and better home for the jaguars in the "Corcovado Jungle" part of the zoo.

They also had a great carousel that the Little Sojourners enjoyed a lot!  (Usually with a membership you get a few free tickets for the carousel.)

All in all it was a great little zoo that we enjoyed visiting many, many times.  My advice: find a small zoo near you and become a member to enjoy the benefits there, and at all the surrounding zoos!

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