Artis

The Artis Zoo in Netherlands was a nice experience with a few animal exhibits that really stood out as world class. The most impressive was the elephant exhibit which featured a large and deep pond where I watched an elephant play and swim for 15 minutes. Rarely do you see that type of joyful behavior from elephants in zoos. The whole herd behaved as closely to a wild herd as I'd ever seen in a zoo.

Some of the exhibits weren't as modern and the route to get around the zoo required some backtracking. Definitely a mix of an old historic zoo with more progressive modern exhibits, but you could see and feel that it is headed in the right direction. I look forward to going back next time i'm in Amsterdam!

Another trip and another zoo to knock off the bucket list. We arrived at Artis a little after the doors opened and it was already pretty packed. One super cool thing about this zoo is that when you walk in, there's a planetarium (sadly, only the little kid show was happening during my visit). My wife and I spent about two hours walking around this zoo and had a pretty solid time doing such. The highs for me included the gorilla exhibit, the red panda, the butterfly room, and the giant birds that were just flying around and landing in all the other animals areas. Did I see everything? No, we didn't go into the bird building and kinda skipped off the reptile exhibit due to some small time restraints but both buildings looked nice enough. Although this definitely wasn't my favourite zoo in Europe so far, it was pretty simple to navigate and had a large amount of animals to look at and see.

Overall, Artis is a nice little zoo located in the middle of Amsterdam. The zoo itself is pretty nice and features a lot of different activities, snacks, and a pretty good sized gift shop as well. Would I come back? Sure, as long as the adorable red panda is still around I'll for sure visit on my next visit.

You need fairly good weather to enjoy the Artis Zoo, not so much for yourself as for the animals. They were languishing in the heat of an 85F day.

The highlights for us:
- The giraffes, zebras and antelopes enjoying each other's company in the same enclosure. This bunch seemed to be weathering the weather better than most.
- The sweet butterfly garden.
- The sea lions could have cared less about the heat and watching them play at deep water level was a hoot.
- The enormous collection of giant tortoises lolling about.
- The tiny wallabies appeared to appreciate the heat.

A massive new enclosure for lions and tigers is under construction.

Note that Artis is next door to the Horticus Botanicus (Botanical Gardens), a worthwhile visit.

Walk a block away from here for an extra good Australian style lunch at Box Sociaal.

It's amazing to have a zoo right in Amsterdam. The zoo is perfect for family visits, and love they have little carts you can use to pull the little ones around.
The annual pass is totally worth it if you live in the city, as you are only a bike ride away. With our 1.5 year old, we went 4 time in the last 2 months!
They have carefully curated their animals, and try hard to provide each of the animals a comfortable spacious habitat. We also really love the up close experience exhibits with the meerkats!

Artis is a fantastic zoo just east of central Amsterdam. The grounds aren't massive (being a city zoo), but they're densely packed with all sorts of creatures. Enjoy elephants, giraffes, vultures, sea lions, penguins, and more. The zoo is extremely lush and navigation is a bit complex, meaning every corner brings a new surprise -- but also meaning it's easy to get lost, so bring a map and stick close to your friends! I spent about three hours here, so if you're on a schedule, consider prioritizing which animals to see and bee-lining straight to them. Overall a great visit!

What a cool zoo! Being foreigner I found it super fun to see unique animals I haven't seen before. My kids loved it! We got their via our bikes which made parking easy. My only complaint would be the price for tourists, 20 Euros for kids 3 and up, 25 for adults. Despite the high price I thought it was worth it.

Some highlights were the fact they had an aquarium and a really cool park for kids in addition to all the other animals. The park had a huge slide that the kids got to via a huge rope playground. Another unique quality was that for instance the wallabies were loose in an area you could walk through. It created a more intimate environment to see the animals.

I would recommend coming visiting here especially if you have kids!

Let me start by saying this: I don't support keeping animals in captivity unless there is reasoning behind it, but my cousin really wanted to come here on our trip. I put my own feelings aside for this and made an exception for her, as she had never been to a zoo. I wanted her to form her own opinion on the whole matter.

The zoo itself is grand, and much larger than I thought it would be. The grounds are something out of a dream - greenery everywhere, gorgeous architecture, and tons of quiet space. Nothing like the zoos here in NYC. The only NYC zoo that could come remotely close to Artis is the Central Park Zoo which is much smaller and much more crowded. This zoo provides a much different experience.

Although beautiful, I was still a little heartbroken to see the lions in cages that were too small, and the elephant sadly swaying with a "get me out of here" face. I really couldn't bear it. That's when I was able to talk to a sweet woman who worked at the zoo. I asked her about the lemurs who are allowed to roam free in certain areas, and I asked her if they were recent rescues. She mentioned that they're an endangered species and the lemur we were looking at had lost his parents, so that's when the zoo stepped in to make sure he had a home AND that this species doesn't go extinct. That made me feel better about this particular animal, but I still couldn't shake the sadness in the eyes of the lions and elephants. Do what you will with that, but those are my personal feelings. I did see that some other smaller animals were very playful and had adequate space to roam. This is why I'm so torn about the whole "zoo" idea.

Whether you want to debate about the ethics or not, it cannot be denied that the space itself is quite lavish and lush, and the grounds are indeed beautiful.

Entry here will set you back about 25€ pp for adults. It's certainly a unique experience.

Artis is by far one of the nicer zoos I've been to. Being a rainy, November day I was quite pleased to see how much each member of our group enjoyed it. The aquarium was informative of the canals and which marine life can be found in them.
There was a wide variety of animals and what I found the most interesting was how different species were kept together or nearby. For zoo enclosures, each pen seemed very thoughtfully laid out to meet the animals' needs as best as could be for captivity.
I also thought it was neat that some enclosures used water as barriers instead of fencing.
The highlight was probably the indoor area where the animals are literally running, jumping, hanging out within touch of you. Tiny monkeys, reptiles, bats, etc.
I also liked watching the gorillas. I probably could've spent an entire day watching the mother and baby and the huge silverback. Watching the tot gorillas rough play was amusing too.
Every staff member we came in contact with was so pleasant and truly seemed to enjoy their job.

Definitely recommend.

(** least favorite part was the atrium, but that's personal preference- the birds are flying all around you allowing the possibility to be pooped on. heh)

Wonderful and historic zoo (Europes oldest zoo). We spent a few hours walking around the zoo on a rainy day and it's a nicely maintained zoo with a great selection of animals.

Very nice, but I actually liked the Amersfoort zoo better