Wilhelma

Die Wilhelma in Stuttgart haben wir vor ein paar Jahren in unserem Sommerurlaub für einen Tag besucht. Da wir gerne in Zoos oder Tierparks gehen wollten wir gerne auch einmal hierher kommen. Meine Schwägerin hatte schon von der Wilhelma geschwärmt und so sind wir dann an einem Tag hierher gefahren. Wir waren zu viert und wollten einfach einen schönen Tag im Zoo verbringen.
An sich ist die Wilhelma schön gestaltet, es gibt viele Grünflächen, einige Tiergehege, Erklärungen um welche Tiere es sich handelt und man kann auch etwas essen und trinken, wenn man das möchte. Außerdem gibt es auch zahlreiche Toiletten. Das Wetter an dem Tag an dem wir hier waren war auch sehr gut, die Sonne schien und alles schien perfekt.
Da wir uns leider noch in der Coronazeit befunden haben waren allerdings viele Gehege geschlossen und einige Tiere haben wir gar nicht erst zu Gesicht bekommen was mich schon sehr enttäuscht hat. Ich hatte mir den Ausflug hierher auf jeden Fall anders vorgestellt und auch meine Schwägerin meinte, dass das beim letzten Mal als sie da war viel schöner gewesen ist.
Eventuell müsste man nochmal außerhalb von Corona herkommen um das etwas anders beurteilen zu können. Ich persönlich war schon enttäuscht und ich hatte mir das auf jeden Fall anders und schöner vorgestellt.

Very nice zoo! My daughter thoroughly enjoyed herself and between the animals and plants, everything was beautiful! I will be back!

Nice zoo in Stuttgart. They have a great ape enclosure now. The botanical garden is beautiful. Its gotten very expensive so its better to get a season ticket.

I visited this zoo with my sister back in late April. In short, we had a horrible experience. My sister is autistic and has a (Danish) disabled ID and therefore the right to bring a person alongside her for help. We were met with rude and degrading staff and felt stepped on from the start. My sister had a panic attack (something I have not seen from her in 10 years). We were helped by two really sweet German ladies that helped translate for us as the staff in the ticket sale had very bad English or plain refused to talk to us. When we finally got into the zoo we were not impressed. It is a very standard "city zoo" and the educational part of running a zoo (all the knowledge about the animals) was only on very small signs and in German, something that does not match with a zoo that prides itself on conservation work where knowledge is power. We asked for a supervisor multiple times but apparently, no one was to be found. I have written them an email and have heard nothing back despite it being a full month. We would NOT recommend the zoo, especially if you want to learn about animals or have a disability.

The animals could do with some of that wide open green space for themselves.

Otherwise, the architecture and gardens are pretty.

But seriously. More room to roam.

We really enjoyed this. We came in the fall and it was literally a 3 minute drive from the beer fest. Super convenient.
This is such a pretty place to wander around. We didn't even make ti 1/2 way through. It is quite large with some hills so if you have someone with mobility issues they may not make it. But still a wonderful experience. We will go back at some point to finish.

This zoo was so much fun to visit. Having grown up with the San Diego Zoo close by, I did not expect to be pleasantly surprised by how large and fun this zoo is. The entrance cost is pretty low and the food is not too expensive. There is much to see and there are so many places that children can play. PS, if you want to travel by train, you get dropped off right in-front of the zoo enterance.

Grait Zoo and place to go with Family and Friends ore just take a nice walk :)
The history of the Wilhelma is very sweet to if you think about that the king gave it to his wife as a gift :)
Can only recommends going there!

Wilhelma is the most popular place for a leisure-time visit in Baden-Württemberg's capital city. Every year more than 2 million visitors come to the park from Stuttgart itself, from Baden-Württemberg and from the rest of Germany, as well as from neighbouring European countries. A visit is always worthwhile.


The park is open every day of the year. The gates are always opened at 8.15 a.m. Depending on the month the park closes at different times. In the winter months, when the days are shorter, the park closes earlier. Due to the very many different animal and plant buildings, Wilhelma is a good place to visit even when the weather is bad. One can reach many of the animal and plant houses dry-shod, because they are connected by covered pathways, the so-called covered walkways.
With over 1.000 species of animals, Wilhelma is one of the zoos that has the most species, not just in Germany but worldwide. In addition there are some 5.000 species and varieties of plants in Wilhelma's botanical gardens.


Each plant and animal at Wilhelma belongs to a specific house or enclosure. These special territories are organized according to systematic or geographical factors, such as the House for Animals of Prey and the South America Enclosure, or the House for Tree Ferns and the Tropics House. All of these territories are described in the following pages and, as representatives of the many species to be found in those territories, several selected species will be introduced in more detail.
Today's Wilhelma Park belongs to the historical heritage of Baden-Württemberg. The park has undergone a transition from being the purely private retreat of a king to become the zoological and botanical gardens of Stuttgart, with just over 2.1 million yearly visitors.


Originally planned as private gardens, the park, with buildings in the Moorish style, was intended to serve the Swabian king, King Wilhelm I, as living quarters and also to be used for representative purposes. In those times, in the middle of the 19th century, Moorish architecture had come into fashion amongst the royal families of Europe.


The king therefore ordered a Moorish park from his architect, Karl Ludwig Zanth. It was to bear the name Wilhelma. The most outstanding example of Moorish architecture, even in those days, was the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. And so Wilhelma is also known as the Alhambra on the R. Neckar.

My kids enjoyed these place! Met nice families who helped with language barriers and directions! We could not do this whole place in a day! But, just as far as we went was amazing already. We really enjoyed this place we just didn't plan efficiently with time. But, definitely know better now. Go early and nothing can go wrong!!! Lol

I've been to better zoo's. They have a great variety of animals, but what bugs me is that they had the Polar Bears on rocks, no ice and most animals just don't seem well taken care of.
Haven't been back since; however, the grounds are beautiful and the staff is nice.