Manila Zoo

Manila Zoo is MODERN! Manila Zoo is modern! Like all things modern, the place has adapted a minimalist aesthetic. Good on the outside, empty and soulless on the inside. The old Manila Zoo charm is gone. Regardless of what you feel about zoos (and enclosed animals), I feel like their free range and bigger space before was better. There were too few animals to see than before. The boat ride is gone, too. No bird shows, no reptile encounters. It all felt empty. I left feeling sad and nostalgic over how it felt like the place has become ‘corporate.’ At the very least, the place is clean, comfort rooms are well maintained, there’s wheelchairs available for free, and lots of place to sit around and mourn what the place used to be. It might be age, but the place has no magical appeal anymore.

The Manila Zoo is one of the better local zoos in the country. The design feels natural, and I commend the way-finding and circulation of visitors. There is a wide variety of species to visit, and learning about them is easy through informative signage scattered throughout the whole premises. The zoo is spacious, for both animals and visitors alike. There's other things to do as well, such as eating at the in-house cafe and food stalls, visiting the souvenir shop, and there's even a playground that overlooks the monkey enclosure. One downside was there were a significant number of enclosures without the animals at the time we visited. All in all, the experience is worth the price. Definitely bring your children as they can have a fun time learning about all the animals.

We had so much fun. Hope we can re visit again. The kids and adults loves the animals in their respective habitat. Hope to see more of the animals that are no longer there like Elephant, hippo and big monkeys!

A good place to chill with all the trees and animal sounds around, there's benches everywhere and also a semi-decent food court(for some reason there's a lack of chairs and tables) and some stores don't allow you to sit and use their chairs and tables in front of them if you don't buy from them it's a weird concept for me since it's a foodcourt. Anyways, the overall design of the zoo has been improved and looks cleaner, just be prepared for when it rains the day you go, bring your own umbrella some areas are open and you'll definitely get wet if it's raining.

It was such an excellent choice to visit this place. Although, there was no live elephant and giraffe, the visit was splendid. We enjoyed seeing different species in spacious and well-maintained enclosures. There were also some cafes and food stores available inside the zoo. Recommended to friends and families who want to spend some quality time together while enjoying the scenery. Better to buy tickets in advance especially if you will go during weekends so you will not have to wait and queue for long.

Manila Zoo - November 2022 Ngayon lang nakapag review after 2 years. 🤣 Could have been better, better food stalls, souvenir shops, etc. But it's still the zoo that will help you be a child once more. It's still exciting to see the animals.

It was a worthy visit. You will see a lot of animals. It was way way better than the old Manila Zoo. They really did a good job in this place. Must visit when in Manila.

High recommend visiting this expansive zoo! We visited in the afternoon, it was enjoyable and I could see lots of animals. It is quite a bit of a walk to see each of the exhibits, I particularly enjoyed seeing a white bengal tiger playing balls, capybaras, and a lion with his partner. I also saw a very uncommon bleeding heart pigeon, a huge salt crocs, a horse that looks like zebra, ostrich, and many types of birds and etc.

So yeah, what's a Manila tour without a quick visit to Manila Zoo? So just to let you know in a straightforward manner, you guys can do better than visit this place. Because seriously, who will pay 100 pesos to see an elephant who looks more sick than my stomach when it smells prawns. But hey, the good news is the city government of Manila is actually planning to rehabilitate the zoo in a billion-dollar project and a firm who will join forces for a venture agreement to improve the zoo. So at least next time we get to see a healthier version of Mr. Elephant?

Here's an idea: take a kid and a socially-sensitive adult to a zoo, and see just how different their reactions are. A kid will ooh and aah at the animals, and maybe tap on the glass in the reptile room, a la Dudley in Harry Potter. The adult will most likely start off indulging and humoring the kid, but you might see him cringe at a particularly deplorable-looking cage and the sad animal inside it. The Manila Zoo needs to step up its game. I don't know if it is lacking in funds, as there is a continuous stream of people going in and out, especially during the weekends. But the state of the animals is just sad. Mali the elephant has to stand in the heat all damn day. The lions have their bones sticking out from malnutrition, and the tigers are losing their fur. Let's do something about this, please?

From a tourist's point of view, the Manila Zoo is an okay place to add to your itinerary without shelling out too much money. After all, for P100 pesos you get to see a 40-year old elephant, a lion, some rare birds, and more. From any other point of view however, I can't really say there's much merit to the zoo. It's particularly dirty, and having visited on a weekend there were more people than usual, including a group that was rather rowdy and very disrespectful to the animals, disturbing the ones who were sleeping (it was 1pm, an employee told me a lot of the animals, particularly the mammals would sleep at this time). The cages seemed to be in poor condition and the humidity was unbearable even for me, so I couldn't even imagine what it was like for the poor animals. I definitely would not recommend going here.

Zoos, for better or worse, are tourist attraction anywhere you go. I know how controversial they are of late but I feel that they still have a place in this world. Even if you could read up or watch animals online, the educational experience of seeing them in the flesh is still different. That's the ideal anyway. Manila Zoo is a relic from the 60's. I'd wager that what it looked like back then is the same as it looks now. It's old and run down. It's still a cheap way to spend an afternoon in Manila, but it could be better. The zoo has been subject to criticism recently because of activists claiming that the zoo's star, Mali the elephant, is living in deplorable conditions, which is sadly true. I'm giving this three stars because the whole experience is still good for kids. For adults however, it's a completely different story. The zoo is set to be rehabilitated over the next couple of years. Let's just hope that by then it would be something we could be proud of.