We visited this zoo during our cross-country road trip with our two young boys, ages 4 and 5. We…read moredidn't visit the water park, so I can't comment on that portion of the attraction, but the zoo itself was one of the highlights of our trip. Admission and parking were definitely on the expensive side, and we initially questioned the cost. However, once we got inside, it quickly became clear that the experience justified the price. This is an exceptional zoo with beautifully designed exhibits, an incredible variety of animals, and excellent viewing opportunities throughout the park. One thing we especially appreciated was the food selection. There were several good dining options, and a special shout-out goes to the restaurant near the Savanna exhibit for serving fresh watermelon slices--a perfect treat on a warm day. The zoo also features small playgrounds scattered throughout the grounds, interactive learning experiences for children, and even a small aquarium, which was a pleasant surprise. There's so much to see that you could easily spend two full days here if you wanted to explore everything at a relaxed pace. The only areas that gave us pause were the penguin and tiger habitats. We felt the penguins would benefit from a larger, more enriching environment. The tigers also seemed eager for additional stimulation--they repeatedly ran alongside the glass as our kids moved, almost as if they wanted to play. While it was fascinating to watch, it also made us wonder if additional enrichment opportunities would be beneficial. Overall, this is a spectacular zoo and one of the best we've visited. The thoughtfully designed exhibits, wide variety of animals, family-friendly amenities, and engaging experiences make it well worth a visit. If you're traveling through the area, this is an attraction we would highly recommend.

Most zoos for larger cities, especially the capital of states are generally quite nice. I can say…read morethe same for this one too. My only qualms were how rude other guests were (literally almost everywhere I went to in Ohio was like this, probably due to actually being a minority there), and how cold and stand off-ish the staff were too. I want to hope and say it was an off day, but who knows. $30 for that experience when I could have paid less or around that for a better zoo in California, says a lot about society, but I digress. Huge zoo, almost amusement park-like too since there are lots of rides, though some are weekends only. Unlike the dry heat of SoCal, it was cloudy, a bit rainy, and super muggy and humid hot on a summer day, so you'll be sweating regardless. There were also random dinosaurs interspersed around. I enjoy dinos, so this wasn't too bad and it's something I've seen at the SF Zoo too. Also like other bigger zoos, they have lots of events and seasonal things too, which is nice. Favorite animals that I've seen here were the aardvarks, African Gray parrots, Arctic Fox, different species of otters, capybaras, the hellbender, Komodo dragons, Markhor (cool spiral horned mountain goats), moose, Pallas' Cat (meme cat you don't see often). Just wish they had more reptiles, mainly lizards as that's my autistic hyperfixation.

Went on a Saturday around 12, started to get pretty busy around 12:45-1:30. Which makes the…read morecave/cavers very tight to walk through. While your down there your using a provided map to guide yourself around and match the corresponding areas ( Ex; A to A or 1-1 ) We went after it had just rained the night before, so everything was VERY wet. Wear waterproof/walking shoes if you plan on exploring. Be prepared to get dripped on by very cold water coming off nearby rocks, and the "ceiling". Coming down the initial very steep stairs is a beautiful view of different levels of rocks decending into a tunnel/cave where the rest of the cavers are. Tons of puddles all over the ground from collected rain water and the "droplets". Most the areas are about big enough for one person to walk through the tunnel areas at one time, and if your a larger person i DO NOT recommend going down there. Some areas are extremely tight and really only accessible to someone under 4'5 and around 100 pounds or less. (Im 5'4, 140 and some areas i almost got stuck cause it was too tight going through the rocks. It is neat to see though, i dont think id want to do it again as it is just wet rocks and the furthest tunnel was closed from the previous year that occurred from some heavy rain water. (The water collected, over time causing a collapse). So that was kind of a bummer but i get it for safety reasons. The gem mining was fun, definitely loaded with a lot of "gravel" type rocks so that was new for me, Ive only ever had ones with dirt/sand that yield rocks/gems/shark teeth. We found some really interesting gemstones in each tray. The petting zoo was great. I thought it wad Going to be boring and smelly, and i was happily wrong. The goats were adorable, when we came in a baby jumped through the fence and was following our group. And when we came inside the "pen" to pet them he ran back in it was very cute! The deer were a little skittish but very sweet and gentle. The treasure hunt/maze was VERY fun we enjoyed getting different prizes snd trading them within the group.

It's really a great place for people of all ages there's mining for gems there's a cave. Our…read morefavorite part is the animal petting zoo. It's mostly comprised of goats with a few pigs and Zoe the cow "Queen of the barnyard!" It's not exactly conducive for people in wheelchairs. It has a lot of gravel which can make it challenging when you go into the petting zoo. The restrooms are NOT handicap accessible. Which was annoying but we had a work around thankfully. My experience was a five star, but the lack of handicap parking and all the gravel and no handicap accessible bathroom. I have to give it a 2 but because it was so much fun I give it a 5.

I came across this listing for My Barn while researching an upcoming visit to Columbus. It was…read moreduring my research that I saw that My Barn is actually located in the North American section of the Columbus Zoo. My Barn is exactly how a child would describe a barn. The barn itself is red. The animals are in stalls. All the animals had hay in their stalls. There is a mini horse, sheep, goats, an adjacent chicken coop, and somewhere near by is a cow. Children are allowed to pet the animals. Unlike the petting zoos of my childhood, there are no coin operated feed machines. This is for the health and safety of all involved. Children are less likely to get nipped, and the zeepers are able to see how much the animals eat. There was an assortment of brushes to brush the goats. Wash stations are available right outside of the petting area, and in the barn itself.

Went to Glick after a few weeks of rain, and it did not disappoint! Sure, this looks like forbidden…read morechocolate milk, but the absolute roar of the falling water, the height of the swollen river, and the sparkling foam atop the muddy waters were all worth seeing against the bluest sky we've seen in some time. There's a steep little path where you can walk down to a platform near the river and see the measurements for how high the water actually is. There's also some guard rails up top so you can get close to the dam and look down near some cute little benches and tables where you can enjoy your snacks. This is fun and peaceful little excursion you can do in as little as 10min or take your time enjoying.

The only thing more impressive than a natural water fall is a man-made one! No, really: If you want…read moreto be dazzled by falling water, then you should visit Glick Park & Overlook in Dublin. You'll see O'Shaughnessy Dam, pumping tons of water from the Scioto River into the faucets of the fine people of Dublin and Columbus and surrounding Ohio areas. This is a really neat park. It's not a park-park, but more of a place with picnic benches and a big grassy area, where you can relax and enjoy the outdoors while looking and listening to the water fall in the dam. The ambient sound of the water is relaxing -- it's just so big and loud and repetitive. I could hang out and listen to it and stare at the water for hours. However, I only got to stay and listen to the water for a minute or two, because I had children with me. Children don't appreciate standing in one place and listening to water. What kids do appreciate is exploring, and so we set off to check out what else Glick Park & Overlook had to offer. If you feel like walking a bit, there's a dirt path that goes down to the base of the dam, which will give you an up-close look at the falling water. When we visited, there were two people fishing, so I'm thinking that this might be a good place to fish. There was also a sign that warns visitors that if they hear a siren, then they should GTFO and seek higher ground. So, like, maybe don't visit when the river is high? Or maybe just keep an ear out for a siren, just in case. The walk down to the base of the dam and back up again isn't too steep, but it could have some people huffing and puffing, so keep that in mind. The path was smooth and should be OK for strollers and wheelchairs. Parking was plentiful when we visited. There were lots of spaces, and the parking lot is conveniently located right by the picnic area.

I love the gorillas here. I also appreciate that they have plenty of enrichment to play with!read more

Our first day at the Columbus Zoo and we were able to hang out in their Congo River base camp…read more This part of the zoo was amazing, there are so many displays to check out and learn about the different places the animals were from. There are multiple places to kind sit and watch the animals play and, if at the right place at the right time, get to see the keepers interact with the animals. There is a big food court here as well as multiple rest rooms and a few carts with snacks. I will say the best part is the keeper talks in where keepers will come out and discuss the programs surrounding work they do to help maintain the species of animals they work with. This was one of my favorite places to hang out and you could easily spend the whole day here. I will get some more pictures up soon

Great little park with a few of fishing spots, plenty of parking, a pavilion and lots of pretty…read moreflowers everywhere. Lots of birds and ducks too, and of course trees. I didn't have time to stay long but noticed there was a restroom and also a small amphitheater. There were families there and no one was crazy or rowdy. It was super nice and I recommend.

Scioto Park is where you will find Leatherlips Monument, a beautiful work of public art dedicated…read moreto a local Native American legend. That's why we visited! We wanted to see this awesome statue, because Dublin has lots of amazing public art, and Leatherlips is one of them. But there is so much more to Scioto Park. This is one of the main public parks in Dublin, and it's the site of outdoor concerts in the summer and sledding in the winter. There are also nature trails, a playground, picnic shelters, lots of grassy areas, and places on the trail where you can view the Scioto River, which runs through the park. We also stumbled upon a cute statue diorama of a turtle and a beaver. My kids are obsessed (literally obsessed) with beavers, so when we accidentally came across a beaver statue hidden in the brush, they lost their little minds. You can find these statues near the parking lot.

We love this little park! We've now walked all three trails. Each trail is a loop and are…read morerelatively short, less than a mile. Very well maintained. Very nice, clean bathrooms. And a great pavilion with picnic tables. There's also a playground area for the kiddos. We love to grab lunch to have a little picnic and then take a walk!

A lovely little park in Powell not to far from the zoo. This hidden gem has 3 trails which are…read morefairly easy. Lots of birds enjoying the pond. They have very nice restrooms, a playground and picnic tables and a pavilion. A perfect place to get back to nature.

Visiting from New Hampshire Will recommend…read more Would return I actually wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel about this park after reading all of the reviews I kind of felt like I didn't wanna go, but let me just reassure you please make that decision based upon your own experience because mine was very different than what the reviews I was reading about There is plenty of parking you do not have to print your tickets The big issue they're making about coolers is really not that big of an issue. You just have to leave your cooler outside of where the water area is. There's a big covered area where the coolers go, and there was more than a dozen to two dozen coolers left in there and people would just come out of the water area and get their coolers, which was no more than a five minute walk less than Also, there was some complaints about not being able to bring food in there with you again the food you cannot bring into the water area, but you can bring anything you want in the cooler area and honestly, can you only imagine what the water would look like if you allowed all of these people bringing in all this food I was able to rent a locker to fit a beach bag with two towels, two pairs of shoes and a water bottle for $12 all day There was plenty of open chairs to sit on even if you wanted to leave your towels on the chairs nobody was going to be taking your towels I even seen wallets and phones As for the food, sure if you wanna eat before then that would be a great idea. My husband and I each had a chicken finger sandwich that had three large pieces of chicken tender on it and they were hand battered chicken tenders and they were $16 apiece with a bag of chips whatever we were hungry we ate it. It wasn't totally disgusting. We had no lines no waiting for the slides. There are large amount of stairs to the slides, which is why we ended up needing some food during our time here. I also want to point out that all of these waterslides are for multiple riders meaning 2 to 4 there is two slides in the whole park that are single rider slides The park was clean. I went to water parks before it just looks like a waterpark. There wasn't an overabundance of trash, floating in the water like it says there wasn't piles of shit like it says. As for the lifeguards, I also read that they are not very friendly. I find that to be faults. They are all doing their job there so they're not going to go out of their way to interact with you. If you speak to them, you will get spoken back to you, but as you will watch and see them, they are very aggressively doing their jobs So please again make your own review. Don't just not go because of what you're reading and I hope that my review will help you to get there to decide.

Zoombezi Bay is a Columbus classic and obviously has fantastic slides! However, there are some…read moredisappointing aspects. The food and drink prices are so far out of hand is laughable! And bathroom cleanliness has also completely gone by the wayside, which obviously indicates that the pools themselves cannot be that clean. Aside from the slides and the fact that there is a designated adults area, this establishment could use some work!