Naming 275 zoos and aquariums in total (In 2014), the awards call the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, the world’s best.

-CNN Travel-August, 2014

We’ve heard from so many families that the Omaha Zoo and Aquarium is a Must See! Finally, last week, we made the trip to Omaha, Nebraska to see the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Plan your trip

Our trip was planned with a rental RV in the first place. We did some research for some time and ended up not doing it, because it seemed to be more expensive than we thought. People who own a RV, can rent them out during the rest of the year when they’re not using them, which is a great thing! And extra income…for them! But for us to just travel for a week and try it out, it is pretty expensive. On average people ask $200 a day, plus insurance, plus fuel, plus fee for the camping place. It was getting close to $300 a day!

At the last minute, we decided to use our own van and drive to Omaha. The Omaha zoo was part of our trip to Mt. Rushmore. In total we traveled with 4 adults and 3 kids. All of the hotel reservations were done through Booking.com. Normally we use Hotwire.com, but my father insisted to try Booking.com and here is why:

• He was able to make reservations from the Netherlands and use his credit card from there.
• You can cancel your reservation up to 2 days before your stay.
• Each time you refer a friend to Booking.com and they make an hotel reservation, you AND your friend will receive $25 back. Click here to get started!

The hotel we stayed at this time, was The Victorian in and Suits. There was an outdoor swimming pool, which wasn’t very clean and the breakfast is always a difficult thing, if you’re not used to all the sweets! The rooms were clean, but outdated. The staff was very friendly and we had 2 rooms, which were connected. We stayed 2 nights, because we wanted to plan one whole day at the zoo.

The drive from our hotel to the zoo was about 20 minutes. There are 2 entrances to the zoo. The south, which is the main entrance and the north entrance. There is NO fee for parking. We parked at the south entrance, which is located off of 13th Street and Murphy Ave. At the moment we got in, we had to outrun a severe thunderstorm!!!

Entrance fee:

Adults (ages 12 and over) : $21.95

Children (ages 3-11) : $15.95

Seniors ( 65 and over) : $20.95

Children (2 and under) : FREE

If you have a membership from the Henry Doorly zoo in Omaha, you’re ready to go, but even if you have other zoo memberships (for example the St. Louis Zoo membership), you’ll get a discount.

You might think:” Wowww, that’s a lot of money!” But looking back at the visit….it was totally worth it! Just keep reading;)

What to see in bad weather

This part I was a little afraid of, because I saw a thunderstorm coming in the morning on the weather channel and thought that it wouldn’t be that much fun to walk through rain, being totally soaked and all the animals will be hiding.

We decided to go anyway, because it seemed the Henry Doorly Zoo has a good amount of indoor activities too. Okay, we went for it! Renting a stroller for Little Munchkin, $9 for a single one (because mom forgot our own, totally not thinking to put it in the car), we ran to the Desert Dome. It was amazing. We just got in the dome when it started to rain heavily. It was actually fun to see the waterfalls going down the windows of the dome and hear the thunder more loudly.

The Kingdoms of the Night are within the dome and you’ll get a great feeling of animals living in caves. We slowly made our way out of the dome to check if the rain had stopped.

On the back side of the dome was a building where you could see the Orangutans and close to that was the Hubbard Gorilla Valley….all indoors, so perfect for the morning rain!

After that, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Here are some other indoor exhibits:

• Lied Jungle
• 
• Aquarium
• Butterfly Pavilion

What to see in good weather

Yes, the sun came out indeed and within a few hours it was close to 90 degrees. We stayed in the shade and used rocking chairs to relax at the Children’s Adventure Trails, while the kids had fun feeding the birds, climbing and splashing in the water. It was beautifully made, with a Stroller Coaster, petting zoo and they even provide 30 SPF sunscreen at the restrooms.

We had lunch at the Durham Tree Tops Restaurant, which has a beautiful view of the Lied Jungle. The food was decent as well. Different kinds of burgers, fries, tacos, salads, a soup of the day and more.

It was time to see more of the zoo. We could have walked around more that day, but I noticed, this zoo is too big to fully experience all the exhibits in one day. It was too hot as well!

We ended up walking to the giraffes and elephants, but we took the train back to the south entrance. We would’ve walked longer and see the other exhibits like the Asian, the Alaskan and expedition Madagascar, but it was just too much and too hot. Even though a visit to the gift shop was needed 😉

Review

We will definitely come back to see more of this incredible zoo. Everything is clean and well kept. There is enough to do even on a cold or rainy day. The bathrooms are clean and in the summer time, the zoo has more help from students who are stationed in different places to give you more information about the animals and their habitat.

I think, together with the San Diego zoo, the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska is definitely one of the best zoos in the United States, for sure. I haven’t been to many other zoos in the world, except for the zoo in Antwerp and a few zoos in Germany and the Netherlands, but this one is a must-see!

Please Pin to help other families find information about the Henry Doorly Zoo. Thank you!

Danielle

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.