Taronga Zoo is located in an amazing place. While it can be hard to get to, it’s situated in a beautiful spot in Sydney. There are parking stations near the entrance to the zoo and ticketed street parking nearby.

Because we didn’t know how long we would be there Mr Whimsy dropped Little Whimsy and I off and parked on a nearby street (about a 5 minute walk).

The zoo has views of all of Sydney’s main attractions – the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the beautiful Sydney harbour.

Taronga Zoo is large however that’s because the attractions are quite spaced out. You do need to walk a lot to see all the animals and it can be hard to plan the route if you also want to check out the daily shows and talks.

We enjoyed the seal show and the fact that we got to sit down for a bit! The presenter was knowledgeable and provided some interesting information not only about the seals but general information as well.

We also got to see the gorilla feeding session and that was a lot of fun. It was great seeing the gorillas interact with each other and amazing seeing and hearing the large male pounding it’s chest. Such an unexpectedly hollow noise! Little Whimsy now enjoys pounding her chest like that gorilla.

While we enjoyed the day, we were disappointed by the variety of animals that were available. Some animals were on loan but to be honest the variety wasn’t really there.

The facilities seemed a little dated and the food choices that we saw weren’t great. They were expensive and the portions were small. We saw a lot of people had brought their own food and I would definitely do that in the future.

We did enjoy the farm animal section and the insect section. It was less crowded so it felt more relaxed.

One of the main attractions is the tiger enclosure. They simulate you going overseas to see the tigers. You stand in the fake plane and go for a little video ride to Indonesia, so if you have been waiting a while in line it can feel a bit silly but for kids it would add to the excitement. We only saw one tiger in the enclosure who was sleeping on top of a jeep! We couldn’t see it very well because of the reflections on the glass.

It’s always a great to have the opportunities to see animals up close. As part of the entry we got one ride on the Sky Safari cable ride. We used it at the end of the day to get from one end of the zoo to the exit. You don’t get to see many animals from the cable car but you do get to appreciate the size of the zoo. Plus you get spectacular views of Sydney harbour.

The gift shop has a variety of items and I was surprised to find that some of the stuff was actually decently priced and quite nice so you can afford to get a memento of the day.

Head out to Taronga Zoo with an open mind, reasonable expectations and enjoy the experience.