When my sister and brother-in-law visited with my two young nieces this month, our itinerary had to be tailored towards activities that would keep a three-year-old entertained (no mean feat, I can tell you). The Amsterdam zoo was therefore an obvious choice. Scott and I had never been and, if you’ve read my blog posts about St. Louis and Ocean Park in Hong Kong then you’ll know I love a good zoo.
Amsterdam Artis Royal Zoo (full name: Natura Artis Magistra, but that’s a bit of a mouthful) is one of the oldest zoos in Europe, founded in the early 19th Century. Impressively, as well as housing all of the typical animals you would expect to find in a zoo of this size, there is also a planetarium and aquarium on-site as well (we never made it into the planetarium, but did walk around the aquarium, which also displays examples of the sealife living in the Amsterdam canals amongst all the trash!)
What made the zoo most attractive to me was the number of historic buildings used as animal enclosures. There are 27 different historic buildings, some of which started life as other things (such as private inns) and this gives the zoo a much different atmosphere than the more modern, expansive zoos I’m used to.
Another great thing about the Artis Zoo is the fact that it’s located in the city centre of Amsterdam (in the east), meaning that, several times as we were walking around, we caught glimpses of traditional Amsterdam gable houses around the perimeter. I did joke that it would be pretty cool to wake up every morning and wave to the giraffes…guess I didn’t really think that through when I moved to my current neighbourhood 😉
As is the way when you’re running around with young children, we didn’t get to see all of the animals or experience the zoo to its fullest – I think Scott and I will have to return another time to do that.
But my niece loved some of the exhibits (surprisingly, the aquarium and the butterfly house were two of her favourites, as well as the flamingos and elephants) and she particularly enjoyed being wheeled around in a little cart that can be hired to ferry small children from one exhibit to another. What a life, eh?
We also enjoyed walking through the gardens and, because it was a lovely sunny day, we spent time having a drink on the terrace of a cafe overlooking the zebras and giraffes. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
I would definitely visit again, if only because I missed out on the orangutans (my favourites), and I would certainly recommend it to families visiting Amsterdam – if all of the animals aren’t enough entertainment there’s also a large playground near the aforementioned cafe.
- Plantage Kerklaan 38-40
- www.artis.nl
- Open 1st November – 28th February 9am – 5pm, 1st March – 31st October 9am – 6pm
- Tickets cost €16.50 for children (9 and under – age 0-2 go free) and €19.95 for adults
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