Coming from Houston, where we have a massive zoo; this is a much, much, mmmmmuuucccchhhh smaller scaled zoo that we were in & out in probably 3 hours. It is a perfect way to explore Gulf Shores if you have little ones. My 15 month old son is quite the explorer so it was a great way to spend time with him, show him sights & sounds of the zoo. The zoo itself, looks really nice and well-taken care of & appears to have been somewhat recently constructed (?). The gift shop was really nice with decent prices. I thought admission was on the higher side with what animals they have to show: giraffes, monkeys, a few cat species, reptiles, petting zoo. There aren’t any hippos, rhinos, seals, elephants. But we are all for supporting a local community wherever we are so it’s all good! There are a few additional add-on’s that we didn’t participate in but we enjoyed the free playground!

After four years of making Gulf Shores our destination point for our 3 week ministry and personal sabbatical we decided to take advantage of places and things we had never experienced, one of which was the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. Having read the reviews we came with great expectation. However towards the end of our visit we had a huge disappointment. We tried unsuccessfully to view the multiple places were the "cats" were located. Seemed their habitats were completely empty. Found a could of workers who my wife Karen stopped and asked where they were. They were wonderful in getting in touch with Katelyn the local resident cat trainer and overseer at the Zoo. Katelyn went over and above the ordinary to give us an exhibit by exhibit tour of where they were hidden and an extensive history of each animal. She was truly a grace gift to us. We highly recommend the entire zoo for "children" of all ages: 8-80. It will be worth your time and effort!

We visit zoos quite often, and while we were impressed with how clean this zoo is, we weren’t impressed by the cost. 2 adults and 2 children cost nearly $80 after tax. The zoo in Omaha, which is one of the largest, comes in at a lower price. We appreciated the fresh air, since we’ve been to some zoos that were pretty smelly, but I wouldn’t recommend this zoo if you’re on any sort of budget. It’s just not a big value. I think it took us less than an hour to see all the animals and exhibits. Pretty disappointing since we were looking forward to a zoo visit on our beach trip.