We have family season passes to the zoo and arboretum. They cost very little and are payed for in a couple of trips. Both cover parking and entrance. My zoo pass came with lots of extras for some of the rides at the zoo. Which those took another $20 off the pass. Plus, when I renewed my zoo this year, I got 18 months for the price of 12 because I did it buy a certain date. We always pack a sack lunch and take our drinks. I can take the kids for nothing or very little cost, depending on the extras we may do, which there is so much to do, you do not need extras. A great deal in my eyes and so worth the money.

Definately! We've always done that...and a lot of zoos belong to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. They offer reciprocity at a lot of zoos/aquariums all across the country. So not only can we go to our own zoo, as often as we like, for as long as we like but when we travel to different cities, we can often get in there for free or at a discounted rate as well!

Association of Zoos and Aquariums

DH and I were talking about this on Saturday when we took DS to the zoo. It cost $30 for us to get in and the season pass is $70. We're definitely going to get the season pass - it will be more than paid for in 3 visits, and if we had a season pass we'd go a lot more often than we go now, which is like once or twice a year (we can't afford to pay out $30 for a day out all the time). We tried to bring a cooler with lunch in it, but that backfired and we ended up having to eat our lunch on the way to the zoo (the ice was melting and going to make our sandwiches soggy). A little tweaking of our system, and the next time we go, we'll have it down to minimal cost & stress, and maximum fun. The cool thing is, our zoo lets you apply what you paid on your last visit towards the season pass, so for $40, we could get a season pass for a whole year. It'll be nice to have it available even when DH doesn't have off work - I can take DS with my MIL or BIL if I wanted to.

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I have wanted to do this for some time, but maybe this will be my motivation. Thanks.