Giants of the Savanna at the Dallas Zoo Opens May 28 - Sneak Preview!

As members of the Dallas Zoo, we got a special sneak preview this weekend to see the new Giants of the Savanna exhibit that will open to the public on May 28th! The Dallas Zoo has 95 acres to explore, thousands of animals to visit, and a huge variety of family activities but we went to see the new exhibit. The Dallas Zoo is enormously entertaining at a great price and starting Memorial Day weekend, the biggest new exhibit to open at the Zoo in 20 years will open to the public!

The 11-acre Giants of the Savanna will let you experience an African safari right in your backyard!  You'll see elephants, giraffes, impalas, zebras, and ostriches in the savanna areas. In addition, there is a separate predator area, which is home to the Zoo’s five new lions and three cheetahs. There are also plenty of places for photo ops with great views of the animals in the backdrop and even a safari land rover (if you're lucky, we weren't, you might even catch a predatory cat in your background)!

Click here to take a virtual tour of the new exhibit! Yes, it really does look like the tour, except there were a few hundred people when we walked through! The exhibits are beautiful and the animals seem genuinely happy in their new locations! The elephants have room to roam, and you can even hand feed the giraffes (although by 10:30AM (it opened at 10:00AM) they seemed full from so many eager participants)!

My kids loved being able to get so close to the elephants and giraffes!  You could actually reach out and pet the giraffes if you were feeding them and their heads were at the height of our kids so instead of looking up they could look right in their eyes!  They thought that was really neat!  There is plenty of room, even for double strollers, to make the path, a great educational center with jaw bones of elephants you can actually touch and feel!  In addition to all the great new animal exhibits, there is also an additional restaurant in this exhibit which is great since the one near the monorail is more a grab and go quick-serve station!

We've been Family Passport members of the Dallas Zoo for four years now, and every we are so happy that we support such a great piece of our community and get to enjoy the benefits of the zoo at the same time.  At the Passport level, you receive free monorail rides (normally $3/person) and free carousel rides (normally $2/person) plus membership in the Dallas Kid's Club which provides discounted admission at places like the Dallas Arboretum and Museum of Science and Nature!  Consider joining!  Even if you don't have kids, I think you will really enjoy yourself!