Cincinnati Zoo Festival of Lights

From November 19 – January 9, you can enjoy holiday lights at the Cincinnati Zoo Festival of Lights. This venerable park (the second oldest in the country!) COVERS itself in 4 million lights, offers lots of fun activities, and even several warm buildings in which to see the animals at night.

Festival of Lights

While the zoo itself is open from 10 am-9 pm, Festival of Lights activities start at 4 pm. I assume this is when they flick the switch on the lights – I saw a big light switch near the zoo entrance gift shop but I’m not sure if that is for every night or was only used the first night of the festival the day before my visit. (I couldn’t get an answer from the gift shop staff.) If it’s nightly, it might be worth being around the entrance for the big reveal, that sounds like fun.

With the lights on, you can view an electric light show on the lake, walk around and enjoy those 4 million LED lights, view 27 lighted animal lanterns, including a new “Under the Sea” section with huge overhead jellyfish. And there are at least 6 designated “selfie spots” to boost your Instagram account.

Fiona Fun

The celebrity of the Cincinnati Zoo is Fiona the baby hippo. She’s too hard to see when it gets dark, but there are 5 “Fiona fairies” to look for around Hippo Cove. In fact, this whole area is turned into a pink fairy forest for the night.

There’s also a black-light puppet show called Madcap Winter Wonders that I suspect features Fiona as well. The puppet shows are in the amphitheater at 6:30, 7:30, & 8:30 nightly.

North Polar Express Train

A big part of the Cincinnati Zoo Festival of Lights is the North Polar Express Train. The normal zoo train that circles the inner part of the zoo is transformed into the Polar Express which passes by several of the largest light displays. This includes circling the lake with the Wild Lights show set to music, and a longer-than-ever light tunnel on an elevated section of track.

The train is fun and not to be missed, but I confess I spent most of my night waiting in line to ride it. The train starts running at 2:30 during the Festival of Lights, so it might be worth trying to ride it earlier. There is an extra cost to ride the train. Get your ticket at the ticket booth near the train entrance, or try at the front ticket counter, since I didn’t really ever see an attendant in the booth.

Santa’s Village & Other Character Meetings

You can meet Santa himself in the tree-filled Santa’s Village until December 23. Mrs. Claus makes an appearance on the back deck of the Base Camp restaurant. And you can meet the Frozen sisters in a white-light-filled pavilion to the right from the zoo entrance. Some “Holly Jolly Elves” start roaming the park at 5 pm.

Other treats during the Festival of Lights include fire pits and s’mores kits, roasted nuts, refillable hot chocolate mugs, and other treats.

Admission

Admission to the Cincinnati Zoo Festival of Lights is included with your regular daily admission to the zoo. So come just for the night, or come early to see more of the animals during the daylight hours. Regular admission varies per day, anywhere from $16.50 if you buy weeks ahead to $22 for this upcoming Saturday. Train tickets are $4 each and rides on a small carousel are $3 each. An unlimited ride pass costs $8. Parking costs $10 per car.

Special dates to note: the zoo is closed on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. And there is a special Happy Zoo Year on December 31, with a kid-friendly countdown starting at 8 pm.

Cincinnati Zoo During the Day

I visited early in the day during my zoo visit. It was a chilly day and the zoo was practically empty of guests. Several animals are off-exhibit when it’s cold as well, so you might not see everything you want to. But there are definitely more animals than what you would see at night. But to the credit of the Cincinnati Zoo, there are several indoor enclosures that are not only warm but look really neat.

For a zoo that is completely surrounded by the city and neighborhoods, the Cincinnati Zoo is a surprisingly large one. It seems to sit on a large hill as well – you head steadily downhill as you walk toward the back of the park.

The Cincinnati Zoo is almost 150 years old. And walking around, it seems like each building and section has been developed individually & organically over its long history. As such, there aren’t really overarching themed lands/sections to talk about, but I’ll try.

Roo Valley to Gorilla World

If you walk in the entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo and start your tour clockwise (which feels like straight ahead), you come first to Roo Valley. During colder weather, this habitat doesn’t open until later in the day, and even when it did open, no kangaroos were out and about. An adjacent penguin cove stayed closed. Near the entrance to Roo Valley is a ropes course that operates during warmer weather.

Two enclosures up on the main walkway display eagles and condors, who get a nice view over the Avondale neighborhood. Across from them is a beautiful Reptile House, original to the zoo from 1875, and the oldest surviving zoo building in the U.S. Inside are frogs, snakes, lizards, and a Chinese alligator staring at you from a central pond.

Gorilla World is a rainforest-like habitat for western lowland gorillas. They were all inside and relaxing during my visit. There are also bald eagles and a Galapagos tortoise near here – though the tortoise wasn’t out at the time.

Cat Canyon and Beyond

Across from Gorilla World is the entrance to Cat Canyon, featuring cougars, Malaysian tigers, and snow leopards. I only really saw the cougar up and about, but there are several smaller cats and other nocturnal creatures in the adjacent Night Hunters building.

Behind Cat Canyon is the Wings of Wonder amphitheater, where the nightly puppet shows are held for the Festival of Lights. Across the walkway are smaller exhibits on the extinct passenger pigeon, an insect house (featuring a sprawling ant exhibit), indoor komodo dragons, and (an empty) lemur hill. A small carousel and some picnic shelters are also down in this corner.

Children’s Zoo, Manatees, and More

In the back quadrant of the zoo is an indoor Manatee center, next to a habitat for white lions (which weren’t out.) A big central area contains zebra, rhinos, okapi, bongos, and warty pigs. Closer to swan lake (with real swans!) is the Children’s Zoo and a petting-zoo barnyard. There’s also a nice playground and restrooms in this area.

Down in a valley behind the barnyard is a flock of flamingos, and there are also cute red pandas, a large gibbon exhibit, wolves, river otters, and some indoor penguins and puffins. Not all of these were on exhibit at the time, but most were.

Jungle Trails Corner

In one corner of the zoo (we’re at about 2:00 from the entrance) is the Jungle Trails path. No animals were on exhibit outside during my visit, but normally there are bonobos, orangutans, and other chimps. Luckily, there are two indoor portions featuring gibbons, slow loris, aye-aye, bushbabies, tamarins, and more tropical Asian and African animals.

If you visit with your family or any group, make sure to take part in the team challenges along the trail. They look pretty fun!

Continuing around clockwise, there is a lovely Wings of the World building filled with tropical birds. There are several rooms inside – one of which was closed because it looks like the birds keep trying to get out. I really enjoyed the chatter of the birds and the feeling of calm in here.

Across from Wings of the World is the Safari Train Station, which makes a loop around the inner portions of the zoo, including swan lake, and over some valleys. It’s a one-stop loop, so it doesn’t work as a means of transportation. It’s only a ride. But a much better one than most zoos I’ve been to.

Africa & Hippo Cove

Past the train station is Base Camp Cafe, the largest restaurant at the Cincinnati Zoo. I ate a chickpea burger with curry sauce here for lunch and it was okay. To be honest, it was cold and had zero curry flavor, but at least it was reasonably healthy!

Base Camp Cafe has a large back deck overlooking the path toward the Africa section of the park. In Africa, there are painted dogs, cheetahs, giraffes, African lions, meerkats, and a beautiful plains area with African cattle and birds.

Tucked back and to the left of Africa is Hippo Cove, featuring the famous Fiona. She’s the first baby hippo to be born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 75 years and arrived prematurely. The fight for her survival made her an internet and media sensation, and the pride of the zoo and Cincinnati itself. Now, there is a whole wall of books about her in the gift shop and merchandise galore. On my visit to a nearly-empty park, I still had to wait out a couple of super-fans clutching plush baby hippos for nearly 15 minutes in order to get a picture of her. To Fiona’s credit, she seems to love the attention and likes to approach visitors from her side of the glass.

Elephant Reserve

Back towards the front of the park is almost the most remote-feeling area of the zoo. There are a lot of dead ends, and only one major exhibit – the Elephant Reserve. The beautiful 1906 Indian-styled concrete building and adjoining yard house Asian elephants. This was the only exhibit where I thought the animals looked actively unhappy. It might have just been because they were being kept inside for a bit while the keepers refilled their food outside. But it looks like the elephants will get more room in an upcoming expansion at the back of the park.

Elsewhere in this area, down one of the dead ends, is Discovery Forest, an indoor habitat and education center. It looked empty of any animals during my visit, but it is kind of pretty inside. And there are a few private events spaces available for rent as well.

Admission

Like I mention above, admission to the Cincinnati Zoo is currently between $16.50 and $22 for adults 13+, but according to the ticket page, it can be as low as $8. Tickets for children ages 2-12 are currently $9-$16, but can be as low as $7, with the same pricing for seniors 65 and over.

To ride the train is $4 per person, per ride, and a small carousel is $3 a pop, or you can buy an $8 pass for unlimited rides on both. (Neither seem to be running at the moment, however.)

I made the mistake of buying a ticket that included unlimited rides for the day, thinking I’d get more use out of the train as an in-zoo transportation option. But during my visit, #1, the train didn’t open until 2:30 pm. #2, isn’t a transportation option – I should have done at least a little research! And #3, in the end, I spent most of my evening in line just waiting to ride it once. So I wasted some money getting the wrong ticket for my visit.

If you’re local and plan to visit frequently, you might consider a zoo membership, which ranges from $54 for students to $309 for entire families plus parking, unlimited rides, and free guest passes. Memberships are on sale now for $48-278.

Parking

A word about parking. Parking costs $10 each time you park since you pay each time you exit. So you can’t pay $10 once and come and go from the lot. HOWEVER, I visited in the morning, left after lunch, and returned at night for the Festival of Lights. There was no parking attendant and the gate was up when I left during the day, so I ended up paying only once at the end of the night.

Also, note that the parking lot is across the street from the zoo. You take an escalator or elevator to a bridge that leads over the road to the entrance. Google Maps had a hard time understanding that the entrance to the parking lot is on the opposite side of the entrance for the zoo and I missed it on my first pass.

I hope this helps for those who actually do their research! The Cincinnati Zoo is a world-class destination, especially for families. And the Festival of Lights is delightful. I highly recommend a visit this time of year. If I were to do it again, I wouldn’t come as early in the day as I did. I’d arrive around 2-3 pm, then stay through the evening lights.