Most kids would trade any playground for a goat to feed or a python behind glass. These are the animal outings we checked, from the big zoo in Băneasa and a petting farm with free trampolines to a wetland of herons inside the city, plus a long day trip to see rescued brown bears. Some are indoors, so they work in winter too.
Bucharest Zoo, Grădina Zoologică Băneasa to locals, covers about 6 hectares in Băneasa. It keeps more than 150 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, and the tigers, lions, bears and monkeys draw the biggest crowds.
The zoo opened in 1955 and takes part in international conservation programs for endangered species such as the gray wolf.
Reptiland is an indoor reptile exhibit of about 1,000 square meters, with more than 70 live reptiles from over 45 species in planted terrariums and aquariums laid out like a tropical jungle.
Kids come face to face with water dragons, iguanas, crocodiles and giant snakes, including a reticulated python of about 7 meters and two yellow albino pythons. Weekend activities and kids' workshops run alongside the exhibit.
A family-run farm park built for kids on more than 4 hectares beside a working dairy farm. Kids can pet and feed goats, ponies, sheep, donkeys, llamas, ostriches and guinea pigs, and staff help them hold the smaller animals.
Two big trampolines (100 and 80 square meters) and a zip line are free to use, and fresh milk from the dairy's dispenser is sold on the way out.
Libearty is a 69-hectare forest near Zărnești where brown bears rescued from cages on restaurant terraces and chains at gas stations now live with pools, streams and trees to climb.
It is not a zoo: visitors walk a 2 km forest trail with a guide who tells each bear's story while the bears roam behind the fence. Best for kids who can stay quiet on a long walk.
Romania's national natural history museum, in a building opened in 1908, is laid out as walk-through dioramas of habitats from the Black Sea and the Danube Delta to Carpathian forests, where a stag is cornered by wolves. The central hall holds a Deinotherium gigantissimum skeleton over 4 meters tall, a giant relative of today's elephants. Temporary shows, from live reptiles to live butterflies, rotate through.
Văcărești Nature Park is a 190-hectare wetland of reeds, ponds and open water, set inside the concrete dam of a reservoir that was never finished. Left alone after 1989, it filled with wildlife: a 2013 study counted 96 bird species, among them herons, egrets, cormorants and swans, and otters and foxes live here too. Kids can scan the water for birds while apartment blocks rise on every side.
Most kids would trade any playground for a goat to feed or a python behind glass. These are the animal outings we checked, from the big zoo in Băneasa and a petting farm with free trampolines to a wetland of herons inside the city, plus a long day trip to see rescued brown bears. Some are indoors, so they work in winter too.
Bucharest Zoo, Grădina Zoologică Băneasa to locals, covers about 6 hectares in Băneasa. It keeps more than 150 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, and the tigers, lions, bears and monkeys draw the biggest crowds.
The zoo opened in 1955 and takes part in international conservation programs for endangered species such as the gray wolf.
Reptiland is an indoor reptile exhibit of about 1,000 square meters, with more than 70 live reptiles from over 45 species in planted terrariums and aquariums laid out like a tropical jungle.
Kids come face to face with water dragons, iguanas, crocodiles and giant snakes, including a reticulated python of about 7 meters and two yellow albino pythons. Weekend activities and kids' workshops run alongside the exhibit.
A family-run farm park built for kids on more than 4 hectares beside a working dairy farm. Kids can pet and feed goats, ponies, sheep, donkeys, llamas, ostriches and guinea pigs, and staff help them hold the smaller animals.
Two big trampolines (100 and 80 square meters) and a zip line are free to use, and fresh milk from the dairy's dispenser is sold on the way out.
Libearty is a 69-hectare forest near Zărnești where brown bears rescued from cages on restaurant terraces and chains at gas stations now live with pools, streams and trees to climb.
It is not a zoo: visitors walk a 2 km forest trail with a guide who tells each bear's story while the bears roam behind the fence. Best for kids who can stay quiet on a long walk.
Romania's national natural history museum, in a building opened in 1908, is laid out as walk-through dioramas of habitats from the Black Sea and the Danube Delta to Carpathian forests, where a stag is cornered by wolves. The central hall holds a Deinotherium gigantissimum skeleton over 4 meters tall, a giant relative of today's elephants. Temporary shows, from live reptiles to live butterflies, rotate through.
Văcărești Nature Park is a 190-hectare wetland of reeds, ponds and open water, set inside the concrete dam of a reservoir that was never finished. Left alone after 1989, it filled with wildlife: a 2013 study counted 96 bird species, among them herons, egrets, cormorants and swans, and otters and foxes live here too. Kids can scan the water for birds while apartment blocks rise on every side.
