Sydney Taronga Zoo Wild Australia Experience
Overview
Available languages
2 hours
Mobile ticket
In this premium tour you will go behind-the-scenes at Sydney Taronga Zoo for an in-depth, interactive and close up encounter with Australian wildlife. Get close to a wallaby and take photos with a koala during this intimate small group tour which has a maximum of only six participants. Led by a professional zoo keeper, you'll learn all about Australian animals as you meet them face-to-face at Sydney Taronga Zoo.
Additional Info
Wheelchair accessible
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Public transportation options are available nearby
Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Maximum of 6 people per tour
If you have any mobility and/or accessibility requirements, please let us know prior to arrival to Taronga so we can ensure the tour route can be personalised to ensure the comfortability and safety of all attendees.
Cancellation Policy
If you cancel at least 6 full day(s) before the scheduled departure time, you will receive a full refund.<br>If you cancel between 2 and 6 day(s) before the scheduled departure time, you will receive a 50% refund.<br>If you cancel within 2 day(s) of the scheduled departure, you will receive a 0% refund.
What To Expect
Taronga Zoo
Taronga Zoo is one of Sydney’s top attractions and is loved by locals and tourists alike. Located on the magnificent harbor, just 12 minutes by ferry with views of iconic landmarks this is truly a zoo with a view! Arrive at the zoo and take the Sky Safari gondola to the top entrance. Fly above the Zoo as it skims the canopy of the Asian rainforest inhabited by Taronga's orangutans and glide across the mysterious riverscape of AGL Amazonia, home to the Zoo's South American animals. Meet your zoo keeper and start your in-depth Wild Australia Experience that will bring you close to the animals and where you will learn about the work of the zoo keepers. Learn about the unique Australian animals and how they are cared for at the zoo, go behind the scenes into restricted access areas, see how the food is prepared in the 'animal kitchen,' and explore the world of the wallabies and kangaroos. You will get to enter the Australian bushland and the underground world of the endangered Southern hairy-nosed wombat, discover the mysteries of the platypus, and explore the nocturnal house for a close encounter with the normally shy and elusive wildlife which only venture out at night. At the end of your tour you'll be served a light snack at Harbourview Cafe and receive a souvenir gift. Admission to Taronga Zoo is included so you are free to spend the day exploring the many exhibits and shows before and after your tour. Join the regularly scheduled keeper talks to learn more about Taronga Zoo's wide variety of animals. -------------------- ITINERARY -------------------- How to get to Taronga Zoo: The easiest way to get to the zoo is by ferry. Not only is it convenient but a great way to see the spectacular Sydney Harbour. Ferries depart from Wharf 2 at Circular Quay every 30 minutes. Once you have arrived at Taronga Wharf, take the Sky Safari gondola for a ride high over the zoo grounds. over looking Sydney's most famous landmarks and giving you a bird's-eye view over the zoo inhabitants, ending at the top entrance of the zoo. Alternatively, take the zoo's bus shuttle that meets every ferry. Food vendors: The zoo offers several restaurant and cafe options, with sit-down or casual dining choices available. Taronga Zoo also has many picnic areas; you are welcome to bring your own picnic to enjoy while soaking in spectacular views overlooking Sydney Harbour.Arrive at the zoo and take the Sky Safari gondola to the top entrance. Fly above the Zoo as it skims the canopy of the Asian rainforest inhabited by Taronga's orangutans and glide across the mysterious riverscape of AGL Amazonia, home to the Zoo's South American animals. Meet your zoo keeper and start your in-depth Wild Australia Experience that will bring you close to the animals and where you will learn about the work of the zoo keepers. Learn about the unique Australian animals and how they are cared for at the zoo, go behind the scenes into restricted access areas, see how the food is prepared in the 'animal kitchen,' and explore the world of the wallabies and kangaroos. You will get to enter the Australian bushland and the underground world of the endangered Southern hairy-nosed wombat, discover the mysteries of the platypus, and explore the nocturnal house for a close encounter with the normally shy and elusive wildlife which only venture out at night. At the end of your tour you'll be served a light snack at Harbourview Cafe and receive a souvenir gift. Admission to Taronga Zoo is included so you are free to spend the day exploring the many exhibits and shows before and after your tour. Join the regularly scheduled keeper talks to learn more about Taronga Zoo's wide variety of animals.
What‘s Included
Behind the scenes tour with a professional zoo keeper
This tour does include animal encounters or interactions
All-day pass to Taronga Zoo
Hotel pickup and drop-off
Transportation to the zoo
Food and drinks
Meeting points
Taronga Zoo
Bradleys Head Road Mosman Australia
End points
This activity ends back at the meeting point.
Options
Afternoon Departure
Departs at 1pm, including full day admission to Taronga Zoo.
Morning Departure
10:15am Tour Start time. Including full day admission to Taronga Zoo
Reviews
490 reviews
Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor
A truly great experience.
Griffstutu,,Jan 20, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00It was an amazing experience. The animals were healthy and well cared for by attendants and specialists. Zoo keepers showed great pride in their jobs and were happy to share their experiences with us. We opted for a small group and there were only 4 in our group. Taking the ferry to and from was a great adventure too. Had I known about the hotel on the premises, I would have booked a room. Our tour lasted from 10:15am to 1pm. And since we visited during a holiday there were plenty of if visitors, but we never felt hemmed in by crowds.
Need to be more accommodating to people with disabilities
travelinlight58,,Jan 16, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
3.00First, the good. The guide was incredibly knowledgeable. He obviously knows his stuff. He is highly entertaining and he has an excellent demeanor for a tour guide. He’s been with the zoo for many years. He was the guide to alphabet a tour to William and Kate from the Royal Family. Other than the serious problem I note below, he was a great tour guide. The bad is that is he was so un-accommodating to people with disabilities, that we often could not hear several of the things he was saying. I will explain what his error was below and how he can fix it in the future. The guide needs to run his tour so it is more accommodating to people with disabilities. We had a wheelchair user and a couple of cane users in our group. That meant that during several points of the tour we needed to stop and rest in a flat area. Instead of bringing the other 3 participants to us in the accessible location so that everyone could hear what he was saying, he would stay with the people without disabilities on the area with a steep incline or a location that we could not access because of our disabilities, and he would tell the other participants stories and information that we could not hear by virtue of where had to be due to our disabilities. Again, that is not accommodating of people’s disabilities. He did this multiple times. We felt segregated. So you know, the people with disabilities were actually the majority of the participants on the tour. We were put down upon and not always included. It would have been easy for him to always ensure he was speaking so that everyone could hear his information. He could have thought through how to be more accommodating. He did not. Also, at the end of the tour, he did not tell us what the accessibility path was to leave. He just left. We were forced to try to figure out an accessible way out of the park. The park is quite hilly. We ended up getting stuck in an area where the ramps and the grade of the paths were too steep for the wheelchair or the cane users. We could not leave! We were stuck! We had to find an employee and wait over 45 min to get a buggy just to leave the park because we got stuck! He should have explained the accessible path of travel to exit the park. That would have taken him like two minutes. The tour guide should learn from this and make certain that these issues are addressed in the future. So, given those serious problems, why did I give this 3 stars out of 5? Well, he is a talented tour guide. The facility is beautiful. The experiences (when we were not excluded) were great. If he can just learn from this and fix these disability accommodation flaws, I hope that in the future other people with disabilities will not have to go through what we went through. Again, he does a really good job with his presentation and information. It’s a shame that we were left out several times throughout the tour.
Despite a reservation mixup, a great experience.
48reids,,Dec 1, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00It was a great experience, HOWEVER, when we arrived at the zoo with our CONFIRMED 10:15 reservation, the zoo’s list showed us as having a 1:00 reservation! Fortunately, the zoo was able to move us to a 10:15 time. The zookeeper who recorded us around was excellent. We concentrated on the Australian fauna and saw and experienced things we would have never seen on our own. The zoo is definitely worth visiting.
Wonderful zoo
DavidH166033,,Apr 22, 2023
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00This was our first visit to Sydney and this wonderful zoo. Set in a spectacular location overlooking Sydney skyline . Fantastic range of well presented and cared for animals. Highly recommended place to visit whilst in Sydney. The ferry ride adds an additional exciting dimension.
Great experience
austravellers3,,Mar 19, 2023
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Had an amazing time taking our grandkids to Taronga Zoo. It has defiantly had a few upgrades since the last we visited some years ago now. We found the prices of food not too bad as well and tasted great. The animals are just magic to watch and loved creating these precious memories with our grandchildren.
Fabulous day out
paulnX7457SJ,,Nov 23, 2022
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Great day out, spectacular views of Sydney from zoo. Paid extra £15 (up to four in a group) to have encounter with a gorgeous Koala well worth the extra cost. Park volunteers Marie and Esther were very informative and went the extra mile to answer our many questions which we very much appreciated. All in all well worth a visit. We took the Capt Cook hop on hop off ferry to get there and enjoyed the crossing again giving great views along the way.
So disappointing
JeremyHudson,,Jun 12, 2021
- Review from Tripadvisor
1.00What a terrible experience after a long drive here. Lady at entrance off ferry said take cable car in much quicker than bud. Took 1 hour of queues with young kids waiting not easy. Watched the bus collect 6 rounds of people. Got in there, thousands of people, queues and queues. Could hardly see any animals with so many people pushing to see any animals. Stopped for a break for lunch. The worse oily greasy burgers and chips, threw them straight in bin. We saw more concrete paths and walkways than any animals. I think I saw 10 animals max in 4 hours here. And when we did there was like one poor lion asleep on his own. What a disappointment, never again, so many other much better zoo’s.
Amazing!!!
yehaw1404,,May 12, 2020
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00The view at the zoo was spectacular, and the rest is all a bit of a blur because I was that tired. My friend and I saw orangutans and started yelling at them because they were rangas; that was fantastic. There is so many animals there, and the food is a reasonable price, unlike other zoos. They have good ice cream and really cool giraffes. They had really cool activities and we got to go on a fake plane. Such a great day. We were absolutely naked by the end and slept the whole way back. The cable carts were so cool. We saw lots of peacocks, elephants along with an awesome view of Sydney. We saw so many animals such as dingo's, snakes and friendly, wild bush turkeys that tried to steal our food :). Such a good experience I will never forget, with lots of laughs and entertainment.
The best experience we had during our time in Sydney!
Richard C,,Apr 6, 2020
- Review from Viator
5.00An absolutely beautiful zoo, even though a number of the animals were unavailable for viewing. The behind-the-scenes experience was well worth the cost. Our guide was informative, and very entertaining. Particularly enjoyed learning about "Drop Bears"! Highly recommend to all.
Nice introduction to wild life of Australia
pitaToronto,,Mar 29, 2020
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00A wonderful zoo ( even on a rainy day) with many Australian animals in their natural setting. This well laid out zoo is great for all ages. We were told it would take 3-4 hours to explore it but we stayed a total of 7 hours and still did not see everything! I recommend this for all visitors to Australia .
Related Experiences
Operated by Taronga Zoo