Seoul Grand Park
Seoul Grand Park
4.5
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Duration: More than 3 hours
Meets animal welfare guidelines
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4.5
280 reviews
Excellent
156
Very good
95
Average
20
Poor
6
Terrible
3
ztps
Singapore, Singapore6 contributions
Dec 2022 • Family
A very disappointing visit. Only the sky lift was the best part. For the zoo itself, we walked from an empty enclosure to another empty enclosure. We even joked that there were more human beings than animals. We saw some just about ten animals in the huge zoo. They kept some indoors though. Like 2 giraffes, 2 zebras some monkeys, meerkats and snakes. But still, I don’t think the price of the entrance ticket justifies the visit experience. If they are keeping animals away in winter, maybe the entrance fee should be either waived or half price.
Written 18 December 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kat
Seoul, South Korea2,134 contributions
May 2020 • Friends
I didn’t go to the zoo nor Seoul Land at the Park - both of which looked depressingly lonely; however I did enjoy a nice walk around the park grounds. There were a lot of people having picnics, walking around. The flower Garden was closed but I still managed to find some flowers around the gate. We took the elephant train 3 times, had a ticket for the forth time as well but we decided to walk. It was a nice walk and nice to see peaceful nature in proximity.
Written 24 May 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Char J
Washington DC, DC175 contributions
May 2014 • Couples
My honey and I spent a lovely day at the zoo in May. This place is huge, so comfortable shoes is a must. The lions and snake pit were by far my favorite. However I will say the food selection wasn't so great; just my opinion. Make sure to purchase the three part package deal.
Written 30 May 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
TomCoyner
Seoul, South Korea72 contributions
May 2015 • Family
Recently I conducted a photo workshop focused on photographing wild animals. Rather than trying to stalk and photograph the critters, we ramped up our odds of finding subjecs by heading off to the Seoul Zoo. Yeah, a zoo - a place that I had thought to be a rather lame place to take photos.
Well, I was wrong in so many ways. First, the Seoul Zoo is no longer that third class park with dingy animal exhibits and less than optimally cared for animals. The place is simply amazing. It's huge, clean, beautiful and a real joy to be during a fine spring day. The exhibits include many walk-ins, including a massive enclosure of cranes, storks and other waterfowl where the public can see birds wading, swimming and flying without any barriers other than a hand rail. There are other walk-ins for tropical birds where the birds literally flutter around you. And the tiger exhibit is really exceptional - but naturally not a walk-in exhibit!
Second, it's a great place to take photographs. Sometimes it's almost as easy as shooting fish in a barrel; but other times, such as trying to catch cranes in mid flight, one can appreciate what goes into quality wildlife photography in the field. Also, there were many young couples courting there with their ubiquitous selfie-sticks. Naturally, the place had more than its fair share of kids, but because the place is truly spacious, they were not underfoot as they could have easily been in a smaller park.
It's been decades since I've had such a good time at a zoo. The last time was the San Diego Zoo. The Seoul Zoo is not (yet) on the same level as the San Diego Zoo, but it is coming up close to that level. For W3,000 admission, the Seoul Zoo has to be one of the hidden gems of Korea.
Seoul Zoo at Seoul Grand Park is located in Gyeonggi-do, just south of Seoul. The Seoul Zoo is 1.5 km walk (or tram ride) from the subway station. There is also a 1 Km lift available about 0.5 km from exit 2 of the subway.
Opening Hours: 09:00 am ~ 19:00 pm (depending on season, some walk-in exhibits close at 5 pm)
Admission:
Adult (19+): 3,000 won
Youth (13 – 18): 2,000 won
Child (6 – 12): 1,000 won. Under 6 is free.
Botanical Gardens and Dolphin show cost extra.
How to get to Seoul Zoo:
Take line 4 to Seoul Grand Park station and leave exit 2. Follow the map: View a map at http://www.exploringkorea.com/seoul-zoo-seoul-grand-park/
Well, I was wrong in so many ways. First, the Seoul Zoo is no longer that third class park with dingy animal exhibits and less than optimally cared for animals. The place is simply amazing. It's huge, clean, beautiful and a real joy to be during a fine spring day. The exhibits include many walk-ins, including a massive enclosure of cranes, storks and other waterfowl where the public can see birds wading, swimming and flying without any barriers other than a hand rail. There are other walk-ins for tropical birds where the birds literally flutter around you. And the tiger exhibit is really exceptional - but naturally not a walk-in exhibit!
Second, it's a great place to take photographs. Sometimes it's almost as easy as shooting fish in a barrel; but other times, such as trying to catch cranes in mid flight, one can appreciate what goes into quality wildlife photography in the field. Also, there were many young couples courting there with their ubiquitous selfie-sticks. Naturally, the place had more than its fair share of kids, but because the place is truly spacious, they were not underfoot as they could have easily been in a smaller park.
It's been decades since I've had such a good time at a zoo. The last time was the San Diego Zoo. The Seoul Zoo is not (yet) on the same level as the San Diego Zoo, but it is coming up close to that level. For W3,000 admission, the Seoul Zoo has to be one of the hidden gems of Korea.
Seoul Zoo at Seoul Grand Park is located in Gyeonggi-do, just south of Seoul. The Seoul Zoo is 1.5 km walk (or tram ride) from the subway station. There is also a 1 Km lift available about 0.5 km from exit 2 of the subway.
Opening Hours: 09:00 am ~ 19:00 pm (depending on season, some walk-in exhibits close at 5 pm)
Admission:
Adult (19+): 3,000 won
Youth (13 – 18): 2,000 won
Child (6 – 12): 1,000 won. Under 6 is free.
Botanical Gardens and Dolphin show cost extra.
How to get to Seoul Zoo:
Take line 4 to Seoul Grand Park station and leave exit 2. Follow the map: View a map at http://www.exploringkorea.com/seoul-zoo-seoul-grand-park/
Written 24 May 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
solafide
Fort Walton Beach, FL37 contributions
Aug 2014 • Friends
Perhaps I am just spoiled having recently visited a few zoological facilities in the United States and being from Columbus, Ohio where noted animal expert, Jack Hannah was the Zoo Director for many years and remains Director Emeritus. The things that I really liked about the Seoul Grand Park Zoo is it's ease of access. It is very easy to find and very easy to get to. That says a lot for a Korean city like Gwacheon, which is part of metropolitan Seoul. The grounds of Seoul Grand Park are expansive. It is a great place just to go and hike and you can see many locals who go there to do just that. The walk-ways double as access roads for shuttle busses and service vehicles, so they are very wide. The park is full of beautiful sprawling hardwoods and little island of green grass where you can sit and relax. Many have Korean-style wooden decks that are covered with aesthetic local-flavored covering and there are some places that are African themed with covered pavilions suitable for groups to relax. Seoul Grand Park is not ALL Zoo, but it has many different parts to it. At the parking lot you can find wide walking avenues lined with trees leading to the entrance to the general park. There are adequate western-style restroom facilities throughout the park. You have the option of taking a lift into the park or taking the "Elephant Train" which is just a Tow vehicle pulling several passenger platforms. Hold on to your children though--the driver only has two speeds, stop and escape velocity. The Elephant Train costs about 600 won each time you use it and it only takes you to the entrance of the Zoo and the other parks. I think there were three or four stops in all. Once at the entrance of the Zoo, the admission for adults is 3,000 won. They will only give you one ticket for your entire party and it will have the number of people on the ticket, so don't get separated before you go through the Zoo entrance. All that being said, once inside the zoo I was really disappointed at the obvious wear on the infrastructure. Everywhere you looked facilities cried out for a coat of paint and rust treatment. We came upon so many of the different "herd" animals and they were in vast outdoor enclosures. That's great for the animals I think, but they were so far away most of the time that you couldn't really observe them. Fortunately the park is loaded with casted replicas of the animals. It presents a lot of photo opportunities for the kids I guess. One of the things we really wanted to see was the Dolphin Show advertised on the English Web Page for the Seoul Grand Park Zoo. When we finally found the Marine Pavilion, the ticket windows had shutters pulled down inside. There were no signs showing the performance schedule or the admission price for the Dolphin show and we couldn't fined anyone around to ask. There were several marine habitats built around the perimeter of the Marine Pavilion, but they were not well kept. The water was dirty with a dark green tint and the walls of the habitat had not been repainted in years and there was a lot of places where paint had either worn away over years of neglect or chipped off the surface. I wouldn't be surprised if the Marine mammals had died over the years because of the poor conditions. After all, there was only one or two of each of the varieties of sea lions per habitat and they didn't seem too healthy. They rarely came out of the water and because it was so dirty it was nearly impossible to see them. I later asked an information attendant about the Dolphin show and she told me they hadn't had a Dolphin show in over two years despite being advertised on the English Web Page. From the looks of the outside of the Marine Pavilion I'd bet they are hoping to eliminate the marine exhibits by attrition as the animals die off. No I can't verify that, but the generally lacking upkeep of the Marine Pavilion and surrounding marine habitats, the lack of performances, and failure to care for the animals by just cleaning the scum out of the habitats or changing the water is highly suspect.
I will give high marks to the Mountain Goat exhibit area. They have a manufactured rock cliff mountain that is really high and there was a huge herd of goats spread out on practically every available ledge and plateau and they were actively climbing up and down, passing each other on narrow pathways of rock--all looking quite natural. It was awesome to see how sure-footed they were and I felt this exhibit really captured the essence of the animals. The Giraffe habitat was also well done. There were three out in the open when I was there and they have a second-story platform where you can look at the eye-to-eye if they ever come that close. I really enjoyed the Meerkats too. There were only three in the exhibit, but it looked somewhat small. The interesting thing is that the pen was relatively small and they were only separated from patrons by a short Plexiglas wall. It would be easy for unsupervised children to feed them junk. I did notice that one child was eating something while I was there and one of the little Meerkats scurried over beside him and stood up just inside the Plexiglas waiting to see if there was anything edible coming his way. But it was fun to be able to see these little guys up close. They are adorable! The brochure that you get when you enter the Zoo says there are shuttle busses running around the park that will take you between venues or to the exit, but we were at all of the venues listed as stops in the brochure and we never saw a bus run. When I asked the information attendant as I was leaving she said the busses were running earlier in the day, but we were there for about 4 hours and never saw the bus once. If you want to go get some good exercise and be bathed by the sprawling hardwoods as you hike the hills throughout the Zoo and surrounding hills, this is a great place to go. After all, it costs only 3,000 won to enter. Perhaps that is the difference between the cleanliness and better upkeep in the Zoos I have visited in the United States--all of them have a much higher entrance fee. You'd pay $3 dollars or more for just a bottle of water in a US Zoo too, but here at Seoul Grand Park bottled water is only 1,000 won and they have free water fountains, food and souvenir/toy shops throughout the park. They have stroller rentals available as you enter the Zoo and there are also some coin-operated lockers available and I think they cost 500 won.
I will give high marks to the Mountain Goat exhibit area. They have a manufactured rock cliff mountain that is really high and there was a huge herd of goats spread out on practically every available ledge and plateau and they were actively climbing up and down, passing each other on narrow pathways of rock--all looking quite natural. It was awesome to see how sure-footed they were and I felt this exhibit really captured the essence of the animals. The Giraffe habitat was also well done. There were three out in the open when I was there and they have a second-story platform where you can look at the eye-to-eye if they ever come that close. I really enjoyed the Meerkats too. There were only three in the exhibit, but it looked somewhat small. The interesting thing is that the pen was relatively small and they were only separated from patrons by a short Plexiglas wall. It would be easy for unsupervised children to feed them junk. I did notice that one child was eating something while I was there and one of the little Meerkats scurried over beside him and stood up just inside the Plexiglas waiting to see if there was anything edible coming his way. But it was fun to be able to see these little guys up close. They are adorable! The brochure that you get when you enter the Zoo says there are shuttle busses running around the park that will take you between venues or to the exit, but we were at all of the venues listed as stops in the brochure and we never saw a bus run. When I asked the information attendant as I was leaving she said the busses were running earlier in the day, but we were there for about 4 hours and never saw the bus once. If you want to go get some good exercise and be bathed by the sprawling hardwoods as you hike the hills throughout the Zoo and surrounding hills, this is a great place to go. After all, it costs only 3,000 won to enter. Perhaps that is the difference between the cleanliness and better upkeep in the Zoos I have visited in the United States--all of them have a much higher entrance fee. You'd pay $3 dollars or more for just a bottle of water in a US Zoo too, but here at Seoul Grand Park bottled water is only 1,000 won and they have free water fountains, food and souvenir/toy shops throughout the park. They have stroller rentals available as you enter the Zoo and there are also some coin-operated lockers available and I think they cost 500 won.
Written 6 August 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
beckers02
Toronto, Canada8 contributions
Feb 2013 • Couples
The conditions these animals have to live in is awful. The zoo owners clearly care more about attracting visitors than they do about their animals....their winter habitats were concrete jail cells, and most animals looked visibly unhappy/underfed. The habitats set up for the warmer months didn't look any better, really, and pretty much just looked like cages instead of places to make the animal feel at home. I was so sad by the time I left, and couldn't even bring myself to see the whole zoo. Please don't support them, and rather go to a zoo that takes care of their animals properly.
Written 15 February 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Karyn W
Kansas City, MO1,649 contributions
July 2013 • Family
This place was amazing and so big we couldn't even do it all before we got tired and a little too hot for the day. There are many animals and they have nicely done enclosures. The guide map was in English but we found very few of the staff spoke English. However this wasn't too important as we wanted to just see the animals. They had an amazing dolphin and seal lion show that was included with the entrance fee.
There was an impressive green house with many many different species of lovely plants.
We also took the sky lift to get a birds eye view (and return to the front) and it wasn't very expensive.
The zoo is non-smoking which was nice.
There were several food options and one had a lot of good Korean food options with a serve yourself kimchi bar.
There were colored lines along paths if you wanted to do a particular loop with each taking about two hours to complete. We didn't use these, but it was a nice option.
Overall this zoo was enormous and very nicely done. We were glad we were able to visit and little sad we didn't get to see the whole place (or have time to to return again on another day).
There was an impressive green house with many many different species of lovely plants.
We also took the sky lift to get a birds eye view (and return to the front) and it wasn't very expensive.
The zoo is non-smoking which was nice.
There were several food options and one had a lot of good Korean food options with a serve yourself kimchi bar.
There were colored lines along paths if you wanted to do a particular loop with each taking about two hours to complete. We didn't use these, but it was a nice option.
Overall this zoo was enormous and very nicely done. We were glad we were able to visit and little sad we didn't get to see the whole place (or have time to to return again on another day).
Written 22 May 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
yipjcs88
Hong Kong, China9,964 contributions
Oct 2019
The Seoul Grand Park has a good zoo and rose garden. I did not see roses in past visits but this time (late Oct.) the rose garden was filled with roses. In autumn the autumn colours are fascinating. However this year was dry and the summer was unusually long so the ginkgo and maple trees were much less attractive than last year. I like the park because it has a bird house where one could see various birds face to face ie not caged. The zoo is very large and has a wide range of animals.
Written 16 November 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Evelyn Chandra
30 contributions
Nov 2019 • Family
The zoo is big and nice, better you buy the package ticket wich incl elephant tram and sky lift. The only minus thing is there is not much option for food. Mostly sell sausage, teokkebi, and other korean food. So, if you want to eat other cuisine, bring it from home/ buy it before get in to the zoo. Oh, there is also 1 kfc outlet wich always full and dunkin doughnut before the ticket counter.
Written 6 November 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Georgia M
London, UK1 contribution
Sept 2018 • Couples
I love visiting zoo’s and seeing different animals. However, I recommend not visiting this zoo. I travelled 1.5 hours to get here, and I feel like my time travelling and visiting was wasted. There were many different animals, which was probably the best point. Each enclosure was small, dirty, and there was no sign of a zookeeper anywhere. Usually on my visits to the zoo I see many zookeepers tending and feeding the animals, but during my visit here I didn’t see any. Many animals looked sad and hungry, often eating dry leaves. The monkeys were also acting out at each other, probably because the cages were so small. As I mentioned, I love to visit the zoo, just not this one.
Written 28 October 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
How much is the entrance fee in Seoul grand park only? (Excluding zoo, etc)
Written 10 May 2019
hi is children and park and seoul grand park the same?grandpark.seoul.go.kr/eng_grand/grand/doing/doing01.jsp
Written 16 January 2017
Hi! I am planning to visit seoul in dec/jan.
I intend to visit yongin everland. Will this be suitable to visit during winter time? Thanks!
Written 24 June 2016
yes, the everland is open during winter.
there are some rides that provide heater at the queuing area too.
the snow sledding may not be open, need to check.
do pay for the elephant train to bring you to everland entrance if it is too cold for you to walk the distance there
Written 24 June 2016
Можно ли в зоопарке поплавать с дельфинами и сколько это стоит?
Written 25 April 2015
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