It’s been a few years since we visited the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoo and Park, so we decided to to change that yesterday!
The Alligator Farm is open daily from 9am-5pm, including Thanksgiving and Christmas Days. During the summer they are open from 9am-6pm.
Paying full price would have been a bit painful for us, so we looked through our local discount Mint magazine and found a 50% coupon for up to 6 people. Here are a few other ways to save on admission:
- If you are a Jacksonville Zoo member, or if your zoo or aquarium is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums reciprocity program, you will most likely get a discount. I called the Alligator Farm to ask specifically about the Jacksonville Zoo discount, and it’s half off! We used this discount last summer at both Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo and the Atlanta Aquarium.
- Military Discount
- AAA Discount
- CAA Discount
- Senior Discount
- If nothing else, on their website there is a print off coupon that can save you a few bucks!
Otherwise, walk up prices (including tax) are:
- Adults (ages 12 and up): $26.99
- Kids (ages 3-11): $15.99
- Kids under 3 are FREE!
- There are also year memberships available –
current pricing (including tax) is:
- Individual: $99.95
- Family : $129.95 (includes two adults and up to 10 children) With this option you can also add a third adult for $75 for the year
- Grandparent: $119.95 (includes two grandparents and up to 10 children) you can add a third adult for $75 for this option as well
So if you are going to be going more than once in a year, the membership may well be worth it, as you get discounts on the gift shop, food shack and special events throughout the year.
A quick history lesson on the Alligator Farm: it has been around a long time, having been opened in 1893, but not in the current location. It was originally located near Anastasia State Park, also in St. Augustine. After some unfortunate natural disasters, they moved to their current location in the 1920’s, and they’ve been there ever since! They house all 24 species of crocodilians, some critically endangered. They also have mammals like lemurs and sloths, many types of birds, tortoises, turtles and fossils.
Moving on to the good stuff! There are alligators/crocodiles/snakes EVERYWHERE (hence the name of the place haha) !! If you like reptiles, THIS is the place for you!! I’ll be honest, after the alligator training feeding I was a bit turned off (seeing dead rats hanging repeatedly for the 250 alligators and 2 crocs is necessary but gross), but there’s a lot of really great conservation efforts and I really loved hearing especially about the new medicines that are being made using snake venom from two local snakes here in Florida. One for high blood pressure and one for breast cancer. Pretty amazing stuff!! I am working to accept that snakes are helpful and good, and not to be feared, but respected.
When you walk into the park entrance, there’s a large enclosure full of alligators. They have land and water to go into, and we watched a zookeeper named Max feed and do training exercises with them while he told facts about the animals. He was VERY knowledgeable, and we started calling him “the man” because he was in charge of all the shows (3 of them) we saw today! There are 8 shows a day, (click here for a short description of each) all on the hour, varying from the training feedings, to Florida’s Forest Friends, Scales and Tales, Rain Forest Review and Realm of the Alligator.
Around the perimeter of the entrance enclosure are more alligators and some really interesting looking crocodiles, some very rare. We enjoyed reading how long some of them will get, and where they came from.
We were most excited about seeing the new-to-the-farm sloths that have recently arrived from Busch Gardens in Tampa. They are now in their retirement years, and plan to relax and enjoy St. Augustine. We are considering doing the sloth encounter for $40 a person, for a 30 minute interaction. Given how slowly these sweet creatures move, we didn’t get to see them outside of their tree today, as it was drizzly and chilly for them, so the encounter would be a great way to see them up close, learn about their habitats and habits, and get to feed them fruit! The encounter only has 4 people per time, which doesn’t overwhelm the sloths and would give us a great experience.
There is also a playground with slides, a climbing wall, and animal windows that the kids really enjoyed. What kid doesn’t love getting rid of some energy while looking at crocodiles and vultures?!
All throughout the park we saw people having fun while zipping around on overhead lines. I investigated further and found that there are two separate courses:
- The Sepik River Course costs $37 and takes about 45 minutes, and is a lower, slower paced course with 9 ziplines and is about 35 feet high. You receive half off admission to the park with this course.
- The Nile River Course costs $67 and takes about 90 minutes and is a higher, more challenging course with 17 ziplines and is also 35 feet high. You receive free admission to the park with this course.
- You must be at least 8 years old, over 52 inches tall and weigh less than 250 lbs.
- No phones or video cameras are allowed on the course!
Our Alligator Farm experience was a very good one, and though it only took us about 2.5/3 hours to get through the whole park, it was a morning well spent learning about animals that are native to Florida and around the world. Family time is always a good thing!! Feel free to ask questions and comment below- what would you most like to see at the Alligator Farm? Oh and don’t forget to follow along on Instagram and Facebook! I have a highlight on Instagram and a short video on IGTV from our adventures today! You can also check out the video below!
Grama
Never been but it sure looks fun and much Larger and more to see than I ever expected. Great photos of all!