Does Omaha have the best zoo in the country….???!!
This trip was taken July 2023.
Check out whole vlog here:
Zoo
Our first stop on a trip through Nebraska, Iowa, South and North Dakota was Omaha!
We flew into Omaha to begin our road trip and picked up our car. Our main goal in Omaha was to see their famous zoo, the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.
I’ll preface this by saying, we are kind of snobby zoo people. We have the Cincinnati zoo in our backyard – one of the best in the country… are 2 hours from Columbus zoo, and have visited San Diego. We’ve also visited zoos in at least 10 other states. We are zoo experts.
It was a fairly unanimous vote that we thought the zoo in Omaha was the BEST zoo we had been to.
We wished we had more time. This zoo was HUGE. The best part about this zoo though, was how incredibly immersive every exhibit was. For instance – the swamp area that held the alligators was setup to look like you were walking through the Bayou in New Orleans. It was dark and kind of scary as you walked along the boardwalks with alligators everywhere around you. The trees and plants were exactly as you’d expect to see.
The exhibit with the monkeys and more was enormous and 2 stories tall. You could walk up in the trees with the monkeys, and then down on ground level. Every exhibit was impeccably decorated, had a ton of animals, was clean and well laid out. Everything was awesome! 10/10 recommend!
What to Eat!
We had a few good meals in Omaha… here are some good food options:
- Taqueria La Fogata – this was a little bit of a hole in the wall place we found near the airport. The tacos were delicious!
- Omaha Tap House – walking distance from the park with great burgers and beers
- Zen Coffee – this place has coffee flights (yay!) and a pistachio iced latte that was insane
Exploring Downtown
Omaha’s downtown area was wonderful! We especially enjoyed the Gene Leahy Mall at the Riverfront. This super modern park was enormous, including tons of playgrounds made for small and not so small kids. It also had a place for outdoor concerts, huge green spaces, ping pong tables and cute places to sit. It’s a great location to hang out!
Another fun activity is the Bob Kerrey Bridge between Iowa and Nebraska. The bridge has a nice park near it and is pedestrian only. We walked across the bridge to stand in between two states.
Downtown also had a great little farmers market on the day we were there, and of course, on the way out of town, had to do a drive by of Warren Buffet’s house.
