Continuing our series of “Our Wild Day”, today we are sharing our day at Tennessee Safari Park in Alamo, TN!
Tennessee Safari Park is best known as a 7.5 mile drive-through safari. There is also a 20-acre walk-through zoo, a petting zoo, and several other animal encounters.
We came on a weekday, late morning in June with some of our friends. There weren’t many other people there, which was perfect!
As you drive up to the entrance, you pay at the gate and are asked how many feed buckets you would like. Since we’d never been, we had no idea. We decided to each get 4 buckets, which felt like a lot at the time. We had only 2 kids old enough to hold the buckets plus 2 adults and 2 toddlers.
As you drive through the park, you will keep your windows down (except in specific areas where signs direct you to roll up your windows). The animals, including camels, ostrich, emu, zebras, llamas, deer, and more, will come up and eat out of the buckets.
Be careful, because some (like the zebra) will try to steal your entire bucket! If they do take a bucket, stay in your car and leave it! Don’t get out and try to get it back!
We had the best time doing this drive-through! I’m not kidding, we were laughing the entire time! (Well, the adults were anyway. The little ones were sometimes scared!)
It’s so fun for the animals to come up with no concept of personal space, and try to get in your car with you!
Make sure you also take a selfie (or 5!) with some of the animals!
If you’re wondering about how young kids handled it, well, they were frequently scared! The ostriches were especially scary because they seem so aggressive, but really, they just know you have food and they want it!
Feel free to roll up your windows when you come up to any animals that might really scare the kids! One tip would be to put the more nervous kids in a middle seat, or keep their window rolled up.
At the end of the drive-through, we did run out of food, mostly because of animals spilling it out (they’re messy!) and the zebra stealing a whole bucket. So it turns out, our 8 buckets weren’t as much as we thought they were!
After we did the drive-through, we parked and explored the walk-through area of the zoo.
We chose not to do the giraffe feeding or parakeet feeding. The petting zoo wasn’t open at the time for some reason.
When we come back (which we definitely will), we will probably feed the giraffe, and we will hopefully get to do the petting zoo as well!
Overall, we truly had an amazing time! I think it will be even better next time, since the younger kids are a little bit older, and the bigger kids probably a little less nervous!
How long does it take to go through Tennessee Safari Park?
It takes around an hour to do the drive-through section of the safari park.
If you plan to do the walk-through portion afterwards, add another hour to hour-and-a-half. So plan accordingly if you are going to arrive closer to closing time.
How much does it cost to go to Tennessee Safari Park?
Admission
Adults: $24
Children (age 2-12): $16
1 year and younger: FREE
*Group rates available (minimum 15 people)
Feed Buckets
$3/each OR 4 buckets for $10
*pricing includes tax and parking
*pricing accurate as of January 2023
*no online ticket sales
*accepts cash & major credit cards
Know before you go.
- Dogs are not allowed at the park, even inside your car. This includes service animals.
- Motorcycles are allowed at the park, but NOT in the drive-through area.
- Animals are still out and active if it is raining or chilly outside. If it drops below 50 degrees and is raining very hard, some animals will be locked indoors.
Hours of Operation
Open every day, all year, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.
*winter weather or flash flooding may cause closures
Monday-Saturday: 10am – 5pm (last car is admitted at 4pm)
Sunday: 12pm – 5pm (last car is admitted at 4pm)
Address
618 Conley Road
Alamo, TN 38001
What else is there to do near Alamo, TN?
If you are planning to do the Tennessee Safari Park as more than just a day trip, you might be looking for other things to do in the area.
Tennessee Safari Park is an hour and 20 minutes from Memphis, TN, where there are all kinds of things to do.
A little less than an hour from the safari park is Discovery Playhouse of America. I would suggest an entire day dedicated just to this!
Cypress Grove Nature Park is in Jackson, TN, 26 minutes southeast of Tennessee Safari Park. Cypress Grove is a nature preserve for wildlife and features a boardwalk through a cypress forest, over a mile long.
Also in Jackson, TN is the Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum. Aside from the museum, it features a restaurant.
Have you been to a drive-through zoo? Let us know!
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