To the Zoo and Beyond

My family and I enjoyed a special members night at our local zoo this evening. It was a preview party to celebrate the grand opening of a new "Lions of Lake Manyara" exhibit. My children love going to the zoo but this is the first year that we purchased a membership. I honestly had no idea how inexpensive a zoo membership was because I had never bothered to check. I bought an annual family membership for only $54.00. Now we can go to the zoo anytime we feel like it without feeling any pressure to see everything. One Spring day the kids and I stopped in for an hour just for a fun little time filler.


I decided to post about memberships because what I've discovered is that they are often less expensive than I expected. As a stay-at-home mom, I'm always looking for free or inexpensive things to do with my family as we don't have a hefty entertainment budget. This is our 2nd year with an annual membership to Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. The whole family loves visiting and in 3 visits we have more than paid for our annual membership. They have a wonderful children's garden and play area so we go several times each month. We definitely get our money's worth.


I want to encourage you to find out what is available in your community or a neighboring larger city. Some places where your family might enjoy a membership:

Zoo's
Public Museum
Children's Museum
Botanical Gardens / Sculpture Parks
Small Scale Themed Park (We have one not too far away called Dutch Village)
Theatre (the theatre around here offers children's plays)


I tend to prefer memberships to places that are open year round and that offer both indoor and outdoor activities so we can go no matter the season or weather. I've found our memberships provide our family with some good culture experiences which is important to us. Another great thing about memberships is that they often come with a reciprocal list. Reciprocal lists usually allow you to get into other zoos, museums, gardens, etc. around the nation either free or at a discounted rate. Some even offer discounts for food and gift shops. I discovered that the cost of our annual zoo membership was actually less than admission for our family to a zoo that we wanted to visit while on vacation. Some memberships give members opportunities for special events not available to the general public (such as the lion preview party at our zoo tonight).

My family plans to enjoy spending many long days this summer enjoying the places where we have memberships and maybe visiting some neighboring places on our reciprocal lists.