Day 11: San Diego Zoo

Today felt like the hottest day so far with scorching sun and little shade throughout the day. The Zoo is located fairly close to central San Diego in Balboa Park and we caught the hotel courtesy shuttle bus there at 9.30am.

The zoo is very impressive but almost impossible to do in a single day due to the sheer scale of it. Having said that we gave it our best shot and saw everything we wanted to. We walked the length and breadth of the park but also took the Skyfari and Kangaroo bus at various points to give a bit of relief in the heat. We particularly enjoyed the Skyfari as the views were beautiful so we rode it twice!

Throughout the day we saw some beautiful animals in amazing settings. Particular highlights included the Giant Panda, the Africa section (elephant, cheetah, giraffe, lion and rhino),  as well as seeing Orangutans, Koala Bears and Tigers.

But our favourite moment had to be seeing the majestic Polar bear. We were lucky enough for it to swim to within the width of a pane of glass away from us which was absolutely unbelievable.

After a long day in the sun, the hotel shuttle bus picked us all up fairly exhausted at 6pm. We headed back to the hotel and whilst we would have loved to go out and explore more of San Diego, we made the sensible decision to have a quick swim and then eat at the hotel prior to bed.

Tomorrow brings about the first of the big driving days on this trip as we head north up the Pacific Coast Highway for over 300 miles to our one night stop-over in San Luis Obispo.