Main Entrance - Where the Map Begins

A stop on San Francisco Zoo: Exhibit by Exhibit, a free self-guided tour.

You are standing in the Entry Village, the zoo's front door since the early 2000s. A 1997 city bond paid to rebuild the western side of the grounds and turned the entrance toward the ocean. Before that, visitors came in from Sloat Boulevard near 45th Avenue, past the old Mother's Building you will meet later.

Take a minute with the zoo map. The grounds are laid out by region: Africa just ahead to your right, Madagascar and the primates in the middle, the Exploration Zone for kids to your left, Australia and the Americas farther east, and the big cats and penguins to the south. This loop visits all of them and brings you back here.

The zoo opened in 1929 as the Fleishhacker Zoo, named for the banker and parks commissioner Herbert Fleishhacker. Its first animals came from paddocks in Golden Gate Park.

Getting here: Start just inside the gates in the Entry Village, near Guest Services and the big zoo map.

Did you know?: In 1955 San Francisco schoolchildren helped buy the zoo an Asian elephant named Pennie by donating their pennies.

Photo op: Photograph your group at the zoo map - it is a handy reminder of the layout later in the day.

For kids: Find the four regions on the map - Africa, Australia, the Americas and the Exploration Zone - and guess which animal you will see first.

Nearby: Restrooms, the gift shop, stroller and wheelchair rentals, an ATM and Guest Services are all here in the Entry Village.

More on Wikipedia: San Francisco Zoo · Herbert Fleishhacker · Golden Gate Park

Main Entrance - Where the Map Begins

Stops on this tour