Haifa Educational Zoo – Visitors Guide (with Coupons)

Haifa Educational Zoo is a medium size zoo on the slopes of Mount Carmel. And you can find all the usual animals there.

Notes:

• Since the zoo is on Carmel Mountain’s slope, no big animals like elephants, giraffes, and hippos exist.
• Check out Zoos and Aquariums in Israel ‎for additional information about animals and wildlife.

Map

Haifa Zoo is located at 124 Ha-Tishbi Street, Haifa.

Directions for drivers: Link to Waze and Link to Google Maps
Directions for public transport: Link to Moovit

Interactive map of the area:

Note: you can click on the map to enlarge it.

Directions

Depending on your starting point, you can reach the Haifa Educational Zoo by various buses. Here is a preset Moovit where you can get the suggested route. Just enter your starting point, and you will get updated directions.

And if you are in Haifa downtown, you can take the Carmelit, Haifa’s underground funicular railway, to the Gan Haem station and walk from there.

The directions are similar to the Tikotin Museum Of Japanese Art, as both these places are within a short walking distance.

Parking

Finding parking in this area (depending on the time of your visit) can be challenging. The zoo does not have dedicated parking for visitors. Thus, you will have to look for parking in the surrounding streets. If you do not find anything in the nearby street, you can use the same parking I did while visiting the Tikotin Museum Of Japanese Art. You can find it at Sderot HaNassi 57. There is a turn right to free public parking. That public parking also has an entry and an exit to Yefe Nof 46, close to the Bahai Gardens viewing balcony.

Opening Hours

April – May
Sunday – Thursday, Saturday: 9:00 – 18:00
Friday and holiday eve: 9:00 – 14:00

November – March
Sunday – Thursday, Saturday: 9:00 – 17:00
Friday and holiday eve: 9:00 – 14:00

June – October
Sunday – Thursday, Saturday: 9:00 – 19:00
Friday and holiday eve: 9:00 – 15:00

Note: The box office closes one hour before the zoo.

Entrance Fee

Adult or child (over two years old) – 45 NIS.
Student, pensioner, soldier, or handicapped – 25 NIS.

Note: Opening hours and ticket prices were updated in November 2022. In any case, recheck the official site before visiting.

Coupons and Discounts

Sometimes, there are coupons or 1+1 deals for credit card holders, and you can purchase the tickets at half price. That is what I did several times. I bought tickets for as low as 19 NIS per person.

Here are several examples:

• 34 NIS per ticket and 119 NIS per four tickets – Cal
• 1+1 – Isracard
• 34 NIS per ticket – cuponofesh.co.il
• 33.90 NIS per ticket – GROO
• 33 NIS per ticket – Teacher`s Association
• Starting from 25 NIS per ticket – HTZone

Origin of the Name

Haifa Educational Zoo was created in 1948. It was initially located in the basement of a synagogue. This basement also held lessons for pupils and advanced study for teachers, and that’s why it is called Educational Zoo.

How Big is Haifa Zoo?

Haifa Educational Zoo, a medium-sized zoo, is located on the slopes of Mount Carmel. You can spend several hours at the zoo and up to half a day. We usually stay at the zoo for 3 – 4 hours. But of course, your visit could be shorter or longer. If we are taking big data into account, then according to Google: “People typically spend up to 2.5 hours here”.

I will now tell you about several of our visits to the Haifa Zoo over recent years.

At Haifa Zoo

I prefer it when animals are not behind bars, and you enter big areas where animals are free and can freely walk among them. That is the case regarding birds.

Note: The photos are from several visits and do not appear in the visiting order.

The same (no bars and no glass) is true for some of the monkeys:

On the official site, you can find a map with locations and photos of the animals. It can be handy if you are not going to visit all the animals. From this map, you can also see 41 locations to visit. Meaning at least 41 species are represented.

White Bengal Tigers

There are a couple of white Bengal tigers. The zookeepers are proud of having them since the Tigers appeared on their booklet’s cover. And as far as I know, this is the only place in Israel where you can see white Bengal tigers.

I took the photo above through a thick glass with many scratches. It took me more than an hour in post-production to clear these scratches.

When to Visit

Since Israel is hot, I suggest visiting animals early in the morning (when they are more active). Also, select cooler days.

And if you come in later, instead of white Bengal tigers two meters from you, you will see them lying in the back. Like this:

They were probably already fed and thus were not moving much.

There were three bears. It looked like a mother with two kids, and the kids were fighting among themselves until the mother came and slapped them. Then, each kid went to another corner:

My neck hurts just from watching this suricate 🙂

Reptile corner:

Prehistoric Museum

I missed the Prehistoric Museum (#34 on the map) on my previous visits, but we visited it this time.

You might wonder why there is a Prehistoric Museum in Haifa Zoo. I am unsure why, but the zoo is located on Carmel Mountain. And Carmel Mountain is also home to a group of prehistoric caves. In those caves, humans lived for some 500,000 years. Such long-term habitation of the same caves is very rare worldwide. You can find more at Nahal Mearot Nature Reserve.

The prehistoric Museum is not big. It has two floors. The lower one is occupied mainly with models representing different times of human development:

The upper floor shows different archaeological findings. Many of the findings are from caves at Mount Carmel.

Lemur pavilion is open only during limited hours, so keep this in mind while visiting.

During our last visit, the birds of prey pavilion was closed, and I have not seen any notifications. Thus, if you want to see something specific, contact the zoo in advance to make sure it is open.

And lastly, we said bye to the turtle and went home.

Pandas?

One more thing worth mentioning is pandas. Several years ago, the media reported that China agreed to gift pandas to Haifa Zoo. When I visited Haifa Educational Zoo, there were no pandas, and I have not seen any new accommodation for them 🙁

Summary

Haifa Educational Zoo is a lovely place. One particular plus of this zoo is that many animals are neither behind glass nor bars. Furthermore, the coupons make the entrance fee cheaper than most zoos in Israel.

Have you ever been to Haifa Educational Zoo? Tell us about your visit in the comments below.

That’s all for today, and I’ll see you in future travels!

Stay Tuned!

For additional attractions nearby, see Haifa.

Additional Resources

Here are several resources that I created to help travelers:

• Trip Planner with Attractions and Itineraries is the page that will help you create your perfect travel route.
• What is the Best Time to visit Israel? To answer this question, we will consider the weather, prices, holidays, festivals, and more.
• Information and Tips for Tourists to Israel will answer the most common questions tourists have about Israel (including safety, passports, weather, currency, tipping, electricity, and much more).
• Israel National Parks and Nature Reserves include a complete list, top ten, map, tickets (Israel Pass, Matmon, combo), and campsites.
• If you are looking for things to do, here are the pages for Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Sea Of Galilee, Akko (Acre), Eilat, Nazareth, Safed (Tzfat), and Makhtesh Ramon.