Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a 19th-century-style building overlooking Wollman Rink at about
65th Street, to get a map and other information on sights and events,
and to peruse the kid-friendly exhibit on the park's history and design.
GOING TO THE ZOO
Central Park Zoo/Tisch Children's Zoo
Here is a pleas-
ant refuge within a refuge where sea lions frolic in the central pool
area with beguiling style, gigantic but graceful polar bears glide back
and forth across a watery pool that has glass walls through which you
can observe very large paws doing smooth strokes, monkeys seem to
regard those on the other side of the fence with disdain, and in the
hot and humid Tropic Zone, colorful birds swoop around in free-
dom, sometimes landing next to nonplused visitors.
Because of its small size, the zoo is at its best with its displays of
smaller animals. The indoor multilevel Tropic Zone is a highlight, its
steamy rainforest home to everything from black-and-white colobus
monkeys to Emerald tree boa constrictors to a leaf-cutter ant farm;
look for the new dart-poison-frog exhibit, which is very cool. So is
the large penguin enclosure in the Polar Circle, which is better than
the one at San Diego's SeaWorld. In the Temperate Territory, look
for the Asian red pandas (cousins to the big black-and-white ones),
which look like the world's most beautiful raccoons. Despite their
pool and piles of ice, however, the polar bears still look sad.
The entire zoo is good for short attention spans; you can cover the
whole thing in 1
1
⁄
2
to 3 hours, depending on the size of the crowds
and how long you like to linger. It's also very kid-friendly, with lots
of well-written and -illustrated placards that older kids can under-
stand. For the littlest ones, there's the $6-million
Tisch Children's
Zoo
. With goats, llamas, potbellied pigs, and more, this petting
zoo and playground is a real blast for the 5-and-under set.
830 Fifth Ave. (at 64th St., just inside Central Park).
&
212/439-6500.
www.wcs.
org/zoos. Admission $8 adults, $4 seniors, $3 children 3-12, free for children under 3.
Apr-Oct Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 10am-5:30pm; Nov-Mar daily 10am-4:30pm.
Last entrance 30 min. before closing. Subway: N, R to Fifth Ave; 6 to 68th St.
ACTIVITIES
The 6-mile rolling road circling the park,
Central Park Drive,
has a
lane set aside for bikers, joggers, and in-line skaters. The best time to
use it is when the park is closed to traffic: Monday to Friday 10am to
3pm (except Thanksgiving to New Year's) and 7 to 10pm. It's also
closed from 7pm Friday to 6am Monday, but when the weather is nice,
the crowds can be hellish.
Kids
