Visit to San Diego Safari Park

This post is based on my visit to San Diego Safari park. For those of you who might not know, San Diego is one of the major cities in the state of California, USA. San Diego is famous for lot many things and if you happen to visit this city you should definitely visit San Diego Safari Park. The website link would give you all the details about what are the exhibits, various safaris, shows and things that you can do at the park. In this post I will be sharing the experience that I had during my visit to this park.
As it is true with most of the other parks a single day visit is not going to be enough for you to see the entire park or take all the safaris that are on offer but, you would at least get to see few wild animals up close in their enclosures. Here is the link for park map which is published on official San Diego safari park site.
I got an opportunity to visit this park when I was in San Diego during the winter times i.e. end of Oct 2016. The climate of San Diego is pretty stable with little unpredictable rain showers (that is if at all it rains). Me and my friend Vinay Patil were lucky to visit the park on a day when it was cloudy but had no rain. It allowed us a breather from scorching sun and kept us hydrated enough to checkout the park. Below I have tried to capture my experience in 7 tips or advises that I would like to share with you along with some clicks that I took during my visit:

• First things first. It is important you reach the park as close to the park opening time as possible (don't forget to check the official park website for timings one day before). We had reached the park at 9:30AM. My research showed me that typically San Diego has got a laid-back culture and hence usually people end up reaching the park by 10:00 - 10:30AM (by the way this as well was my experience on my visit). Going early gives you a head start on the activities that you have planned.
• Book your tickets in advance. We did it using the Go San Diego Card from smartdestinations.com site. They had some good deals for people planning to visit more than one place in San Diego.
• If possible carry a binocular. It comes in handy while you are on the safari or strolling through the Lagoon loop were there are variety of birds which you can enjoy more watching through a binocular. Following are few of the clicks that I took during my stroll through the Lagoon Loop:

Lesser Flamingos

Lesser Flamingos

Lesser Flamingo

Pelican

Mallard

Norther Shoveler

Red Headed

Northern Shoveler

Mallard

Northern Shoveler

• Instead of going for multiple (i.e. more than 2) safaris it is always better to select and focus on 1 or 2 safaris at the most during single day visit (we took the African Tram or Cart Safari as it came with our card). Doing so allows you to enjoy other exhibits as well instead of worrying too much about standing in long lines. Following are few of the clicks that I managed to take during my African Tram safari.

White Rhino

Antelope

Antelope

Wildebeest

Wildebeest

Giraffe & Antelope

Wild Cattle

Antelope

Giraffe

Cheetah

Giraffe

White Rhino

• Do watch the free-flight bird show "Frequent Flyers" at Benbough Amphitheater. In case you are scared of getting close to birds, do not use the lower 3 to 4 rows. During the show these birds fly pretty low and close to audience head. Personally to me it is much more fun to watch birds from above if they are flying as you get to see their amazing colored feathers. During my visit the show timings were 11:00AM and 2:30PM. The show lasts roughly for 20 mins.
• There are quite a lot of places were you can have lunch. If you are a vegetarian I would recommend the Samburu Terrace snack center as during my visit I was able to order a nice vegetarian burger. Samburu Terrace is just next to the Samburu Jungle Gym.
• Following is my list of must see attractions (with photos) that I would like to recommend:

      Lion Camp

     Gorilla Trail

     Lorikeet Landing

     Elephant Valley

     African Plains Overlook

Though I was not able to checkout half of the park but I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. Given a chance I would definitely visit this park again. I hope this post would help you plan your trip and have fun at the park. Do share your comments below.