Zoos and botanical gardens

Do your children mix up leopards and cheetahs? Unquestionably they would remember both animals better if they saw them with their own eyes. Try an outing to one of the many Czech zoos. Alongside traditional tours, you can also watch the feeding of tigers, leopards, lions, penguins, pelicans and kangaroos, or watch the seals being training or elephants bathing.

During the summer months Prague Zoo in Troja offers guided tours at night, providing an unforgettable atmosphere while also displaying nocturnal creatures that you would otherwise not recognise. At the end of 2004, a new exhibit was opened, the unique Indonesian jungle pavilion. With a total exhibition area of 2200 m2, the pavilion leads you into the tropical forests of south-eastern Asia and presents its typical inhabitants, from orang-utans to rare Komodo dragons. The only barrier between you and the animals are water-filled moats. Included in the pavilion is a gigantic sculpture of an artificial tree measuring 16 m. Also, do not miss the African Panorama and the pavilion called ‘Africa Up Close’.

Zoos outside the capital also have something to offer:
• A speciality of the zoo in Dvůr Králové is the evening safari, the only one of its kind in Europe.
• The chief attraction of the zoo in Liberec is the family of white tigers, unmatched anywhere else.
• Other zoos can be found in Pilsen, Děčín, Olomouc, Brno and many other places.

From Prague Zoo it is only a short walk to the botanical gardens in Troja, where in 2004 the unique new tropical greenhouse Fata Morgana was opened. Covering nearly 2200 m2, it is divided into 3 sections – arid semi-desert, tropical rain forest, and cold mountain locations with plants from the Andes, Patagonia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Prague is now one of only a few cities in the world with a botanical greenhouse containing a cold-weather display. Many other points of interest abound in the botanical garden, and at times you will think you have travelled around the entire globe. Within a few steps, you can visit a Japanese garden with original types of Japanese plants, an exhibition of the vegetation of Turkey and the Mediterranean, collections of impressive trees and a section devoted to domestic and foreign dwarf pines.

Are you and your children intrigued by life below the seas? Visit the largest marine aquarium in the Czech Republic, right in the capital Prague. Across over 1000 m2 you can find directly in front of you a world otherwise accessible only to the most skilled divers. Modern aquariums perfectly simulate the natural setting of sea creatures using 75 thousand litres of specially treated salt water, artificial sun and moon light, artificial high and low tides, and even a simulation of the full moon.