We visited the Aquarium of Boise on a Sunday afternoon in June, 2023. If you're in town or a local, consider visiting or donating so that Boise can continue to have a place for conservation, education, and outreach. Zoo Boise's Master Plan includes new exhibits, enclosures, and much needed revitalization. I sincerely hope Zoo Boise receives funding needed to achieve its Master Plan outlined in 2021. There's nothing bad about the experience, but for the state's capitol, the zoo leaves a lot to be desired. The butterfly enclosure is well done, and I encourage visitors to see it when in it's in season. Animals do have a tendency to prefer hiding in their enclosures, but many animals can be seen throughout a typical visit. Most of their exhibits appear small and are very dated. The zoo does not wow visitors upon entry. I was pleased to support Zoo Boise the past year as a member, and would continue to support them if I was living in Boise long term.įinding parking is difficult as it's shared with the adjacent park, so be prepared.
The cost of entry is low compared to other zoos. Zoo Boise is not the biggest or best kept zoo, though they do keep true to key mission goals of sustainability, conservation, and education. It's definitely worth it for the price and I spent much more time here than I thought I would - about 3.5 hours! If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't take the 40-minute tour and would have felt a little less rushed towards closing time, but I still was able to take my time and see everything there was. Many of the displays come with push-button music or examples for that person.
#Boise discovery center plus#
The basement/bottom floor is a really fun kids' play area with a train and touch screens, plus a large room dedicated to notable Idaho natives. Don't miss the "extra" Art Deco room and the Native American room at the far left of the building. Historically, it seems to work best to tour from north to south, or from the right door first, but it doesn't really matter and there are "back" ways between all the rooms. There's even a video "bike tour", though it's currently not working. And many are interesting and interactive. The exhibits cover mining, forestry (with an immersive forest fire experience), skiing, rivers, pioneer history, agriculture, & industry. The second/upper floor holds the bulk of the museum, with three areas, split into north, central, and south Idaho. A small theater plays Native American stories that is well worth watching. On the main floor as you walk in is a lovely gift shop and the "origins" area - this is where they talk about the formation of Idaho, nature & wildlife, and there's an interactive digital "stream" and a wall with shifting projection mapping that you can view from two levels.
I will say that I don't taking the volunteer-led daily tour adds much, at least it didn't for me. But it's well laid out and has some really neat video elements throughout.
Most state museums fall into Best! State! Ever! sorts of narrative and the Idaho State Museum is no exception.
#Boise discovery center free#
Parking is free for 2 hours, plus it's adjacent to Julia Davis park with much more 2 hour parking, and there's a playground right on the other side of the small bridge from the parking lot. I'd feel a lot better about it if the price were closer to around $20. To get my money's worth, I played with more than a few things, walked backwards through the Star Wars exhibit (it was early and there weren't too many people yet), then went through the whole thing again, took a good look through the fun gift shop, and even with all that, it was under an hour before I left. Once you're through that, there's one room with several hands-on "experiments" with slime, magnets, friction, etc, plus a fun play space for small kids, 4 and under, I think. The Star Wars exhibit takes up almost the entire space. As it is, I read everything, watched everything, took loads of pictures, and was still through it in 30 minutes. Maybe that would have made it a bit more impressive and interesting - wow, it took Bob from Detroit 230 hours to make this suit out of PVC! - something like that. It is impressive that it was all done by fans, though I wish there were more information about each piece - I already know the characters represented, I wanted to know more about who made what, how long it took them, the construction, etc. It's 95% painted models with a few larger-scale set ups that are great for photo ops. I came for the Star Wars exhibit and it *is* really cool - but I guess I was expecting more for the ticket price of nearly $30.
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