Zoo Lights

I think it’s a little ridiculous to complain than an attraction is crowded, when it’s located in a huge city and is only open at night, for a limited time. I mean, of course it’s crowded.
I had an awesome time at zoo lights. We went a couple of weeks before Christmas and I think the time was right. It’s definitely best to avoid the week or two before Christmas when kids are out of school and things are especially crazy. I also recommend going on a weeknight because we didn’t have any trouble parking. Also, as others have mentioned, definitely buy your tickets beforehand and pay attention to which line is which. While we were exiting, we noticed a lot of people who already had tickets in hand waiting in the very long line to purchase tickets.
Not all of the zoo attractions are open, obviously, but we were able to see some animals. The lights are really impressive. The concessions also offer hot chocolate with Bailey’s to get you in the spirit.

Pretty great for a date night! University of Houston students get in the zoo for free so that’s a plus. MAKE SURE TO BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE. If not, you are gonna suffering a 2 hour line for something you could’ve taken you 5 minutes to do. Also I highly suggest you to park in the designated overflow parking lot that costs $ 10 & will shuttle you over to Zoo Lights. The actual Houston Zoo parking lots are ALWAYS full so don’t bother to even try to look for a spot. The amount of lights were pretty good for the price. Other than that it was a pretty good 2 hours walking around the Houston Zoo!

The attraction itself is beautiful. Our disappointment came in the fact that the website was not very informative about the event. It should be mentioned that the wait to even get i the parking lot is 30 minutes. Just as much fun as looking for a parking space at the mall. Once in line you’ll wait 45 minutes to buy tickets… unless you buy them online before 5 that evening. Then you could have gone on inside. This is an «extra» event so even members must pay to attend. No problem. However you’d think that they’d provide a member line as a little courtesy. There are no «guide» or other employees to route people in line so many crowds just walked passed the long line & cut in up front. The website give us no clue to the «one way trail» that one must use to wind through the zoo up to the gorilla habitat. Many areas were corded off. (Yes most animals are snoozing) But it made for a very uncomfortable evening for our granddaughter who is on crutches at this time. There was no place to get off the trail & head back to the entrance. And just a word of caution to those with small kids. The Sandra Bland protesters out front were using vulgar chants & bullhorns. Nothing the zoo can do about it. Just bring your earmuffs or put in those earbuds!

Buy tickets online to avoid 2 hour wait in the ticket line! If you got tickets online wallk towards the middle. Don’t stay in line!
Come non-​peak days to avoid mass crowd! Parking is best around 5pm when the zoo closes. Finding a spot after 6pm is stressful according to other Unilocalers. The walk around the zoo takes about an hour. There are small concession stands around the zoo. Hot chocolate, coffee, s’more kits, cotton candy, kettle corn, and alcohols.
I absolutely loved every minute of it! The lights were beautiful. I’ve been to the zoo couple times, but first time to the zoo lights. I actually saw real animals elephants, giraffes, and flamingos. They had live band playing songs. It was wonderful. My boyfriend and I enjoyed it very much.

Great festive event, if you don’t want to stress about parking then park north near the museum for free after a certain time street parking instead of stressing in finding Parking in the lot with massive crowds… also buy your tickets online to avoid the lineup, we waited 45mins to buy our ticket on a Sunday… wish they had more animals out but I guess it was late and dark, saw the giraffe, flamingo, fish and stuff
A lot of cool multi color lighting, spent a good 3hr at this place exploring the zoo for the first time… a must for a festive event

The girlfriend and I came to this thing to get a feeling of Christmas and came out very disappointed. Finding parking was a terrible experience and we ended up yelling our lungs out in frustration. After finding parking quite a bit away from the zoo, we began our trek. Once there, it was a wait in a line; actually not that long of a wait. Inside we went to the aquarium and it was quite nice. Leaving the aquarium, things just got worse. No freedom to go where we wanted, just a long line of people walking through poorly hung lights and weird abstract shapes that had nothing to do with Christmas. Animals were sleeping and a lone, broken-​spirited zebra stood among tired giraffes. After leaving the zoo we drove around girlfriend’s neighborhood and enjoyed that a lot more.

The lights were beautiful. Half of the zoo was closed down but that’s understandable. The line waiting was ridiculous so I definitely recommend going later on in the hours instead of trying to get there early. We got there at 5 and had to wait for the full hour in line (which was expected) but because there were so many people trying to walk the same way through the zoo it was over crowded and getting pictures were hard. Great date night or place for kids for sure!

We got there at 5pm and were able to buy the pre-​sale tickets. No discounts or anything so I’m not exactly sure why they were called that. But the good news is we got in with the first wave of bodies right at 6pm.
The lights were beautiful and enchanting. The little one had a blast. It was really interesting checking out the animals at night. Giraffes are adorable laying down! All legs. :-).
It really is worth the $ 20 a person price tag. It took about 4 hours to see everything. The flashing, seizure inducing arrows and staff members were there to keep you on track and the path is a beautiful one.
We wandered past the reflection pond past a million dancing lights, through and enchanted forest with a beautifully executed underwater scene. We come out near the giraffes and wander through the African forest.
I didn’t quite get the electric sheep thing, the poorly redone Lou Reed cover (and the children go doop de doop), and the blatant TXU energy advertisements. Pay $ 16 to take a picture in a TXU themed snow globe! No thanks!!! Way to ruin my dream of dancing in an oversized snow globe!
The grand finale was 5 or 6 Texas themed lights and finally after 4 hours of walking and avoiding strollers and those damn electric wheelchairs the exit appears like the holy grail from out of the brightly lit Christmas cheer.
Certainly a 4 out of 5 experience. I’m really glad I went but I probably wouldn’t go again.

Worst experience Don’t waste money. Go down any street and any lights on a house. Even a dark alley would be better

If you’ve never been here, you’ll have a good time, but I don’t think I’d come again next year, here’s why. First, it just gets too busy on the weekends. People wait in line 2 hours before you can even get in. If you show up any later after the start time expect to wait in line for at least 2 hours. Second, while the lights are beautiful, there just wasn’t enough content for the price of admission. Third, it’s so crowded even after you get in that you don’t even get a good chance to enjoy much of anything. Fourth, parking is insane even if you show up a couple hours early.
If you have kids, it’s a good option to get them in the xmas spirit, but I personally think you can get an equal light show by just visiting one of the nicer neighborhoods in Houston for free.

Fire Hazard!
There are just WAY TOO MANY people in this park at one time. If a fire broke out everyone is gone either from fire or stampede. They have to figure out a way to regulate the traffic in this zoo at this time. I’m very surprised the Fire Marshall doesn’t shut this thing down.
As for the lights they are ok. You can go to many neighborhoods and view better lights for free. The animals are sleep, some exhibits like reptiles and bugs were open however there are SOOO many people in the zoo it is hard to see and look.
This zoo lights is ok if you can find a slow night. We went on Wednesday thinking it would be slow but that wasn’t the case. Definitely not worth the price.

Had never been to the Zoo during Zoo Lights, and thought it would be something fun to do for the holiday season, so off we went. Luckily a friend scored us two tickets, but I believe they are pretty reasonable. The entire zoo is lit up, as you can tell they definitely put some money into this shindig. It is absolutely a great date night, or family outing for the kiddos. Strolling around, looking at lights with either hot chocolate or wine is a great way to spend a chilly evening in Houston. The only downside is that you don’t get to see a lot of the animals. We did see some giraffes, but not much else. They also have all of their food vendors open, along with alcohol vendors. Parking can be a little stressful, so my opinion would be to get there either early or later once everyone has left.

First timer! Just beautiful! Highly recommended for couples, kids & groups! Beautiful light decorations and sculptures. You don’t get to see the animals but you get to enjoy everything else. They is a lot of kids but it is still fun. Go early because parking will be crazy.

It’s cool. It’s pretty. But it’s not worth the admission price.
Zoo Lights is Houston Zoo’s annual holiday event that involves the whole zoo being decorated with a large amount of Christmas lights to admire the zoo’s nighttime under beautiful festive lighting. Although most animals will be resting in their shelters, you can still see some animals including the giraffes and enter few exhibition buildings, so you can get the rare experience of going to a zoo at late night! The lights themselves are of course beautiful and well-​adorned and designed so that you can see the wonderful weave of colors that they compose and feel the atmosphere that these holiday lights create.
However, all these comes with the admission price of $ 13 – 16, depending on when and how you purchased your ticket (Online reservation is cheaper and some nights called Value Night offer $ 11.95), which is relatively expensive if you consider that you can check out free lights at equal or even higher caliber in nearby high-​class neighborhoods. In the end, I’m glad that I went, but at this admission price, I don’t think it will be a repeat occurrence unless I’m taking a date or have kids.
It’s cool to awe the kids. It’s pretty to make a romantic dates. But other than that, you are better off admiring the lights elsewhere for free. If you must go though, check the online schedule for Value Night and order online to get the most discount. Parking is so nightmarish that even getting in and out of the lot is a hassle, so consider taking Über or parking nearby and walking into Hermann Park.

If I wanted to see Christmas lights I would of stayed home and drove around in my neighborhood for that crap. It was my first time attending zoo lights with my child and I thought it was just like a regular zoo visit except there will be Christmas lights and you’ll get to see the animals at night! Well this was absolutely a disappointment and not what I thought it would be. They have Christmas lights set up in a maze like path where you have to walk and you basically just literally look at lights. No animals to see what so ever and it was super crowded, took 2 hours being stuck in traffic to pull into the zoo area, another hour to find parking, another hour to buy tickets and tickets price were bs, and the fact that I couldn’t even use my student discount was whack. I hate Houston zoo lights. It was totally not worth it

So glad the zoo is doing this now! Everyone seems to be complaining about the lines and how busy it has gotten compared to the last two years. Probably because this has become one of Houston’s Christmas traditions now. We went on a Thursday in early December and it wasn’t too bad. The line to buy a ticket took less than 10 minutes to get through. Parking was a mess then too though. So if you want to visit the zoo lights without the crowds, come early December.
The place is perfect for anyone who enjoys the holiday season and Christmas lights. The cost to get in was $ 13 this year, which is a little pricey. No student discounts. The lights were really beautiful and well done. There were also synchronized tree lights to Christmas music and a choir performance. There were so many lights! If you’re lucky, you can also see some zoo animals. We got to see flamingos, giraffes and a few elephants.
You walk through most of the zoo, with arrows that clearly mark the path you should follow. Make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes! It was definitely long and it took us about two hours to get through.
Great way to get into the Christmas spirit!

THIS EVENT… IS WHAT PUTS ME IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT!!!
Each year they seem to out do themselves… and I love that they have some spirits this year to spike your Cocoa!
I totally recommend going during the week… If you stupidly choose the weekend… expect crazy huge crowds and parking nightmares…

GOSH i wish i could give this NEGATIVE STARS.
I have not gone this year but i went for Christmas 2013. We went on a Friday night in December. It was PACKED. And we got to zoo lights early to find parking. It took about 40 minutes to find a parking spot. The police were everywhere writing parking tickets, and after we finally parked and were herded into the ticket line, mass confusion about where you were supposed to go!
It was so packed full of people you couldn’t even see the ticket lines or where they started. And as I was trying to navigate the crowd some lady elbowed me in the face! She didn’t even say excuse me but acted like I got in HER way. So rude!
After finally getting through the line and into the actual zoo it didnt get any better. You couldnt really enjoy anything because people had these giant strollers trying to navigate through the crowd. You couldn’t see anything because of all the families everywhere.
NEVER again.
NEVER EVER EVER. STAY AWAY.
The zoo needs to regulate the amount of people allowed to enter the zoo at one time. Like maybe do different time slots? and let them in a 30 minute intervals. Because they way the have it now does not work.

Go ahead, turn around and nope the hell out of here. I would not do this again. Drive to River Oaks.
The traffic was terrible, the lines were horrendous and it was a zoo of people within a zoo. I went here on a Sunday and if you are going to go then go on a weekday and get your tickets ONLINE. I got my tickets online thank goodness. Going on a Sunday night and I am thinking these kids should be in bed for school the next day. You’ll have horrible children running around, screaming at the top of their lungs, parents who just do not care, self-​entitled parents that because they have a child that they can skip in line, people who are so inconsiderate of others that they will hold up a path to take selfies, and… Jesus Christ. It was a cluster fuck here.
I got a dirty look from a clueless parent about her kid running around, screaming, and stepping on my foot and just bumping into me every two minutes or so. Finally told the kid to quiet down and to stop running around. Please keep an eye on your precious little snowflake.
Drive to River Oaks or the Galleria.

Always wanted to attend this event. I had much more fun at this than the Feast with the Beasts because it was busy, but not ridiculously crowded.
The pricing was reasonable. They have pricing for busy days (Friday-​Sunday and Monday & Tuesday before Christmas) and value nights (Monday-​Thursday). They also charge $ 2 less if you order online. You must be able to print off the tickets or use your mobile device to show them the tickets to scan. It saves you money and also allows you to skip the line to buy tickets (it was kind of long on a Wednesday night so I can only imagine on a Saturday night.
They have all of the food stands open, they also offer a build your own gingerbread man in the cool treats store.
Some of the zoo is cordoned off, but most of it is accessible. Many of the animals are up moving and entertaining. There is not a ton of lights (like Santa’s Village outside of College Station), but they did a great job presenting the zoo in Christmas lights.
Definitely would go back, it is well worth the cost. Parking was not too bad and getting out (we left at closing) was not bad either. The Zoo lights opens at 6pm and closes on value nights @ 10pm (last entrance @ 9pm) & on prime nights 11 pm (last entrance @ 9:30pm)