Drive-through safari
Animals at the windows.
Sintegrity — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fernando Soares de S… — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sintegrity — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sintegrity — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sintegrity — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sintegrity — CC BY-SA 4.0
Zoo Safári is an unusual zoo in south-east São Paulo: visitors tour it from inside vehicles along a route of about 2.9 km across some 80,000 square metres, so the animals come right up to the windows, in an experience that feels like a safari. Francisco Luiz Galvão founded it in 1971 as «Simba Safari», simba being Swahili for lion, since at first it held only lions, and visitors drove their own cars among animals roaming entirely free. It welcomed eight million visitors before closing in April 2001 over financial problems, then reopened that June as «Zoo Safári» under the São Paulo Zoo, with the bears, lions and tigers moved into fenced enclosures for safety. It is next to São Paulo Zoo and the Botanical Garden and is visited by private car or in the park's own vans for those without one; tickets are sold on the zoo foundation's website, so check prices and times.
Animals at the windows.
If you have no car.
Next door.
Avenida Miguel Stéfano, Cursino, next to São Paulo Zoo
No; you can go in your own car or ride the park's vans if you don't have one.
