Taronga Zoo and/or Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's)? AND which Aquarium?

[ampere]

We are taking the DCs to Oz next Easter for 3 weeks. They'll be almost 10 and 12.

Would you go to both zoos?

I last went to Taronga with DS1 when he was 11 months old (10 years ago) and have been to Aus Zoo half a dozen times, lastly about 7 years ago. I can't really recall how they differ except Aus Zoo is perhaps a lot more crocodile heavy?

As for aquaria, the choice is Sydney (again, last there when DS1 was 11 months old), Mooloolabah on the Sunshine Coast or SeaWorld on the Gold Coast, which I understand is more of a theme park these days?

Sadly we won't be going to Townsville with teh amazing Barrier Reef one!

What would you do?

Go to Taronga and to Australia Zoo. Different things to be seen in both - love the walk-through aviary in Australia Zoo and they have the best wombat pen I've ever seen.
Can't answer your question re. aquariums.

You're covering a lot of area in 3 weeks, aren't you.

4 days in Sydney, 11 days in Brisbane/Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast (family) and 4 days in Cairns, all being well!

Underwater world at moololabah is great. Good long tunnel bit, with a moving walkway. We went around loads. Amazing stingrays too.

Australia zoo was brilliant, we didn't go to taronga though, so can't compare. We did a similar trip with dds (then aged 5 and 2) last summer - 5 days in Melbourne, 10 days on Sunshine Coast, 4 days in Sydney.

Was fantastic.

Yes these are both worth a visit.

Australia Zoo certainly has crocodiles but also has quite a lot of other wildlife as well. I remember seeing koala bears and kangaroos there.

The kangaroo at Australia zoo are well worth a visit - you go right into and through the enclosure, and can feed them etc. Dd2 was absolutely entranced.

If you want a smaller aquarium, there's a very nice one at Manly too.

Thanks, everyone!

Haven't been to Australia Zoo since Steve Irwin died but went several times before, and it had developed from a fairly small, basic wildlife park to a huge place with a more showman-type atmosphere - there's a big stadium where Steve used to do live animal shows - I presume someone else does that now. There are also more hands-on type experiences, eg feeding the wallabies. It is pretty much an all-day outing.

Taronga zoo is much smaller but it's a great half-day trip if you get the ferry from Circular Quay and the cable-car up from the dock. Very different atmosphere from Australia Zoo.

We regularly used to do both places during 10-day visits to Australia, so unless your DCs are too old to be that interested in animals, I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem to do both.

Darling Harbour aquarium is good - haven't done the other ones.