Faunia or Zoo Aquarium Madrid: Which to Visit

If you only have one day in Madrid, choose Zoo Aquarium de Madrid for the larger number of animals under one roof, including its giant pandas and its newest Sumatran elephant calf, or choose Faunia if getting close to manatees and its renovated sea lion habitat matter more to you than sheer numbers. Both parks sell a combined ticket for less than paying at each gate separately, so with two days free you don't have to choose between them at all.

Which one to choose

Zoo Aquarium de Madrid is the bigger of the two: 20 hectares in the Casa de Campo park, built in 1972, holding more than 6,000 animals of 500 species. The city of Madrid owns it, and the operator Parques Reunidos runs it day to day.

Featured location Zoo Aquarium de Madrid Moncloa-Aravaca – Madrid, Spain WAZAWAZA-WP Zoo Aquarium de Madrid, opened in 1972, is a mixed in Moncloa-Aravaca – Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Faunia is smaller and younger: about 14 hectares of themed ecosystems holding roughly 4,000 animals, also of around 500 species. It opened in 2001 as the Parque Biológico de Madrid before the philologist and writer Fernando Beltrán renamed it Faunia the following year.

Featured location FAUNIA Madrid, Spain AIZA FAUNIA, opened in 2001, is a zoo in Spain. Animals on show include manatíes, osos marinos, suricatas and cocodrilos.

If you'd rather see animals living free than in enclosures, Safari Madrid, a separate drive-through park in Aldea del Fresno, keeps more than 1,000 animals of about 300 species. Some sections you walk, others you can only see from a car, and a full visit runs four to five hours.

What not to miss

At the Zoo, start with the pandas: the male Jin Xi and the female Zhu Yu, both born in 2020, arrived from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base in 2024 and are now the zoo's breeding pair. The newest arrival is Max, a Sumatran elephant calf born on 6 August 2026 at about 80-90 kilos to parents Cynthia and Valentino -- a critically endangered subspecies, which the zoo is treating as a conservation story rather than just a birth announcement. One thing you won't find any more: dolphins. The zoo moved its group of eight to Hainan Ocean Paradise in China in early 2025, and has said only that other uses for the dolphinarium space will be assessed later.

Faunia's headline change is the 25th-anniversary renovation of its Pinnipedium, now home to Guardianes del océano, an experience built around its Steller sea lions, fur seals and California sea lions.

Desde su apertura en 2001, el recinto madrileño ha recibido a más de 10 millones de visitantes y a un millón y medio de escolares.

Beyond the sea lions, Faunia's other pull is direct animal contact: its manatee experience lets up to six people at a time put on a wetsuit and go into 28°C tropical water in the Jungle ecosystem to feed and get close to the manatees, for 30 minutes from €38.90 per person. Children can join from age 4 with a paying adult, or alone from age 8 with written parental permission. The rest of the park is organised by ecosystem -- La Jungla, Los Polos, Bosque africano, Bahía de Steller and Territorio Suricata among them -- so pick two or three to focus on rather than trying to see all of them in one visit.

Tickets and saving money

Zoo Aquarium de Madrid's general adult ticket (ages 8-64) costs about €19.90 online or €29.50 at the office, as of September 2026. Its junior ticket (ages 3-7) costs about €16.90 online or €23.90 at the office, and the same reduced rate covers seniors over 65, large-family members and disabled visitors.

Faunia's general adult ticket costs about €16.90 online or €33.95 at the office, as of September 2026 -- cheaper than the Zoo online, but pricier if you turn up without one. Its children's rate, for visitors 100-140cm tall, and its senior rate both cost about €16.90 online or €27.95 at the office.

Getting there

Zoo Aquarium de Madrid's own metro stop is Casa de Campo, 900 metres from the entrance, on lines 5 and 10; EMT bus line 33 stops right at the enclosure's door every day. Faunia sits on the opposite side of the city: its metro stop is Valdebernardo on line 9, Cercanías trains stop at Vicálvaro on line C2, and EMT bus line 71 runs direct to the park's door from Plaza de Manuel Becerra. Arrive within the last hour and you may already be too late at the Zoo: its gates and ticket windows shut one hour before the day's official closing time.

With kids and accessibility

Both parks lend free wheelchairs, subject to availability, and both give a reduced ticket plus one free companion ticket to visitors with a recognised disability of 33% or more. The Zoo goes further for sensory needs, with noise-cancelling headphones designed for visitors with autism spectrum disorder, and it rents electric wheelchairs where the free ones are already taken. Faunia's paid option is an electric scooter rather than a wheelchair. If a manatee encounter is the reason for your visit, remember the age rule: from 4 with a paying adult, unaccompanied only from 8.