Jerusalem Zoo and Aquarium: Visiting Both in One Day

Yes, on most days. The Israel Aquarium stands next to the Biblical Zoo, 1-1.5 km from the zoo's entrance, and both keep the same hours: 09:00-18:00, or 09:00-16:00 on Fridays and holiday eves. The catch is the aquarium's last entry, two hours before closing, so build the day around being through its doors by 16:00.

What not to miss

The Biblical Zoo

Featured location The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens – The Biblical Zoo Jerusalem, Israel WAZAWAZA-WP The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in Jerusalem – The Biblical Zoo, opened in 1940, is a zoo in Israel.

The zoo left its old site in Romema in 1991 and reopened in 1993 in the Malha valley, seven kilometres south-west of the city centre. It is known for its Afro-Asiatic collection, many of whose animals are described in the Hebrew Bible. The grounds are built on two main levels, and a motorised train runs a circular route from the lower level to the upper one, for a nominal 3 NIS paid as you board.

The centrepiece of the lower level is an artificial lake with two islands of monkey exhibits. Two current changes affect your route: the bridge over the lake is closed for renovations, so you reach the zoo train station by the lake path, and the lemur exhibit can only be entered from the upper level.

At the western end stands a two-storey wooden visitor centre shaped like Noah's Ark. It now houses the Shai Doron Nature Conservation Center, which presents a film, videos and items brought from the Biblical Museum of Natural History in nearby Beit Shemesh.

Plan your route around the zoo's daily schedule of activities, which runs from Sunday to Saturday but ends at 2pm on Fridays. The morning brings the Syrian brown bear at 10:45, the chimpanzees at 11:45 and the female elephants at 12:15. The afternoon has the giraffes at 15:00, the female elephants again at 15:45 and the penguins at 17:00.

The Israel Aquarium

Featured location Israel aquarium מערב ירושלים, Israel Opened to the public in September 2017, this is described as the only inland aquarium in the region built around sea creatures. The displays represent four Israeli bodies of water: the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. It stands beside the Biblical Zoo, which built it, but carries a separate admission ticket.

The aquarium opened on 19 June 2017 and is devoted to Israel's own waters. The zoo's website puts it plainly:

The Gottesman Family Israel Aquarium, Jerusalem is the first public aquarium in Israel and is dedicated to the conservation of Israel's marine habitats

One gallery sets the country's seas side by side: the Sea of Galilee, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. Its galleries also include two devoted to the Red Sea and one to jellyfish, and in the open pool you can feed common stingrays. Your ticket also covers the Biodiversity Exhibit and Butterfly House, where about 15 species of tropical butterflies fly around you, though the aquarium warns it may be closed from time to time.

Wild animals elsewhere in Jerusalem

If the zoo leaves you wanting to see animals outside an enclosure, the city has two places to watch wild ones. Gazelle Valley is named for a herd of about 55 gazelles living in a pocket of land bounded by urban development. The Jerusalem Bird Observatory sits between the Knesset and the Supreme Court, and its small wooden observation posts are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Best time to visit

Both sites keep the same regular hours: 09:00-18:00 from Sunday to Thursday and on Saturdays and holidays, and 09:00-16:00 on Fridays and holiday eves. The difference is when they stop letting you in. The aquarium admits visitors until two hours before closing. The zoo stops selling tickets two hours before closing, but lets ticket holders in until an hour before.

How to order your day

On most days, do the aquarium first. Be there at 09:00, give it the hour and a half to two hours it was expected to take, and walk or drive over to the zoo in time for the chimpanzees at 11:45 and the elephants at 12:15. You then have the whole afternoon at the zoo, with the giraffes, the second elephant session and the penguins still to come, and the aquarium's early cut-off no longer matters.

In hot weather, reverse it. Most of the zoo is outdoors, and in heavy heat it warns that some of its exhibits will be empty, while the aquarium is air-conditioned. Start at the zoo at 09:00, catch the bear, the chimpanzees and the 12:15 elephants, then move to the aquarium for the hottest part of the day, inside by 16:00 at the latest.

On a Friday or a holiday eve the aquarium's last entry falls at 14:00, and on Fridays the zoo's activities end at 2pm too. Either start with the aquarium and accept a shorter zoo visit, or split the two across days.

Weather and holidays

The zoo's conditions follow the Jerusalem forecast, and on especially rainy and cold days some animals may not be visible at all. In Israel, June to September is usually rainless, and more than 70% of the average rainfall comes between November and March. On a wet winter day, then, the aquarium is the half of the day that cannot be spoiled. The aquarium also warns that its opening hours change when the clocks move to winter time, so check them before an autumn or winter trip.

Holidays and festivals are the aquarium's busy days. It sells tickets on site all year, but only while space lasts, so book ahead for those dates.

Tickets and saving money

Each site sells its own ticket: a zoo ticket does not include the aquarium, and the aquarium needs a separate booking. As of September 2026:

• Biblical Zoo: ₪79 for adults, and ₪64 for children aged 3-18 and for police officers, students, soldiers and senior citizens with ID. A person with a disability, child or adult, pays ₪39 with ID.
• Israel Aquarium: ₪73 for adults. Children need a ticket from age 3, and the adult price starts at 18.

So one adult pays ₪152 for both sites, plus 3 NIS if you ride the zoo train. If you will be back, look at the combined zoo and aquarium membership, which gives a year of unlimited entry to both. It costs ₪580 for an adult, ₪431 for a child, student, police officer, soldier, person with a disability or senior, and ₪1,000 for a couple. At September 2026 prices an adult comes out ahead from the fourth day spent at both sites; for up to three, single tickets are cheaper.

Getting there

The zoo is at 1 Derech Aharon Shulov. Bus 33, from Har Nof, Bayit VeGan, Malha Mall and Gilo, stops at the zoo. Bus 26A, from Bayit VeGan and Ramat Sharet, stops at both the zoo and the aquarium, which makes it the easier line for a combined day. Do not plan on the train: Israel Railways no longer runs the line that stopped near the zoo, and now serves Jerusalem only at Yitzhak Navon station at the city entrance.

The two sites disagree slightly on the distance between them: the zoo puts the aquarium 1.5 km from its entrance gate, the aquarium about one kilometre. Either way, you can walk or drive along an access road that starts at the end of the zoo's parking area. If you drive, take the car with you rather than walking back for it later: parking at the aquarium, by its entrance, is free.

With kids and accessibility

You may bring your own food and drink into the zoo, and the zoo recommends it, though some exhibits do not allow food. Its coffee shop and snack bar in the entrance courtyard sell soft drinks, snacks, sandwiches, pizza and chips. The aquarium also lets you bring food, to be eaten in the designated eating places around the complex. Leave roller skates, bicycles, ride-on toys and scooters behind for the aquarium: none may be brought in.

For younger children, head for the zoo's hands-on corners. Lemur Land, the petting pool at the Wet Side Story aquatic exhibit and the children's zoo are the only places where visitors touch animals; in the children's zoo they can pet and feed pygmy goats, sheep, rabbits and guinea pigs. At the aquarium, the stingray pool is the one to save for them.

Both sites describe their routes as fully accessible. The zoo covers its parking lots, entrance, paths and the whole route, has accessible parking by the entrance and accessible toilets at the entrance and along the way, and lends wheelchairs on arrival against a deposited ID while they last. Its train, which links the two levels, takes one wheelchair per trip. At the aquarium the parking area, entrance, corridors and whole route are fully accessible, with accessible toilets at the entrance and along the route and a LOOP hearing system for hard-of-hearing visitors.