Santiago Zoo or Buin Zoo: Which One Should You Visit?

Go to Buin Zoo if you want the bigger day out in Chile: it keeps more than 2,000 animals of 250 species on 14 hectares, including the only white rhinos and the only orangutan in the country, and an adult ticket costs CLP 15,990, as of September 2026. Choose the Zoológico Nacional on San Cristóbal Hill if you are staying in Santiago and have a few hours: it is smaller, at 4.8 hectares and just over 700 animals, but entry has been free since it reopened in January 2026, provided you reserve a place online first.

Which zoo to choose

The two differ most in scale and in cost. Buin Zoo covers 14 hectares, nearly three times the Zoológico Nacional's 4.8, and keeps more than 2,000 animals against the Zoológico Nacional's 700-plus. Buin Zoo costs you a ticket and a trip out of the city; the Zoológico Nacional costs nothing but a reservation made in advance.

Zoológico Nacional: free, and newly reopened

Santiago's zoo was founded in 1925 and sits at the foot of San Cristóbal Hill, inside the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago. Its more than 700 animals belong to 96 species, native and exotic. Come for the Chilean animals: its enclosures show guanacos, llamas, rheas, condors, Humboldt penguins and the endangered pudú, and it also keeps Darwin's frog, a rare native frog known for the unusual way it reproduces. Beyond the enclosures there is a walk-through aviary, a screening room called Zoocine and an amphitheatre with live presentations.

It has only recently come back. The zoo closed in March 2025 while the new Pío Nono cable car was built, and it has been open again since 28 January 2026, with free entry as part of its centenary celebrations.

Featured location Zoológico Nacional, Parque Metropolitano de Santiago Providencia, Chile ALPZAWAZA Zoológico Nacional, Parque Metropolitano de Santiago, opened in 1925, is a zoo in Chile.

Buin Zoo: the bigger day out

Buin Zoo lies at kilometre 32 of the Panamericana Sur, in Buin. Alongside more than 2,000 animals of 250 species it grows 10,000 plants of more than 400 species, and it belongs to both ALPZA, the Latin American association of zoos and aquariums, and WAZA, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Its headline animals are ones you cannot see anywhere else in Chile: two white rhinos and a male orangutan. The newest faces, shown for the June 2026 winter holidays, are hyacinth macaws, the largest parrots in the world and, the zoo says, the only ones in Chile, along with two baby cotton-top tamarins and two Somali wild asses, both critically endangered species. In October 2024 the park announced the Reserva Maulina, a space to be given over to the plants and animals of Chile's Maule Region.

Give it time: a full tour of Buin Zoo takes three hours on average, so it is a day trip rather than a morning.

Featured location Parque Zoológico Buin Zoo Buin, Chile WAZA The built area covers 18 hectares, and the zoo belongs to ALPZA, the Latin American zoo and aquarium association.

Chile's other zoos

The other three zoos in our Chile directory are in other regions. La Serena Zoo is a private zoo in the Coquimbo Region, founded in 2006; the Zoológico de Concepción is a private zoo in the Biobío Region, founded in 1978; and the Zoológico de Quilpué is run by the municipality of Quilpué, in the Valparaíso Region.

So which? If you have a spare morning in Santiago and have managed to book, the Zoológico Nacional gives you Chile's native animals for nothing. If you have a whole day, want to see the rhinos and the orangutan, and do not mind paying, take the train to Buin Zoo.

Tickets and saving money

These prices were checked in September 2026.

• Zoológico Nacional: free. Entry was made free until further notice when the zoo reopened in January 2026, and a June 2026 news report said it stays free throughout the year for the centenary. The catch is the reservation: you register on the Parque Metropolitano's website and choose your day, and once 4,000 people have booked a date, the platform stops issuing passes for it.
• Buin Zoo: CLP 15,990 for adults aged 15-59 and CLP 13,990 for children taller than 90 cm and up to 14; babies and children under 90 cm go free. Tickets are sold only online, and parking costs extra on top of admission.

Buin Zoo lets people with any type of disability in free. Bring proof of inscription in the National Disability Registry, the document issued by the Civil Registry.

Parking at Buin Zoo is charged on top of your tickets, so factor it in if you drive. At the Zoológico Nacional the only cost is planning: book as soon as you know your date.

Getting there

Zoológico Nacional

The entrance is at Pío Nono 450, and the nearest Metro station is Baquedano. You cannot drive in: pets and motor vehicles are not allowed into the zoo. Since 28 February 2026 the Pío Nono cable car has had a Zoológico station, giving direct access to the zoo from the top of the Parque Metropolitano. Once you leave the zoo you cannot go back in, so ride up to the summit before your visit or after it, not in the middle.

Buin Zoo

The train is the simplest way from the city: the ride from Estación Central to the Buin Zoo station takes 45 minutes, and you then cross a footbridge to the park. Two bus lines, Buin-Maipo and Buin-Paine, leave from the San Borja bus terminal at Metro Estación Central, behind Mall Estación.

If you drive, the zoo warns that in high season, holidays and other busy days included, its car park may not be big enough for everyone. Cars are not let in during the last 75 minutes before closing.

Best time to visit

Neither zoo opens on Mondays. The Zoológico Nacional opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00. Buin Zoo opens at 9:30 and closes at 17:00 from Tuesday to Friday and at 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, with last entry an hour before closing. One exception this month: Buin Zoo is closed on Friday 18 September 2026, the Fiestas Patrias holiday.

Summer months around Santiago are usually very dry and hot, and most of the rain falls in winter. With three hours of walking ahead at Buin Zoo, arrive at 9:30 on a summer day and see the animals before the afternoon heat. Rain does not close Buin Zoo, but it does not refund tickets for it either. The 2026 school year ends between 4 and 18 December in most regions, so expect more families from mid-December.

On the day

Children under 14 must enter the Zoológico Nacional with a responsible adult. At Buin Zoo you may bring snacks such as sandwiches or packaged food, and the Rafiki restaurant and the Palafito food court are among its places to eat. Leave pets at home: Buin Zoo bans them for biosecurity reasons, and so does the Zoológico Nacional.

Other wildlife nearby

The Humboldt penguins at the Zoológico Nacional have wild colonies on Chile's coast, and each of the colonies below is visited by boat.

• Isla Cachagua: in the Valparaíso Region, in the commune of Zapallar, and known as penguin island for its breeding colony of about two thousand Humboldt penguins, a species classed as vulnerable. You may not land, as the island is fragile, but from Zapallar's cove you can hire a boat trip, weather permitting, that circles the islet for photographs.
• Humboldt Penguin National Reserve: islands in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions, and one of the main breeding and nesting sites for Humboldt penguins on the Chilean coast. Damas is the only island you can land on, by boat from the Punta de Choros cove, and between October and April you may also see whales and sperm whales.
• Isla Magdalena: in the Los Pingüinos Natural Monument, about 7,000 pairs of Magellanic penguins nest. Tour boats go from Punta Arenas between October and mid-April.