Zoos Near Aarhus: Which Djursland Wildlife Park to Visit

For a zoo day from Aarhus, go to Djursland and pick by the animals you most want to see. Ree Park in Ebeltoft, 50 km from Aarhus by road, has giraffes, zebras and rhinos and a guided Land Rover safari; Skandinavisk Dyrepark is the place for polar bears, brown bears and wolves. Munkholm Zoo, about a 45-minute drive away, suits small children who want to pet and feed the animals.

Which park to choose

Ree Park brings you the African savannah and North American prairie, Skandinavisk Dyrepark keeps mostly Scandinavian species, and Munkholm Zoo is a small, family-owned zoo where you get hands-on with the animals.

Ree Park: the savannah, by Land Rover

Ree Park has around 80 species, some of them in breeding programmes. You walk the park, and reaching every animal means covering a few kilometres. If you are short of time, the predator route is about 800 metres in total.

The rides are what set it apart. On the Land Rover Safari a guide drives you out among giraffes, zebras and rhinos on the African grass savannah, and the trip lasts about 25-30 minutes. The Amerika Expressen train takes you across the prairie to the North American animals, with a guide talking about them on the way.

2026 has brought changes. Ree Park Safari is now called simply Ree Park, although the Land Rover safari tours continue as a central part of the visit. Den lille dal, a new 2,000-square-metre themed playground created with Jakob Martin Strid, is open, and the animals to look out for include dholes, Swinhoe's squirrels and pygmy marmosets.

Featured location Ree Park – Ebeltoft Safari Ebeltoft, Denmark The park proper runs to about 70 hectares, and with adjoining land in its ownership the holdings reach roughly 125 hectares. Frans Kilde Hansen started it in 1991 as Ebeltoft Dyrepark. Lars Thye took it over in 1993 and renamed it Ebeltoft Zoo, then intended as a nature park with grounds, play areas and animals to pet.

Skandinavisk Dyrepark: polar bears and wolves

Skandinavisk Dyrepark sits in the middle of Djursland, between Randers, Aarhus and Grenaa. It focuses mainly on Scandinavian species and is known for its enclosures for polar bears, brown bears and wolves. Its six polar bears, four males and two females, share an enclosure of 26,000 square metres that opened in 2006, and a 220-metre walkway takes you close to them.

The September 2026 programme lists the wolves at 11:30, the polar bears at 14:30 and the brown bears at 15:30, so arrive by late morning and stay for the afternoon. Seeing every enclosure means walking about 4 km. To wake up beside the bears, the Isbjørnehytten cabin sleeps up to 6 people and costs DKK 3,999 for 1-4 people as of September 2026, including a morning feeding of the polar bears with your own guide.

Munkholm Zoo: small and hands-on

Munkholm Zoo is a small family-owned zoo at Balle, with more than 400 animals of 80 different species. You can walk freely into the petting-animal areas, and if you buy feed at the entrance, you can feed the animals wherever feeding is marked as allowed, including the raccoons, camels and goats. Several times a day you can also get close to the more exotic animals with a keeper.

The ring-tailed lemurs are fed at 10:50 and the Japanese and Barbary macaques at 11:00, so arrive at opening to catch both. Most visitors spend between 2 and 4 hours here, so it fits into half a day.

So which? Choose Ree Park for giraffes, rhinos and a safari ride, Skandinavisk Dyrepark if polar bears top your list, and Munkholm Zoo for toddlers and a half-day visit.

Tickets and saving money

These prices were checked in September 2026.

• Ree Park: DKK 230 for adults and DKK 145 for children. The Land Rover Safari costs DKK 60 per person on top.
• Skandinavisk Dyrepark: DKK 220 for adults and DKK 125 for children aged 3-11; children aged 0-2 go free. An adult annual pass costs DKK 395.
• Munkholm Zoo: DKK 160 for adults and DKK 105 for children aged 2-14; children under 2 go free.

Entry tickets bought in Ree Park's webshop can be used all season, up to and including week 42, so you can buy ahead without fixing a date. If you expect to go back to Skandinavisk Dyrepark within the year, its DKK 395 adult annual pass costs less than two DKK 220 day tickets. Skandinavisk Dyrepark also welcomes your own picnic basket, which keeps the cost of a full day down.

Best time to visit

• Skandinavisk Dyrepark: from 31 August to 9 October 2026 it is closed on Mondays and open 10:00-16:00 Tuesday to Friday and 10:00-17:00 at weekends. From 10 to 18 October it opens every day from 10:00 to 17:00. The entrance closes one hour before the park does.
• Munkholm Zoo: from 10 August to 11 October it opens 10:00-16:00 on weekdays and 10:00-17:00 at weekends, then 10:00-17:00 in week 42 and 10:00-16:00 every day in weeks 43-44.
• Ree Park: 10:00-16:00 when checked in September 2026. In summer it stays open later, until 19:00 from 6 July to 2 August.

Outside the school summer holidays, Ree Park has the most visitors on Saturdays and Sundays, so go on a weekday if you can. Aarhus's school autumn holiday runs from 10 to 18 October 2026, the week when Skandinavisk Dyrepark opens every day and Munkholm Zoo stays open until 17:00.

Getting there

Most Ree Park visitors arrive by car and park in its large free car park, and a car makes all three parks far easier.

• Ree Park: Ebeltoft is 50 km from Aarhus by road. The park's own Geparden bus picks up at the DGI-huset behind Bruuns Galleri and takes about 50 minutes, but it runs only on Sundays from 5 July to 9 August. In the school summer holidays, bus route 351 from Grenaa to Ebeltoft also passes the park.
• Skandinavisk Dyrepark: from Aarhus, follow the Djursland motorway and then main road 15, leave at the Kolind exit and follow the signs. Without a car, take the light rail from Aarhus to Kolind; the park is about 7 km further. Bus route 120 runs between Aarhus and Grenaa but often goes no further than Kolind, so plan the last stretch before you set off.
• Munkholm Zoo: about a 45-minute drive from Aarhus, with ample parking near the entrance. It is about a 15-minute drive from Ebeltoft, so a short visit fits into the same trip as Ree Park.

With kids and accessibility

For the youngest children, Munkholm Zoo is the easiest day: the petting areas and animal feeding are built into the visit, and its paths are easy to get around with a stroller and very accessible for wheelchairs. Ree Park offers children the Offroad Patrol, where they drive an electric Land Rover, spot wild animals and get their own Junior Ranger card. They can also meet and pet goats, mini pigs and donkeys there.

Ree Park's grounds are very hilly, but you can reach everywhere in a wheelchair, and it rents wheelchairs for DKK 50 a day, as of September 2026. Skandinavisk Dyrepark has benches along all its paths for the 4 km walk, and visitors with limited mobility can borrow one of its two wheelchairs, which have special tyres. Leave the dog at home for Skandinavisk Dyrepark: dogs are not allowed, because you walk inside some of the animal enclosures.