Nick's Top 5 Reasons to Become Members at Brookfield Zoo

You know it. You love it. Brookfield Zoo has been a staple of family fun in Chicagoland for generations! I’m sure you’ve gone once or twice in your life, but have you considered a membership? You REALLY, REALLY should! It’s one of the best deals going, especially if you have kids (or you entertain someone else’s kids from time to time)!

My household have been members of Brookfield Zoo since our first kid was born, and we’ve gone dozens of times over the past six years.

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Here are my top reasons to become a member at Brookfield Zoo:

It Pay for Itself in Two Visits!
If you go to the zoo more than twice, a membership will save you money. And once you HAVE the membership, you will find you go much more often…because it doesn’t cost you anything! A Basic membership is literally just $30 more than it costs a family of four to visit the park! That’s it! As long as you go more than one time per year, it’s a no brainer…and trust me, once you’re a member, you’ll go way more often! To be honest, I silently judge families who do NOT get the membership…what are you, made of money?!
Free Parking
If you are a member, you get to park in the north lot (the big one) for free…thus saving you even MORE money. If you want to save your legs from the walk through the tunnel, you can also park in the south lot (much smaller) for just $5, which is normally $15 for non-members. Me? I spend the $5 whenever we go to park in the south lot…but that’s just me!
It Makes Quick Day Trips Super Easy
Maybe there’s a summer day with no plans and you are trying to think of something to do. Or some rainy weather has cleared up around 2:00 and you have a few hours to kill. Let’s go to the zoo! Since it costs nothing for member to enter or park, making a last-second decision to hit the zoo just for an hour or two a pretty easy decision! A cheap day that the kids will love. That’s a win!
You Can Treat Your Friends!
Since memberships offer free guest passes, you can invite your friends or family members to join you, even if they aren’t members themselves. The number of free guest passes depends on the type of membership you get, but even the most basic membership plan lets you treat four other people to a trip to the zoo!
You Don’t Feel Guilty About Short Visits
If you take kids to the zoo, they expect to see everything there is to see. BUT…if you have a membership, you don’t have to feel bad if you only visit a handful of animals, because there is always next time!

Besides those things, members get discounted concessions in the zoo, free tickets to the attractions like the dolphin show (the number of free passes depends on your membership level).

Also, don’t forget about all the events they have coming up the rest of the year! Their Oktoberfest is on September 24th and Boo! at the Zoo during weekends in October! Oh! And if you haven’t checked out BZ’s Holiday Magic with all the lights and music for the holidays…well, you’re missing out!

Full disclosure, I am a paid endorser for BZ, but I have in fact been a paid member since 2016!