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Lion Country Safari
Loxahatchee, Palm Beach County
ANIMALS
8STRANGENESS
OUT OF TEN
OUT OF TEN
WHAT IT IS
America's first drive-through safari, opened 1967. You drive your own car, windows up, through 900 loose animals.
Its founders' pitch was 'a cageless zoo' where the visitors were the ones enclosed. Nearly sixty years later you still drive your own vehicle on a four-mile loop past rhinos, zebra, ostriches, and lions. The lions have their own fenced section, following an early incident involving a convertible. Signs remind you not to stop and not to open windows. Rhinos routinely stand in the road, and nobody hurries them.
HOW IT SCORES
Rarity8/10
Is there anywhere else like it?
Backstory9/10
How did this come to be?
Disrepair5/10
What is holding it together?
Commitment9/10
How far do they take the bit?
NEARBY
BEFORE YOU DRIVE
- ENTRY FEE
- $45
- HOURS
- Daily 9:30am–5:30pm
- BEST TIME
- Right at opening, when animals are active and near the road.
- HOW LONG
- Half day
- PARKING
- Free lot for the walk-through park
- PAYMENT
- Cards accepted
- ACCESS
- Drive-through is fully accessible
COORDINATES
26.7092° N, 80.2856° W
2003 Lion Country Safari Road, Loxahatchee. Convertibles must rent a car.
OPEN IN MAPS →DETAILS COMPILED FROM PUBLISHED SOURCES. FEES CHANGE. CALL AHEAD.