Sydney Taronga Zoo's Aussie Backyard Adventure Tour

Recommended by 91% of travelers

Sydney, Australia

Great choice

5+ bookings last month.

1 to 3 hours (approx.)
Offered in: English

Explore our promoted experiences

Special Offer

Blue Mountains Small-Group Tour from Sydney with Scenic World,Sydney Zoo & Ferry

Sydney, New South Wales

4.9

(4,535)

Blue Mountains Small-Group Tour from Sydney with Scenic World,Sydney Zoo & Ferry

from

$149

$165

Sydney, New South Wales

5.0

(3)

Open Group Snorkelling Experience

from $172

Sydney Taronga Zoo Wild Australia Experience

Sydney, New South Wales

4.7

(511)

Sydney Taronga Zoo Wild Australia Experience

from $133

Viator earns higher commissions on experiences featured here

Overview

Enjoy an in-depth experience of Sydney Taronga Zoo on a guided tour with a zoo guide who introduces you to Australian native animals including koalas and kangaroos. Learn more than you could on your own. This small-group tour is limited to ten people and includes admission tickets to Taronga Zoo.

In-depth guided tour by a zoo guide
Come face-to-face with kangaroos and wallabies
Meet hand-raised animals native animals
All-day access pass to explore Taronga Zoo before or after your tour
Small-group tour maximum ten people

What's Included

All-day pass to Taronga Zoo
Small-group guided tour(1.5 hours)

Hotel pickup and drop-off
Food and drink
Transportation to the zoo
This tour does NOT include animal encounters or interactions

Meeting and Pickup

Departure Point

Taronga Zoo, Bradleys Head Road, Mosman, New South Wales 2088 Australia

Ticket Redemption Point

Taronga Zoo, Bradleys Head Rd, Mosman NSW 2088, Australia

What To Expect

A zoo guide meets you at the designated time to start your Australian Animals tour. Walking around the grounds with a zoo guide, learn first-hand about the animals and zoo operations. Find out detailed information about the kangaroo, wallaby, echidna, koala, Australian birds and more during your tour, which also explores a replica of a sandstone gorge that is typical of those found in the Blue Mountains. Remember to bring your camera for great photo ops with the critters.

Since your small-group numbers have a maximum of ten participants, enjoy an intimate and personalized experience with a knowledgeable zoo guide showing you around the zoo and its inner core. It's the perfect tour for animal lovers!

After your guided tour, enjoy the rest of the day to explore the zoo at your leisure. If you have worked up an appetite, there are several restaurant and cafe options available, with sit-down or casual dining choices that you can choose. Taronga Zoo also has many picnic areas. You are welcome to bring your own picnic to enjoy while soaking in spectacular views that overlook Sydney Harbour.

Taronga Zoo

Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received within 48 hours of booking, subject to availability
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Near public transportation
Transportation is wheelchair accessible

Most travelers can participate
Maximum 10 people per tour
The Aussie Backyard Adventure tour operates two times a day. Please see pricing for tour departure times.
If you have any mobility and/or accessibility requirements, please let us know prior to arrival to Taronga so we can ensure the tour route can be personalised to ensure the comfortability and safety of all attendees.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 6 travelers

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 6 days in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Featured review

Carol_M

Fabulous private tour with behind the scenes information about the zoo. I just wished it would have lasted through the entire zoo. I saw half the zoo with my guide. She then left and the zoo map was a bit confusing to see the rest of the zoo. All in all great experience! I had thought I would get to hold an animal or two but they are not allowed to do that

Reviews

4.6

based on 215 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Do the small guides tour

Jennifer_P, May 2026

Volunteers were great. would recommend to friends and family. Would visit again if I ever come back.

Fabulous private tour...

Carol_M, Apr 2026

You must go to the upper...

ilene_g, Feb 2026

You must go to the upper entrance to get your ticket. No one seemed to know that, and, consequently we were late and our tour was cut short. Viator needs to be more explicit about where to pick up tickets.

This is a great way to see the zoo!!

Kate_M, Jan 2026

We had Graham and Sandra as our guides. They were friendly and extremely knowledgeable! They even planned a special surprise for us, as part of our tour, and took us to the Taranga Institute to see a special woodland exhibit. Our group of 8 had different physical needs and they were extremely accommodating and every area was accessible. As this was a once in a lifetime trip to Australia, everyone at the Zoo made it a memorable experience! We loved it!

Fun zoo to visit, miss the behind the scenes tour!

Debra_C, Oct 2025

We have been too the Taronga zoo before on the behind the scenes tour. I thought I booked the same tour. No, they did away with that tour. This tour was ok. We made the mistake of walking up the hill from the ferry vs taking the bus..very hot we were by the time we started a guided tour. The tour was ok, really missed the behind the scenes tour of seeing various animals up and in person. Please bring back the behind the scenes tour. And, I also missed their wonderful walk in Aviary , The tour guide was very nice.

Very good guide

Michael_S, Mar 2025

Very informative guide was very hot but walking was not bad lots of animal’s that we had not seen before

Excellent Zoo Adventure

David_S, Mar 2025

Tour and tour guides were amazing. Would recommend this tour to anyone that would like to see animals distinct to Australia.

Best experience ever. Our guides were fantastic. They were knowledgeable and we loved the zoo.

Debra_T, Mar 2025

It was w wonderful it was the best thing we saw in Sydney. Our guides were fantastic and we loved everything about the zoo.

Wonderful!

Olga_K, Feb 2025

Fabulous way to tour this zoo! Volunteer guide was a zoologist and shared lots of wonderful information about all the animals. Great way to go!

The zoo volunteer who...

Beth_S, Jan 2025

The zoo volunteer who took us around was very knowledgeable about Australian animals. For about an hour he took us around the Australian animal section. We felt however he was rushing and impatient when we wanted to look longer at an animal or take pictures.

Smart beginning!

Heidi_C, Jan 2025

Great afternoon with family at the zoo. Used the Sydney harbor ferry services to learn how to get to the zoo, and -Above all-a perfect overview ,at the start our Australian trip , to identify the unique wildlife to be found here.

Great tour at the Sydney zoo

Erica_W, Nov 2024

Our guides were very knowledgeable! So glad we booked this tour, would do it again and highly recommend.

Good experience, get there early before large bus groups if possible

Doug_T, Sep 2024

Our guide was very experienced and friendly. It is worthwhile to get there early, before large bus groups appear if possible. There are several areas to walk through with very colorful birds. The kangaroos were all sleeping and very relaxed. It was an enjoyable experience.

Viator customer service is terrible

gwen_g, Sep 2024

Viator app screwed up the date and they were not helpful at all . They said they could do nothing which is a lie . I’m not even in the country yet. Use a different company unless you are 100% sure there will be no issue because the customer service is horrible.

Wonderful tour!!

Suzanne_B, Aug 2024

Our lovely, volunteer tour guides were a fountain of knowledge and very fun— they laughed at all our jokes! We requested to see the platypuses so we spend a good long time watching Matilda scamper around!! We really enjoyed our tour!!!

Fantastic Experience

Janet_M, Apr 2024

Melinda the tour guide was very informative. The zoo was amazing. When visiting the zoo, a tour guide is the way to go.

Do The Zoo

Jeanine_J, Mar 2024

Our guides, Geoffrey and Esther were excellent. Very knowledgeable and fun. We had the privilege of seeing several animals who were active during our visit, eating and moving about (considering koalas sleep 20 hour a day and the platypus are usually hard to see in the nocturnal exhibit). They had several suggestions of what ro see and do and it was a great day. Definitely worthwhile.

Great Zoo Experience at Taronga

srossman, Mar 2024

Our private tour when the Zoo opened was a perfect introduction to the many exhibits and allowed us to see many animals while they were still active in the morning without the crowds. The guides were wonderful. The Zoo itself is a treasure. The views of Sydney, especially from the Wild Bird Show theater (a great program btw), are spectacular. Tip: The zoo is on three levels, but there are helpful lifts and escalators available as you go up and down. Overall, a must see experience at one of the world’s best zoos.

Excellent tour of the Australian animals at the Taronga Zoo

Jane_T, Mar 2024

Excellent tour—there were 9 of us and we had 2 tour guides. Very informative-nice pace—and a beautiful zoo. Definitely recommend. And just FYI—there are no live animal interactions on this tour.

Educational tour

Jonathan_M, Feb 2024

The tour guides were knowledgable and I found the tour educational. I appreciated that they adjusted to tour to take into account the heat/humidity into account when leading the tour. I have a feeling that we would have covered more ground if it was a bit cooler but I think that some of the other guests would have had difficulties keeping up. The only downside (not related to the tour) was that there were not enough shuttles taking patrons from the ferry dock up to the main entrance and the wait was over 30 minutes for the next set of buses. They should have had more running that day as it was quite hot.

Must do!

Cherise_A, Feb 2024

Our tour guide was awesome and we learned and saw so much more than we would’ve just walking around ourselves.

The best electric chair experience.

JoAnn_L, Feb 2024

The Zoo Volunteer Guides were awesome. The best thing was them telling me about the animals, habitat, living spaces and conservation efforts.

Taronga Zoo

Sharon_C, Feb 2024

Our tour guides were amazing. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing the animals native to Australia. We enjoyed hearing the history of Australia in regards to the animals as well as what the zoo does to protect them.

Australian animal adventure

Kathy, Jan 2024

The zoo volunteer guides were so knowledgeable and took time in each habitat to share info and field questions. Extremely helpful too. We had a wonderful experience learning about the Australian animals.

Great 90 minutes at Taronga

Elaine_D, Jan 2024

This tour was advertised as a tour with a Keeper when it was actually with a volunteer. But Robert was great. Spent 90 minutes with us in the Australia area, so we saw roos of all types, Tasmanian Devils, birds, etc. Taronga is a huge Zoo so there's a lot to cover. He did a great job of explaining all about the Zoo, the animals, conservation work, volunteers, etc. It was a great way to start our day at the Zoo!

Disappointed

Srikanta_B, Dec 2023

The description is not clear. This tour basically involves volunteers trying to give some background on the Aussie animals. There are not add-ons like getting close to any animal through this tour and of course no adventure in this. My kids were quite disappointed to have couple of elderly volunteers talking about the animals. We had more fun exploring the zoo ourselves. Zoo is very nice this tour is not

Taronga Zoo

Cherece_H, Dec 2023

A guided tour is not necessary for this experience. The zoo is large and requires a lot of walking which I enjoyed. It is best to enter from the top versus the bottom if you would like to minimize your incline.

Australian animals

Carey_F, Dec 2023

Lovey guide, very helpful. Only Australian animals in this tour. Too long, I cut it short to go to animal feeding show.

Beautiful Oz

Jean_C, Nov 2023

For the first time in my life, I saw two little-known Oz animals - a beautiful tree kangaroo, and a bilby!

Amazing Tour

Vera_M, Nov 2023

The entire experience was amazing. We were two couples and had three volunteer guides. We were able to not only see and feed the animals, but learned about the history of the animals. Our guides were kind and informative...as they helped my husband with mobility issues and seemed to have a world of knowledge. David, Chris and Sandy were amazing guides and we couldn't thank them enough for our wonderful experience. Feeding the Kangaroo's was totally amazing.