I wish I had had more time to enjoy Philips Animal Garden.

Firstly, I expected a lot less when I read about it. Philips Animal Garden was literally better than most big city zoos!. I believe the ability to get close to the animals and feed them made the whole experience very interactive and personable. You pay a small fee per person that includes food to give to the animals. The young man who helped us made sure to remind us that only 4-legged animals were allowed to be fed. Any more, any less, don’t feed!

The first animals you see are donkeys, ostriches and deer. The latter I didn’t expect to ever see in Aruba. All the animals were friendly.

What shocked me too, was the size of a lot of the cages. It felt like these animals get more room than animals in much more popular and famous zoos.

Our favorites were the deer, ostriches, monkeys, goats and emus. But there are many more to see.

Word of advice, avoid the middle of the afternoon to visit. By the time we came it was hot and the girls were ready for nap time. We didn’t expect it to be so large and have so much to see. We regretted not allotting ourselves more time to really enjoy it.

Additionally, they have a pretty big play area for younger kids. My girls wanted to stay and play at the playground but it was just too hot by 1 PM, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky in June.