Edinburgh Zoo is one of the places where I first took my wife following her move upto Scotland as she always used to love going to her local zoo where she lived near Birmingham and we have been back a few times...so why go in the first place?

Edinburgh Zoo is well located and fairly centralised in the city with buses easy to catch from the shopping area of the city and be dropped off just accross from the zoo itself but it is also not too longer walk from Edinburgh Haymarket train station and a taxi from either of the train stations is not too expensive and very quick.
The zoo itself is relatively expensive with it normally costing about £25-£30 for two people to enter but this is in large part thanks to the excellent conservation efforts going on at the zoo and so I don't begrudge paying this kind of price.
There are a large number of animals on display including flamingo, polar bear, chimpanzees, lion, tiger, jaguar, monkeys, parrotts, hogs, zerba, deer, penguins and many others.
The zoo recently opened a chimpanzee centre which offers a great amount of information on these fabulous animals aswell as a screening room to show presentations and an island area for a chimpanzee colony to be placed and allowed to live within their own community ways.
The zoo is well maintained and very clean and has excellent pathways throughout with gift shops, a picnic area and a couple of restaurants available also to allow for people to be able to have a great day out.
My wife and I decided to eat in one of the restaurants and were disgusted unfortunately with the poor food on offer and quality, the staff were not helpful or friendly, the restaurant felt like a poor quality cafeteria in a school and the prices were extremely expensive.

Positives:

- Well maintained zoo
- Animals well looked after
- Conservation information available
- Good range of animals
- Good amount of animal presentations for which you are given a timetable on entry
- Excellent products in the shops

Negatives:

- Expensive entry
- Poor quality of eateries

The zoo itself is magnificent and I would recommend it but have a nice big breakfast and head for a nice restaurant after to make your day perfect.