Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens: What It's Actually Like

The thing to understand about Naples Zoo is that the garden came first. Dr Henry Nehrling planted this ground in 1919 as a tropical botanical collection; the animals arrived in the 1960s. A century of growth later you are walking under strangler figs and thickets of bamboo rather than across the open pavement most zoos are built on, and in August that difference is roughly ten degrees.

Hours, tickets and when to go

Open 9am to 4:30pm daily, last entry an hour before close. Go at opening. Animals in Southwest Florida are active for the first two hours and then sensibly disappear into shade until late afternoon. Collier County residents get several free Saturdays a year — check the events calendar before you buy.

What not to miss

• Giraffe feeding — lettuce, close range, worth the extra few dollars with kids
• The primate islands, home to lemurs, gibbons and spider monkeys
• Florida panthers, which matter more here than anywhere else — this is their last wild range
• Honey badgers, genuinely funny and rarely held in US collections
• The alligator and Everglades feeding presentations, scheduled through the day

How long you need

Two and a half hours at a walk, three and a half if you catch two shows and eat lunch. Strollers are fine on all paths. There is shade almost everywhere, which is the single best thing about the place in summer.