The bottom line: Nova Wild in Vienna, Virginia is a small zoo with a big personality. It's a walk-through zoo plus a drive-through safari, and the real sell is how close you can actually get to the animals. We drove down on a chilly, rainy Memorial Day weekend with Charlotte (6) and Parker (1) and still walked away thinking it was one of the better animal experiences we've done as a family. For roughly $20 a person plus a $20 bucket of feed, you get a tight, intimate walk-through and a chaotic-but-fun drive-through safari where llamas literally stick their heads in your car. Abby called the safari alone worth $100. We agree.
Getting In: Buy Tickets Online
Buy your tickets online ahead of time. We saved about $2 per ticket versus the gate, and the QR code came through immediately. On a busy weekend, having the QR code ready means you walk in instead of waiting at the booth.
The other tip we'd pass along: do the walk-through zoo first, then the drive-through safari. The order matters more than you'd think. You park, walk the zoo, come back to your car, and then the safari naturally rolls you right out of the property when you're done. No backtracking. No second trip across the parking lot with tired kids. It's a clean exit, and after about two hours on foot, you'll appreciate it.
We went on a rainy day in the low 60s and the animals were still out and active. Don't bail on Nova Wild just because the forecast looks meh. But wear shoes you don't care about. The walk-through gets muddy fast in the rain.
The Walk-Through Zoo: Small but Genuinely Cool
The walk-through portion takes about an hour to an hour and a half. It's on the smaller side, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in how close you can get and how unusual the animals are. You won't see the typical elephants-and-giraffes lineup here. Nova Wild leans into the unique stuff: fennec foxes, capybaras, kangaroos with their joeys, lemurs, axolotls. The kind of animals where Charlotte stopped, pointed, and actually asked questions.
The cheetahs are right at the front and were Parker's favorite. He didn't have the vocabulary for it, but the pointing and the wide eyes did the work.
Speaking of the capybara: there's a paid experience where you can go right up to it and have a one-on-one encounter for around $150 per person. We didn't do it, but it's the kind of thing that would absolutely sell a capybara-obsessed kid (or adult). Worth knowing it's an option if you want to make this trip a bigger deal.
The Kangaroo Path Is the Best-Kept Secret
The kangaroos have a dedicated walking path where you're inside the enclosure with them. If the kangaroos and joeys come up to you, you can pet them. We're talking actual pet-the-kangaroo, not behind-a-fence pet-the-kangaroo.
Ours were a little shy that day. Too many people around. But the setup alone is wild. Most zoos don't let you do anything close to this. If you go on a less crowded day, your odds go way up.
A Word of Warning About the Little Ones
A lot of these enclosures let you get genuinely close, which is the whole appeal. But some of these animals will bite if you're not careful. The wild boar in particular is one to watch. Toddler fingers go through fences faster than you can grab them. Parker tried to make friends with the boar through the fence. We intervened.
This isn't a knock on the zoo. It's just a reality of the access they're giving you. You have to actively parent here. It's not a hands-in-pockets zoo. Charlotte got it at 6. Parker, at 1, needed a hand on him basically the entire time.
What It Actually Costs
Tickets run around $20 a person when bought online. The $20 feed bucket gives you food for both the walk-through zoo and the drive-through safari. That single bucket is what unlocks the real interactive parts of the visit. Without it, you're just looking. With it, you're feeding kangaroos and getting llamas to stick their heads in your car.
For a family of four, you're looking at roughly $80 in tickets plus $20 for the feed bucket. Around $100 all in, and you get a solid two-and-a-half to three hours of legitimately unique animal interaction. Compared to most paid family attractions in our area, that's a pretty fair deal.
The Feed Bucket: Strategy Matters
Okay, this is the single most important tip in this whole review. The feed bucket is sizable, somewhere around three to four quarts, and it has to last you through both the walk-through and the safari.
A lot of families don't realize this and burn through the whole bucket inside the zoo. They get to the safari and have nothing left, so they buy a second bucket. Don't be those families.
Our rule: save at least half the bucket for the safari. Better yet, save more than half. The safari is where the feed really pays off, because the animals come right up to your car windows and you want enough to keep things going through the entire loop. Especially for the animals at the very end of the trail, who tend to get nothing because everyone's already empty.
Use less than half your bucket in the walk-through. Save the majority for the drive-through safari. Then save a handful for the last four or five animals at the very end of the trail. They get ignored because everyone runs out. Throw them a bone (literally a handful of pellets) and feel good about yourself.
The Drive-Through Safari: Worth the Price of Admission
This is the part everyone is going to remember.
You drive your own car through a loop where goats, llamas, and other animals roam loose. They come right up to the car. They put their heads in the window. They chase you slowly down the path looking for food. The bison hang out up top and watch from a distance like the dignified elders they are.
The entrance gets clogged. A lot of cars bunch up at the start because the animals know that's where the feed gets handed out. You'll spend a little time inching forward through the herd. Once you push past that bottleneck, the rest of the loop opens up and you get to actually drive and stop and interact at your own pace.
Parker, our 1-year-old, was thrilled until he wasn't. A llama stuck its whole head in the window and tried to take the entire feed bowl from him. Cue the wide-eyed silent panic that 1-year-olds do so well. He recovered. Abby and Charlotte found it hilarious. We'll be telling that story for years.
For the older kid, the safari was pure joy. Charlotte was strategizing about which animals to save food for. She was checking the mirrors to spot incoming llamas. She was fully running the operation by the end.
“Abby said the safari alone was worth $100. That's after we'd already paid $20 a person and $20 for the bucket. The safari is the reason you come here.”
Quick safety note: the llamas and goats get right up against the car. They might bump it with their bodies or swat the side with a tail, but they're not aggressive in any way that damages anything. You're driving extremely slowly. Just be patient, don't lurch forward when an animal is at your window, and you'll be fine.
We've also done the drive-through safari in Atlanta (the one outside the city), and Nova Wild's version felt more chaotic in the best way. Atlanta's had a wider variety of animals, but Nova Wild's was more interactive, more in-your-face, and honestly more fun.
The Gift Shop
The gift shop is small but it has good stuff. Real merch, not the usual generic plastic. The real surprise here is the axolotl living in a tank inside the shop. Charlotte was glued to it. She passed on the axolotl plush, but the real one might've been her favorite animal of the whole trip.
Stroller and Toddler Notes
The walk-through is fully stroller-friendly under normal conditions. In the rain, the paths got muddy enough that we'd have preferred not to push the stroller through certain spots. If you can babywear a little one and the weather is iffy, do it. Otherwise, a standard stroller is fine.
The whole property is walkable for little legs too. Charlotte covered the entire walk-through on foot at 6 with no complaints. The animals come fast enough that there isn't a lot of dead space between exhibits. Kids stay engaged.
The Community Piece
One of the small things that stuck with us: we met multiple families at Nova Wild whose parents had taken them here when they were kids. It's that kind of place. A local staple that's been part of the area for long enough that you get full-circle parent moments where someone says, "I came here on a field trip when I was 8, now I'm bringing my own kid."
There's something about supporting a small, independent zoo like this that feels different from a big-corporate attraction. The ticket money matters more. The community shows up for it. You can feel that when you're walking the grounds.
Pro Tips If You Go
You save about $2 per ticket and you skip the line at the gate.
It's a cleaner flow and you end the day by literally driving off the property.
Especially if it's been raining. The walk-through gets muddy.
This is the most common rookie mistake. Don't burn through it inside the zoo.
A few of the animals (looking at you, wild boar) will bite if given the chance. This isn't a hands-off zoo, so stay engaged.
It's a walk-in enclosure where the kangaroos can come right up to you. Best chances on less crowded days.
By the end of the loop, most cars are empty and those animals get ignored. Hold back a handful for them.
If your kid is obsessed, it's an option worth knowing about.
The Verdict
Is Nova Wild worth the trip with kids? Yes, and especially for the under-8 crowd.
What makes it work is the access. You're not standing 30 feet back from animals behind glass. You're walking next to kangaroos, getting your car nuzzled by llamas, and feeding capybaras through a fence. For kids who've already done the big standard zoos, this is the next-level version: smaller, more personal, more interactive.
The trade-offs are real but manageable. Some animals bite, so you have to actively supervise. The walk-through is on the smaller side, so if you're driving a long way to get here, plan to pair it with something else. The feed bucket strategy is genuinely important and a lot of first-timers fumble it.
We did the Philly Otaku Fest as a free test run for our anime-curious kid earlier this year. Nova Wild is similar in the sense that it's a smaller, lower-stakes version of a bigger experience. It's the kind of outing where the size is the feature, not the bug.
What: Nova Wild (formerly Roer's Zoofari) Where: Vienna, Virginia (about a 3 hour drive from Philadelphia) When we went: Memorial Day weekend 2026, rainy and low 60s Cost: ~$20/person online for tickets, $20 for the shared feed bucket Time on site: About 2.5 to 3 hours total (1.5 walk-through + 45 min safari + browsing) Stroller-friendly? Yes, with the caveat that mud is real in wet weather Best for: Kids ages 1-8. Older kids might find the walk-through small, but the safari plays for all ages
Go if: You want a smaller, more interactive zoo experience with up-close animal encounters and a genuinely fun drive-through safari. Worth a road trip if you're within a few hours.
Skip if: You're looking for a full-day, big-zoo experience with hundreds of species. Nova Wild is intentionally compact.
Best hack: Buy tickets online, do the walk-through first, ration the feed bucket for the safari, and bring a change of shoes if it's been raining.
How often? Once a year feels right. It's small enough that it doesn't change much visit-to-visit, but the safari alone makes it worth a repeat.
TinyJawns Take
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ out of 5. Nova Wild is one of the easier wins we've had as a family this year. The walk-through is small but full of unusual animals you don't see at bigger zoos, and the drive-through safari is one of the most fun 45 minutes we've had with the kids in a long time. For $80-$100 all in with a feed bucket, it's a strong value, and the up-close animal experience genuinely lives up to the hype. The only reason it's not a full 5 is the feed bucket learning curve. First-timers really do fumble it, and we'd love to see the zoo do a better job setting expectations up front.
Parker survived his llama incident. Charlotte ran the safari like she'd been doing it for years. We left already half-planning the next visit.
Have a tip we missed or a favorite animal we didn't mention? Tag us @tiny.jawn on Instagram!
TinyJawns is your guide to doing stuff with kids in Philly (and the occasional road trip). The real version, not the brochure version. Want more honest reviews like this? Subscribe to the newsletter.