Croco Cun Zoon is an amazing interactive zoo just south of Cancun, Mexico, in the Riviera Maya. We got a private tour, in English, with just our family through all the exhibits. We got to handle lots of animals, walk among crocodiles and enjoy a fun playground at the end. It was so fun!! They also have a cafeteria, if you’d like to get a bit of lunch while you are there. Let us give you a little tour of what you will see when you go!!

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Tour Croco Cun Zoo - What you can expect:

Really quickly before we get into the tour, I want to explain where this is and how to get there. It’s located in the Mayan Riviera near the village of Puerto Morelos on the Yucatan Peninsula. There are lots of beautiful hotels and resorts nearby, but we opted to stay closer to Cancun (about 20 miles away) and drove down in our rental car. You can take a bus from Cancun or Playa del Carmen, or pay for a taxi.

First off- reserve your tickets online. Your ticket includes: admission to the zoo, guided tour 60-75 minutes, you can touch, hold and feed a variety of animals, and have access to the playground, picnic area and restrooms. One thing about the tour, our guide never rushed us. The entire time I felt like we were going at our own pace. It was such a great experience!! You can also pay extra to purchase food at the cafeteria, get a bag of food so you can feed the animals even more, and of course a tip for your guide.

We began the tour with an interaction with exotic birds!! We got to hold and feed macaws and parrots. One thing I loved about Croco Cun, is they let you take as many pictures and videos as you want. We had 8 of us in our group and we each got a chance to hold everything and have our own photo ops.

Next, we went to the crocodile pool. I was so surprised when our guide stepped into the pool area, pulled out a 4 ft long crocodile, wrapped a rubber band around it’s mouth, and brought it over for us to hold! Apparently, crocodiles jaws are very strong when they chomp down, but not when they open up. Because of this, the rubber band is sufficient to keep their mouths shut tight for a safe experience together.

After the small crocs, it was time for snakes! AHH! I am not a fan of snakes myself, but my kids were very excited about it and all wanted a snake to bring home with us at the end. We learned so many interesting facts about the different animals and species as we went through the various areas of the zoo.

An exhibit my kids really enjoyed was the area where the hairless dogs lived. I have never seen dogs in a zoo before, but these dogs are very sacred and special to the people in Mexico. At first look, they seemed a bit creepy, but they were so sweet and playful, they quickly won us over.

The dogs were kept in a large pit with a ramp that was lowered down to them. The dogs then ran up the ramp to get out of the pit to come play with us. I guess the monkeys also like to play with the dogs. Our guide told us there are about 19 wild monkeys that live at Croco Cun Zoo (they come and go as they please, but consider the zoo home). The monkeys love to swing over to the dog’s ramp and lower it down so the dogs can get out and play. The dogs were running all over the zoo, so they had to install two different gate systems to thwart the monkeys! Such a riot! More on those crazy monkeys later.

After playing with the dogs, we got the chance to walk through the full sized crocodile habitat! This was a bit terrifying for me. They told us not to run, to walk slowly and quietly. Of course my four year old couldn’t contain himself and started running, nearly gave me a heart attack!! But we made it through safe and sound. As scary as it was, it was also incredible to be so close to those enormous reptiles!!

Next we got to feed the monkeys. We put food in a tray and pulled it up into the trees for them to eat. Our guide warned us not to get close to them because they bite and like to throw their poop at the zoo guests!! They are quite the stinkers, but so much fun to watch! The baby ones were super cute.

The last animals we got to see were the turtles and tortoises. I’ve never seen a tortoise move so fast! They were cruising around, climbing over each other to get to the food.

When we were done seeing the animals, the kids had a chance to go play on the old school playground. I felt like I had stepped back in time to a playground I may have enjoyed as a kid. My children thought it was the best thing ever and would’ve stayed for hours, if we let them.

Croco Cun Zoo was not in our original travel plans, but I am so grateful our other activity fell through so we could go. It was one of the biggest highlights of our trip for our children. I can’t recommend it enough!