Babies - Lincoln Park Zoo

I love taking babies to the zoo. Lincoln Park Zoo is a great place to walk, enjoy the animals, and talk to baby about everything you see. I really like the loop at the north end of the zoo around African Journey where you can see rhinos, giraffes, and zebras on the outside, plus see polar bears and penguins on the same loop. The Center for African Apes also allows some big, fun animals, often up pretty close for baby to see. When you just want to stretch your legs while baby's asleep, the nature boardwalk is a relatively short but pretty stroll or, for a long walk, you can go up to Fullerton and walk over the lakefront trail (it's better to walk on the sidewalk on the north side of Fullerton to get past the ramps to Lake Shore Drive).

For babies starting to crawl, there's not much space that doesn't have lots of people walking by—the Bird House is probably the least busy space, followed by the path around Camel & Zebra. Macaque forest is relatively busy but there are lots of younger kids, so other visitors should be more alert to kids on the ground.

Nursing

The Visitor Center by the East Gate has rooms for nursing. Benches by Camel & Zebra can be much calmer areas of the zoo but still with animals to watch, especially if you have bigger kids, while the Children's Zoo is not usually very calm but does have benches for you near play areas for older siblings.