School and camp groups from the five boroughs and North Jersey to the zoo’s Southern Boulevard side, where buses park, and home before dismissal. One bus for a class or several for the grade, with one contact for the day.
Price the zoo trip →Every trip runs under a licensed motor carrier’s New York or New Jersey DOT authority, with vehicles maintained and inspected on schedule.
Every driver is background-checked before they sit behind the wheel of a school group.
Each vehicle is checked before it rolls — not after the kids are loaded.
Every trip runs insured. A certificate of insurance is available for your school or organization on request.
The Bronx Zoo covers 265 acres with more than 11,000 animals, and it runs field trips two ways: self-led visits booked through WCS Group Sales, and the zoo’s own education programs for Pre-K through 12th grade. Either way, the bus side of the day comes down to a few rules.
The zoo’s rule is plain: all buses park in the Southern Boulevard lot unless directed otherwise. Bus parking there is limited and first come, first served, with a per-bus fee, and groups in an education program add it to their order at least four weeks ahead.
The zoo publishes a separate route for commercial vehicles: the Cross Bronx to Webster Avenue, then 180th Street and Southern Boulevard to the lot. The Bronx River Parkway that car GPS sends you down is closed to buses, so we drive the zoo’s route.
Group tickets are reserved and paid at least two weeks ahead, and the zoo does not take walk-up groups. Its classroom programs and tours sell out early, especially in April and May, so spring trips are best set up in winter.
School and camp groups bring one chaperone, 21 or older, for every ten students, and chaperones stay with their groups. NYC schools and camps get free limited admission on weekdays; groups from outside the city get the zoo’s group rates.
Spot time is set ahead of departure, and the teacher and the driver have each other’s cell the night before. The zoo opens at 10, and the departure is timed to arrive close to it.
The bus follows the zoo’s commercial-vehicle route to Southern Boulevard. Plan on about an hour from Midtown or Bergen County on a weekday morning, and longer from Newark or Staten Island.
Round trips are quoted with the wait built in. The bus stays in the Southern Boulevard lot and the driver stays with it. Reentry to the zoo is not allowed, so lunch is inside, at the picnic areas.
The return is timed to the bell and padded for the Cross Bronx at that hour, and the teacher gets a heads-up when the bus is ten minutes out.
The trip date, students and chaperones, the school address, and the time on your confirmation if you have it.
Gratuity and fuel are in the number and tolls are itemized at cost: one price a business office or PTA can approve.
Driver info the day before, one contact the morning of, and the bus at the school before the bell.
A class of 25 with its chaperones rides a mini coach. Two classes with chaperones, up to 55, fill a full coach.
The whole grade? Several buses leave the school together and arrive together, coordinated as one trip.
“Top notch service, we will definitely be riding with Glyde again.”
The date, the headcount and the school address are enough to price the day.
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