School and camp groups from across North Jersey, Staten Island and the city to Turtle Back Zoo in South Mountain Reservation, dropped at the zoo’s bus drop-off and home before dismissal. One bus for a class or several for the grade.
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.
Turtle Back Zoo is Essex County’s zoo in South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, open daily from 10 to 4, rain or shine, with group rates from 15 tickets reserved and paid ahead. Most of its bus side is on its own map.
The zoo’s 2026 map marks a bus drop-off beside the Educational Center and a seasonal bus group entrance. That is where we plan the drop, and we confirm it with the zoo before the date.
Visitor parking in the complex’s lots and decks is free, except the Park ’n Ride deck on weekdays. The zoo publishes no bus lot, so where the bus waits is set with the zoo before the date.
Group rates start at 15 tickets, and the zoo wants groups reserved and paid in advance.
About half an hour from Newark and about 45 minutes from Bergen County on a weekday morning, on roads a bus can use the whole way.
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.
About 30 minutes from Newark, 45 from Bergen County, 50 from Midtown and an hour from Staten Island on a weekday morning. Tolls are itemized at cost.
Round trips are quoted with the wait built in. The bus waits where the zoo directs buses, and the driver stays with it.
The return is timed to the bell, 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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