Riverview Park and Zoo Peterborough

• Author: WantsToTravelMore
• Accommodation: Peterborough Ontario Accommodations

Tucked away at the end of Peterborough Ontario is a park with a zoo. It’s not a gigantic zoo like Toronto’s but it has its own charm. Tortoises, wallabies, lemurs, meerkats, monkeys, camels, otters, bobcats and a couple of sloths that I’m told came from the Calgary Zoo when it was hit with a flood.

The park itself has other really good features. The playground for kids is not lame. There’s lots of structures to play on and there’s a cool slide that’s a tube downhill, through a hill that is long. The kids and their adult supervisors love it.

And there’s a spashpad. It is cleverly designed because the kids we were with showed no loss of interest — that’s the test, by the way, prolonged interest. (Make note you urban designers who screwed up the Kits Beach park playground in Vancouver. Just sayin’.) There’s a variety of devices dumping water on people and animal shaped hoses to play squirt games with.

It’s also not a big surprise that the water park has good water systems seeing the whole park is beside the Peterborough Utilities Commission’s water treatment plant.

An additional bonus is the miniature train that has a run through the park. It costs about $2 a ride and is totally fun for the kids. And, on a summer Friday afternoon, it was evident that Peterborough is a city for families. The mom-and-stroller count was very high.

Interestingly, the park is free admission, making it a great deal and virtually a must-do in the Kawarthas.