Santo Inácio Zoo (Zoo Santo Inácio)

Lions, lemurs and penguins at Santo Inácio Zoo

The lions you see from the tunnel are Asian lions, a rarer cousin of the African lion that survives in the wild only in and around India’s Gir forest. Their keeper talks are part of every day’s programme.

Then there are the Humboldt penguins, a South American species, with talks of their own.

By the central lake, the Lemur Forest has an island for the lemurs, and the Lake Bar looks out over the water. The other big areas are the African Savannah and Tropical World, the newest, and there’s a house for nocturnal animals and a wallaby enclosure you can walk into.

Siberian tigers and pygmy hippos live here too, both in European breeding programmes. The zoo takes part in about 25 of those programmes, and it’s on the coordinating team for three: the Asian lion, the Philippine deer and the dama gazelle, a desert antelope.

Wild Lights at Santo Inácio Zoo

Until 30 December 2026, the zoo stays open after dark for Luzes Selvagens (Wild Lights), an exhibition of illuminated animal figures, now in its fifth edition. It’s on at weekends, on public holidays and in the school holidays, from 17:30 to 20:30 in October and from 16:30 to 20:30 in November and December.

The zoo says its own day ticket also gets you into Wild Lights on those days, but the Tiqets ticket doesn’t list the exhibition, so that part isn’t certain. See the animals first: once the lights come on, they’re no longer on view in their habitats.

Santo Inácio Zoo tickets, opening hours and lunch

Buy the zoo ticket for €18.90 ahead and you skip the ticket queue. There’s no time slot, and the ticket is for the date you choose. Children from 3 to 12 pay €12.90, over-65s €16.90, and babies up to 2 go free. At the gate, the same tickets cost a euro more.

You can cancel or change the date until 23:59 the day before. On the day, you can pop out and come back: just tell the security staff on your way out.

Lunch is easy to sort out. The restaurant serves hot meals from 12:00 to 15:00, and the Lake Bar has snacks and a microwave for baby food. Food from home is welcome in the picnic park, where the lockers take your own padlock.

Single and double pushchairs can be hired for children from 2, and electric wheelchairs when available. The zoo says its paths and toilets are adapted, but visitors in August and October 2026 said the circuit is unpaved and unsuitable for wheelchairs.

Getting to Santo Inácio Zoo from Porto

The zoo is south-east of the centre, at Rua 5 de Outubro 4503 in Avintes, a parish of Vila Nova de Gaia, the city across the river from Porto.

By car, take the A20 over the Freixo bridge, or the A1 or A29 from the south, leave at the Avintes/Castelo de Paiva exit and follow the N222. Parking is free, with four chargers for electric cars.

Without a car it takes more planning, as the zoo doesn’t publish bus or metro routes. A visitor in September 2025 took an Uber from central Gaia, and the ride took 20 minutes.

From the Guedes family’s land to Santo Inácio Zoo

The land belonged to the Guedes family, of Aveleda, a Vinho Verde wine estate. Building started in 1997, and the zoo opened on 1 June 2000 as the Quinta de Santo Inácio, taking its present name in 2010.

The African Savannah followed in 2014 and the glass tunnel through the lions’ habitat in 2015, then the Lemur Forest in 2021 and Tropical World in 2023. Today the zoo calls itself the biggest and greenest in the north of Portugal.