I have written about how valuable our zoo membership is several times before. As a young and growing family, and even from when I was single, and then dating my now wife, visiting zoos during my travels has been a part of my life now for 8 years and counting.

Traditionally, we have always had an individual, then individual plus account, and now are upgrading to a family membership now that Bug is over 2 years old. I was in the market to renew again this month, and am very fortunate to have a friend who worked at a local company and provided a 20% discount for us to use. That discount has always saved our family a significant amount of money on membership.

We use our membership to visit the Cleveland Zoo several times a year. The best benefit though is the reciprocal admission to 150+ other zoos across the country. This savings pays for our membership each year. The boys love animals and the zoos, and it allows us to be outside. My favorite part of visiting the other zoos is to evaluate the exhibits and habitats, as well as see how the zoo is maintaining and rebuilding the environments for the animals. It has been great that I have seen tremendous growth and change at zoos all across the country for the past 8 years. Just to give an example, the Cleveland Zoo has spent tremendous amounts of money building the new Elephant habitat, which I happen to be really happy about because they are my favorite animal. In another life, I might have been in Africa or Asia studying and protecting these wild animals.

While I can not share my 20% discount code off of membership, I can share some other ways to save at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

– Bring in a non-winning, although I am sure they would like a winning one too, Ohio lottery ticket through March 31, 2012, to the Zoo Box Office and receive one free junior admission with one paid adult admission. You must be 18 years or older to redeem a ticket, one discount per person per visit. Not valid with any other discount or special event.

– Like other cities, one can purchase a Cleveland Plus Pass, which will not only gain you admission to the Cleveland Zoo, but various other Northeast Ohio attractions. Plus Passholders save at least 30% off of general admission ticket prices.

– Local AAA offices and Discount Drug Mart offer tickets for $1 off regular summer admission prices.

One needs to evaluate before heading to your zoo of choice whether it is worth it to purchase individual tickets for the day, or spend a little more for membership, which will start paying itself back over the course of a couple of visits.