Kebun Binatang Surabaya (Surabaya Zoo)

Three kilometres south of the main train station is Surabaya Zoo, better known as Kebun Binatang Surabaya, a popular Surabaya attraction.

The zoo is home to a diverse range of animals including many types of primates, deer and birds -- there are even a few tigers on show. The animals are housed in enclosures that seem antiquated by Western standards and indeed in March 2012 the zoo hit the headlines when a string of deaths among its animals occurred, including a giraffe, Sumatran tiger, an African lion, a wallaby, a Komodo dragon, a babirusa cub, a Bawean deer, a crocodile and several birds in the space of just a few weeks.

There were reports of a new company being set up to manage the publicly-run facility; it's difficult to know whether to advise going in order to have people see and spread word of what's going on there or not. We'll let you make the call on this one.

It's a bustling place on weekends, but the crowds are never so large that it makes the experience unpleasant. Most visitors will spend less than an hour here allowing it to be bundled up with other activities such as the Submarine and Old City during a day trip.

Any Bungurasih bound bus or angkot will stop here and cost 3,000 rupiah from the centre of town.