Zoos, Museums, and Botanical Gardens -- What Are Your Favorites?

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden is a reasonable size, and it's beautiful. They put together the botanical displays and the animal habitats, making for some beautiful scenes. I also like the very small Santa Barbara Zoo because of similar reasons - great plants, manageable size so you can enjoy the whole space in one day.
The Newport Aquarium in Kentucky is stunning. But it is set up like a maze so I much prefer the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Aquarium of the Pacific.

My favorite garden is Versailles. Close second is Giverny. Kew is neat, as is the one in Brussles where they have their herbarium. In California, my favorites are The Huntington, followed by Descanso Gardens. I still need to make a trip to Longwood and MoBot. I could pilgrimage across the US for years just enjoying all the gardens...

 

We love museums. It's one of the things we do when we travel. Personal favorites are the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum in Chicago, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the High Desert Museum in Central Oregon, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian.

The Oregon Zoo is very small, to the point that you could fit the Oregon Zoo in just one section of the Toronto Zoo, but it is still pleasant to visit, though I prefer the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The savannah exhibit there has a memorial to Jimi Hendrix. The Toronto Zoo is pretty awesome and I really enjoyed visiting it last year. I've also done the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago because it was free; what was cool about that zoo was seeing the old-fashioned Cat House with a panther in a cardboard box. The other neat thing there was the adjacent gardens with the giant conservatory.
Lincoln Park Conservatory | Chicago Park District


In terms of gardens, my long-time favorite is the International Rose Test Garden here in Portland. It is adjacent to the Japanese Garden, which is also very awesome. Portland Japanese Garden The Rose Test Garden has a wonderful view of downtown with Mt. Hood in the distance. I've got lots more gardens to see, though. @genuinemommy, here's a garden I think you would enjoy: Shore Acres State Park - Friends of Shore Acres, Inc. It's set in a state park on the Oregon Coast. I visited as a kid; it's a very unique setting for a garden.

I also really love aquariums. We go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium once a year or so, usually when there's a temporary exhibit we wish to see. Near the Oregon Coast Aquarium is the Mark O. Hatfield Marine Science Center, which is free. They have a touch tank that is tons of fun. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is really cool.

 

Several of my favorites have been mentioned already.

The National Zoo in DC is maybe my favorite. The outdoor exhibits open at 6am and we were fortunate enough to get there very early one morning. We got to see all of the animals while they were active, including the panda, with almost no other people around. It was awesome.

The gardens at Versailles were very impressive, even for a non-botanically inclined person like me. .

Orsay was great. I really loved The Louvre, as it was an awesome combination of history (which I like most) and art.

The Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland is a great place for music fans.

The St. Louis Zoo is another very good zoo IMO. I believe it is free as well.

Shedd's Aquarium is a favorite, especially the penguin exhibits and various non-fish things they have in the Oceanarium area.

Maybe the most impactful museum ever though was the Holocaust Museum in DC. A sobering place to visit, but something I'd recommend any adult experiencing.

 

That is a beautiful museum. It presents the art beautifully, and is architecturally beautiful as well.

 

I was talking with my husband yesterday about photography, and it made me remember one of my favorite museums/gardens: The George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. I believe a number of other TFPers can testify as to how cool it is. It was interesting to see the history of photography in such a remarkable setting, and the gardens around the house are gorgeous. I do have to thank @paddyjoe for taking us there. It was an amazing experience. As a lover of history, it was very cool to see how the introduction of the Brownie changed photography.

 

It's kind of out of the way since it's not on the coast in in a big city, but Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo was picked by Trip Advisor as the #1 Zoo in the country.
Best Zoos - the United States - TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards
I don't know about that, but when I went last winter it's amazing to walk out of a blustery Nebraska parking lot into a desert and a rain forest. Only about a mile off of Interstate 80. I think I've been there three times, and they always want to close before I'm ready to leave.

Other places, some well off of the beaten path, that I've visited at least once, and would return to:
The Huntington Library in Pasadena, and the gardens around it.

The FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, in Mill Run, PA

The Baseball Museum in Cooperstown, NY and the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City.

California Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

The Buffalo Bill Center in Cody, Wyoming. Great Western art, and a huge firearms collection.

National Music Museum. Probably the best collection of musical instruments in the world, in Vermillion SD.

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry

 

Yes! That's a great train museum.

My other favorite train museum: Western Pacific Railroad Museum - Portola, California The Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA is small, but they have a program that allows visitors to learn to drive a switch engine. It's incredibly fun!