Has anyone been to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park?

Haven't been in a very long time, so don't want to be too specific. But we loved the wild animal park! You can take the tram all around the outside of the park and see a lot, as well as do a ton of walking into various areas/animals. Never did an actual "safari" though, but from the looks from the tram you actually go into some of the areas for much more up close and personal. If cost wasn't too high I would probably do now with older kids. For scenic drive, I think you could come down the coast on highway 1 before heading inland, that wouldn't be a very fast option. I recall driving through Temucula and the surrounding wine areas to be scenic more inland.

We went. It was a lot of walking. Lots to see for free, but if you have an animal lover, the safaris or special tours are so worth it. We did the tiger tour/safari and it was amazing!!

A lot of the Safari Park is set up like a zoo that you walk through and that is included in the base ticket along with animal encounters, shows and the African Tram. They will make photo stops throughout the drive (but you don't get out of the tram), so if you want to get closer you might want to consider one of the other safaris. We always head to the tram first because the lines build through the day.

You do need to plan a bit if you want to see certain animals and be in the right area at the right time for the animal encounters and shows.

Coming from Anaheim the drive is going to be mostly through surburban sprawl on the 5 and 78. Once you leave the 78 the drive is more scenic for the last few miles to the park. The drive on the 5 will take you through Camp Pendleton which is right along the coast and with no development. 

I do think the trip is worth it, especially with your DD interested in animal conservation.

Isn't that cup like $13? For that price and drinking water you might be better off buying the regular plastic cup which is in the $5-6 range and asking or paying for refills which are 99 cents. They might give you the water for free. No handle, but that cup, while convenient was not worth $13 to me unless I wanted to drink more than 6 or 7 sodas. I do have one from Disneyland, sea world and Legoland, but the zoo lets you bring back the cheaper cup for refills even on another day so unless you need a handle, you can refill the cheaper cup. Disneyland does not do free refills but we wanted the equivalent of two slushies and it was the same price as two and they let us have another cup so the kids could share, and I wanted the screw cap, sea world and Legoland also do cheap refills with the handle cup. Man I never realized how much I knew about refillable cups, ha!

For part of the drive on the 5 you are right on the coast. Very pretty!

Like others have rehersal said lots of walking and Hot. Its of fun too.

You can take the 5 South to Lomas Santa Fe and come up Del Dios Highway to Escondido.  It's a nice drive and you avoid the 78 freeway, which is awful!