Dongtan indoor zoo: safe glass-panel feeding at Artis Theme Park

For a weekend outing with my animal-loving daughter, we headed to Artis Theme Park, an indoor zoo in Dongtan, Hwaseong. There's a feeding experience and all sorts of animals, so we had a really fun time haha 😊

Artis Theme Park prices, location and parking

Admission is free for under 18 months, ₩18,900 for the child special ticket (24 months to elementary school), and ₩16,900 for the adult special ticket (middle school and up). The unlimited free pass (6-month VIP membership) is ₩59,000, and a 10-ticket set (adult/child common) is ₩159,000.

• Free under 18 months
• Child special ticket (24 months–elementary) ₩18,900
• Adult special ticket (middle school and up) ₩16,900
• Unlimited free pass (6-month VIP membership) ₩59,000
• 10-ticket set (adult/child common) ₩159,000

If you're planning to visit multiple times, the unlimited pass or the 10-ticket set could be a good choice 👍

🔔 Discount tip — I noticed discounted tickets on Kidsnote. I'd recommend buying your admission ticket through the Kidsnote store!

It's located in Shinyou Medi Plaza near Dongtan Station. There's a department store nearby and plenty of restaurants around, so it's a great spot for animal encounters with kids and a meal afterward on the weekend. I was wondering which building Shinyou Medi Plaza was, but the 9th floor had 'Artis Theme Park' written in big letters, so it was easy to find 😊

You can use the Shinyou Medi Plaza building parking lot, and parking is free for the first 3 hours~

Ticket booth check-in and the stroller rule at Artis Theme Park

At the Artis Theme Park ticket booth, I bought admission tickets and also the feeding experience package. You wait until your number is called. While waiting, we wrote our names on the name tags they hand out 😊 If you write your name on the tag, the feeding staff can call your child by name — nice touch, right?

There was a nursing room near the entrance too. As you'd expect from a theme park designed for kids, the amenities were well set up.

🔔 Oh! You need to leave your stroller behind! I'd recommend visiting with a child who can walk, rather than an infant who can't, after around age one.

Making an animal lunchbox: where the feeding starts

After checking in at the ticket booth and getting called, you enter. The first thing you do inside is make a lunchbox for the animal friends.

Each station shows which animal the snack is for and how many pieces you need. Making the lunchbox together with my daughter, and letting her feed the animals with the lunchbox she made herself, felt like a really good experience for her 👍

Feeding basket in hand — off we go!

We arrived at the first experience zone. This area had various insects and reptile friends. You could do hands-on encounters and there was also a sand play area.

Friends listed on the green sign can be freely handled for hands-on encounters. But... I didn't have the courage to catch a cricket.

Instead, staff caught a caterpillar and showed it to us. It was my daughter's first time touching a caterpillar directly, and she was so amazed by it!

Don't forget the stamp tour

There are stamp stations scattered throughout Artis Theme Park's experience areas — collect them all and you get a gift at the ticket booth!

And the gift is... a cute animal badge! My daughter, who loves rabbits above all else, picked the rabbit without a moment's hesitation haha

Feeding order at Artis Theme Park, from fish to the mongoose

Each experience zone clearly shows which lunchbox number goes to which animal. First up, we fed the fish 😊

She's grown a bit, so she was really good at feeding now.

We gave lunchbox item No. 6, mealworms, to the super cute mongoose! There wasn't separate turtle food though...

Can you buy extra animal feed?

Turtle food, which isn't included in the feeding package, can be bought separately from the tablets placed around the venue.

They sell food for other animals in various spots too, so it was nice that you could buy extra to do more feeding for whichever animal your child loved.

Small holes in the glass: why kids can feed guinea pigs alone

My daughter's favorite was feeding the guinea pigs. Actually, feeding the rabbits in the same space was her true favorite, but the rabbits were fast asleep and didn't eat much. Still, the guinea pigs have big appetites and ate well, so she was happy. The enclosure is glass so kids can see well, with a small hole just big enough for a carrot stick — a structure that felt safe and good for kids to experience on their own 👍

Next we moved on to feeding the turtles. This area also had a tank set at kid height, which was great 😊

The doctor fish experience is always fun.

Every zone requiring hands-on contact had a hand-washing station, which was really convenient.

Otters, freshwater stingrays and armadillos up close

The main event at Artis Theme Park in Dongtan — the otter feeding experience (₩5,000 extra). The otter gives your child a stone as a gift, and your child gives food back in return. Isn't that just too cute~?

There are also freshwater stingrays, which live in fresh water instead of the sea! If you show the ray feeding coupon during experience hours, you can feed the rays too.

Toss in a loach and they gobble it right up. So fascinating 😮

You can also buy mealworms to feed the armadillo. The food is served with a ladle, and since it's also separated by glass, my daughter could watch and experience it safely, which was great.

And with what was left in the animal lunchbox, we fed the hamsters and the budgies too 😚

Seals and pelicans at Artis Theme Park too

At the very end, a seal came out and it was so surprising! And a pelican too! Even though it's an indoor zoo, the animals were really diverse! We timed our visit around their 2 o'clock feeding time and watched before heading out.

Café, coloring area and jungle gym for a break

Past the last zone, the crab and crayfish experience area,

you reach a coloring area. You can scan the animals you color and view them on a screen too.

And then the last play space — a small but great jungle gym for kids to play on.

Right next to it there were table seats, so parents could rest while the kids burned off the last of their energy before we left. Plus, as an event promotion, adult drinks were free! We had free coffee and rested before heading out!

Verdict: one of the best indoor zoos near Dongtan

Since my daughter loves animals, we've been to quite a few indoor zoos, but Artis Theme Park had such a variety of feeding experiences and was so good for kids to try hands-on that it really stood out as one of our favorites. And it's so close, right in Dongtan! We'll definitely be coming back on weekends.