Who are we kidding? A safari in Africa isn’t in the cards this year. Neither is a trip to an exotic island where your gang can snorkel with every variety of tropical fish.

So, do the next best thing. Take the kids to a zoo or aquarium –or maybe 52 of them. That’s what the Taviano family did. Traveling from their Columbus, Ohio home, they visited 52 zoos in 52 weeks (52zoos.com). “I dream of traveling the world,” wrote Marla Taviano, “but with three young kids and not a lot of money.... So I thought why not see some of the animals that are native to these foreign lands I want to visit. The animals are the real deal!”

It helps to have the kids read up on the animals before you go, she suggests, as long as it’s fun and doesn’t turn into something “completely boring and educational!” You’ll find plenty of fun facts at zoo and aquarium Web sites too (link from

www.aza.org

–the Website for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums), as well as National Geographic Kids (

www.kids.nationalgeographic.com

). Wherever you live –or wherever you are visiting –off season is not a bad time to visit zoos and aquariums because crowds are down and animals are more active due to cooler temperatures, says Allen Nyhuis, co-author of “America’s Best Zoos,” a family travel guide to the country’s best zoos (

www.americasbestzoos.com

). Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium (

www.sheddaquarium.org

) has a a new Fantasea exhibit (have you ever seen penguins dance?) with a Polar Play Zone for young children. The Philadelphia Zoo (

www.phillyzoo.org

) –the nation’s first –offers a new McNeil Avian Center with more than 100 birds from around the world. (Ever see a rhinoceros hornbill?) There’s also the chance to get up close and personal with the critters from the region you are visiting. Follow Otis the oriole’s first migration south at the Philadelphia Zoo or track the movements of the giant Pacific Octopus and San Francisco Bay sharks at San Francisco’s Aquarium of the Bay (

www.AquariumoftheBay.org

). At the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center at Boston’s New England Aquarium (

www.neaq.org

), northern fur seals are the draw. See animals that were once indigenous to Colorado at Colorado Spring’s Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (

www.cmzoo.org

), the only mountain zoo in the country; visit those who call the desert home at the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson (

www.desertmuseum.org

), or check out endangered California creatures (bald eagles, desert tortoises, California condors, among them) at the California Trails exhibit at the Santa Barbara Zoo (

www.sbzoo.org

). Did you know black-footed ferrets are the most endangered animals in the country? Check them out at the ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park in Hershey, Pa., (

www.zooamerica.com

). If you are a member of your local zoo or aquarium, you may be able to get in free elsewhere around the country, says Steve Feldman, a spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. And there are still 10 free zoos around the country, including the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago (

www.lpzoo.org

), the Saint Louis Zoo (

www.stlzoo.org

) and, of course, the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D. C., (nationalzoo. si.edu) where the giant pandas are always a favorite. Check for off-season discounts, and there’s a lot to be said about smaller (and cheaper) zoos, especially with younger children as I recently learned firsthand with a young cousin at the compact Central Park Zoo in New York (

www.centralparkzoo.org

). She loved the always-on-view penguins, the polar bears and sea lions and especially the Tisch Children’s Zoo where she could climb on the “spider web” play structure and jump across the “lily pads.” She skipped feeding the farm animals.

After all, there’s just so much talking you can do to the animals.