Troubadourable folk buddies Simon and Garfunkel once sang that "it's all happening at the zoo," before retiring from music to live out their days serenely basking in the reptile habitat. Get happening with today's Groupon: for $5, you get one general-admission ticket to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia (up to an $11.75 value).

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden garnered a best-day-trip award from Charlotte magazine in 2009 for its copious collection of exotic and endangered animals that captures the majesty and variety of the wild. Explorers of all ages journey through nine locales that artfully re-create natural habitats, encountering ring-tailed lemurs, slender-tailed meerkats, and tale-spinning birds that sing of their raucous college days. When it's time to smell the roses, adventurers may cool their heels in one of five botanical gardens, each representative of a different plant group. Budding zoologists and their families may engage in animal demonstrations and discover the keys to keeping rattlesnakes or learn that giraffes, unlike their animal-cookie cousins, love being fed.

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden's grounds are rich with historic, Civil War-era landmarks, including the remains of the State Road Bridge and the Saluda River Factory ruins. The zoo implements green practices every day and participates in many animal conservation programs, working to improve the world of multi-genus residents and visitors alike.

Reviews

Charlotte magazine named the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden a 2009 Editors' Best of the Best Award: Family & Kids for Best Day Trip and TripAdvisors give it an average of 4.5 owl eyes. Insider Pagers give it an average of four stars and more than 25,800 Facebookers are fans.

• You could spend hours here on your own, observing the animals in the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden's carefully re-created natural habitats, but don't miss the scheduled daily events – Charlotte magazine
• What a great zoo, combined with wonderful gardens. Very user friendly. – Sunroom, TripAdvisor