Tap on at Circular Quay Wharf 4, sit on the port side, and be at Taronga Zoo Wharf twelve minutes later. The F2 is an ordinary Transport for NSW service on the Opal network, which is why it is also the cheapest boat trip on Sydney Harbour that ends at a zoo gate.
Transport for NSW timetable valid from 27 January 2026; PDF downloaded and transcribed on 22 September 2026 Transport for NSW – F2 Taronga Zoo timetable (PDF) · 2026-09-22
Treat this as public transport, not as a cruise, and the whole thing gets simpler. The F2 is a numbered Transport for NSW route run by Sydney Ferries, it is inside the Opal network, and the fare is set by how far you travel rather than by where you are going. The zoo at the far end changes nothing about how you pay.
The sailing itself is twelve minutes — a figure both Transport for NSW's own timetable and Taronga confirm independently. Weekends give you a departure every twenty minutes and every one of them is direct. Weekdays are half-hourly, and the early-morning and evening runs detour through Mosman Bay or Cremorne Point on commuter business, which roughly doubles the journey.
Where this crossing catches people out is the money. Search for it and you will be offered bundles that fold the boat and the zoo gate into one price. They are not the same product and they are not sold by the same organisation: the ferry is $7.35 for an adult on Opal, while a walk-up adult zoo ticket is $57.00. Knowing which of those two numbers you are looking at is most of the battle.
There is no zoo ferry ticket. The F2 is charged like any other Sydney Ferries service, by distance band, and you pay by tapping — an Opal card, a contactless bank card or a phone will all do the same job. Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo Wharf is about 3.3 kilometres of water, comfortably inside the 0—9 km band, so it is the cheapest of the three ferry fares Transport for NSW publishes.
The zoo gate is a separate transaction entirely, sold by Taronga rather than by Transport for NSW. We have listed it below because it dominates the cost of the day, but the two tickets have nothing to do with each other and you do not need to buy them together.
| Adult | $ 7.35 |
| Child or Youth, 4–15 | $ 3.67 |
| Gold Senior or Pensioner (also the daily cap) | $ 2.50 |
| Adult, Monday to Thursday | $ 19.30 |
| Adult, Friday to Sunday and public holidays | $ 9.65 |
| Child or Youth, Monday to Thursday | $ 9.65 |
| Child or Youth, Friday to Sunday and public holidays | $ 4.80 |
| Adult, at the gate | $ 57 |
| Adult, online from | $ 51.30 |
| Concession, at the gate | $ 43 |
| Child 4–15, at the gate | $ 33 |
| Under 4 | Free |
| Family, 2 adults and 2 children, at the gate | $ 162 |
Opal fares as published by Transport for NSW and read on 22 September 2026; zoo admission as published by Taronga the same day Transport for NSW – Opal ferry fares · 2026-09-22
The F2 crosses from Sydney Cove to the Mosman foreshore, leaving the Quay past Bennelong Point and the Opera House. The line on the map is the direct weekend run; on weekday mornings and evenings the boat hooks north into Mosman Bay or west to Cremorne Point first, which is why those sailings take roughly twice as long. Every other boat we have written up on this stretch of water is indexed under New South Wales.
Taronga names Wharf 4 as the F2's berth, and the trains at Circular Quay station put you above it. Treat the number as the usual case rather than a guarantee: Transport for NSW prints a warning on the timetable itself that at Circular Quay the departure or arrival wharf may change at short notice, so read the indicator boards before you commit to a queue.
The wharf sits directly below the zoo on the Mosman shore. From here it is the Lower Zoo Entrance, about three minutes on foot, and during New South Wales school holidays Taronga runs a free shuttle between the wharf and the Main Entrance that is included with a zoo ticket. Bus route 238 from Balmoral Beach also terminates at the zoo and ferry wharf.
Taronga's layout runs downhill from the Main Entrance to the water, so a ferry arrival starts you at the bottom. It is a three-minute walk from the wharf to the Lower Zoo Entrance and the zoo is 28 hectares of hilly ground above it.
Wharf 4 is the normal berth and the one Taronga publishes, but Transport for NSW prints a standing warning that the Circular Quay wharf may change at short notice. Check the indicator boards rather than walking straight to the gate you used last time.
Two adult ferry trips come to $14.70, below the weekday cap of $19.30 but well above the $9.65 that applies on Fridays, weekends and public holidays — so a Saturday family already at the cap travels home for nothing.
Taronga closes at 5pm from September to April and 4.30pm from May to August. The F2 keeps running well past that: 18:57 off the wharf at the weekend, 19:01 on a weekday. There is no rush for the last boat.
Every Sydney ferry and every new wharf on the network is wheelchair accessible, but Transport for NSW warns that at low tide the gangway gradient steepens and assistance may be needed.
The useful way to hold the Opal system in your head on this trip is as a ceiling rather than a price. Whatever you tap during the day — the boat across, the boat back, the tram or the bus that got you to the Quay — an adult's travel stops at $19.30 from Monday to Thursday and at $9.65 from Friday to Sunday and on public holidays. A Gold Senior/Pensioner card stops at $2.50 for the entire day, however many trips are behind it. Now set that ceiling against $57.00 at the zoo turnstile: the transport half of a Taronga day is a rounding error, and the ticket you should be shopping around for is the one the zoo sells. Chaining another mode into the ferry inside an hour also takes $2.00 off an adult fare, which is one more reason not to bring the car.
The alternatives are worth knowing if the harbour is closed or you simply want a different way back. Taronga lists bus route 100 from the Queen Victoria Building, about half an hour and running every ten to twenty minutes, and route 238 from Balmoral Beach, which terminates at the zoo and ferry wharf. Driving is possible but self-defeating: the zoo car park is $24 for the day, free only if you are in and out inside ninety minutes. If it is the harbour itself you came for rather than the animals, the F9 out to Watsons Bay is the longer ride on the same Opal ceiling, and it leaves from a different berth at the same Quay.
Wharf 4. Taronga names it twice on its own travel page. Transport for NSW, though, prints a standing warning on the F2 timetable that the Circular Quay wharf can change at short notice, so read the indicator boards before you join a queue.
On weekends and in the middle of a weekday, yes: 08:52 from the Quay arrives at 09:04. The early weekday sailings go via Mosman Bay and take about 25 minutes, and the evening ones via Cremorne Point take 15, so check which pattern your departure belongs to.
An ordinary Opal card works, and so does a contactless Visa, Mastercard, American Express or linked device — just tap on and tap off. There is no zoo-branded boat ticket to look for. The trip falls in the 0—9 km ferry band, which means $7.35 for an adult and $3.67 for a child or youth aged 4 to 15.
No. Taronga sells its own admission and Transport for NSW sells the boat. A walk-up adult ticket is $57.00 at the gate, from $51.30 online, and a family of two adults and two children is $162.00 at the gate. None of that touches your Opal balance.
By a wide margin, which is why nobody needs to watch the clock here. Taronga closes at 5pm between September and April and 4.30pm between May and August. The final departure from Taronga Zoo Wharf is 19:01 on a weekday and 18:57 at the weekend.
About three minutes uphill to the Lower Zoo Entrance. During New South Wales school holidays Taronga runs a free shuttle between the ferry wharf and the Main Entrance, included with your zoo ticket and able to carry up to four wheelchairs.
A Gold Senior/Pensioner Opal card charges $2.50 and that is the whole day's travel, ferry included, however many trips you make. The ordinary Opal concession ferry fare is a separate and lower thing again, but it is not on this page: its table would not load on the day we checked, and a guessed fare is worse than none.
By bus, and there are two of them. Route 100 runs from the Queen Victoria Building in the city, takes about 30 minutes and comes every 10 to 20 minutes; route 238 comes from Balmoral Beach and stops at the zoo and ferry wharf.