Gan-Garoo Australian Park

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Kids will love this delightful little corner of Australia, where – amid Aussie vegetation – they can pet and feed friendly, free-range kangaroos. Another hit: in the aviary (open for 20 or 30 minutes every hour or two) visitors can feed apple slivers to colourful lorikeets and cockatiels. Ever resourceful, the birds have developed a habit of hopping onto people's shirts and licking their neck sweat for its salt content.

Opened in 1996, this fully accredited zoo, run by Kibbutz Nir David, is also home to cassowaries, emus and flying foxes. Situated 6.5km west of Beit She'an, next to the entrance to Sachne (Gan HaShlosha) National Park.

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