When you read these words, I am in Uruguay enjoying, hopefully, summer of the southern hemisphere. Before you read about my South American travel, I hope you can appreciate learning about something not too many people know about – staying overnight in the London Zoo! You can participate as long as you are over 5 years old – that’s for a family night. There are also adult nights for 14+, which basically means that there are no kids activities planned, the rest of your visit is the same. At the moment, the experience is shut down for winter, but soon it will reopen, and I can guarantee you – it is great and totally worth of a rather high price!
The cost includes staying overnight in one of the lodges which are located right next to the Asiatic lions enclosure in the Land of the Lions habitat based on Gujarati area of India where these felines live. The standard room accommodates 2 adults on a very comfortable double bed and an additional adult or up to 2 children on a pull-out sofa bed. The rooms are all en-suite with complimentary toiletries and tea making facilities, it’s England after all. Additionally, all the guests receive discount on animal experiences, gift shop and restaurants (though two meals – scrumptious dinner and buffet breakfast are included). The lodges are themed to animals living around the lions, but for our pre-Christmas stay, it was changed to a Christmas reindeer theme, our was Prancer, during the rest of the year Parakeet.
Your stay allows, naturally, to visit the ZOO on the days of your experience, so feel free to come as early as 10am. That’s what we did. It was a nice December day, sunny enough to enjoy animals being active in their habitats. We spent few hours walking around, that’s when our discounts were useful, and at 4pm we met our guides. Upon arrival we were greeted with a complimentary drink, there was also a small bonfire with hot cocoa, marshmallows and crackers. There was a quick health and safety talk, and we were given the keys to our lodges. The rooms were very cozy, by which I do not necessarily mean tiny. They were not big, but definitely big enough with soft linen, bedside table, extra heater and a Wi-Fi access.
The evening started with a sunset tour of London ZOO followed by a delicious dinner and another tour – this time a special private after-dark torchlight tour during which we could learn about behind the scenes work of the zookeepers. And we also made some enrichment toys for mysterious animals for the next day. I must admit, it was a special, magical almost, feeling to walk around the animal enclosures when no one else was there but us.
After a night filled with lion’s roaring (which was something not very stressful, but definitely strange enough, the lion slept 20 metres/60 feet from our lodge, basically) and an early breakfast, still before the ZOO was open for visitors, we had another walk around the perimeter and we finally gave the toys we made a night before to mongooses, meerkats and armadillos. Then we had the whole day to enjoy the place again, this time already on our own.
We live in London, only few tube stations away, so we didn’t have any luggage apart from our small backpacks, but there are storage facilities available in case you do not want to keep it with you all the time.
