Chester Zoo has been running their festive Christmas event for many years now and this year was the first time I have attended and seen it for myself.
The Lanterns and Light at Chester Zoo is a walkthrough experience through the zoo as numerous lights and lanterns (who’d have thought) light your path.
This little trail through the zoo is a wonderfully festive walkthrough experience and with the sheer scale of Chester Zoo you almost get lost immediately as my sense of direction disappeared and other than walking past the elephant enclosure by the entrance I didn’t come across any other animal enclosure that I could see or recognise whatsoever.
It’s a beautifully immersive journey through the zoo and the organisers have clearly put a lot of thought into the layout with a whole variety of lights guiding your path.
What stood out for me were staff members dressed in their really own animal style lanterns interacting with the guests along their journey and a rather beautiful walk through a fire-lit Christmas tree forest, that part was particularly magical.
I certainly wished the atmosphere within that particular section was mimicked around the rest of the event as some bits whilst magical just didn’t really work (the neon birds area looked more strip club than magical zoo encounter).
Along your path you encounter a few bars and there’s even a half-way point experience to toast some Marshmallows and to grab a hot chocolate. My partner is veggie and vegan marshmallows are on offer but they’re tiny compared to the HUGE marshmallows that aren’t vegan and they both cost the same whopping price of £7.50, so my heart goes out to all the veggies and vegans out there as you get even more ripped off on that front.
That moan aside, they were rather tasty regardless!
What I certainly appreciated about the event was how it wasn’t too overcrowded so you could take everything in and this certainly helps with the scale that Chester Zoo has, the craziest thing is the trail itself doesn’t even take up a large space within the zoo as a whole, I’d have loved for them to stretch it out a little longer as we managed to complete the walk in around 50 minutes.
We did however enjoy it that much that when we got to the end we went back around again so that says all you need to know about how good it is and for £19 (prices vary depending on date and time) I didn’t think it was too bad of a cost whatsoever.
They were also missing a trick with Santa’s grotto as along your journey you come across the big man himself. It’s a lovely little grotto scene as parents and children stood behind a wooden fence as Santa interacted with the groups that passed by.
This is certainly something they could have turned into a photo-opportunity with Santa. A meet-and-greet wouldn’t have worked as queues would have been horrendous but maybe a quick photo (similar to ones a bit further up the path that you can pay for at the end) would have been nice.
I’d highly recommend taking your camera / phone with you to this event as there are photo-ops aplenty. There’s lots of well-lit spaces to snap that magical photo with your family or loved one or in our case, a funny video walking through dangling balls of light lighting our path.
Now take a look at the photo below and imagine walking through something like this for at least 10-15 minutes, I’d love for them to extend this particular element of the walkthrough experience with a whole variety of dangling lights to walkthrough, it’s one of the most immersive lighting features within the experience, we loved it.
Staff were friendly and helpful around this wonderfully curated winter event and it’s certainly fun for all the family this Christmas but it also made me want to revisit the zoo itself, I haven’t been for a while so it would be great to go back when the weather is a little warmer and enjoy everything that Chester Zoo has to offer.
If you’re looking for something festive, immersive and a little bit magical then I highly recommend checking it out but I’d just avoid the rather pricey food UNLESS all of that money goes to the animals (we didn’t ask) in which case SPEND SPEND SPEND!
