The London Zoo welcomes adults and families as it sets out to celebrate Christmas with its very own Christmas sleepover.
The Zoo, located in Regents Park, is sending off seasons greetings as it is set to open its doors to the London Zoo Lodges’ Festive experience, which is a limited series of festive sleepovers taking place this December.
The VIP overnight experience will include after-hours tours of the conservation zoo and its incredible creatures along with a delicious two-course meal, mulled wine, gingerbread, hot chocolate, marshmallow-roasting along with other festivities.
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) overnight experience coordinator Josh Pope said: “This experience is a commemoration of our conservation work and also people and nature living side by side and how both have to coexist to live side by side, which we really want to highlight in this experience.”
According to Pope, this experience is the only true safari experience that London can offer without leaving the city.
Ticket-holders are to check into their very own Christmas themed lodge in the heart of London Zoo, before heading out on their first animal adventure exclusively at the Land of the Lions, where guests will find out more about the Asiatic lions at the zoo, Bhanu and Arya.
Guests will be able to make Christmas presents for the animals and enjoy toasting marshmallows on the fire pit,and then head towards some of the Zoo’s nocturnal animals as it gets darker
For the overnight stay, guests will be sleeping in the lodges alongside the lions.
Many may have worries about sleeping alongside apex-predators such as Lions, but the Pope has also assured: “The most danger you are going to get is that the lions will be to guests of them getting woken up early.
“Guests may get woken up by the roars of our lions in the morning as they are corpuscular, where they roar when the sun rises and the sun sets.”
Before the zoo opens for the day, guests will deliver their presents to the animals on an exclusive morning tour, before discovering what some of London Zoo’s other 15,000 residents might be getting for Christmas.
After the start of the day, the guests can give their presents to the animals on their morning tour and then they can spend the rest of their day exploring the daytime festivities at the Magic of Christmas at London Zoo or hop over to Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire to see elephants, rhinos and more
This experience also includes two full days zoo entry to both ZSL conservation zoos.
The London Zoo has also been hosting their Magic of Christmas event.
Families and guests taking part in the Zoo’s Christmas sleepover are in turn supporting ZSL’s vital conservation work around the world, including projects like the Partula snail reintroduction programme and helping the international wildlife charity to conserve species such as Angelsharks, Mongolian camels and Sumatran tigers.
Pope said: “We want everyone who is attending to understand that just through attending, they are helping to conserve so we would hope that people take away that feeling of what they are doing themselves just by attending the experience.
“We want people to be inspired and we want the next generation of conservationists, educators, scientists to come at a young age and feel that connection and hopefully take that with them for their whole lives.
“Whether they become scientists or bankers in the end, hopefully they still respect nature the same way.”
ZSL has also sent vets, educators, conservationists and many more out to Gujarat in India where the Asiatic Lions are from.
The London Zoo Lodges’ Festive Experience has both family nights and adult-only nights available and is taking place at the London Zoo from 18 December to 30 December..
Adult only nights are on:
18, 20 and 30 December
Family Friendly nights are on:
21, 22, 23, 27, 28 and 29 December
Prices start at £455.00, with the charge of each additional child being £65.00
Tickets for the London Zoo Lodges’ Festive Experience are available to book here .
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