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The unique safari lodges at Chester Zoo overlook the giraffe enclosure however price a reasonably penny, particularly throughout peak summer time holidays – as Dianne Bourne says the zoo has ‘some neck’
The safari lodge worth is astonishing(Image: Chester Zoo)
A jaw-dropping £1,600 for one night in a new safari lodge at Chester Zoo? It’s enough to make any parent cry – no matter how deep their pockets are.
With school holidays already hiking up prices across the board, Chester Zoo’s new “Reserve” lodges have taken things to another level, leaving families furious over the astonishing prices.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow, writes Manchester Evening News’ Dianne Bourne, especially when you consider the rooms were snapped up in hours, making what was meant to be a special treat feel like a luxury only the rich can afford…
It’s turn into a household custom to guide just a little journey away on the finish of the college summer time holidays for my eldest son’s birthday. In earlier years we have saved as much as spend an evening at Legoland in Windsor, or his favorite place because of its Gruffalo trip, Chessington World of Adventures.
The unique rooms overlook a giraffe enclosure(Image: Chester Zoo)
Neither of those theme parks are a cheap break let me tell you, but we’ve budgeted accordingly to head there as a treat in previous years. This year, though, I thought we might get chance of heading a little closer to home, and enjoy the brand new safari lodges at Chester Zoo that open in August.
Bookings went live last week, and as my two sons’ primary school doesn’t go back until September 3 (due to inset days), I thought I could be in for a bargain here with a Monday night stay over September 1 – 2. Well, fat chance of that.
Imagine my eyes once I checked the dates for Monday, September 1 and located the CHEAPEST AVAILABLE ROOM was priced at a jaw-dropping £1620.88 for a household room. I questioned if I might discover it cheaper by going earlier in August, however the lowest worth to remain I might discover was in a single day on Friday August 29 at £1,181.72 – to remain in a lakeside lodge.
Angry dad and mom commented, ‘does the giraffe include that worth?'(Image: Chester Zoo)
If we went on the Saturday night (August 30) that same room shoots up to a simply jaw-dropping £2,027.36. For ONE NIGHT. And not even with a giraffe outside.
There were no giraffe view rooms available at all when I was looking, just a day after bookings first opened. I later discovered that’s because ALL the giraffe rooms were swiftly booked out within hours of them going on sale last week, such was the buzz around them, even though they were priced at around £1,300.
Not unsurprisingly, when the bookings first went live, families were left staggered by the prices for these rooms with choice comments including “Do you get a giraffe with that?” and “They’ve received some neck”.
Now everyone knows that Chester Zoo is a conservation charity, and that the cash they make from these new rooms at The Reserve will go in direction of that important work and so I do not begrudge them earning profits whereas the hay shines.
The rooms had been priced at round £1,300 once they had been first made out there(Image: Chester Zoo)
But it’s the sheer, eye-watering amount they’ve priced them at that has left me, and plenty of others, with just a little bit of a bitter taste in the mouth.
Yet still they’ve almost all sold out these new rooms across 2025 which really goes to show just what a wealth divide there is opening up in this country.
Because I’m afraid, even after saving up, I could not justify spending £1,600 on a one night stay down the road in Chester. I’d have to be winning the Lottery for that to make financial sense.
And I imply it involves one thing when staying at Center Parcs, the favored forest resorts, through the college holidays works out cheaper than a keep in a kind of coveted lodges. Indeed, the one upside of this entire expertise has been discovering that Center Parcs is not fairly so unaffordable as I’d at all times thought.
Seven nights in Centre Parcs was cheaper than the unique lodge(Image: Chester Zoo)
For when I went to check the same dates, for August/September, I nearly fell over when I saw I could actually get SEVEN NIGHTS at Center Parcs Whinfell Forest for a family of four for £1,3788 – less than the price of that one night at Chester.
Naturally, I don’t want to spend that much either on a holiday, but I did find that if I opted for a three night stay there it would come in at a rather less eye-watering £749.
What has most peeved me about the whole Chester Zoo saga is the fact it brings into sharp focus yet again the massive financial penalty parents are all slapped with once their kids get to school age. The huge rise in prices for hotels both at home and abroad during school holidays seems to just be getting worse and worse.
I keep in mind final yr pricing up how a lot it will price to take my youngsters on their first journey someplace pretty and sunny overseas. And then swiftly closing my laptop computer when it was wanting like a MINIMUM of £7,000 to fly off to Greece in August. The identical resort was half that worth if we went throughout term-time as an alternative.
The zoo mentioned the rooms can be found for £375 throughout throughout college time period time(Image: Chester Zoo)
Chester Zoo bosses have pointed out that their new Reserve lodges will be available from £375 a night “off peak” – so yep that’s during school term times and mid-week stays when families can’t reasonably stay over.
So instead, any kids hoping to enjoy this exciting new experience will have to hope their parents have pockets deep enough to book them in for a stay instead.
Maybe I should just get myself back down to Chessington for my son’s birthday again this year. As anyone has stayed there will know, half of the hotel rooms there have a “free” view of the giraffes (as well as zebras and rhinos) in their Wanyama Reserve.
I mean, I might need to take my binoculars to see them as they stroll across the reserve, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than stumping up £1300 for the honour at Chester. For a room for a one night’s stay at Chessington for a family of four on September 1? £1000 less than Chester – at £315.
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