It’d only been a few weeks since our first visit to Chester Zoo but we thought we’d pop back and see it all done up for Halloween before the event finishes. It’s a perk of living close by and being a passholder, you can just nip down for a morning stroll or an afternoon picnic.
Halloween at Chester Zoo
No, they don’t dress the elephants up like Dracula, but my god I wish they did. They do, however, decorate areas of the Zoo and have events on through the day. At the entrance there’s a giant pumpkin photo opp and a map to tell you about all of the Halloween related goings on around the Zoo.
Pumpkin Sculptures
You could follow a pumpkin trail to the old lion enclosure area to find the pumpkin sculptures. Several giant models with wire frames, rammed with pumpkins filled the area, along with hay bales, cobwebs and more pumpkins scattered around. It looked great.
The models were all animals with some myth and folklore tales to them: cats, snakes, frogs snakes, spiders. The octopus was particularly good with a giant pumpkin body and tentacles filled with hundreds of pumpkins too! The boards around were giving you info on the legends behind the creatures, such as the Kraken, toads in witchcraft, Medusa’s snake hair and more…
Spooky Stories
Over near June’s Food Court, was a tent with a few activities inside. The first of which was spooky stories. At certain times through the day, you could pull up a hay bale and listen as some of the Zoo Rangers entertained you with a spooky story around the campfire.
Paint a Pumpkin
In the same tent, you could also take part in Pumpkin Painting. Starting at £10 for one pumpkin, it seemed a bit pricey for what it was, but its there if it interests you. There were some really good ones already done on display with characters like Ursula from the little Mermaid, Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Miguel from Coco, along with zombies, fun ghosts and more.
Halloween Food Treats
In the same area there were also a few new food vans. One selling sweet treats and drinks – I did try the Pumpkin Spice Latte, but it was incredibly sweet and far too floral flavoured for my tastes.
There was a Mac and Cheese stall too, so we had to give that a go. There were 4 options available, and we tried the Cosy Classic – a standard Mac with crispy onions and gherkins (£8.95) and the Blue Mac, Mac and Cheese topped with cranberry sauce and Stilton cheese (£10.95). Both options were nice, just a little pricey for a small pot.
They also had a Crepes and Mallows van, which had an open fire toasting area opposite. Evan loves a toasted marshmallow so we gave it a go. £2.80 for just one big marshmallow on a stick. Glad I don’t like marshmallows.
And over in Heart of Africa, we finally tried the Mango and Passion Fruit lemonade. It’s a very strong, tart flavour! And Boba is weird. Not sure I’m a fan of that weirdness in my drink, it was like sucking up frogspawn with a straw!
What About The Animals?
Of course we took the time to see some of the animals too. We had another brief wander around Heart of Africa which looks great. There weren’t too many creatures out though, but it was cold. We did see the flamingos and porcupines and we headed into the indoor “Hidden Savannah” section where the Land Rover was open so you could get in amongst the locusts which was cool. We also headed up in to the Realm of the Red Ape exhibit to see some more lizards and snakes, and it was eerily quiet in the bat cave too. We could only see a few hanging around whereas they’re usually dive-bombing you every 30 seconds. Maybe they were hibernating. The capybaras weren’t out again, but in a rare treat, the Giant otters were out and in full voice shouting for their dinner! In the years we’ve been coming, we’ve only seen them out a few times.
Just a Brief Visit
That was pretty much it for our day. Halloween is a great time to visit Chester Zoo to see the park decorated and there’s fun activities to keep the kids entertained. Everywhere looked great and it was fairly quiet. But, its hit and miss on whether you’re going to see much because of the weather, but its still a nice day out.
Keep an eye on the Chester Zoo website for all seasonal offerings.
