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Press trip.
Visiting The Eden Project has been a bucket list item for me for years. As a green minded person, it was always on top of my list to visit. I was so happy when they invited me for a visit and we managed to spend a day there when in Cornwall during last autumn half term with the kids. At first I was worried that my children won’t find it interesting enough because they are too little, but it. was not the case at all.
Cornwall is one of our favourite places in the UK. The nature, the people who live there – it’s such a lovely place. We even went glamping in an autism friendly eco-retreat!
Visiting The Eden Project is for everyone. Even at 4 and 6, my children had lots of fun and they also learned lots of things during our visit. I’d say that autumn is a wonderful time to go. All the trees are super colourful and we were lucky to get a sunny few hours. It was just glorious. There’s a lot to see and do outside as well and we had lots of fun spotting Halloween decoration and lots of lots of pumpkins – but even if it rains, the main attractions, the 2 biomes are of course covered. (So as the food court.)
About Eden Project
The Eden Project is a charity. It’s aim is to educate people about the living nature, connect us with each other and the living world and explore how we can work towards a better future. The building started in a huge clay pit in 1998, after the idea was born in 1995. The full site opened on 17 March 2001. It’s home to two biomes, planted landscapes, including vegetable gardens, and sculptures.
The Rainforest Biome
This was our favourite of the two biomes no doubt. Maybe because it’s so exotic. Or as my son said “this must be the place where Paddington has come from in darkest Peru.” It is used for tropical plants, such as fruiting banana plants, coffee, rubber and more and is kept at a tropical temperature and moisture level.
The Tropical Biome is the largest indoor rainforest in the world, with over 1000 plant varieties and it’s warm and humid inside of course. you can experience the Tropical Islands, Southeast Asia, West Africa and Tropical South America in one biome. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s so big and detailed – so much to learn.
Lots of beautiful plants to see, African totem sculptures and more.
We took a stunning tree top walk along Rope Bridge as part of the Canopy Walk. We learned about how cacao and bananas are cultured and even about panela (whole cane sugar).
The Biome offers lots of educational displays: why and how climate change is happening, why rainforest fires are occurring and even about the problem of palm oil, which explores how the most widely consumed oil in the world can be produced more sustainably.
And of course the little roul-roul partridges and Sulawesi white-eye birds walking around everywhere – do not feed them, but they are super friendly and used to visitors. The kids loved them.
The Mediterranean Biome
We explored the Mediterranean climate (we all love so much) in the biome. This biome too has over 1000 plants, an indoor “al fresco” restaurant (which we did not try because we’ve already had food in the food court, but good to know for the future, it was so inviting!) and landscapes of the Mediterranean, South Africa, California and Western Australia. It’s like a mini paradise – can we move in please?
I absolutely adored the Bacchanalian sculptures revelling in the vineyard. They were my absolute favourite art piece in The Eden Project. I could have marvelled them for hours. Especially as at this time of the year the vine leaves change colour and it was just mesmerising.
There’s a lot of favourites we listed in the Mediterranean Biome: discovering citrons, cork trees, aloe veras and lots of flowers.
Other things to do
There’s a little wooden playground and the ice rink was open when we were there, but needed booking which we didn’t think about, so we missed out on it. I looked great though! As I mentioned Halloween activities were great which we enjoyed – and there are always something seasonal to do for the kiddos in The Eden Project. We also didn’t try the hangloose adventure (England’s longest and fastest zip wire, tackle an aerial assault course, plummet in a giant swing) of zipline flying, because the children are too small but it looked truly breathtaking!
We of course walked the main trail leading to the biomes, which was wonderfully colourful since it’s. autumn and loved discovering famous Eden Project sculptures and outdoor art pieces scattered all along the trail.
Food and shop
We had lunch in the food court, there’s lots of outdoor and indoor seating and different food stations at the food court. I was amazed the how well the recycling is being done!
And to finish the day, the kiddos got a gingerbread man each in the shop. The shop is great though, so many eco-friendly and sustainably produced gifts, toys and homewares to buy!
