Eden Project Review *Long post with pics*

Whilst we were in Cornwall we decided to do something memorable for our 1st wedding anniversary, so we decided to visit the Eden Project.

walking to the entrance after getting off a bus from the carpark

Its described as a Top eco visitor attraction...

Horse sculpture made from driftwood

Here is a video from their site which funnily enough were in it - Haha - we were waiting for the land train (blue tractor) and we were warned that they were filming, you can only see us appear out of the blue shed and then get on the train. Funny non the less.

So here are some facts if you want to go there for a day out:

Entry price for an Adult = £23.50
Location: St Austell
Gift shop: Yep - normal tourist prices (£6 a tour guide)
Food: Restaurant is fresh home made food, £6 a head and £4.50 for kids.

perfect picture spot - specially for a 1st anniversary

 So as you can see from the picture above its a pretty large site, it was built from an old clay pit and they made the biomes and a effectively a huge garden.

You leave the entrance / visitor centre and walk down through the gardens to the bottom where the biomes and some sculptures are.

A mixture of the plants & flowers you will see.

 The gardens are very impressive, and the flowers are really nice to take pictures of, however there isn't much more to look at.  If there is bad weather, which on the day we went it was a bit drizzly then you have the option of going into the Biomes.

So off we went, Into the Mediterranean one first...

Med Biome

This Biome was a nice temperature it felt like a spring day, there was a couple of birds flying around which were sneaky as they fly in through the air vents... hehe

There was a nice man who had a table who had an oat roller, and he showed us how you make porridge oats, and explained where they come from etc - now this was really interesting, we all had a go (except mike as he see's this everyday at work.. ) and the man gave us a bag of oats to have for our breakfast the next day... nice touch i thought.

Rainforest Biome

 
So from here we walked back through the Bakery restaurant (think its called that..) and we entered the Rain forest Biome - Now this was HOT - literally instant uncomfortable hot. I was wearing a jumper and i literally felt like i was going to overheat and burn up!!!

It was very leafy and green, my camera couldn't cope with the humidity and the lens was steaming up all the time. There is the option to take the long route walking around the biome up some stairs, and then you can go to a platform above the tree tops, the thought of this churnned my stomach so i gave it a miss...

I know the point is that its a rain forest, but for me it was just too hot and stuffy. It made up for it seeing Guinea fowl though... i didn't however see any frogs or lizards which sucked. 

One thing i think was a bit rubbish was there was only one interacive thing in the rain forest biome and that was about banana's - just an info thing. Not very interesting either.

We left the biome and went to freshen up and de-frizz the hair.. im not even kidding about the hair.

The restaurant which is outside the Biomes was quite frankly the best food i think i've ever eaten on a day out... being veggie its always a bloody nightmare to get nice food where ever i go. It was £6 a main meal - you chose a 'main' then could help yourself to potato's, salad and a chunk of bread. They had sauces and condiments at the end too. It was canteen style where you picked what you wanted moved along the line and chose a drink (which you pay extra for) and pay at the end.

My mouth is salivating at the thought of eating this again.... *droooooooools*
 Its a puff pastry slice with mushrooms and cheese... was a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
 Mike had a duck salad pitta, my sister and Dan had fish pastry's in sauce. 

Om nom nom nommmmmmmmm

Next up we went outside for a wander, and to get some fresh air..

We got the land train back up to the visitor centre, we got a little scenic tour... or should i say, taken around the perimeter and no nice view..

Once we were back at the top we took some more pictures as there was a nice view of the Biomes.

We then ventured into The core which is essentially a building with a load of Junk in it...

The Seed

There is also a load of old bits of metal which are, well i dont know just plan wierd. I think that this part of Eden is a total waste of space and money, it was boring. 

The only fun part of it was this..

Yep kids can dress up, and apparently so can 25yr old adults.. haha

We left via the gift shop which was well equipped with gifts, plants, food books postcards and the like. It wasnt cheap but no gift shops are. You could buy postcards for less than £1 and some nice plants were reasonably priced.

Overall verdict of Eden

I wouldn't visit again, and i think if you took children here you would be an idiot. They dont have anything interesting for children apart from one small wooden play area. Eden has really missed the boat with this one, they have some amazing opportunity's for providing education to people, but they dont have aanything interactive to engage people, its basically a large garden centre, except you can only buy the plants in the gift shop. I think the entry price is extortionate for the lack of entertainment. The claim to be Eco everything, yet they dont explain it, and show you why. 

I hope you have enjoyed this review, i dont meant to slate eden, i just feel for the price paid i could have had an amazing day out somewhere else.