You having a giraffe? Price of Chester Zoo safari lodge for one night time left us speechless

The exclusive safari lodges at Chester Zoo overlook the giraffe enclosure but cost a pretty penny, especially during peak summer holidays – as Dianne Bourne says the zoo has ‘some neck’

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 become a family tradition to book a little trip away at the end of the school summer holidays for my eldest son’s birthday. In previous years we’ve saved up to spend a night at Legoland in Windsor, or his favourite place thanks to its Gruffalo ride, Chessington World of Adventures.

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 when I checked the dates for Monday, September 1 and found the CHEAPEST AVAILABLE ROOM was priced at a jaw-dropping £1620.88 for a family room. I wondered if I could find it cheaper by going earlier in August, but the lowest price to stay I could find was overnight on Friday August 29 at £1,181.72 – to stay in a lakeside lodge.

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 got some neck”.

Now we all know that Chester Zoo is a conservation charity, and that the money they make from these new rooms at The Reserve will go towards that vital work and so I don’t begrudge them making money while the hay shines.

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 mean it comes to something when staying at Center Parcs, the popular forest resorts, during the school holidays works out cheaper than a stay in one of those coveted lodges. Indeed, the one upside of this whole experience has been discovering that Center Parcs isn’t quite so unaffordable as I’d always thought.

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 remember last year pricing up how much it would cost to take my kids on their first trip somewhere lovely and sunny abroad. And then swiftly closing my laptop when it was looking like a MINIMUM of £7,000 to fly off to Greece in August. The same resort was half that price if we went during term-time instead.

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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