The Eden Project

If you like travelling and admiring plants and flowers from all over the world (or almost), this place is just for you ! Indeed, this initiative hosted in Cornwall (South-West of England) and open since 2001 enables you to plunge in a wonderful natural world. It is composed of two different biospheres inside domes that look like giant bubbles. There are also open air gardens that are nice to walk by. I think this is a good place to go with friends but also with children, there is not too much to walk and a lot to see and experiment.

Please note that if you are looking for a zoo, this is not the right place since there are no animals there.

The Tropical Biome

One of the two biospheres is related to tropical flora and has an average temperature of around 32°C (yes, you'll feel pretty warm in there ! But don't worry, there are cool spaces and waterfalls to refresh you!).

To me, this was the most amazing biome (and it is also the biggest). Indeed, for a French girl like me, the second biome (Mediterranean flora) is a bit more commonplace even if it was still interesting. On the contrary, the tropical biome was totally exotic and marvellous, I stared amazed at giant bananas or very colourful flowers and fruit !

Everything felt new, dazzling, puzzling and so wonderful, I really did not have the impression I was in a park in England, I could easily believe I was in the Rainforest and if you look at the pictures, you will probably understand why.

I was impressed by the great variety and number of species that were presented, some of them hidden by the others so you had to look very carefully to see some of them (and even this way you couldn't help missing a bunch of plants).

I also much appreciated the little information panels that explained stuff about these plants, and the activity about how rubber was made. And I got the chance to buy an amazing baobab smoothie that was actually very tasty even though the colour and taste were a bit strange ! Lol. I was not sure I would like it at first but it was not too expensive and I thought « come on, you only live once, this may be your only chance to taste something like that so go for it ! » and I did. And I loved it. =)

The Mediterranean Biome

There, the temperature was much cooler, of course, and the plants seemed more familiar to me. Still it was pleasant to walk by and enjoy the sight, especially if, like me, you are somebody who enjoys nature and fresh air (well in this case, artificial fresh air lol).

Additional places

As usual in this kind of places, there is a shop where you can buy nature-related stuff like a notebook made out of dried recycled elephant poo lol, and it is not even smelly ;) But don't worry, you can also find tons of other things there

There is also a cafeteria if you are a bit peckish. I liked the way it looked with all its little colourful flags, the long tables with tons of cakes lined up and teacups hanging on rails above the tables.

Regarding food, you can have traditional cakes and sweets but also baobab smoothies and baobab icecream and also icecream made out of true Cornish icecream, which is delightful !

♥ I was also told that the cream tea is very very nice there (tea + scones + clotted cream + jam), so don't miss it because it's typical of this part of England !

☺ Good to know ☺

♦ There is a zip wire that goes over the whole park (the biomes and the gardens) but you have to add an extra 12 £ (I think, I remember it was expensive) to your ticket fee to be able to go... I didn't do it so I don't know whether or not it's worth it.

☺ You can get an extra discount on your student's fare (18,50 £) by buying your ticket in advance (-2£) or by using a « green » means of transportation to get there (cycling, biking or public transportation) : -4£ ! So don't hesitate to get sporty ;)

☺ Sometimes there are concerts in the biomes (in summer I guess), when I've been there I was accompanying teenagers so I couldn't stay for the evening but it looked pretty cool so check out the programme !