I Bet The Garden of Eden didn't cost this much to get in... (Eden Project (Cornwall))

Member Name: CaptainD

Product:	Eden Project (Cornwall)
Date:	10/05/05 (1966 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's pretty impressive, especially if you're interested in botany of course, Good facilities

Disadvantages: Rather over-priced at the moment, Not as spectacular as you're lead to believe

The Eden Project, dedicated to preserving as diverse a range of the earth's plant life as possible using "biomes" (like a giant greenhouse really and sort of spherical) to replicate their natural environment. Based in Cornwall is touted as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". (Here's a little known fact – the Eden Project is one of the world wonders you can build in the computer game Civillisation 3: Call to Power.) Such an accolade is probably guaranteed to bring in lots of visitors – and give them an unrealistically high expectation.

Prices

The entry price of £12 per adult adds to this impression that you're going to see something absolutely mind-blowing, though in line with their ecological objective you get £3 off if you go in on a bike rather than drive in. There are various concessions for groups, senior citizens, children, etc.

There are also year-long and lifetime passes available, but obviously they will only be of interest to people who live fairly locally and have a keen interest in botany, and in the project in particular. The "passport" to give you a year's free access to the site is only £5, so effectively you will only pay £17 (with your first admission and the passport) to go anytime for a whole year. This seems good value but many people will only go once, and for them I think the admission is rather over-priced..

Busiest Days

According to their official literature, the busiest days for the Eden Project are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, particularly on damp mornings! On these days the queue can tail back onto the main road. Having driven along the road that takes you from the main road to the car park, I can tell you that will take you a very long time to get through! So choose your time to go wisely.

Parking

There are plentiful parking facilities and coaches to take you from the more distant ones. These come on a regular basis. Obviously there is no additional charge for parking!

The Project Itself

The Eden Project is made up of two biomes and a large outdoor garden section. (A third biome was being constructed when we visited and is expected to be ready to populate sometime in 2006.) The project was created on the site of an old quarry, so there's a bit of a decline to walk down to get to the biomes. There's plenty to look at along the way, and the plants (including many common ones) are laid out in an attractive way, and there are a couple of small rope bridges for the kids to break their necks on in case they're getting bored. (Joking apart, if it's damp outside the footing can be a little treacherous if you're not careful.) Notes on each plant and the development of the project are found regularly throughout the journey down. For those that find the walk difficult there is a tractor-pulled transported, though this is going to be replaced soon with a more ecologically-friendly solution.

There are also some quite impressive sculptures when you reach the bottom – particularly look out for the giant bee! The biomes themselves are also impressive structures in their own right. Of course, what you really went to see is what's inside the two biomes – which recreate the tropics and the Mediterranean climates. (Note – not just the Mediterranean area but the climate- it also includes plants from areas of Africa and America.) The tropics biome was more impressive although both are beautifully laid out. With the volume of people on the pathways I did feel there was occasionally too much pressure to move on rather than stop and look at things that interested you, though generally this wasn't much of a problem. On really busy days, however, I think it would be much worse.

The sheer volume of information available is a little overwhelming at times but that's much preferable to there not being enough. Talks on different topics are held throughout the day at various locations and information on this is readily available, so if you wanted to learn more about a particular subject then it's not hard to plan your day around the things you're most interested in. There are various hands-on exhibits that add to the meaningfulness of your visit. The vegetation is interspersed with occasional sculptures which to be honest did nothing for me.

If you're interested in botany then this is all interesting and certainly worth seeing, but I question whether, for what you can see here, it really represents good value for money (for a single visit) when compared to places like Kew Gardens (in London) or The Royal Botanical Gardens (in Birmingham), both of which are considerably cheaper. If the price doesn't rise when they've completed the third biome it will of course represent better value, though £12 still seems a little steep… of course, you could bike it and get in for £9!

Disabled Access

Considerable thought has been given to this, and while there are certain areas that cannot be reached by wheelchairs, there are very few of these and contain nothing mind-blowing that someone in a wheelchair would be dismayed at missing. We had to unexpectedly ask for a wheelchair for a family member – got one straight away (battery-assisted, too – though I didn't realise until after I'd pushed it up a long hill… :-C) and were simply asked to let someone know where we'd left it so they could pick it up. This probably impressed me more than any other aspect of my visit. (Not the pushing bit…. The ease with which we were able to obtain help.)

Facilities

The good news is, you don't need to add to the fertilisation process of the plants – there are plenty of strategically-placed toilets around, including of course disabled toilets. They do have plaques explaining how the water is recycled and used for watering the plants after treatment, so there's even something to read while you wash your hands. (Minds out of the sewage those who'd thought I was going to was something else!)

There's a coffee shop in the area where you first go in, and in the area between the two biomes there is both a snack bar and a restaurant. The snack bar features such gastronomic delights as sandwiches and jacket potatoes.

Needless to say, we went to the restaurant. This has a small but interesting menu featuring organically (and where possible, locally) grown vegetables and traditional recipes. The food is pretty good and the prices aren't too bad, which surprised me slightly since organic food at the supermarkets costs a packet… The only real problem with the dishes is that they are quite small (well it's a problem for some of us… - we know who we are), but there is a solution to this. The side dishes are cheap and nearly as big as the main courses! In fact, if you were feeling really hungry, I would recommend going for three or four of the side dishes instead of a main course! (Much cheaper , too…) The menu warns that because all of the food is freshly cooked, there may be a wait of up to 20 minutes for the food. The time it took for our food to arrive was about the same amount of time as you've taken reading this paragraph. I'm not sure quite how good a thing that is – yes the food was there quickly and was nice, but how freshly cooked can it really have been? Aside from the food, there is a bar with some unusual beverages there, including the very drinkable Bananabread beer. The prices for drinks are again not cheap but certainly not exorbitant.

Gift Shop

The gift shop is quite large and has some interesting merchandise, including rare nature videos and some (fairly) exotic plants. (I was quite tempted to take home a Venus flytrap…) The prices again were on the high side of reasonable.

Overall

Overall I'm not quite sure whether to recommend The Eden Project. It's not that I didn't enjoy my visit or that we didn't spend quite a time there (average visitor time according to the official figures is 4 hours, which is about how long we stayed there), but I guess I was expecting to be amazed – which I wasn't, really. Kew Gardens is no less impressive and is about half the price.

By the time the third biome is up, of course, (presuming the price doesn't change) it may be a lot better value for money. Eighth wonder of the world, though? I'm not convinced, to be honest. Another thing that puts me off is the amount of time, effort, and space that has been devoted to at the project telling you how great it is – in my experience, the truly great things speak for themselves. When people feel the need to tell you how great the place you're visiting is, the warning bells start going off.

As well as the usual opening times several concerts and other events are held at the Eden Project throughout the year, so check the website to see if there's anything you particularly want to watch (and, of course, to check on the opening times in the season you're in). I'm giving it three stars and a recommended (it was a close call), but if they continue to expand without putting up the price then it'll be worth a better rating. If some of the plans I've seen vaunted for the project come to fruition, it could become a must-visit venue in England. For now though, I'm sticking with 3 stars.

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