A living theatre of people and plants! (Eden Project (Cornwall))

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Eden Project (Cornwall)
Date:	14/08/08 (244 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: informative and interesting place to visit

Disadvantages: none

Ever since it was built in 2001 both my husband and I have had a fascination with the Eden Project but it was only last week during our holiday in Cornwall that we finally managed to visit! Most people will be familiar with the images of things that look a bit like huge plastic golf balls appearing out of the ground - and it was great to go and see what these were all about at last.

The Eden Project is an educational charity. In its guide book it states that it is 'a living theatre of plants and people' which among other things creates a global garden, invests in programmes and projects to make a difference and is an exploration of sustainability. Above all, through all its work and everything you see whilst you are there, it is designed to make you think about this world we live in!

Although families are welcome and there are activities for younger children, we decided not to take our three and five year old with us on our visit and left them playing happily with their cousins instead. I was glad we made this decision because although I'm sure they would have enjoyed themselves, they would have found it tiring and would not really have appreciated a lot that was going on. I'm sure we will take them in a few years when they are that bit older.

Had we taken our daughters we could have bought a family ticket for £35 which is very good value. As it was though we paid two adult prices of £15 each. When you arrive though you have the choice of just paying the admission fee or making a gift aid donation instead. Both are the same amount but if you opt for the gift aid you can revisit as many times as you like within the year for nothing extra to pay. Also, by doing this it means that the Eden Project can claim the tax on your donation so they also gain as well! We did the gift aid option even though its quite unlikely that we will revisit but we felt we were helping the project. We also bought a very informative guide book for another £5 - this was a bit pricey but is packed with a great deal of information.

The Eden Project is just a few miles outside St Austell and as you get into the area it really is very well sign posted. Also when you arrive there is excellent parking facilities with a park and ride bus to take you to the actual site. This was very useful and worth taking as it is a bit of a climb to the car parks.

The site is divided up into three biomes. Two of these are under the huge plastic covers and the third is what is called the outdoor biome. This outdoor area is really well organised and is host to a wonderful array of plants. Everything is well labelled so you know exactly what it is you are looking at. Unfortunately as we were there during a very wet Cornish week we did not linger too long outside.

Both of the indoor biomes are connected by an entrance with eating areas, toilets, etc. To the right is the larger Rainforest Biome and to the left is the Mediterranean Biome. We went for the rainforest one first and as soon as you enter you are struck by the heat and humidity. There are some water fountains scattered within but I would say it is very advisable to have your own water bottle with you. Also, I felt quite uncomfortable because I was wearing a long sleeved black top and if possible, what ever the weather is like outside, you would only want to be wearing a light tee shirt in here. There is only one route to take and with quite a few people around and narrow pathways you do tend to get a bit stuck at times which if you are suffering from the general mugginess does make it worse.

Having said all that though, it is a wonderful experience and there is so much to look at in there and it's wonderful to be able to see plants growing that normally would only grow in the Rain Forest. Again it is all very well laid out but after a forty five minute walk round you are actually quite relieved to get out!

The Mediterranean biome has a much more comfortable and airy atmosphere and here you see plants from Europe, America and South Africa. It's all landscaped really well and has interesting artefacts such as an old camper van surrounded by loads of surf boards as part of the general landscape. In both of these biomes there is so much to look at and take in that you really probably only absorb a quarter of what is there if that!When we were in the mediterranean biome it bstarted to rain quite heavily and it was very noisy beating down on the transparent foil windows!

There are plenty of areas to eat and drink obviously with a lot of either locally sourced or fair trade produce. I thought there were lots of great choices and all reasonably priced. For lunch, I had a pasta salad and my husband had a roll filled with cornish ham. We also had a bottle of cornish watwer and some crisps and this only came to about £6.50. Earlier we each had a coffee which were £2 each. THere were opportunities to either eat indoors or out and there were plenty of tables.

There is potentially quite a lot of walking so when we were ready to leave we actually took the land train which took us from the far end of the site back to the entrance. This was good because not only did we rest our legs but we were able to take in some more of the flora and fauna along the way.

There were quite a lot of activities such as kite making which you could take part in and a lot of these would have been suitable for children. However we did not bother with any of these preferring to wander around at our own pace. Had we had our daughters with us I'm sure we would have looked at these a lot more.

On your way out you had to pass through the gift shop which really was quite extensive and you could pretty much buy anything from plants to clothes to musical instruments. We bought our daughters some little Amazonian drums and whistles which were only a couple of pounds each and really went down a treat when we got home.

Overall, the Eden Project really is worth a visit if you are in Cornwall but I don't think it's really suitable for very young children - you are likely to end up compromising on what you want from the visit.

It's very clean and well organised and there is an array of colour with all the different plants. There are lots of toilets too (very important) and these were all very clean and hygenic too.

We did really enjoy our day at the Eden Project and spent about five hours wondering around just taking it all in. I'm sure we will go and visit again sometime and get to see all the things that we failed to notice this time round.

You can find out a lot more by visiting


www.edenproject.com
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Summary: A very worthwhile project