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Accommodation review: Explorer Glamping, Chessington World of Adventures
The theme park's new campsite comes with after-hours access and surprisingly good food – just don't expect a lie-in
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Your support makes all the difference.In any other setting, the idea of camping alongside Surrey’s A243 would be pretty derisible. Yet here we are, under canvass at Chessington World of Adventures, which has exactly that somewhat insalubrious address. The latest must-have feature of any self-respecting theme park is a luxury campsite, which has been rigged up as a money-spinning annex to Chessington’s Wild Asia zone for the summer (May-September, slated for several summers to come).
Tucked just inside the park’s Explorer Gate, campers will find a set of oversized wooden doors and a winding coconut-matting path leading to the tented check-in area and beyond: a dense little hamlet of some 30 Boy Scout- and safari-style tents. This is no Featherdown Farm (albeit with twinkly fairy lights, carefully arranged shrubbery and piped jungle sounds), but neither is it quite the plastic fantastic theme park aesthetic one might expect.
The theme park is there, of course; the stone head of Wild Asia’s signature Kobra ride eyeballing us over the fence like an especially aggrieved next-door neighbour. After-hours park access is included in the Explorer Glamping fee so this and two other Wild Asia rides are yours for the taking until 9pm – making that “again, again!” demand delightfully easy to fulfil.
With no more than a metre or so between tents, this is definitely a collective camping experience. But with children from different families quickly banding together over games of giant Jenga, Connect Four and dominos – and to compare 'coaster war stories – this feels more communal than claustrophobic. Pack earplugs if you don’t want to be woken by your neighbours' wailing children or piped jungle music at 7.30am. The fact that the rides don’t grind into action until 10am seemed neither here nor there. Up and at ’em, theme park campers!
The tents
There are 31 circular standard tents with a double bed and two singles, plus four premium safari style tents with a double bed, a separate second sleeping area with a bunk bed and a single, and an additional living space. All have wooden flooring and sturdy canvas walls/ceilings.
Décor is pan-Asian with colourful, sparkly Indian-style cushions, Oriental rugs and crisp white linens/duvets on the warm and very comfy beds. There is a clothes rail, a freestanding mirror plus (in premium tents), a little wooden chest of drawers with inlaid games of draughts and snakes and ladders.
Basic toiletries are provided in all tents for use in separate shower and toilet huts, which are more plastic portable loos than exotic outdoor bathroom – one block of which was having water supply issues at prime shower time. Still, there are always splash rides such as Dragon Falls to have an impromptu rinse on. Premium tents have a kettle with tea and coffee, and there is a hot drinks machine in the reception tent. Pack towels, not only for the shower blocks but to dry off after the water rides.
Out and about
You’re here for the park so pack it in – there are more than 40 rides and attractions in 10 themed lands, plus live shows such as Penguins of Madagascar and character meet and greets.
A key joy of camping is the out of hours access it allows, including the chance to explore Wild Asia for two hours after the park closes, and (thanks to that blaring piped music) you will be ready to explore at least an hour before the park opens to the public in the morning. So plan your attack, getting in line first for the most popular thrill rides before the queues really build up, among them roller coasters such as the Vampire, Rattlesnake and Kobra, along with the Zufari nature spotting truck drive, and the (not functioning during our visit), Rameses Revenge water ride. Guests of Explorer Glamping also have access to the park’s resort hotels, with splash/swimming pools, gym and Ranger’s Club evening entertainment.
Food and drink
All the usual fast food outlets are on offer during regular park hours, plus the Explorer Outpost restaurant, which is open for campers to have breakfast (a full English or continental buffet) and a buffet dinner, including very decent Thai curries, noodles, grilled fish and meats, salads and chips, plus a basic licensed bar.
Essentials
Explorer Glamping, Chessington World of Adventures, Leatherhead Road, Chessington, London KT9 2NE (0871 360 2639; chessington.com/glamping).
Tents sleeping four cost from £149 per night B&B, including bed linen and two days’ park entry.
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