the times Saturday May 28 2016 Travel 33

£750 a night, including the after-hours private tour, animal feeding, four-course British Isles meal with wine, breakfast with the gorillas and two-day entrance to Bristol and Wild Place Project (01179 Bed, board and roars: 747328, bristolzoo.org.uk). Durrell Wildlife Park, Jersey If you’re a fan of ITV’s The Durrells, you can visit the wildlife park in Jersey set up by the author Gerald Durrell. See about five great zoo stays 120 species of exotic animals, many of which are critically threatened, including a family of western lowland gorillas. zoo entry, a drink on arrival, a As well as a hostel, the park has a Fancy kipping next two-course dinner and breakfast family-friendly camp where you can (0344 2251826, zsl.org/girlionlodge). sleep in comfy pods. Each one sleeps two to and eating adults and two children on proper beds Treehouses at Port Lympne and has a separate bathroom pod and a with apes? Ellie Ross kitchen. A three-night stay costs from Reserve, Kent £480 for four (01534 860097, durrell.org). Watch African animals roam the Kent Reserve and nearby Howletts Reserve, The Gir Lodges at knows where to go countryside from the luxury of your own safari trips and animal talks (01303 , and below, , treehouse. Port Lympne is one of the 234112, aspinallfoundation.org). one of the lions Hertfordshire UK’s largest animal parks and home to 700 animals, from meerkats to Book into the stripy-themed Gir Lion Lodge, London Zoo Amur tigers. There’s a choice of The Lodge, Suite here and you will enjoy a Hear the lions roar as you bed down accommodation, from eco-pods and How about eating your breakfast with behind-the-scenes tour of the park in one of the nine new wooden cabins safari tents to boutique rooms within the gorillas before the zoo opens? At Bristol that ends in a meet-and-greet session at ZSL London Zoo. Start with an original Edwardian manor house. The Zoo you can do just that when you with some of the smaller animals, after-hours tour of the zoo at sunset, as park’s latest additions — ten smart stay in the lodge that was once the including the bearded dragon. It’s well as a torchlit walk when night falls. treehouses — come with kitchens, zookeeper’s quarters. You will be worth upgrading to a VIP package After a night in the brightly painted balconies and floor-to-ceiling windows within earshot of the Asiatic lions so that you can eat breakfast the en suite lodges for two adults and two overlooking the plains. They also come and raucous gibbons, and there’s a next day in a treetop café above the children, there’s time for a morning tour with a golf buggy, in which you can private tour of the zoo with a curator tiger enclosure. Snooze at the Zoo before the crowds arrive. It’s not cheap, explore the park outside official opening when everyone else has gone home. costs from £199 for a family of four though, with one night costing from £378 hours. Eco-pods sleeping four cost from A four-course dinner, prepared by (£299 for a VIP package), including a couple and £50 a child — more £99 a pod a night and self-catering your own chef, is included. The breakfast, two days’ entrance to the expensive than many hotels in the treehouses sleeping four cost from £300 two-bedroom lodge, which sleeps up to Wildlife Park and free crazy golf capital. However, it includes two days’ a night, including access to Port Lympne four adults and two children, costs from (01992 470490, pwpark.com).