We visited the Magical Lantern Festival in Chiswick, West London, yesterday evening, and it was an incredible experience. Hundreds of lanterns, the biggest ones several storeys high and several dozen meters long! It took us more than two hours to walk to follow the path through the park and stop every other minute to take photos.
This year’s show is themed “Explore the Silk Road”, so you’ve got plenty of camels and Aladdins, but also a gigantic Chinese palace, the center piece of the festival, that can be seen from nearly everywhere else in the park.
Considering how cold it was it was a blessing that they serve hot chocolate (and mulled wine, hot whiskey, and spiced hot cider) on three or four locations. We also had a lovely pulled-pork sandwich for £5.50 right behind the 2nd entrance (the one where they check your tickets).
The festival is taking place in London for only the second time around and will last until 26 February, so buy your tickets now (£5.90 – £19.80, we paid £16 each for ours). They are open every day (from 17:00) until Sunday 19 February, then again from Thursday 23 February to Sunday 26 February (from 17:00). Adults are £18 plus £1.70 fee, kids are £12 plus £1.33 fee. (And don’t bother buying another ticket for the tiny ice rink on the premises, it seems to be made of some plastic tiles and attracted exactly zero customers while we were passing by.)
And Happy New Year of the Rooster to you!
Looking for adventure? Check out our posts about skydiving, our rides on a helicopter, a jetski, two very fast rubber boats (on the Thames and near the North Pole), an amphibian Vietnam War vehicle, a hot air balloon, and a jetlev.
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