We had one night in London last night before a flight home. I was looking around for a single-site visit and came across London Zoo Stays: https://www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/zoo-experiences/lodges-sleepover-at-the-zoo
We had a fabulous time! We arrived at the zoo at about 2:30 and we were free to wander until our Zoo Lodge meeting at 4:30. We met our 8 other families - there are 9 lodges - and checked into our little cabins.
They are right in the middle of the very cool Land of the Lions - an extremely thematic lion enclosure area.
Our night included a one-hour private walking tour after the zoo closed and then we had a nice included dinner.
Once it was dark, we were escorted back out into the closed zoo for more behind-the-scenes touring.
We were led back to our cabins at about 10 and were free until 7am the next morning - we had to stay inside the little 9-cabin village. At 7, we were free to wander the entirety of the Land of the Lions on our own, watching the lions wake up (and ROAR), with no one else around.
Then we were taken to a nice breakfast buffet and then one more private 1-hour tour.
The staff that runs this are so knowledgable, so friendly, and just so happy to be showing us around the zoo.
This was just a fabulous experience. It’s pricey - but we really felt it was a good value for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our original plan was to have a 350 pound budget for a single room hotel night. Instead, we spent 416 pounds and got - two days’ worth of zoo entries (value: 140 pounds total), a night in a lodge, dinner, and breakfast, AND our 3 private after-hours zoo tours.
This books up well in advance - so if you’re interested, book early.