Every year the Cleveland Metropark’s Zoo hosts the Wild Winter Lights. The lights run this year from November 14th to December 30th. It is a walk thru with some dates where you can drive thru instead. The cost for walk through is $19 for members and $22 for nonmembers if purchased ahead of time. The price does increase if purchased same day. The drive thru is the same price for members and nonmembers $25 a car with an increase to $45 if purchase same day.
We were lucky enough to have “warm” weather for Cleveland in the upper 40s with no precipitation. But I will suggest to make sure you dress for Cleveland winter weather as this event goes on no matter what the weather is like.
They do have a couple food options open, some local food vendors like Jack Frost Donuts and stops along the path for drinks and snacks. For drinks they have hot chocolate and hot apple cider, pop and then some alcoholic cocktails and Great Lakes Christmas Ale.
They say to expect about 90 minutes to walk the whole path but we take our time and were there about 2.5 hours. They have characters for the kiddos to meet, The Grinch, Anna and Elsa, Frosty the Snow Man and Rudolph.
Santa is in the Wolf exhibit building and there are two musical light experiences. The lights run the whole main path of the zoo, up the hill around the tiger exhibit, by the new bear exhibit, past the wolf building, then down to Waterfowl Lake and around and back down by the elephant exhibit.
The carousel and 4D movie are included in the price of your ticket and we take full advantage of the free carousel. It’s a whole family event.
This event is always so much fun for the whole family. The lights are always so gorgeous. A plus to this year is all the additional lights going up the trees and some of the lights over hanging the walk areas. I also really enjoy the musical light shows and I liked they added the second one by the lake.
Have you been to Wild Winter Lights this year or in the past? I would love to hear your opinions or other festive places around Cleveland to visit for the holidays.