[3] Under Merlin, Chessington has been increasingly developed into a resort and tourist destination, including two on-site hotels, swimming pools, a campground, spa and fitness facilities.

‘Adventure Point’ is a colonial English "market square",'‘Mexicana' borrows from the Wild West and Latin America, 'Shipwreck Coast' is a nautical harbour town, 'Wild Woods' is a Central European-styled area with Bavarian architecture, 'Forbidden Kingdom' mirrors the ancient Middle East, 'Land of the Tiger' reflects the Far East, and 'Wild Asia' is based on an Indian jungle.

[6] Major attractions include: Vampire, Dragon's Fury, KOBRA, Tiger Rock, The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, Mandrill Mayhem, and Croc Drop.

[1] The resort has its roots in Chessington Zoo, which opened in 1931; it was started by Reginald Stuart Goddard, who had bought the estate to showcase his private collection of animals.

Beanoland, bringing two new rides to the park: Billy's Whizzer and Rodger the Dodger's Dodgems was built in 2000 on the former site of Circus World [16] On 22 May 2007, The Tussauds Group was taken over by Merlin Entertainments Ltd, which owns other brands such as Sea Life Centres.

[14] Theme park developments for the year included the refurbishment of the Runaway Train roller coaster as Scorpion Express and Amazu Treetop Adventure, a children's raised play area within the zoo.

In 2019, they rethemed their old 3D walkthrough attraction, Hocus Pocus Hall, into another one of Julia Donaldson's creations, Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey.

On top of this there was general park wide refurbishments and touch ups, with some significant work in Wild Asia and Adventure Point as well as a new Explorer Gate entrance, in preparation for World of Jumanji in 2023.

In 2023, at the fourth annual UK Theme Park Awards., Chessington World of Adventures won a number of gold, silver and bronze awards.

[52] In line with Merlin Entertainments' ambition to invest in short break offerings, there are plans to develop 34 Safari Lodges in the Wanyama Village.

[53] On 16 November 2022, Chessington held a public consultation regarding plans to create an indoor water park as an extension to the Safari Hotel.

Also present is Amazu, The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, and the Wanamaya reserve being open, along with the majority of the rest of the zoo.

During the last two weeks of the theme park season, Chessington hosts its biggest event – Howl'o'ween, previously known as Halloween Hocus Pocus.

During the event the park is decorated for Halloween with spiders, grave stones, voodoo dolls, skeletons and cobwebs as well as large, coloured eyes.

Its main ethos centres around the idea of bringing together a collection of the different cultures and experiences from around the world; a considerable amount of the park is built on the stereotypical setting of each area it is focused on.

Major attractions include: Vampire, Dragon's Fury, KOBRA, Zufari: Ride into Africa, Scorpion Express, Mandrill Mayhem and Croc Drop.

[60] Wild Woods is modeled on a central European high street with Bavaria in Germany and the Transylvania region of Romania as its key influences.

[citation needed] Adventure Point is the central area of the park, it features a selection of shops, restaurants, smaller outlets including hotdog and doughnut units and guest services, as well as the Chessington Adventure Tree carousel, which was added in 2017[37] The area has mostly Tudor and early Georgian architecture, featuring details such as hanging baskets and boxed plants.

The compass points guests in the direction of all the resort locations, it includes: theme park lands, some zoo areas, the Sea Life centre and the hotels.

[62] Until the end of the 2017 season named "Mystic East", this is an oriental-themed area built around the Tiger Rock log flume (previously Dragon River).

[citation needed] In 2017, the park renamed Transylvania to "Wild Woods", in relation to the Gruffalo River Ride Adventure attraction opening that year, though the area itself was largely unchanged.

The ride's slogan is, ‘Brave the drop, release the curse!’ Land of the Dragons is the park's main children's area.

ZUFARI's total size is 22 acres and has flamingos, giraffe, ostrich, Nile lechwe, white rhino, Grevy's zebra, scimitar horned oryx and sitatungas.

The area features a B&M Shuttle Launched Wing coaster, Mandrill Mayhem and two SBF Visa Group attractions, Mamba Strike and Ostrich Stampede.

[16] The Safari Skyway, an elevated monorail with an entrance in the Market Square theme park area, takes riders around various animal enclosures at the zoo.

The Trails of the Kings; a walkthrough attraction home to enclosures for western lowland gorillas, Asiatic lions, fossa, Carpathian lynx, and binturong.

[69][needs update] The Wanyama Village & Reserve opened in late May 2010, in an area behind the Safari Hotel and houses animals such as Grévy's zebra, sitatunga antelope, ostrich, dorcas gazelle, Nile lechwe, fennec fox, dwarf mongoose, southern ground hornbill, Kirk's dik-dik, Aloatran gentle lemur, black-cheeked lovebird, crested porcupine, meerkats, scimitar horned oryx, common eland and Ankole cattle.

The Sea Life Centre is split into four areas: Our Shoreline, The Reef, Amazonia and Azteca which features the signature Ocean Tunnel.

[citation needed] The hotel's Temple Restaurant has a heavy emphasis on special effects, with a large tower sitting in the centre of the room.

[75] But High Court Judge Elisabeth Laing ruled that the campaign was a "matter of public interest" and refused the injunction to silence Cave.