Clipped box parterres and gravel walks below the palace terrace at Versailles

Gardens worth crossing a border for

Some gardens are open eight weeks a year. Plan the trip around them.

What a Versailles ticket really covers. Whether Keukenhof is worth the shuttle from Amsterdam. When the lavender is cut and the cherry front reaches Tokyo. Reviews of the garden tours you can actually book.

Start with the great gardens See all the gardens →

495garden tours to book

from $5cheapest way through the gate

152days out under $50

Marrakechfrom $31

Singaporefrom $7

Start here

Versailles, Keukenhof, Schönbrunn, and a week in the lavender.

Four bookings that carry a first garden trip. What each one costs, and what the people who went say about it.

The bloom calendar decides

Four gardens that keep their own calendar.

Most of this list is open all year and can be booked the night before. These four are not. They flower, they get cut, or they close, and no amount of planning moves the date.

01Keukenhof Entry & Shuttlebus with Flexible ReturnThe park opens for about eight weeks in spring and shuts for the year in mid-May. Turn up in June and the bulb fields are bare soil.
02Mt. Fuji, Cherry Blossom & Shiba Sakura Pvt. Day TourPeak bloom lasts roughly a week and travels north with the warm weather. The forecast lands weeks ahead, not months.
03Gorges of Verdon and Fields of Lavender TourProvence colours from late June and the harvest cuts it through July. After that the rows are green stubble.
04Giverny, Monet’s Home & Gardens Half-Day TripMonet closes his garden from November until late spring. The water lilies are a summer flower and nothing is planted for winter.

France

France does gardens three different ways. Pick one.

Clipped geometry north of Paris, a painter's water garden an hour down the Seine, and a plateau that turns purple for three weeks. Three kinds of French garden day, and what it costs to get through the gate.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket

Palace parterresBox hedge cut to a drawing, gravel walks, fountains on a timetable. from $17

Lavender countryThe plateau above Verdon, late June to mid-July, and nothing after. from $9

Monet's water gardenThe lily pond and the green bridge, half a day out of Paris. from $64 All 67 French garden days →

Palace gardens

The gardens built to be looked down on from a window.

A palace garden is a drawing before it is a planting. Versailles set the rules, Schönbrunn and La Granja copied them, and the Alhambra had solved the water two centuries earlier. These are the ones worth the ticket.

1Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticketfrom $17
2Skip-the-Line Tour of Palace and Gardens Accessfrom $76
3Alhambra & Gardens Tour w/Nasrid Palaces Optionfrom $35

In France Around Paris Versailles In Spain In Italy Vienna

Every palace garden →

Six cities, six gardens

Six cities where a garden is the reason to go.

A palace park clipped to a plan, a bulb field that lasts eight weeks, a cobalt courtyard in a medina, imperial flowerbeds, an orchid house under glass. Six places to base a garden trip, and the best day out in each.

Best ofParisVersailles, Giverny and the parks in between Best ofAmsterdamThe bulb fields and the shuttle out to them Best ofVersaillesThe parterres, the fountains, the Trianon Best ofMarrakechMajorelle blue and the courtyards behind it Best ofViennaSchönbrunn, the Gloriette and the palm house Best ofSingaporeSupertrees, the orchid house, glass domes

The gates with the longest queues

The garden days more travellers book than any other.

Every garden on the site →

Timed tickets, spring shuttles and the guided walks that sell out first. What each one costs and what it actually gets you through.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 41,579 reviews

Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket

Review of Versailles Palace and Gardens full access ticket, with practical tips on timing, crowds, gardens, Trianon, value, and transport.

From · $17

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2 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,891 reviews Keukenhof Entry & Shuttlebus with Flexible Return from $41

3 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 10,429 reviews Skip-the-Line Tour of Palace and Gardens Access from $76

4 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 9,651 reviews Majorelle Garden Entry Tickets from $31

5 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 7,739 reviews Schönbrunn Palace & Gardens Skip-the-Line Tour from $63

6 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 7,022 reviews Alhambra & Gardens Tour w/Nasrid Palaces Option from $35

7 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,222 reviews Versailles Palace & Gardens with Transportation from $53

8 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,918 reviews Skip-the-Line Sisi Museum, Hofburg and Gardens Tour from $61

The price of a gate ticket

What a day in a great garden actually costs.

Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the world's best gardens cost less than lunch to walk into.

Under $50

Entry tickets, city botanic gardens, palace grounds without a guide, an orchid house under glass.

1Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticketfrom $17
2Keukenhof Entry & Shuttlebus with Flexible Returnfrom $41
3Majorelle Garden Entry Ticketsfrom $31

$50 to $150

Guided palace tours, the spring runs out to the bulb fields, a day on the lavender plateau.

1Skip-the-Line Tour of Palace and Gardens Accessfrom $76
2Schönbrunn Palace & Gardens Skip-the-Line Tourfrom $63
3Versailles Palace & Gardens with Transportationfrom $53

$150 and up

Private garden days, the ferry to Butchart, small groups that collect you from the hotel.

1Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from Vancouverfrom $228
2Victoria and Butchart Gardens Day Trip from Vancouverfrom $232
3Giverny Small-Group Half Day Trip with Monet’s Gardens from Parisfrom $157

Only in season

Three gardens the calendar decides for you.

Palm houses and municipal rose beds are everywhere and open all year. A bulb field in April, a lily pond painted two hundred times, and a blossom front moving north are not.

Eight weeks only

The Bulb Fields

Keukenhof is planted in autumn by hand, seven million bulbs put in so that something is out from the day it opens until the day it shuts. The park runs from late March to mid-May and then closes completely. The commercial fields around Lisse are a separate thing again, cut for the bulb rather than the flower, so the colour comes off them earlier than visitors expect.

1Keukenhof Entry & Shuttlebus with Flexible Return★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,891 reviews
2Keukenhof Ticket with Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,089 reviews
3Tour to Keukenhof Gardens with Windmill Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,819 reviews

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A painter's pond

Monet at Giverny

Monet bought the field across the road and dug a pond in it, then diverted a stream to feed the water lilies and built the green bridge to stand on while he painted them. The planting is still worked to his notes, which means the borders peak in sequence rather than all at once. It closes for winter, and the lilies are only really lilies from June.

1Giverny, Monet’s Home & Gardens Half-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,887 reviews
2Giverny Monet’s Home and Gardens Half Day Tour from Paris★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,836 reviews
3Giverny Small-Group Half Day Trip with Monet’s Gardens from Paris★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,663 reviews

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A moving front

The Blossom Line

Cherry blossom is not a date, it is a weather front. It opens in the far south and travels north over about six weeks, and any single tree holds its flower for roughly seven days before the wind takes it. Forecasts firm up a fortnight ahead. Book the tour late and the trip early, not the other way round.