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Kew Gardens Review

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Kew Gardens

Address: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB (main entrance is between Richmond Circus and the traffic circle at Mortlake Rd.), London
Phone: 020/8332-5655
www.kew.org

Category: Parks
Location: The Thames Upstream

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Fodor's Review:

Enter Kew Gardens and you are enveloped by blazes of color, extraordinary blooms, hidden trails, magnificent buildings, and centuries of endeavor aimed at getting to grips with the mysteries of plants that entrance, medicate, and excite. Even today academics are hard at work on more than 300 scientific projects across as many acres, researching everything from the cacti of eastern Brazil to the yams of Madagascar. First opened to the public in 1840, Kew has been supported by royalty and nurtured by landscapers, botanists, and architects since the 1720s, and with more than 30,000 species of plants, there is interest and beauty in spades.

Although the plant houses make Kew worth visiting even in the depths of winter (there's also a seasonal garden), the flower beds come into their own in spring and summer.

Highlights

Two great 19th-century greenhouses—the Palm House and the Temperate House —are filled with exotic blooms, and many of the plants have been there since the final glass panel was fixed into place. The Temperate House, once the biggest greenhouse in the world, today contains the largest greenhouse plant in the world, a Chilean wine palm rooted in 1846. You can climb the spiral staircase to the roof and look down on it and the dense tropical profusion from the walkway. Architect Sir William Chambers built a series of temples and follies, of which the crazy 50-story Pagoda,visible for miles around, is the star turn. The Princess of Wales conservatory houses 10 climate zones, and in 2008 the Rhizotron & Xstrata treetop walkway opened—taking you 59 feet up into the air.

Tips

Guided tours with nature-loving volunteers leave daily from the Guides' desk inside Victoria Plaza at 11 and 2.

Can't tell your False acacia from your Corsican pine? The 90-minute Tree Identification Tour leaves from Museum No. 1 (opposite the Palm House) on Saturday at 11:30, £5. Book ahead. 020/8332-5604.

Fresh air and natural beauty made you peckish? Treat your taste buds to a light tea at the Victoria Terrace Café, dine outside at White Peaks, or go elegant at The Orangery.

Hire a Kew Ranger—an interactive handheld GPS that will lead you to highlights, give hints and snippets of history, and even give kids "hunting clues" to keep them occupied. Pick one up from Victoria Gate for £4.95.

Cost: £13
Open: Feb. and Mar., daily 9:30-5:30; Apr.-Aug., weekdays 9:30-6:30, weekends 9:30-7:30; Sept. and Oct., 9:30-6; Nov.-Feb. 9:30-4:15
Tube: Kew Gardens

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