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The Butchart Gardens Review

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The Butchart Gardens

Address: 800 Benvenuto Ave., Brentwood Bay, BC | Map It
Phone: 250/652-5256; 866/652-4422
www.butchartgardens.com

Category: Gardens/Arboretums
Location: Victoria

Write a review | Avg. member rating: 4.6/5

Fodor's Review:

This stunning 55-acre garden and National Historic Site has been drawing visitors since it was planted in a limestone quarry in 1904. Seven hundred varieties of flowers grow in the site's Japanese, Italian, rose, and sunken gardens. Highlights include the view over the ivy-draped and flower-filled former quarry, the dramatic 21-meter-high (70-foot-high) Ross Fountain, and the formal and intricate Italian garden, complete with a gelato stand. From mid-June to mid-September the gardens are illuminated at night with hundreds of hidden lights. In July and August, kids' entertainers perform Sunday through Friday afternoons; jazz, blues, and classical musicians play at an outdoor stage each evening; and fireworks draw crowds every Saturday night. The wheelchair- and stroller-accessible site is also home to a seed-and-gift shop, a plant identification center, two restaurants (one offering traditional afternoon tea), and a coffee shop; you can even call ahead for a picnic basket. To avoid crowds, try to come at opening time, in the late afternoon or evening, or between September and June, when the site is still beautiful. The gardens are about 20 minutes' drive north of downtown; parking is free and plentiful but fills up on fireworks Saturdays. You can get here by city Bus 75 from Douglas Street downtown, but service is slow and infrequent. The Butchart Gardens Express Shuttle, run by Grey Line West, runs half-hourly service between downtown Victoria and the Butchart Gardens during peak season. The C$39 round-trip fare includes admission to the gardens.

Cost: Mid-June-late Sept. C$25, discounted rates rest of yr
Open: Mid-June-Labor Day, daily 9 AM-10:30 PM; Sept.-mid-June, daily 9 AM-dusk; call for exact times

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Member Reviews and Ratings

Reviewed by WineTraveller from Wilmington, DE on 12/8/08
We've been to master gardens in Hawai'i, Ontario, the Mid-Atlantic, and the United Kingdom and I would put this one up with any of them (kind of comparing apples to oranges, so I can't say it is the best). Amazingly, this masterpiece garden was first developed because the property owner's wife didn't like her view! This is a place so beautiful that Disney World put a replica of it in the Canadian pavilion at EPCOT! With tea for lunch, this is a fabulous day-trip! The only downer is it isn't exactly the easiest place to get to (although we probably felt this way since everything else was walking distance!).