Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens Review

Enter the Royal Botanic Gardens, as Kew Gardens are also known, and you are enveloped by blazes of color, extraordinary blooms, hidden trails, and lovely old follies. Beautiful though it all is, Kew's charms are secondary to its true purpose as a major center for serious research. Academics are hard at work on more than 300 scientific projects across as many acres, analyzing 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. Today the gardens, now a Unesco World Heritage site, hold more than 30,000 species of plants, from every corner of the globe.

Although the plant houses make Kew worth visiting even in the depths of winter (there's also a seasonal garden), the flower beds are, of course, best enjoyed in the fullness of 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 enormous Temperate House contains the largest greenhouse plant in the world, a Chilean wine palm rooted in 1846. (It's so big that you have to climb the spiral staircase to the roof to get a proper view of it). Architect Sir William Chambers built a series of temples and follies, of which the crazy 10-story Pagoda, visible for miles around, is the star turn. The Princess of Wales conservatory houses 10 climate zones, and the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway takes you 59 feet up into the air.

Tips

Free guided tours, run by volunteers, are held daily at 11am and 1:30pm.

The Kew Explorer bus runs on a 40-minute, hop-on, hop-off route around the gardens every hour from 11am. Tickets cost £4.

Discovery Tours are specially adapted and fully accessible, aimed at disabled visitors. Options include walking tours designed for deaf or blind visitors, or bus tours for those with mobility problems. Walking tours are £5 per group, bus tours £30 per group. They're usually available on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, and it's a good idea to book.

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

You can download the official Kew Gardens guide as an app for your cell phone, free on the website.