Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park Review

Good for small kids, nice to spend a whole day with the family . It would have been nice if parking is included in the great America good pass for gilroy garden as well

Hacka fun tell the power went out and no refund or compensation. Ants crawling all over me

Last minute decided to spend the day here. My little mermaid loved it!

Great place for the little ones! Amazed by how clean it is and so many shady spots to take in the pretty gardens. Food is a little overpriced but it's an amusement park geared to kids and the food was pretty good. Would definitely return

Kids love it, the night time is the best part around Christmas time.

Very good for young kids and toddlers, not too busy, but some attractions didn't work. Also, rather expensive for its size.

Nice place, my kids and I had fun, but way over priced. $20 just for parking! Tickets are outrageous too, but luckily I got those on Groupon. And don't get me started on the food; one adult meal was close to $20!! I honestly won't go there again just because the prices are insane.

Great for young kids. However, food options are limited and really expensive.

Family theme park in a calm lonely atmosphere in Gilroy. Little kids enjoy than young kids. Water Oasis is the only clean and nice water place for kids in summer very few rides adults too can enjoy. In water oasis you can rent private Cabanas for shade and change room at $100-$200. We entered in to this park with much expectation after seeing the ADs all over bus hoardings and in TV. But after looking dirty water in Paddle Boats and other water fountains out excitement came down and decided not to go further water rides. Restaurants are very pricy and for 5 pieces of chicken wings+fries+soda costs ~$17.

I have a 5 year old daughter and she and her friend definitely injoied this place there's not a lot of lines like other Theme parks. They definitely love this place and we will be back

Beautiful gardens, family friendly. Three stars are for poorly managed and organized food management services. Young staff very courteous and friendly however it is apparent operations management lacking.

There was a lot of beautiful trees and agricultural to see they are different from other theme parks I ever have been to...There is a science of peace and happiness here. Lots to see and do!

It is suitable for children from 2 to 12 years old. When you buy tickets, you can make free annual cards, fill in forms at the exit, take photos, make annual cards on the spot, just wait 5 minutes, occasionally line up, summer Swimming pool, playing water is the favorite of parents and children, the environment is beautiful, the convenience store is also very good, members have a 20% discount, free parking, it is recommended to open a membership for a family, or $12 per parking fee. My child is very happy to play at 3 or 6 years old. There are many facilities in the park, large area, yin yin, cruise ship (foot boarding haha), playing in the water, good place during summer and summer vacation. Because the usual development day is week 5, 6, 7 . Open daily during the summer holidays. This is why I gave 4 stars.

A beautiful and fun day! We came here with it twin 15 year olds. We were clearly not the target demographic, but we had a great time on the lower key rides. The staff was incredibly friendly and the food was reasonably priced. Parking was a little much, but other than that, it was great!

We enjoyed our first time there with our little guy. He had an awesome time too. Glad we got 2020 season passes! Can't wait for more trips.

LOVE THIS PLACE!! So Fun, Entertaining and I had a great time there!!

Had a magical time here with the family for the holiday park experience. My toddler loved the rides and the 7 month old loved the lights and scenery.

Bought tickets for the night show that was canceled because of the rain. Our tickets were refunded and we were given free tickets to come back no questions asked and the owner apologized numberous times. They care about customer service! We will absolutely be back again during the day time. Worth the 3 hours trip!

Its a nice place to go on a weekend. Food is expensive as expected

Love the place for some family-friendly fun. I dont recommend the food, it is bad and overpriced. Recommend to bring you're own food or go out to eat.

The facility itself has beautiful landscaping and architecture. The park has been catered more towards young kids and elder groups who are interested in smaller rides and/or viewing their gardens. Not a lot of big thrill rides, but that's okay because the scenic views make up for it very well.

AMI FAM AND AMI AND MY CHILD WE ALWAYS LOVE WE HAVE A VERY GOOD TIME

Water Oasis in Gilroy gardens was fun for everyone and kept the kids busy for hours!

Hands down the best place to bring your kids if they are between 1-9 yo. This park is specifically tailored for children enjoyment. At 42" tall you can ride nearly every single ride all by yourself. I would absolutely recommend the annual pass because if you come twice in a year it will pay for itself. We typically go 6+ times annually.

Great place for toddlers! Its like a Great American for Toddlers. Recommend going during the week to avoid huge crowds. Lines for rides can get REALLY long when it's busy and that can be rough for little ones.

At ALL costs, only go to Gilroy Gardens if you have young kids and/or family with you. I went here as a single, young adult male to take pictures of the Circus Trees and study them for both my environmental fields of study and my own personal interests, and, from the start, I was treated like a child molester by their staff simply because I was a single male with a camera pointed at the trees. Their young female workers (all about my age) gave me nasty glares when I tried to smile and nod at them as I passed by to indicate that I am not a threat to them, and the park security guards tailed me for most of my two hours in the park gabbing on their radios and staring in my direction. The young woman I bought my ticket from was also nasty to the max as soon as I told her that I was buying just a ticket for myself--a young adult male with no kids and/or family--and it was plainly evident to me the switch that occurred as soon as she found out that I came to Gilroy Gardens alone.

The strangest part about all of this was, in fact, that--despite the park staff evidently having a problem with me checking out the Circus Trees and trying to be civil and friendly to vendors I passed by nodding at them and saying "hi", NONE of the families at the park seemed to have a concern that I was there.

Gilroy Gardens is in DIRE need of not profiling people just because of their age, gender, race, marital status, and general physical appearance, and NEEDS to realize that EVERYONE can enjoy trees and nature, and the people wanting to pay (a boatload of) money to enter their park one time are not always going to be families with young kids.

It is truly a shame that this park is no longer following the visions and ideals that it was founded upon. It has gone from a nature-based theme park to a lock-and-key excuse to stare down anyone that seems "out of place" among families with kids. Should I ever have children, this will be the last place on my list to take them.

I loved this cute little theme park. Tons of shade, plenty of benches. It was a very relaxed vibe, we did plenty of stuff but didn't feel overly exhausted by the end of the day. The weather was amazing as well, not too hot, I really enjoyed our visit and all my kids had things they could do and rides to ride.

Easy to get to with kid friendly, exhibits, and a water park. Can be explored in one full day.

I LOVE this place!! It's the best theme park for children under 10. My 2.5 year old daughter had the best time. My husband and I enjoyed every minute of the day too. It's just a fun lively park. We are planning our next trip and thinking of season tickets - even thought we live over two hours away.

My only reason for giving it 4 and not 5 stars is we had to pay extra to visit their Farmyard experience. The tickets to get in should've included this September promotion and paying $5 extra was upsetting. Especially because we didn't know about it until after we told my daughter we were going to play with the farm animals and could avoid going.

We love going here as a family. Our kids are 4, 6, and 8, so they are the perfect age for almost any ride.

We went for the first on new years eve. Had a great time with our family.

Great rides for children, nice setting and a fun place for everyone.

Price is great & lots of rides are for younger kids. Great park.
Love all the water parks.

Great place for young families. No need to worry about hectic things

Great for family with kids under 12 perfect great water park as well no need for multiple tix either

This is a large, attractively designed amusement park for pre-teen children. One roller coaster isn't very fast or scary. The rest of the rides are smaller, but there are enough choices for kids to spend all day enjoying themselves. Attractive gardens spread throughout the park help keep parents from getting bored.

Fun family spot but defiantly caters to the yungins, (2-10ish). This park has a little something for everyone. Lots of lil kids rides, a water area that's great during the hotter months, tons of beautiful landscaping, gardens and so much more.

We love this family park...its very nice and relaxing...its good for kids under 7 mostly but me as a mom enjoy it so well...we get their premium annual pass every year and enjoy it...

This place is pretty cool, bring your kids. They have a fun little water park.

Beautiful gardens and a wonderful place to visit...we had no small children with us and we still had fun!

Awesome place for family and kids.. loads of fun!!!

The water park is awesome!! And I love that the rides are included in the admission price. Even better than when I went a few years ago

The workers there look miserable and bored out of their minds the rides have no music not even the carousel!! It was a horrible experience the workers are too busy on their phones to pay attention to the clients my husband had to walk away from a few stands because the workers wouldnt stop texting kept telling him to hold on horrible horrible experience i feel even worse because it was my sons 5th bday i dont remember bofante being this bad before extremely dissapointed

A nice smaller theme park geared primarily for the younger set with rides and water features. There is a small picnic area just outside the entrance but close to the parking lot so you can bring your own food and save some $$$. A hand stamp will get you back in for free. The intricately grafted trees set here and there are quite interesting too.

Great place to bring the kids! Rides for my son of 3 years old, great little water park and reasonable concessions. Look for coupons for admission.

Our favorite place! We get memberships every summer.

Lots of little kids rides. The trees are the coolest part about the park.

I really love this place but wish there were more things for older kids

This is a fun place to take my niece she loves the rides as well as the water and barn

A great alternative to take the kids. They enjoyed their first attempt at outdoor ice skating as well as the lights decorating the whole park. Will return.

This place boggles the mind. If only there were more places like this in the world.

Every time I visit this place I always find something new. I am awe struck at the original vision of Michael Bonfante and his love of trees and horticulture that he had the vision and means to invest to dream and build such a wonderful place. And the creative landscape architect Karen Bernosky from Karen Aitken and Associates he hired in 1981 and worked with him for the next two decades in planning, designing, building such a beautiful and unique experience. What a park! What a destination. Such a wonderful experience.

If you have not yet visited what is now Gilroy Gardens DO IT NOW! If you love Nature, botany, color, water and surprising environments which delight the eye and heart, you owe it to yourself, your family and friends to experience this most wonderful place at least once.

There is so much - but particularly wonderful is they saved the famous and nearly lost forever circus trees by Axel Erlandson. Also wonderful are the historic rides they bought from the famous Elitch Gardens before it moved. To save those historic rides and change oh-so-subtly with Nature themes just shows the deep thought that went into making this place so special.

Being devoid of Hollywood movie artifice and the superficial nonsense so common elsewhere, this is a showcase of, by and for the beauty of Nature herself. That Michael Bonfante would spend so many scores of millions creating this wonderful place, and that Karen Aitken & Associates could spend decades making it real so that even in today's form as Gilroy Gardens tens of thousands can enjoy this respite from the 21st Century pablum is a joy.

Forgive the length of this post. I got carried away. But if it moves you to come and appreciate this vision and decades upon decades of hard work - then it was worth it. Go - visit - and if you ever come across Michael or Karen or anyone who created or operates this wonderful place - let them know if you enjoyed your visit.

Great place for younger kids and toddlers. Lines are not too long and not extremely crowded.

Ii like this place, very beautiful. We attended their Halloween event and it was fun. It is very expensive, I think, but it's unique.

It was really family friendly and great to spend a day with a toddler.

This place is our family favorite. There are so many family friendly things to do. The food is outrageously expensive, but they are totally fine if you pack a picnic. The rides are fun. The lines aren't long. The staff are friendly and helpful. They added to their oasis so that's going to be even more summer fun. The gardens are nice and pretty. It's a great fun place for families.

Always clean and staff is professional. Water park gets packed. Great place for small kids