Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park Review

Clean, great place for kids 8 and under. Had a blast running around with my nieces and nephew.

A wonderful theme park tucked away in south bay. Plenty of fun rides, open space and food options. They just opened a water park area inside which is supposed to expand in 2018.

Fun day at Gilroy Garden today. My son (4.5 year-old) and daughter (2 year-old) loved this place especially during the summer season. This is when the Water Oasis opened for fun time. My kids loved playing in the water. The water oasis got bigger and better this year. They did a whole new renovation of the water theme park over the year. We spent about 80% of the time here.

Along the edges of water oasis, there sits about ten cabanas you could rent for a day for $200. Which it's worth it, if you planned to stay there for a whole day and have kids that they could take a nap. There also free seats and shades around the park.

Besides the water fun, the Garden comes alive with the summer vibe of verdant vegetations, trees and blooming flowers coloring the park with green, red, yellow, pink and blue.

I went here for a field trip. The field trip was boring but i learned alot! The duck rides are SUPER FUN!!!

Great amusement park. Obviously, very child friendly. Great for kids in the 12 & under range. Food isn't too expensive, and even cheaper with a membership. Which brings me to my ONLY concern really, the price. Adults may as well pay the extra & get the membership. The day pass price is a little too high for what little they actually have for adults. Besides that, check online for other events & themes (for example: they had ice skating for Winter Holidays). All in all, I still had a great day. Staff is extremely friendly, helpful, & engaging which makes the experience that much better

Cannot believe that this is the first year we have been to the Gilroy Gardens. The best family theme park if you have kids under 10. Everything about the place is well thought through. Very shaded park for the hot summer days. Park is pretty clean and the crew very nice.

Rides are excellent for the age group and the park is relatively small for the little ones. Little to no wait time for most rides even on the weekends. The water play area is super awesome but expect a lot of people and kids during summer.

Great place for family and small kids. Love the water oasis area. Prices are decent. If you get a premium pass there alot of great incentives. My Kids enjoy it. Clean safe family environment. Only negative I have is the water oasis after dark should really be pushed for adults only. I know they really cant say that but the idea is for a adults to have a few hours of fun, drinks, good company with no kids .

This is an awesome place for kids and kids at heart. The gardens are beautiful, the rides are fun, and the food is good.

Amusement parks are usually crowded, dirty, and low quality. Gilroy Gardens is none of these. All of the rides were about a 0-5 minute wait, and that was in the middle of July. The shaped trees are one of my favorite parts. My family had such a great time and we would go every day if we could. The pond is cool and the staff is friendly and happy.

People here are great, but the getting on and getting off the ride process seems unnecessarily laboured and long. BBQ looks delicious!

Great for kids and family. Pro tip get the gold pass from great america and when you go for parking at Gilroy gardens pay the season parking pass.

Quaint relaxing theme park with no rush. Great place to spend a hot day

An amazing place for families. A very family friendly place!!

Good rides and water park. Paddle boats. No outside food.

This park is clean the lush gardens, waterpark, lake with swan and mallard duck paddle boats was so charming. The rides were geared to small kids and a few thrill rides. Food was healthy and plentiful. We will come again.

Fun place for kids - clean & family friendly environment - upbeat staff.

Offers a good variety of rides for kids and is not over priced. For most of the park, trees offer shady spots to escape the sun.

My girls loved it, really crowded on a Saturday. Next time ill go on a weekday and pack swimsuits for everyone. Also byow (bring your own water) 2 for 6.50 is just criminal

Personally, I believe that Gilroy Gardens is not "family friendly." In fact, as a teenager, I was very rudely treated. My sister and I went during the Halloween event, and went to a station for candy. When we said "trick or treat" we were told we couldn't have candy because we were too old.

Heavenly color lights. Great fun for the entire family.

It's the perfect amusement park for little kids. And it's remarkably beautiful.

If you have kids and live nearby, this is probably is pretty good place to go to. There are a few water rides and a pool, a small and medium sized roller coaster, and a handful of other amusement park rides. Not a lot to do, but it is entertaining for a little while.

Great place to go and take the whole family especially the younger ones. Also good for couples to enjoy the multiple gardens within the amusement park and walk alongside various waterfall alongside streams. The entrance walkway is a big beautiful bridge. Lots of walkways that are serene and easygoing. Very relaxing and beautiful views. Went on Memorial day and it was not crowded at all. I highly recommend if you like nature watching. Lots of different places to eat: Asian food, Mexican food, pizza, BBQ kebabs, kid friendly eats, Boba place, Dippin dots, and a Cafe serving coffee to keep you awake while taking in the sights and sounds. Don't forget the funnel cake shop. The rides are mostly kid friendly with the most thrilling one would be the coal mining one, goes medium fast just enough to get your blood pumping. The monarch garden we didn't see any butterflies, but different kinds of smaller trees like mango and coffee bean trees, not as nice as the gardens, so maybe skip that. One of the main highlights of our trip was the enclosed waterfall area. There's a walkway and you can step right up to the 4 waterfalls. 2 of them can splash on you too. A must see up close! All in all, a great day for going out!

Gilroy Gardens is a beautiful place and my kids love it. Have had allot of great times there . Gilroy Gardens is a Family Theme park and it was shocking to me how much alcohol was being served on New Year's. It was like walking into a night club .I sure don't want my young CHILDREN to be surrounded by people who have been drinking.Not really thinking about safety of families.Not everyone can control themselves..I just don't get it .

We went for the Chinese Illumination event and it was great. Got groupons so it was about 17$ pp and 14$ for parking. Not very crowded, plenty of food options, 50 min drive from Milpitas. To see the lights, we went around 6.30 PM and spent about 3 hours there. Surely worth a visit once.

This park is mostly for kids, they always enjoy here.

This place is good but once you get out the parking spot you can t get and then they guide you to another spot and it s a mile hike specially when it s hot wow

The water park at the garden is much more exciting than last year, overall I had a better experience this time round.

Awesome place if you want a fun day out with the family :)

This place is perfect for families! My 3-year-old loves the rides and water areas. I love the fact that it's not very crowded and the prices are reasonable. Plus, they have a few rides that are faster and geared towards older kids & adults. They also have fun special events like lunch with Santa and a petting zoo that cost more money, but are worth it.

Initially I was thinking it's expensive. But then once we got inside we figured we've been mistaken. It's worth it.

Such a beautiful park lots of waterfalls and beautiful landscapes. Park is good for young kids lots of rides for them

My kids love it. Especially the Water Oasis. I love the cabanna area where I can stay cool and relax, resort style, while the kids enjoy themselves. If you live close by, should think about being members. It's worth it.

Just did not like area it was small and for big kids the kiddie area is small

We really enjoyed camping here. The fee for one night of camping, watching movie , three meals and one theme park ticket, was $70, which was very reasonable. When you watch movie, I recommend you to seat close to the front since the screen is not so big. It was very cold at dawn.
In the theme park, luckily we didn t wait in line a lot except for the ride South County Backroads.
There were some water playgrounds and a shallow pool for the kids, it was so much fun!
==Camp Night Itinerary==
*1st day
4pm-6pm Arrival and tent set up time
6pm-7pm Dinner
8:30pm Movie at the Amphitheater (Pop corn and Drinks were provided)
11:00 Lights out
*2nd day
7:30am-8:30am Breakfast
8:30am-9:30am Pack up and drive to parking lot A
10am Theme Park
12pm-1pm Lunch
1pm-6pm Theme Park

The kids really enjoyed themselves, it's definitely gear towards younger kids though (8 and under)

Good for younger children but still a few rides for older. Rides are tame compared to Great America. But very clean and less crowded.

Great place for kids. Great water park in the summer. Lots of trees, so lots of shade.

Very funny especially for children my kids loved it

Its really fun for everyone but mostly kids. I recommend coming here during vacation with family or friends

Its gilroy gardens and its super fun its for friends and familys and they have fun rides for big kids and little kids

Hot very hot need more cooling stations and water should be free

Great place to take the family for a fun day during summer

Beautiful place to visit, kids loved it, husband loved it, I love this place. Weather is beautiful in May. Friendly staff, clean atmosphere, rides and entertainment.

I had a awesome time here! The gardens were great to walk through and seeing the waterfalls was amazing!

Very good atmosphere to spend with the family, it is fun for young and old

Great experience every time, my family goes, little kids just love the atmosphere of the park.
And always well kept up park and friendly staff..

The park is great, five stars, but I'm taking away one star because of the restaurants, specifically the Pasta & Pizza place. Staff is incredibly poorly organized. Kept making pizzas which no one ordered, and the food the folks have ordered wasn't being worked on. We, and plenty of folks around us, have waited for over an hour for our food. One sweet older lady was delivering food to the tables, and at one point she came over to folks standing and waiting for their food and asked what's we'd like to drink. She basically gave us free water or sodas. Was very nice of her! Made us feel better, but still over an hour wait for pasta and pizza?? (And that's after we've waited in the line to actually order the food...)

Totally fun was there for the big boo halloween festivities

Okay. Parking was $20. I thought it was $10. Good place for families with children.

great place for sone family fun, show up around opening and lines are minimal. the new water attraction is a hit. highly recomended.

Great for kids between 4 and 9. Older kids will bore quickly and there are very few rides for under 3. Otherwise it's a great place, never overcrowded and full of shade.

Decided to take my grandkids there for their birthdays. The parking was easy to find, the entrance was a breeze, the first couple rides were fun for the little ones, food was ok , lines were decent for a Sunday. Only rated 2 stars because one of the disgruntled employees (their name was itsel or Itzel. She Gave me attitude to me and my grandkids .She had terrible customer service. No respect for elderly. When I requested to speak to a manager. She said I would have to file a complaint online. What kind of employee has bad customer service like this. The other ones I encountered were nice and friendly to me. I m 58 years old and I only wanted to take my grandkids to have a good time for their birthday but only got disrespected by her.

It was relaxing, my daughter enjoyed herself. I didn't know what to expect. But we had a fun day with her friends from her girl scout troop. The park is definitely geared towards younger children. Lots of greenery and shade and some interesting trees.

Food is overpriced but a good atmosphere for all at Christmas. Don't forget to check out: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Very fun way to spend 2-4 hours with children 3-12, with rides to accommodate all ages :) Best part is a purchase of a day pass can turn into a season pass without any extra money. Oh ya, and its a tax write off ;)

New water oasis expansion is great! The Gilroy library also allowed residents to read books to score free tickets to Gilroy Gardens. Lines are never long, very age appropriate, and probably the best boba shop in town.

"Happy Hollow with a Great America price".

Finally made it over to GG. We had a pretty good experience, but the price was too high for what you get. We had gold passes at Great America, which got us free admission. I think we would have been more unhappy had we paid full price.

To set expectations, think Happy Hollow, but replace the animals with slightly bigger rides, throw in a small water park and carnival games, shrink the playground, and you've got Gilroy Gardens.

For comparison, Happy Hollow admission is $14.95. Gilroy Gardens admission is $58. Great America is $59.99.

I agree with other reviews that the target age at GG is about 6. Ages 8+ are likely to get bored pretty quickly. We came with a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old and it was a good fit, but most of the rides were too boring for there 5-year-old.