Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park Review

I really wanted to like this place but, overall, the undertrained, bored staff members, the long waits in lines, and the VIP parties allowed to go in front of those who have already waited too long with young toddlers in their arms swayed my opinion to a very negative one. In addition, an adult ticket is $30, child $25, and the park on our visit was only open for 4 hours. By the time we waited in one line for nearly an hour... little time was left to enjoy anything. Nice grounds but be aware of the pitfalls.

The park is geared towards smaller children, it's very clean, and almost everything was operational. The only downside was food was not great and very overpriced. Hamburgers were 16.00 and so dry. Staff was very pleasant and attentive to the kuds

The whole family can have benefited but the children it is the joy for them

I love this park. It s so fun and amazing! Did you know? It took 25 whole years to build this. I don t know why. Nothing so special. Have any guess?

It was great spending time at the park at night. The light are amazing and the little one loved it

I love this theme park! This is the best theme park for young kids. There are lots of trees (helps stay cool in summer heat), and the grounds are beautiful. There are rides for all ages, and there's a water park inside as well. There are lots of food options, and even beer. But being that this is a theme park, the food and beverage options are expensive. I recommend bringing your own snacks/lunch.

Came here as a child pretty often when it was still called "Bonfante Gardens" and I have such great memories of all the rides and the park itself. Being back after 10+ years showed me that the park looks slightly more run down than before because all the rides are exactly the same, but the landscaping is as beautiful as ever. Came here on a Sunday in August, and unfortunately a few rides were not operational throughout our visit. The banana split (my favorite!) was out of commission the entire day, the rock maze was in the process of being torn down, and the mushroom swing was temporarily shut down for being faulty. It was still a nice (if not tame) experience, but definitely more of a nostalgic visit since this park is geared toward children and not people in their mid-20s.

Good for all ages. Expensive food. Nice guy named Jess got my sunglasses when they fell off my head on one of the rides. He was cute, too!

Fun for a small theme park. Also over priced for such a small theme park. But there are a lot if different kinds of things to do. LOVE the atmosphere, and theme of the park.

kids' friendly rides...small but nice water park...fun place...

More low key yet more exciting than the places in L.A. Kids love it just the same. Food choices limited, though.

Very beautiful and convenient place for family picnics and parties. Many activities are going on there from morning to evening.Rides will take all our time. Everyone can enjoy all of them along with children and some of them along with kids. Mini train is very enjoyable and the staff are very good in managing the rush.Gaint wheel is so attractive .The park is so beautiful with color lights in the evening.every thing is so perfect except the boating.

Don't bother with the membership. Park only opens limited times and days of the year, evening events are extra, parking is extra, everything costs extra on top of an expensive membership. Rides are good, just a shame the park owners are looking for any way to make money. Will not be taking out a membership again.

Fun place to go with my family. Wish the food wasn't as pricey as it was but overall great!!

Great theme park for smaller children. Annual passes are comparatively cheap, so you should definitely get those. The water-play area is excellent for the hot months. There's also regular rides for all-year long fun, including train rides, roller coasters, etc. All rides are small kid friendly.

This review is for Gilroy Gardens at night Only. It is ridiculous. If you like walking around in a closed park and almost every ride is closed and the couple of rides have super long lines because there are 6 total rides open, no coasters. Want food? Ha closed. The music is cool. 15.00 to park for a few hours. If yiu are already at the park during the day its 10.00 per person. Not worth it. The lights are kind of pretty. The only scary thing is how creepy it is to be in a closed park. More sad than scary. Here is all the candy we got.

Very beautiful place for the whole family, well presentable, friendly and attentive employees. Security in mechanical games very excellent.
The spectacular ambient sound a very nice place I recommend it to have a great time with your family.

Great place to spend time with family. Everything was overpriced. Why the hell are these prices more worse then Disney Land. Besides that, great experience had a lot of fun :)

Amazing place to take your children to play in the water park. Nice shade!!

I love it here I get season passes every year for my family.

A decent family park. Like every theme park out there, they upsell certain stuff but mostly ok.

Great place , great ride kids had blast for Halloween night

Great staff great rides and a great place to create memories with your kids

Family fun, really enjoyed my first time being here even as a an adult.

New year night was pretty good with fire works at the end... awesome family theme park for a day out in gilroy

It had a lot of beautiful scenery,gardens and its little kid friendly. It wasnt too crowded. We had fun. It had a little bit of everything including a splash pad.

Great value if you have purchased membership and are planning to visit several times.

Wonderful place for young kids, new water play this year!

Beautiful park with a lot of fun rides! My favorite is the quicksilver rollercoaster. It loses a star due to the terrible food (even for an amusement park).

Fantastic place to bring your kids and have fun. Check the day time and night time events during the holidays.

I was really impressed those beautiful spots. It gives me relaxation and excitement.

Great park for kids under 10 lots of shade and trees

We LOVE Gilroy Gardens. It s small, but very welcoming. Perfect for our twin three year olds. Lots of little kid rides. Tons of shade and beautiful landscaping. The Water park is great, but can get very crowded on hot weekend days. Food is marginal, but reasonable and there are some healthy options.

Excellent theme park for young kids

Pre book online to avoid the que, and access to the cheaper ticket price

Was quite amazed how good the park was.
For a Saturday most rides the line was not too long.

Fast pass is available, but see how busy the park is before you pay for it.

Plenty of restrooms

Plenty of food outlets and kiosks

Stroller friendly

Food outlets as expected are very expensive, but no different to any other theme park

Overall it was a good day well worth visiting if you have you got kids.

Great for small kids w/parents or grandparents. Clean too!

My son and I absolutely loved it and such accomadating staff. Note my son is a22 year old Autistic young man

It's a fun place to visit, especially with kids. They have amazing decors around Halloween and Christmas.

Great place for little kids...season pass is the price of a single admission. Definitely worth it!

A beautifully planted garden park with enjoyment for family of all ages.

My kid has fun at this place. Lots of facilities.its good for 2-5yrs kids

1st visit with family and grandson was very impressed with park water oasis and rides scenery was beautiful planning another trip with entire family for family reunion.

Big disappointment. All rides are slow and not exciting. No worth the time spent

Marketing Scam - Holiday Lights. Even though you purchase a "yearly" pass and you receive a email telling you to come and enjoy the Holiday Light event in Dec., the only way you can get in to this event is to purchase next year's pass. They are very "sorry" for the frequent "misunderstandings" that occur, do to the fact that the "yearly" pass doesn't include Dec., but there is nothing they can do. They admitted that these "misunderstandings" have occurred in the pass years as well, but they continue to mislead the public by not specifically letting you know when you purchase your pass that it does not include the Holiday Lights event. Please let management know how unacceptable this deceptive practice is by using your recreational dollars elsewhere.

Nice place. Overpriced tickets, overpriced food, $18 bottles of beer. Not surprisingly, food from outside is not allowed.

Great for toddlers and young kids, beautiful scenery

Best family theme park in the area absolutely love it

Perfect for a family day trip. You can do entire park in a day with some planning and theme park experience

Decent place... no crowd at all. With California great America gold card they still charged 15$ parking fee.

Great for family day out. Good parking Kids just love the place. The restaurants are good with varied choices.

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We took our daughter and 2 grand daughters on a Saturday. It was a beautiful day, and we were expecting to have a wonderful time. We were appalled to pay $15 to parking in addition to the pricey entrance fee. The first thing we encountered was a small petting zoo...at an additional fee! It was a very warm day, yet the water park area was closed, as were quite a few other attractions. After waiting over an hour for the paddle boats, we came to a food stand. I understood that prices would be high, but $16 for mini corn dogs is RIDICULOUS!!! No wonder every food venue, was deserted. The management obviously would rather gouge the customers than provide any affordable family fare. Do they not realize how much more they could earn from increased sales as opposed to standing idle?? Next time we visit our children, we won't be going to Gilroy Gardens unless these inane policies change. I would like to state that the teenaged staff were wonderful... polite, friendly, and very helpful. At least staffing was done well!!!

Gilroy City, California
Gilroy is a small city in Northern California, located south of San Jose city about an hour's drive away. There is a very special recreational garden, there are many special shaped trees in the garden. Originally these plants were from another garden, but measuring the open road plan, the garden was flat. Some people bought these plants and transferred them to Gilroy to recuperate and establish an interesting entertainment area. Grafting is a long and very elaborate process, requiring a great deal of perseverance and results, in the garden outside these trees there is also a rich botanical garden and a collection of mulberry butterflies format.
Gilroy also has another unique feature of growing and producing large garlic famous throughout the United States, hosting a huge garlic festival every year in July, and visitors flock to visit the festival to have fun. Enjoy strange dishes, and all have garlic flavor from barbecue, ice cream drinks ...
Photos from Internet

Great place for little ones. Totally worth it!! You ll need a stroller for sure. Wear comfortable shoes. I visited on a weekend and the lines weren t too long. Good food selection. You can bring snacks for your kids! So a small cooler is OK:) there is plenty of shade to rest.

The place is great for the family. I think children from 1 to 10 will really enjoy this place. If you are planning to eat there, I suggest you do it before 4pm because many restaurants close before that and your only choice will be pizza.

Recently enjoyed the Gardens with great-granddaughters, age 4 and 7. They had a fine time. But the park was not as well-kept as it has been in the past. Some features were in need of a good cleaning (for example, the Apple and Worm). Also, we ate at the Villa Pasta and Pizza, and it was in real need of a floor cleaning. Some of the flower beds were in sore need of attention (dead-heading and weeding). It seemed, too, that the musical backgrounds were pretty loud. All this being said, the staff were helpful and friendly and the children had fun. I hope management will pay more attention to details.

Great amusement park. Very clean and has tons of rides for younger children. Very reasonable prices on season passes! Make sure and take your family here. You won't regret it!

Magical place for children and adults! All rides were awesome .. The atmosphere was vibrant on New year's Eve and the crowd was really good. No foul language heard anywhere.

Nice day with my kids, all the activities are well presented and secure. The food really must improve

I take the nephews here and they have a great time. Ample space for them to run around. Food prices not too crazy for park food

Was expecting a run down local theme park, but was quite pleasantly surprised how well keep up and move this place is.

Great place for little ones not too fun for teenagers

Not too crowded and fun to go during the Christmas holiday for all of the lights and events. I'd say the rides are for smaller children, under 10

So my expectations were low when my wife told me this is where we'd ring in the new year, but we made the hour plus drive. While many of the rides are geared towards kids, we had a blast and were impressed with the fun rollercoaster. The new years celebration was fun, it was a great way to ring in the new year, and I'd recommend this place for a fun family diversipn