San Francisco Botanical Gardens Review

Beautiful place. Bring your camera and be sure to know how to do macro focusing.

This is a huge beautiful Botanical Garden in San Francisco. In fact entry is free for San Francisco resident. For others it is $12 for adults. Garden has wide variety of plants. Spring and fall are best time to visit. There are several Magnolia tree, it is really pretty to watch. There are several benches through out the park where you can sit and enjoy the nature. A must visit place.

Used to come here when it was called The Arbouretum. Why change the name?

Nice spots and entertainment for family and friends!!!

Beautiful place! I do feel they should charge more for admission. The collective Flora in the garden is spectacular. Many different species from all over the world find their home here and it is a marvel at life of plants that most won't see in their daily lives

So many spots to take great photos. The weather in February can be cool and overcast, so bring a jacket if you're from a warmer climate. Very well-maintained botanical garden. Busy but not overcrowded.

The garden in general is very beautiful, although I think the part that I liked the most was the Sequoia, but the whole garden really deserves to be visited

A Gem in the city. Nice place to walk, the nature so peaceful and tranquil.

It s such a pretty place to visit, but not much going on in the winter. I m sure it s amazing in the spring when the flowers bloom. The lady at the booth was super friendly and made an effort to give us recommendations. There were a few blooms, but not enough to take my breath away.

Beautiful gem in golden gate park! Free for SF residents or early birds.

The weather was beautiful... Although overcast that entire day. It still provided is a fun afternoon, to walk the garden for over 4 hours

I love this garden where you can discover plants and trees from all over the world

Beautiful and peaceful place to have a snack on a bench and appreciate being outdoors. On a weekday morning only a few other people around so very easy to distance.

The 1PM tour really brought the venue to life. Interesting walk through well maintained Mediterranean gardens.

I could literally spend a week in here. Such a great diversity of all sorts of life!

A jewel for the people of San Francisco for its natural beauty.

Beautiful place with lots to see but kind of confusing where things were. Would love a live map online. My daughter LOVED the pianos in the garden.

Various species of plants, cover almost the whole world

This place is really cool. They have sections from around the world. It was so cool to see redwoods and a huge section of succulents I had never seen before. We were able to take lovely pictures. Make sure you get a map so that you see the whole garden. For residents it is free! I would be on that lawn every weekend reading.

Simply beautiful! Love the plants from different countries and continents! Also very impressed how clean the garden is. Highly recommended for a Sunday stroll:)

Beautiful species of plants. Great spots to just sit and admire the environment. Great pathways to view the plants. Favorite place to regather from the world outside.

This is the place that all San Francisco should go and your San Francisco ID will get you in for free. Visitors pay a low price. Even during covet times most everyone is wearing a mask and being very respectful of each other and the plants from all over the world are spectacular there's even a redwood tree grove. My favorite is the scented garden.

What a wonderful place to walk around, smell the flowers, feel the trees and the bushes, and get a thorough insight in various plants from all over the world. Great place! A big thanks to all the volunteers that keep this place so beautiful!

Idyllic place in San Francisco. Quite empty before noon, do if you want to take pictures come early!

My family and I had an excellent time here. I d recommend checking out the website or else going with a local who has been here before so that you will have an idea as what to expect.

A place for beautiful walks or hangouts and the perfect place to get to know more about plants native to California as well as other parts of the world. The Redwood Grove is absolutely stunning. There are plant sales at the nursery during the weekends and every day at the main entrance (visit their website for more details).

The place is cozy and nice to dine together with friends, loved ones and family. The sizzling squid is delicious and the truffle pizza is very ok.

This garden is huge! They have an enormous variety of plantings. Make sure you have plenty of time to see it all.

So many plants all in one place! A peaceful place to sit back and enjoy nature

Compared to the other botanical gardens Ive been to, SF one is just ahh.. ok.

EXCELLENT! While only SF residents get in for free, it was worth it. Went in mid February and the magnolia trees were gorgeous. They have all different zones; my favorite is the redwoods.
There's a beautiful big pond complete with ducks, turtles and geese.
It was AMAZING. I highly recommend it.
I want to go back in about a month when all the flowers will be blooming.

What a special place to visit in the middle of San Francisco. I loved all the hidden trails and secret areas for peaceful meditation. My favorite part was the Redwood Forest!

Very big garden, lots of fancy plants.

Note that entry is free for SF residents, but not free for others! And there weren't any student prices for entry either, only adult and youth (under 18).

Gorgeous park, well worth the price of admission, live seeing not only flowers, but mature trees and shrubs from all over the world. Especially loved the Australia zone. Finding the entrance on maps is hard, as the street it's on is park road, not a public one with an address. Free parking on the road though, and it wasn't crowded at all when we went.

worth a visit. small but many hidden places to find

Who doesn't enjoy a walk around a botanical garden. Being a kiwi I would have liked them to use more of the native names for the NZ plants. Otherwise great.

Meh, came in December, quiet and not a lot of color

~ Ease of Access ~
1 : Twenty Mile Hike
5 : Accessible to anyone and everyone



~ Staff ~
1 : Incredibly Rude
5 : Nicest people ever



~ PRICE ~
1 : Months of savings gone
5 : Free



~ Local ~
1 : Nothing good near
5 : Literally at SixFlags



~ FUN ~
1 : I'd rather watch paint dry
5 : Ride of your life



~ Overall Experience ~
Great gardens, amazing plants. Staff were good, and lots to do within 5 miles

~ Final Review ~


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Enjoyable, but unsure if it was worth the entry fee. If I were back again during December, I don't think I would return.

I have visited the botanical garden and arboretum since before I can remember. This is a world class place of flora wonders. Walk through, breathe deeply.

Tranquility in the heart of San Francisco & the entrance is free of charge for SF locals

Possibly the most beautiful place on earth. So wonderful

One of my favorite places in the world. I come here all the time, wander aimlessly with friends or get lost by myself..I love reading or taking naps in the sun on one of the many perfect lawns..so many trails to get lost on..ponds to sit by..the magnificent foliage and trees from all over. I love this place.

Free admission for SF residents with valid ID.

Such a stunning place. They have all sorts of fun events - especially for members. We love to grab a coffee from a shop nearby (like snowbird) and then explore the gardens. The fragrance garden is my personal favorite, as is the moon garden and the redwood Grove, and the California natives. Free for SF residents and well worth it for others

Beautiful arboretum with international prizewinning collections arranged in geographic zones, a scent garden, an ancient plant garden, a rhododendron glen, beautiful areas suitable for celebrations. Free admission for San Francisco residents with proof of address. Maps of whatever is especially notable right now as well as of the whole arboretum. Docent tours. Shop with books, plants and seeds. Library.

One of the finest botanical gardens in any city I ve been to: there are lots of hidden gems and semi-private spots tucked away for you to bring a picnic, read a book, make time with someone special, or just get lost for a few hours.

This is just stunning place right in center of the city. Come here to play with your kids!

Beautiful and peaceful place to walk or sit and take in the loveliness.

Great to hear the pianos being played as we walked throughout the gardens doing this special 12 days. Sometimes you'd hear more than one piano at a time but the different tunes never clashed. In fact, we couldn't help smiling and dancing to the rhythms. Very nice! The pianos being played within the gardens added to the experience of viewing the flowers and plants, which were great too. We followed our ears...drawn to the next piano being played.

Beautiful, serene and restful place in the middle of the chaos of golden gate park on a Sunday. Definitely worth the ticket. If you happen to visit at springtime you'll enjoy a riot of beautiful flowers and trees in bloom. Lovely and huge. Almost a park in itself

A great refuge in the heart of the city with a diversity of garden types.

Lots of interest as well as inspiration for your own garden. I've never seen flowers like those on the Chilean Rock Bromeliad - as if moulded from wax and an extraordinary shade of turquoise.

What a fantastic place to visit. Absolutely gorgeous.

Great place to take a walk through. It was 20 for a family pack, so not bad. It js large though and we got a little lost. Remember it gets cool/cold in thr late afternoon so dress appropriately.

Do you like flowers? Native plants? Plants organized by locality? A redwoood grove? Fountains? Ponds with fish? Geese? That last one was rhetorical (Ihaven't liked geese since one attacked me when I was 10). But if you like the rest of those things and can handle seeing a few geese, come to the botanical gardens.

Its very beautiful place to hang out with friends and family...

I was in botanical garden in the period of time when there was advertisement of magnolia bloom. Nothing special. Few trees. It is not worth to come here if you saw magnolia bloom in A.V. Fomin botanical garden in Kiev, Ukraine. I like when an odor of magnolia embraces you as it is in Fomin botanical garden. I didn't feel that in SF botanical garden

Beautiful garden that I didn't even know existed! It was quite big to explore and walk around in. Loved the Andean Cloud Garden and Succulent Garden but they are all so different and wonderful. Take a day and just go explore nature in the middle of SF. Lots of places to sit down at or just relax and take it all in. Big bonus free for SF residents.

Extraordinary place, especially for those of us who love nature, an excellent place to relax and stroll with oneself

Great place to visit, free for residents of San Francisco, 9 dollars for non residents. Good displays of plants and trees from around the world. It has rest rooms and drinking water fountains, but no cafes.

If you have ever been into any other Botanical garden in the world, don't wast your time with this one. It is way far from a real Botanical garden. There is no plant or flower there, that you can't see the same on on sidewalks'of San Francisco...if you just have some walk around the city.
The garden is not well maintained. The spider webs are all over the Succulents. The plants are very ordinary with minimum variations.
However, the staff are very polite and helpful.
For the same adventure prace, I highly suggest you to visit the Japanese tea garden across the street and enjoy your time, flowers, and Designs.

Needs more signs more rest area more benches more side trails more parking

Full of wildlife, including hummingbirds everywhere, even in mid December. Beautiful gardens. Would walk again.

Such a wonderful find. Been here in the bay area for 45 years never been here. Soooo beautiful.