Taltree Arboretum and Gardens Reviews

Very beautiful place. miniture rail garden is very awesome.i love to go there again and again.

Neat outdoor train layout & a mini railroad history museum, inside a old depot style building. Beautiful trails & gardens to walk through & enjoy. Really cool interactive area for kids with a few animals too. We had a wonderful time. We stayed 5 hours and still didnt see everything. Plan on spending most of your day there, if you dont live close by.

I think this place should be under investigation. The turn over of employees, unsafe conditions, and where is all the money going?

We love the outdoors. And these outdoors are outstanding. They have a very large variety of trees and shrubs.It is just an awesome place .

We loved the gardens. The railroad garden was a lot of fun for the whole family!

Amazing for my toddlers. We went on a wooden adventure along nicely groomed trails.

Best place to hike and spend a day in the nature, bring snacks and drinks, walk and rest for a while. Do bring dogs and kids and also a great place for bird watchers..Parking is available.

Don t litter and apply sunblock

Staff was friendly and knowledgeable! Very peaceful area to visit. BIG train model

Wow! This place is so great! Price is very reasonable compared to other botanical gardens, and more to do. The grounds are expansive and filled with great places to explore. Play ground for kids and also climbing areas. The train garden is a MUST for a train loving kiddo or kid at heart! We had a wonderful time and will be back!

Family Fun! My boys love the model train garden and they very much enjoy seeing Thomas on the tracks along with the other trains. There is also a bunch of trails for hiking and some animals (goats, turkeys and chickens) which they like to see.

Amazing place. Very well cared for and plenty of opportunities for public awareness and, most especially, youth education about the importance of the natural world.

Nice place and really cool looking model trains....

We are frequent visitors of Taltree. My family visits at least twice a year and we have been going for the past ten years. Taltree is a beautiful place to visit nearly year round. Whether hiking the trails in the summer, seeing the new blooms in the spring, or attending a wedding in the fall, it is one of the most beautiful places to visit in our area. My kids enjoy the train garden and hiking to the ponds. It is also our favorite place to take our family pictures. We're also pleased that the arboretum has been hosting more and more fun events over the past few years. Take advantage of this hidden gem in Valpo.

They have hiking trails, an outside area of model trains you can walk through and learn about different times in history, also have a musical garden, an artistic garden. Very interesting place for all ages.

Great staff, well maintained grounds and nice wide walking paths in the prairie and woods. A nice small collection of farm animals, a very large outdoor train layout and some outdoor art.

Wonderful place to go. My 5 year old could sit and watch the trains for hours!

Gabis Arboretum & Gardens were beautiful. We spent almost the entire afternoon hiking and exploring the gardens. Although it was a little expensive we found it worth the entry fee. The train depot museum and train display garden wete amazing to see, so much detail and effort was put into the display. If you are in the area take the time to stop you will enjoy it.

This place is worth the stop. They have a very cool train set with moving trains and stuff to find in little dioramas. They even hide Waldo every day and no one knows where he is. Take the kids. Spend an hour here. Very very cool!

Fantastic experience. Trails, trains, fairy gardens, playground, animals, gardens, trees, etc

Very pretty place. Took my 3 year old granddaughter to see the train garden. She just loved it!! We all did! Awesome display! Nice trails, relaxing & pretty!

Dynamite location if n your into plants and the likes.

Not very wheelchair accessible. We could only access a fraction of the park

It's awesome. The train set is a lot of fun, and don't forget to get the scavenger hunt targets. The frogs were cool too! The trees are cool. Even though my kids thought they were stupid and boring.

I wonder if I can convince my daughter to get married there!!!

Real nice peacful place, just a lil bit more pricey than i would like. 10$ for an adult....

Amazing all around. Highly recommend to everyone - all ages - especially the model train "world!"

Very fun and interesting place. Many gardens and one with multiple train models and a large setup of model villages.Theres a small area with animals and a garden.Also when I visited there was a wedding so I would assume you can rent a area for an events.

The train display is the best anywhere. Kids love it peaceful restful place in nature. If you haven't seen the trains running in the set you've missed a great treat.

Very pretty area. A lot of quiet, peaceful trails to hike, and lots of information about the different types of plants featured there. Has a cool railroad-themed garden that kids and train enthusiasts would enjoy. There are also trails for horseback riding, if you bring your horse. Had a kids' adventure area with some animals to look at and some interactive stuff. Enjoyed the experience, but thought the admission price was a little high for what they offered. I would probably go back for some of the special events they hold here, or go back in spring to see everything in bloom.

This place is pretty amazing! We walked around the train layout at least 3 times. The trimmed miniature trees and scaled down town were meticulously taken care of. We all wished we were miniature, and that we could live in there! Be sure to ask for the scavenger hunt. We hiked several of the trails. This is a great place for both young and old, and a great family experience!

This was a great safe place for my year and a half old daughter to run around and let off her toddler energy. She loved the goats and chickens. Her favorite thing though was playing in the giant sandbox.

The model train garden was well done and detailed. The lush gardens and variety of trees made the hike an easy walk. If you haven't been, put it on the bucket list!

Beautiful grounds with many different areas to explore. The model train exhibit is wonderful and it has a fun train themed park for the kids.

My daughter's wedding was absolutely beautiful here. Kelly went above and beyond to make it a very special day.

Very nice with lots of activities spread throughout the park. Little pricey though.

Beautiful place with many different types of gardens. Well kept up and clean

Great customer service well kept park, good time for kids at the Adventure park and train parks. A good place to hike and take in nature.

Beautiful place. Lots of trails, so if you like to walk, this place is for you!

This is a beautiful park! It does cost to get in and it IS per person which I think really stinks and needs to change to PAY PER CAR because it can get really pricey just for a park... my husband and I took our kids and they enjoyed it.

*note: the train display is outside, avoid going on a hot day because it can become dreadful **

Nice mixture of forest and prairie here. There's lots of cool wildlife and plenty of parking. If you like model trains then there's even that for you as well surprisingly. They also have goats and turkeys staying here. Pretty neat

Very disappointed in the lack of care that is being taken at the Gardens. We have been here other times in the past years and it was beautiful. Not sure if it all went down hill once the university took over. The students are not doing a good job at all. There are weeds everywhere. The perennial gardens and vegetable gardens have not been taken care of. Not worth the price to walk though dead gardens. The Rail Road Garden was not open either. Not coming back anytime soon.

Gardens are not well maintained anymore. Was much nicer when it was TallTree...

Beautiful outdoor area to wonder. Has a small area with animals and you can even pet the goats. Lovely walking trails of varying lengths

Walk the dog here. Longish trails with options to go further.

What a beautiful place next time I will bring my grandchildren

Great fun and learning for families of all sizes and ages!

Great place to visit probably best times would be late spring summer an early fall. Awesome historical Railroad project

Train layout with villages and plants is excellent. Enjoyed the guided tour...worth the money.

An enjoyable day visiting frog pond with very loud bull frogs, seeing fairy houses and a sculpture, easy walking trails. Dogs are ok to visit as well

Train exist is interesting and informative. The trails are beautiful and the office at the train exibit has backpacks with binoculars and wild life books at no charge. The just want you to leave a photo id.

Is free admission through the winter. Nice place to walk or bring the dog for a run.

Dog friendly Arboretum! Cute little fairy house Trail.

It has very nice walking trails. But if it's been raining, make sure you're ready to get a bit muddy. (it was early in the season so maybe the trails are better kept later in the year.) It's also close to a lot if residential area, so you can hear people mowing their lawns. Nothing gabis can do about that though.

If you get a chance to visit make sure you bring your hiking shoes! This place had so much to offer and has very beautiful trails to follow with beautiful scenery. My wife and I made an impromptu trip here and took some pictures and walked the trails. It was a perfect day, there was a beautiful breeze and you could hear all the birds. I highly recommend making a visit here. You can even bring your family and make a day out of it!

Beautiful land with nicely-groomed trails. My only concern is that the trails would often have multiple forks in the road without any markings. I wasn't sure which path was the one I wanted to stay on.
Otherwise I liked the swampy areas. Saw a couple of Herons and lots of frogs! Of course, carry plenty of bug spray or whatever you use for the bugs. Can't stop walking for too long or they'll eat you alive.
The information house and the train set were nice. Great diaramas depicting Illinois' history. Especially loved the scene with the train that transported Lincoln's body back to Illinois after his assassination. There were a pair of beautiful American Goldfinches bathing in a stream of the set, which was awesome to see.
I'd recommend a visit. Maybe in the Autumn when the leaves are changing and the bugs are less plentiful!