The Magical Children’s Gardens at San Diego Botanic Garden

Toni’s Tree House is dreamy, no?

If you visit a botanic garden with kids, chances are you make a pit stop at the children’s garden (if they’ve got one). You can usually count on these spaces to offer magical, interactive opportunities for little visitors.

So imagine our delight when we visited San Diego Botanic Garden, which has not one, but two separate children’s gardens – both of which invite and encourage kids to play. Yeah, we were pretty excited.

San Diego Botanic Garden consists of four miles of garden trails on 35 acres. There are plenty of grown-up spaces to be found here – including the requisite gorgeous flowers and trees, a pond (complete with dragonflies and frogs aplenty), the nation’s largest bamboo collection, a tropical rain forest lined with streams and pools, and even a waterfall.

But let’s be real – our visit was all about the children’s gardens.

The first, the Seeds of Wonder Children’s Garden, is designed with preschoolers in mind (though the 6-year-old enjoyed it, too). It features a dinosaur garden, playhouse, water pump, vegetable garden and a miniature garden railroad.

After watching trains go by more times than I can count, pumping water at the pump station and plenty of lizard chasing, we were able to lure the kids away with promises of an even bigger children’s area at the other end of the Garden. Said garden, the Hamilton Children’s Garden, is one of the most fantastic natural play areas I have yet seen.

Here kids can climb Toni’s Tree House in a jungle canopy, hop through an elephant foot tree forest, see live quail (though we didn’t during our visit), play in a mountain stream, make music, draw on a giant chalk wall and more.

The little explorer needed little more than to catch a glimpse of the mountain stream and he was gone. He was enthralled, settling into a solo endeavor that can best be described as “push-the-boat-up-and-down-the-stream;” Repeat.

Meanwhile, the big explorer and his new friends (the lovely children of Ms. Lori from SoCal With Kids, who was our tour guide for the day) roamed the entire area. Watching them reminded me of that freedom so few kids have today. They were completely lost in their own world.

The 3 ½ hours we spent at San Diego Botanic Garden wasn’t nearly enough. We’re so going back.

Tips for Visiting With Kids

• Start at one children’s garden & work your way to the other. The two children’s gardens here should be the main focus of any visit with kids.

• Bring a change of clothes. The mountain stream in the Hamilton Children’s Garden may be intended as a place to float boats, but trust me, you kids will want to get wet. There’s plenty else there to get little explorers good and dirty.

• Be prepared for some serious walking. There are some pretty serious hills for little legs, so consider bringing a stroller for little explorers (just be prepared for pushing it uphill!).

Planning Essentials

• Garden highlights include two children’s garden, a bamboo garden and pond, a subtropical fruit garden, a tropical rainforest & waterfall & loads more
• San Diego Botanic Garden is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (extended summer hours, open to 8 p.m. on Thursdays); closed Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Admission is $12 for adults, $6 for kids ages 3 to 12, kids 2 & under are FREE
• Free admission on the first Tuesday of every month
• Garden pathways are stroller friendly, though some parts are hilly
• Flush toilets can be found throughout the garden
• Parking is $2
• Small gift & plant shop open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily
• Drinks and snacks are available near the Visitor Center

San Diego Botanic Garden is located at:
230 Quail Gardens Drive
Encinitas, CA 92024
(760) 436-3036