Continuing my tour of places I’ve somehow never been to before even though I grew up nearby, we recently checked Longwood Gardens off my “want to visit” bucket list. Located about an hour outside of Philadelphia, the gardens are a major tourist attraction that draws MASSIVE crowds both during the summer and over the Christmas season. It is often ranked among the most beautiful gardens in the world, among the likes of the Singapore Botanical Gardens, Shinjuku Gyo-en in Tokyo, Keukenhof in Lisse in the Netherlands, and Pukekura Park in New Zealand. In 2024 a UK-based travel company even went so far as to name it the prettiest in the world!

You could easily spend an entire day here, especially if you make a pitstop at the Beer Garden or grab lunch at one of the restaurants. We walked through in about 2.5-3 hours and saw just about everything. Between word of mouth and online reviews, most will advise against trying to visit Longwood Gardens on a summer weekend. It gets very crowded and tickets sell out early. So if you must go on a weekend, buy your tickets early and online in advance. Of course we didn’t take that advice and visited on a Saturday in August. We were smart about it at least! That morning it’d been raining, which tends to deter most people from outdoor activities. We brought umbrellas just in case but it cleared up about 20 min after we arrived. So we got to enjoy everything with much smaller crowds than a normal weekend day.

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Longwood Garden Highlights

The gardens cover over 1,000 acres so there is a TON to see. But rather than droning on forever, I figured I’d just highlight some of my favorite parts! I will note there was quite a bit of construction going on when we visited, as they are in the process of finalizing Longwood Reimagined. Opening in November 2024, this expansion will add new buildings and gardens across 17 acres of the grounds. These new additions include the West Conservatory, Bonsai Courtyard, and Cascade Garden and Waterlily Court. I think I’m most excited to see the Waterlily Court myself!

Main Fountain Garden

If you turn left immediately after exiting the Visitor Center, the Main Fountain Garden will be one of the first areas you’ll come to. Most people watched the fountain show from in front of the conservatory, where you can get a full view of everything, but we hung out on top of the building that holds the Grotto. You won’t get the full view you’ll get at the conservatory, but it was a whole lot less crowded!

The Grotto

Conservatory District

The Conservatory District covers a number of different spaces, including the Historic Main Conservatory, Acacia Passage, Silver Garden, and Orchid House. The new additions I mentioned earlier from Longwood Reimagined will eventually fall within this area as well. I probably could have spent hours wandering through the conservatory. The amount of color all that surrounded us made me completely forget the clouds and drizzle waiting outside.

Italian Water Garden

When we got to this area we were reminded of our time in Italy – which is unsurprising considering Mr. du Pont was apparently inspired by his own trip to Florence when he planned this particular garden section! Its a must see, especially if you can’t make it all the way to Italy to visit Villa Gamberaia!

Pierce-du Pont House

There is a surprising amount of interesting history behind Longwood Gardens and its founder, Pierre S. du Pont, which you can learn in the Pierce-du Pont House. Its basically its own little museum! Some fun facts that I personally found interesting:

• Mr. du Pont received a chemistry degree from MIT, and became very wealthy from his time running DuPont and then General Motors.
• He began work on the first garden, the Flower Garden Walk, in 1907.
• Over the course of a few decades he slowly bought up 25 different properties to create what is now Longwood Gardens.
• He and his wife didn’t have any children. So before his death in 1954, he set up a foundation that would transition Longwood from a private estate to the beloved public gardens it is today.

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Dining & Shopping

There are two restaurants (which we didn’t stop in), as well as a beer garden with surprisingly reasonable prices. For the same price of about 1 entrance fee/ticket, we bought: 3 beers, a water, a cookie and 2 bags of chips. Considering how expensive concessions can be at similar venues like the zoo or aquarium, I was honestly shocked we weren’t charged an arm and a leg. The Café is a family-friendly cafeteria style restaurant (but with better food options from what I could see). And finally is the 1906, a fine dining restaurant where reservations are recommended. Just be sure to keep in mind that you can’t access either restaurant or the beer garden without also purchasing an entrance ticket for the gardens.

The gift shop in the visitor center on the other hand IS accessible without a ticket, as its located just before the ticket scanners. Here you’ll find a mix of home goods, clothing, garden supplies, books, and even some kids toys. While I probably could have filled an entire cart with all the cute things I found, I managed to show some restraint. I did convince Jasper to let me add another mug to my (excessive) collection, even though I don’t have space for it…

What’s your favorite section of Longwood Gardens? Let me know in the comments!

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