Zilker Botanical Gardens

I spent the latter part of an afternoon here while visiting the city. I love the beauty of botanical gardens and this one is nice. The Japanese garden is peaceful and offers tranquility. I enjoyed strolling through the rest of the grounds, but because of the season, the more vibrant flowers were not in bloom. Still, taking in the scenery of the season is also pleasurable.
Admission is only $ 3 per person (CASH ONLY) for non-​residents. There was lots of parking and a cool little gift shop. I did not see any food concessions.
I’d love to visit this place in the spring time to see all the native flowers in full bloom.

This was a great spot to visit during my last trip to Austin. My friend and I had some time to kill before a conference and we wanted to get some exercise in. A quick peek on Unilocal!directed us to this tranquil garden. It was worth the trip and we enjoyed a leisurely hour long stroll. We zenned out in the peaceful greenery and enjoyed the sights for only $ 3.00 each (since we’re not locals — I believe it’s $ 2.00 for locals). That’s a win in my book!
Expect to see:
A) Flowers with nice trails to observe the greenery
B) A cool Koi pond
C) A Japanese themed garden with rock work and pools with stepping stones
D) A ‘prehistoric garden’ adorned with dinosaur statues and footprints in cement — great for the kiddos
E) A Butterfly garden — this was my favorite part … walking around and have tons of butterflies fluttering about
F) Waterfalls
G) Bamboo garden
H) Curious squirrels chasing each other around while spying on you in their tree nooks
Tips:
Wear appropriate shoes to hike the trails and bring water with you. You to keep hydrated in the heat and humidity. It’s also across the street from a beautiful park where you find awesome views of downtown Austin and places to bring you dog. Expect to spend roughly 30 mins to and hour walking around. Soak up every ounce of this small peaceful sanctuary.

Another wonderful sunday exploring the beautiful botanical gardens. Admission was only 2 $!

Wonderful day with my family walking through this beautiful garden sanctuary :)
There were so many different things to see; log cabins, an old one-​room schoolhouse, an ancient trail with a dinosaur, lots of waterfalls, a bamboo forest, big colorful fish swimming down the steam, cactus trail, etc.etc. The whole garden takes about two hours to walk and was worth the visit!

This place is just beautiful and so relaxing. For a low $ 2 entrance fee per adult you can enjoy the gardens and koi ponds on a nice walk. It is also a great location for some photo ops.

Pretty botanical garden right off Barton Springs Road in Zilker Park! Only $ 2 for adults! Really peaceful and quiet (and less humid?) early in the morning!
Don’t miss the Japanese Garden and the Hartman Prehistoric Garden (which has a dinosaur statute — ornithomimus?)!

Visiting from NYC it’s hard not to compare this one with the botanical gardens I’m used to there. This garden is very small but still lovely.
$ 2 admission. You can’t beat that.
On the day I went it was in the lower 90’s and punishing when not in the shade. PACK MOSQUITO REPELLENT. You’re welcome.
The Japanese garden was teeny but sweet and peaceful. There were pretty lotus flowers in bloom and dragonflies buzzing about.
Why would they devote so much more space to the rose garden which looked a «hot mess» than to their succulent and cacti garden? A real missed opportunity there.
The herb garden was sweet and provided much needed aromatherapy. I love sniffing lavender, rosemary, sage.
All in all, it was quiet I sought and with only the whoosh of traffic in the distance, I pretty much got it.

I think this place is overrated. It was nice but it wasn’t GREAT. I was expecting more flowers and it wasn’t that big… Minimal charge was fine but not sure it’s even worth it if you have a large group! They only take cash or check which resulted in driving around for 10 minutes to find an ATM. Wouldn’t go out of my way to visit here but if you have time to kill then OK.

$ 2/​person for residents
$ 3/​person for non residents
free parking
pay when you enter the gate from your car.
A nice and easy stroll around the garden. Nice pathways. You can probably walk around the whole garden in 30 mins. My group and I took our time and stayed for 1 hr. Nothing in this garden will WOW you, but it’s still nice for what it is. At one part of the garden you can see the buildings in downtown Austin, which was pretty cool. Beautiful and well kept landscape. A great place to visit if you’re in the area, but don’t need to go out of your way or schedule this into your busy agenda.

Today while I and my partner were enjoying the seenary at the Austin Botanics Garden, I felt like I was about to fall down a lot. Your forced to walk across Japan (China)ese ponds on VERY SMALL ROCKS. It really didn’t help that I had walked in some motor oil earlier and my Teva sandals were Extremely slippery.
The decorations at the gardens were good. I like dinosaur at prehistoric area, and lots of Asian scenes. My mother actually spent a lot of time in Thaiwan and I’ve always heard great stories about asia.

I’m a big fan of botanical gardens and the Zilker garden fits the bill and doesn’t disappoint. This garden is city owned and managed and has it’s rough patches due to budget cuts and personal changes, but for a fee of $ 2 (austin residents) or $ 3 (non-​austin residents) it’s hardly a disappointment.
I enjoyed the many meandering paths through the Japanese Garden and appreciated the lushness of the Prehistoric Garden. Stop by the «butterfly window» for a picturesque view of the great lawn.
Make sure you try and catch the Zilker Garden Show which, for an admission of $ 8, will delight you with everything you could need to make home, patio, or lawn gorgeous.

Ehh. I didn’t have a car, so I walked along the route, hoping that there are alternate entrance. Well, there is only one main entrance and don’t even think about crossing st, even the sign says so. You will need to walk against the traffic on the bike route.
In terms of garden, it’s ok. Nothing spectacular like ons in SF, tokyo or even in Montréal. The layout is a bit confusing to follow, and somewhat quiet, I can still hear highway traffics. But it’s cheap and well maintained

This was a perfect birthday gift for someone who loves gardening, the outdoors, and parks. I came here on my birthday and admission was only $ 3 for non-​residents of Austin. My significant other and I both love plants and we both garden, so this botanical garden was a dream for us.
The lady in the gift shop was nice, she encouraged us to take our time and try not to rush through the garden. Temperatures were cold when we went, but that didn’t stop us from looking at the plants. Most of the plants weren’t due to bloom in the winter month. I bet, it’ll be really beautiful in the spring.
We traveled through the cactus, rose, herb, Japanese, and Dinosaur garden. We didn’t get to all of the gardens because we had to get back to Houston. Though, my favorite garden was the Japanese. It had small ponds filled with koi fishes and miniature bonsai look like plants. Also, the rose garden was beautiful and well fragrant. I saw a few roses that was rare to my eyes.
Now, we was on to the gift shop. We both wanted to purchase something for our people, but that didn’t happen. The gift shop was overpriced literally — -a bar of soap was $ 8. I saw some cute earrings they were $ 22, a wildflowers poster was $ 15.
That disappointed us, so instead I picked up a Native Austin plant guide that was free and took it home with me.
Despite the gift shop our visit was superb. It’s pretty cool that Austin offers gardening clubs for its residents.

Zilker Park is home to many outdoor treasures of Austin… one being the botanical gardens. Trails and map were easy to follow. Landscaping and design of gardnens is exceptional. The price point is crazy good. $ 2 for Austin residents and $ 4 for non-​Austin residents.

Hoo boy.
I wanted to like the Zilker Botanical Gardens, but I wasn’t impressed.
No matter where you go in the park, you hear the constant drone of nearby traffic. That really puts a damper on your ability to relax.
I enjoyed the Japanese garden portion with its babbling faux streams. But most of the rest of the place seemed haphazard and poorly tended.
Pity…

ZBG is a great escape from the city life. It’s divided into sections like Japanese, cactus and succulent, herb and fragrance, and much more. They are all well maintained and beautiful. Check out their official website to see a map of the place and also to see what’s currently blooming.
The Japanese garden is my favorite. A small river runs throughout the section and interesting pathways lead you to different spots of the park. There is a little bridge that goes over the water too (cool factor for kids and nice photo opportunity [see attached]).
Entrance is only $ 2 for residents. Parking wasn’t an issue when I went either. If the parking is full, they offer an overflow parking area (only available when parking is full).

Visited here this morning. Was a good date for a young couple. Was lots of Mosquitos, don’t forget bug spray! $ 2 for residents. Got here at 8:20 on a Saturday morning and almost had the place to ourselves. A bit of construction going on, but I’d say 80% of the place is open. Fun trails and nice sights. I’ll be back in a few months!

I had a great time here. I went with a guy I’m dating for his birthday… his choice, actually; he’s interested in gardening… at any rate… It was a gorgeous day – can you believe this summer we are having!!! It was a great day to walk around the grounds, see some beautiful flowers in bloom, take a nice walk, etc.
I think I need to come here more often… I do miss it… It’s quite lovely here.

My visit to Zilker Gardens was something of a homecoming for me. The last time I was here was in the early 90’s, and I remembered it being fairly lame. Then again, at that time I was eager to listen to Ace of Base and watch TMNT, so perhaps my tastes have evolved slightly.
The gardens are gorgeous and varied, the Spring Saturday that we went had almost everything starting to bloom. Aside from the expected plants/​trees/​flowers, there is a large koi pond, a replica antique blacksmith shop, and a dinosaur. Super cool.
Then, there are amazing, hidden touches scattered all over, if you care to look for them. Lot’s of Austin’s history is tucked away in here;
1940’s downtown Austin lamp posts? Yup
Prehistoric Austin dinosaur tracks? Got ‘em
Amazing ironwork on several of the gates (and a huge birdcage)? Damn right
They also have several interesting interactive exhibits, like a step-​by-​step composting area. Really helpful and educational without being lame and preachy.
Protip: Most of the site is shaded and there are water features running throughout, which means that Zilker Gardens are about 10 degrees cooler than any of the surrounding areas. This is a welcome respite from the Texas Summer heat, if you happen to find yourself getting fried in Zilker park ;)
At $ 2/​person, the value is through the roof. A liesurely walk will see you through the entire garden in about two hours. Parking is the only issue. The original parking lot is tiny by today’s standards, though they have an overflow lot. We managed to snag one of the last spots late on a Saturday morning. Despite one gigantic gaggle of kids, foot traffic was pretty light.
My parting thought was that we barely even glanced at the map, because there was something drawing you onward at every bend. A must-​do in Austin

I had the Austin Botanical garden bookmarked for quite some time but never got to come. I proposed coming here to different friends but got rejected b/​c they’d rather drink at some stupid bar than walking in a garden. Man, I hate ppl who don’t like gardens!!!
Finally after spending two days in ATX for a work conference, a friend and I decided to come to Zilker on our way back to SA. Both of us are garden enthusiasts so we deff had a great Saturday afternoon here.
The ticket is $ 3 for non-​Austin residence. It is even cheaper if you live in ATX. I didn’t mind paying $ 3 to be honest. Even the admission to SA botanical garden is way more than this!!! So IMO $ 3 is totally worth it! Also I’ve been to some of the finest gardens all over the country including the ones in DC, Denver, Phoenix, Boston, etc. Even though this is not as impressive compared to those bigger gardens, you will still get your money worth for the cheap price!
We first went to the visitor center to get a map then spent several hours touring different sections of the garden. The grounds were well kept and very beautiful! I loved looking at different plants, flowers, trees, waterfalls, etc. There were tons of photo opportunities! My favorites are the oriental garden, butterfly garden, and prehistoric aka dinosaur garden.
I had so much fun walking on the stones in the middle of a pond, posing on a butterfly chair and taking pictures of the beautiful nature surrounding me. I even got to see a GREEN orchid! If you haven’t been to the Zilker Botanical Garden, please pay a visit b/​c you will not be disappointed!
Bars are stupid. Gardens rule!