The Lost Gardens of Heligan Avis 33

Such a romantic name and I had set my heart on this - but confusion about where to park on arrival.

Nothing on their website about parking, and nobody bothering to answer the phone when I rang to enquire. So a stressful start!

I moved the car from the "field" to their own car park within the hour, so was spared being charged. Ate lunch at the farm shop and, despite seeming expensive, this was actually cheaper than the offerings at the Gardens.

Then was told that as I had spent > £10, I'd have been spared the parking charge in the field anyway. Nothing about that where prices are displayed in "the field".

None of this hassle gets you off to a good start.

The £28.80 at the Gardens is very high to pay for not yet fully out rhododendrons, passing camellias, rather scrappy magnolias and not much else. Azaleas spread well here and there and I enjoyed what was available of the jungle walk.

The map is very poor and difficult to follow.

I hope my expensive fee is put to good use as they are trying to recover from recent storm damage.

But it doesn't feel like the place hangs together - they lack the experience and economy of scale that allows the National Trust to do such things so much better.

Glad I satisfied my curiosity, but not a place to go out of my way for another time.

Even though we chose our entry fee, what a sad place. Signage absolutely rubbish. So many lost people trying to find their way. Eventually found coffee shop inside the gardens, after breathing disgusting smoke from where the gardeners are burning rotten smelling foliage. One menu outside the cafe, no menu to choose from inside! Specials… need to check inside to then experience rude, unhelpful staff… what a horrible experience. Had come here for my birthday as Google said it was lovely. What a huge disappointment.

The Christmas lights were amazing but unfortunately it was torrential rain by the time we got halfway round. I would recommend paying extra for the insurance where you can change the day if weather is bad (hindsight is a wonderful thing!). The only eating place was so packed with people we couldn’t get in (obviously any outside food places were closed due to the weather we assumed) but I had remembered another cafe at the entrance/exit. By the time we got there, absolutely soaked by this time, there was a closed sign on the door (we could see staff inside). We were quite early (our entrance was 4.45pm) so we were disappointed it was closed and there were other people hoping to get food too. We had to leave hungry which was disappointing as i had promised my family I would treat them to a meal. Apart from this the lights were absolutely amazing and the grandchildren loved running ahead to see what was next, and particularly loved all the illuminated insects.

Visited the night garden with my partner. Massively overpriced for what you got, not laid out very well. Seemed some parts were well thought out yet some were poorly lit. Left extremely disappointed.

The gardens and the history are fascinating. Winter is probably not the best time to visit, but we were here for a week and wanted to see them, we will come back in the summer. However, £6.50 for a pastie ??

Garden lovely and beautifully maintained. The jungle is gorgeous, and the woodland walk brilliant. The farm is great and the grounds lovely to walk in and sit peacefully. Lovely, friendly, efficient staff.
The cafe food is not good, and the ‘antiques’ cheapen the place
During the summer there were no sandwiches in the takeaway and the menu inside is awful. I don’t know why the place is on self destruct for food. The leaking roof doesn’t help. Once a busy cafe full of locals eating lovely food. Now quiet and sad
Staff are lovely and loads have been there for years.
I do not understand what is wrong with the place.

A fifty minute wait for a precooked Sunday lunch is unacceptable.

Very very disappointed and angry 😞
We paid a fortune this year for our 2 young children to visit Father Christmas and the night garden, to have just been emailed stating that they have 'accidentally overbooked' and cannot accommodate our father christmas visit. We booked early in September for this to ensure that we had somewhere magical for our children and to ensure we could get a weekend slot and a day where both of us parents weren't working. 'Mistakes' like this should not be happening!
Fuming doesn't come close..

The gardens and staff were lovely, but the service in the main restaurant was abysmal. We ordered soup and Tempura vegetables. We saw the tempura was available after 20 mins and the soup simply required lasting out it took over half an hour before we got our meal. Similarly at a quiet time later a simple tea took longer than might be expected. There seemed to be lots of staff but there must be bottlenecks in the system . A shame.

Very overpriced for what it was - entrance and food. Very disappointed with the gardens and visit overall. Not recommended

I live not too far from a wood in Lincolnshire, I could have walked through it for free, and would have enjoyed it just as much!
this place is shocking!
£56 for 2 adults to trudge around a forest that they call ‘The Jungle’.
They then have the audacity to charge to park.
I’ve marked this off my list of things to do in Cornwall, as well as marked it off my list of places never to revisit.
It’s just miles of ‘Nothingness’, so if it’s on your list of things to do- you should save your money, there’s really nothing but walking up and down hills.
I see no-one from the lost gardens has replied to any of the comments- that just shows the level of arrogance they feel towards people. No apologies, no explanations- just ignore the punters and keep grabbing the money-

Gardens are very nice, the kids liked the play park and the jungle. We did a short afternoon visit from 2.30 pm onwards. We had free entry with a membership for one of the partner gardens, not sure if I’d be happy to pay the entry price as a family of five. The cafe and cafe staff were a bit of a let down, we ordered cakes at 4pm so we were one of the only tables in there and it took about 20 minutes to come out and when it eventually did the order was wrong and staff were a little rude. When it came to home time I mistakenly noted the closing time for 6.30 (it opens one day at 6.30 and I mistakenly had this time in my head) so started to head for the exit at 6 pm, we were met by an older gentleman at the walled gardens that directed us one way to a gate that had already shut, then a gardener directed us the opposite way, only to be chased down by the older gentleman and told off to get out and go the other way, so we followed his instructions but he proceeded to almost chase us out of the gardens while chastising us for still being there. We were not the only people still in the gardens and I had explained I was very sorry and had got the exit time confused, we had three children with us, the youngest was 4 and she was getting very upset/scared that we were going to be locked in as the gentleman was being quite rude, quote (“you are determined to get your self locked in, go to the exit!”) while following his directions!

Put simply, the Lost Gardens of Heligan lived up to their name: they have been completely lost.
It's mid-July and everywhere else we can see a riot of blooms and colour.
Here, however, we see a poor show of half-dead plants in the shop, very few blooms on show in the gardens. Just long woodland walks and poorly marked information. We liked the famous 'giant' and the 'Mud Maid' but that's it.
The entrance price has more than doubled in the last few years. £28 per adult is a joke and there is no family discount when the 'children' are older - regardless of the size of the group. In other words: Be prepared to fork out a small fortune for precious little in return.
The brave men who worked the gardens for a few shillings a week would be outraged to see how the public are being exploited by the extortionate fees.
Parking is also additional if you are unlucky enough to need to go to the 'overflow' parking area because apparently this is owned by a neighbouring farmer!

Family of 5. 4 adults and 1 16yo.
£153.
Well over priced. Staff friendly and facilities clean, but difficult to justify the expense.
Once drinks are factored in, we spent just shy of £200.
Final insult is having to pay for parking lol.
Your mileage and value perception may vary, but unless you are getting in on somekind of dirt cheap concession, consider alternatives.

Very expensive. Is it a garden...park,,, farm animals or childrens adventure area? No senior reduction cost.....

Disappointing for us as a 70 year old couple.
Car parking seemed a bit of a muddle too as directed to park on field next door which doesn't belong to Heligan, so charges there too.
Wont recommend to others

Over priced £28 each then even charge to park the car total rip off to see ferns and trees can see them for free in any forest certainly wont be back

What a waste of £56 and 3 hours. Once you have seen trees and trees ferns you seen them you see them again and again! I will say the jungle area was impressive but that’s it. Instead of putting in play areas how about putting in some more plants, after all it’s a garden not a theme park! Really don’t waste your money, go to the Garden House at Yelverton it’s an AMAZING garden and only half the price.

The gardens are wonderful with so much detail of presentation and planting. The food kitchen by contrast is not well managed. There are long waits to place an order and to receive food. We did not even visit at a busy time. On ordering a smoked mackerel salad we were at £16 we were unhappy to see virtually no fish and lots of very old salad leaves. Very poor value for money.

The gardens are lovely especially the jungle walk. Yes I agree rather expensive. Dogs are allowed sadly some dog owners feel the need to allow their dogs extra long leads resulting in obstructing narrow paths. Maybe supply short leads to negate this.

The garden has some beautiful areas - particularly the ‘Jungle’ with many fern trees. Unfortunately not much in flower at the moment.
However at £56 for two pensioners it is very overpriced, and very annoyingly we also had to pay an extra £3.50 for the car parking on the way out, which was not made clear to us. £60 could have been better spent.
We won’t be visiting again !