The Lost Gardens of Heligan Reviews 

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 !

Absolutely amazing visit. I loved looking
around all the different areas.
Highlights definitely The Giants head, Mud
Maid and the Magnolias blooming
Some great purchases from the souvenir/
plant shop.
It was crowded, but that was due to it
being a free locals week, but you could still
walk around in peace.
we didn't eat or drink onsite as we'd
already spent £70 in the gift shop, and the
food menu wasn't really our thing,
We did get some of the best tasting and
filled pasty's from the Farm shop near the
overflow car park
Lovely friendly staff from the ticket office
the gardeners and the shop staff
I managed to get a Golden Wedding
Anniversary Rose for my parents, who will
be celebrating it this year.

If I could give 6 stars I would. What an incredible place. It has been a privilege to see how Heligan Gardens has evolved over the years. There is something magical about Heligan. There is always something different to see and experience. The staff always go the extra mile to make your experience unforgettable. The facilities are always kept beautifully clean. And the restaurant and other food outlets are excellent and very reasonably priced. The admission fee covers you for a whole week and you really do need this long to properly appreciate the whole Heligan Estate.

Visited here in October this year and what a complete waste of £50! If you want to spend a lot of money for what is just a walk in the woods, then go ahead! There is nothing to see or do and a very uninteresting place to visit...basically just crap! As far as I'm concerned the lost gardens of heligan can stay lost!

We love Heligan,this was our fourth visit and it did not disappoint, a truly beautiful place. However on visiting the restaurant some of the staff were extremely brusque to say the least! Menu poor,no sandwiches or paninis so we headed to Stewards House for a snack.......2pm sold out only a few cakes left! Really not good enough.
Get your act together Heligan or your cafe will lose custom to the farm shop cafe at the entrance.......much better!

My friends and I visited the lost gardens of Heligen last week, we have visited and enjoyed the gardens on previous occasions.
This time we decided to visit the restaurant and was totally underwhelmed by the quality of the food we received. We complained and were directed to the duty manager.
Instead of offering an apology for our experience, which would have sufficed, we were met with rudeness and barely veiled sarcasm. Apparently he eats there every day and did not recognise any of our complaints , surely that is irrelevant and it is the customers experience that counts. He even said that we had criticised the whole menu, which would be difficult as we had only ordered 3 food items and not tasted the who menu!! There was no need to speak to us in this manner as much as we tried it did spoil our enjoyment of the gardens which we have always enjoyed.
I can only assume that the person in question was having a bad day but perhaps some training on customer relations wouldn’t come amiss.

Too expensive, not wheelchair compatible, have better things in my garden, we live in Cornwall and will be telling friends and family Not to bother!!!!

What fantastic gardens! I didn't know what to expect but was very pleased by the variety of plants and trees there were, with a number of different areas based on different themes. The lower part of the gardens is very natural with plenty of woodland, whereas the formal gardens were much as you'd expect from an old estate, with lots of produce and plenty of flowers despite being past peak flower season. All staff we spoke to were very friendly and helpful and answered our queries. I was pleased that the gardens weren't at all overcrowded, unlike a nearby establishment costing significantly more.

Fantastic staff, always took time to discuss things. Gardens very beautiful, absolutely loved it there, as did not seem crowded, unlike Eden Project. Much preferred the Lost Gardens of Heligan, compared to Eden Project.

Wonderful place. Plenty of parking. No queuing. Staff very friendly and helpful. Plenty of very good quality refreshment opportunities, again no queues. Lovely and informative guidebook with beautiful images. And the gardens are fabulous. Their work and principles behind the rare breed farm is also inspiring. We took our dogs who also thoroughly enjoyed it.

Really looked forward to a return visit to this old favourite garden of mine. We first visited shortly after they opened and I was entranced. This time, however, the experience was completely marred by their website taking payment and not registering it, so that I had to pay again at the gate and was warned that it may still go through and that I should contact reception for a refund. It did and I contacted reception. After several emails and excuses like my colleague was dealing with this, I eventually received a call, no apology, just a check of the card details and that I should I should expect repayment in a few working days. Not good enough, Heligan. It has spoiled the memory of an otherwise pleasant day out, with me having to chase you and then wait, much longer than you were prepared to, for my money.