Desert Botanical Garden

1201 N Galvin Pkwy, Phoenix, AZ 85008, USA

Address:	1201 N Galvin Pkwy, Phoenix, AZ 85008, USA
Phone:	+1 480-941-1225
Site:	dbg.org
Rating:	4.6
Working:	7AM–8PM 7AM–8PM 7AM–8PM 7AM–8PM 7AM–8PM 7AM–8PM 7AM–8PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 8

A Private User

The gardens are beautiful, but I wasnt impressed with the customer service we received when going to the tour. My husband and I have never been to AZ and this was advertised in local magazines and Trip Advisor as a great tour, so we went, paid to get in - and then we were off on our tour - to where, noone told us where to go, what to do, we were a bit confused? We didnt even know what to do (was someone going to meet us and take us on the tour0, where are we spose to go, what we were about to see, what we should look for, we werent even told about the audio things you could use on the tour. We were thinking tour, someone was going to show us around and tell us about the desert plants and gather some information, that didnt happen. I see from the other reviews that there was a gift shop - didnt even see that - I was kind of disappointed for the price we paid. They soaked us for an additional fee to see the butterfly exhibit, if youve seen butterflies before, it isnt worth the extra cost to see, noone tells you anything about it and no information was given as to what the exhibit was even about. The SD State Fair had a very informational seminar on the Monarch butterfly that was worth a whole lot more and that was FREE! It was not worth the money in my opinion.

Phil Charak

The Desert Botanical Gardens are beautiful for its natural beauty and art thats what youre going for, Bruce Munro Sonoran Lights is not zoolights if you want to see zoolights go to zoolights, if you want a Christmas show, go somewhere else, this is art and installations, not a glitter and lights show, only downside on March 19th was the 2 dueling weddings with their terrible and obnoxious music that took away and killed the ambience and mood with one wedding having a terrible wedding singer and band (thats a nice description of their talent) that reminded me of a horrible version of Adam Sandlers The Wedding Singer and the other wedding having a DJ that gave me flashbacks to being in a nineties bar mitzvah, if youve ever been to one youll know what I mean, also since we stayed till close we ended up realizing that some of the installations were in the closed off wedding areas and we didnt get to see them except turned off on our way out, this wouldve been 5 stars because it was beautiful but they need to think things through and either not have weddings there during art shows or close it to the public if theres a wedding there and not charge full price for a distracted half ass partially closed off experience

Marie Gonzales

We had seen the ad on TV about the beautiful night light displays and decided to go, but upon arrival were told the lights would not be on that night. It was just before sunset so we decided to go in since we had driven so far and had out of state guests with us. We were not the only ones disappointed that night as many of the other visitors to the Gardens hadnt even been told that there would be no lights that night. The Gardens really did a good job of pissing off a lot of their customers and we wouldnt be surprised if a great many of them dont ever return, us included. After spending about an hour and a half touring the gardens we decided to go into the gift shop. By now it was dark out and there were items outside the shop door that were impossible to look at and also caused a walking hazard do to the fact that they didnt even turn on an outside light on. We had been to the Gardens a number of times over the last 25 yrs. but we were extremely disappointed with our last visit, and it may very well be that.

Sunny Tann

Ive never seen so many old people in my life gathered in one area of Phoenix. After getting take out from Gertrude Restaurant (overrated), an employee or volunteer who was wearing a desert botanical garden jacket tried to HARASS me by saying that he needed to inspect what was in my bag. Weird. He was standing right outside the Gertrude restaurant as I exited. It was only the hummus I ordered from the restaurant. He even felt embarrassed and began to joke about it. Seriously why do old farts joke like that and think its funny? Overall two words for the entire experience. WEAK. LAME. Paid $30 entrance fee to watch a joke of an exhibition. Nothing but a bunch of lights, boring music and grumpy old fogies trolling around on a cloudy night not to mention getting harassed by a troll volunteer or employee of that park. WEAK. They should turn this place back into an AZ state park.

Ailín Emilio

Está muy bien conservado, es más una reserva, no parece tan comercial. Si tienen oportunidad de ir a La noche de las Luminarias es un paseo nocturno muy lindo con artistas en diferentes spots del jardín. Lo malo es que no ofrece servicio de wifi y como no hay nada cerca nos costó mucho conseguir transporte para volver. Además la comida adentro del lugar es muy cara y no hay ninguna opción para comprar nada alrededor.

Amanda Capley

Such an amazing experience!! A must see in the Phoenix area! The amount of plants, trees, and cacti within the garden is absolutely mind-blowing. A really nice surprise for us was the amount of wildlife living in the garden! One of our favourite moments from the visit was seeing a family of Gambels Quail roaming around near the Golden Barrel Cactus bed (the two parents and three of their tiny children who were still in the "fluffy chick" phase of life). We were able to go for free using the "Culture Pass" program through the Scottsdale Library. However, we had such a great time today that we came home and purchased a membership for both of us! Thank you to the garden for providing these "Culture Passes" because they gave us the opportunity to find something we will now be able to enjoy over the next year.

A Private User

NOT KIDS FRIENDLY Today is my second time to visit Desert Botanical Garden and I am not going to take my kids to visit there again. They have people everywhere just to watch young kids to make sure they are not play with this or that. If there is water fountain asides the trail, and you dont want the kids to touch the water, please put up a sign, dont send people standing by to watch, we the parents are there to help them learn the rules and will stop them if they are in any way abuse any property. My daughters (3 and 2) were interested and curious about the plants, birds there, I kept reminding them to not running, not touch the plants, and stay on trail, they are listening and I am proud of them, But I dont feel they are welcomed there. You charge $8 for 3 years old then treat them as guest too.

Michelle Darling

What a fascinating, relaxing, wonderful experience. We have taken a couple groups of visiting family here and they also thoroughly enjoyed it. You learn so much about our local desert plant life as well as endangered, unusual, and beautiful plant life around the world. The staff is knowledgeable and passionate - lots of volunteers. Try to catch a free guided tour when you go and plan on a few hours or more. There is so much to see and, even though Im not a gardener and certainly dont have a green thumb, I was enchanted and plan to go back regularly. They also just opened their butterfly garden, which was fun. There are scooters for rental so, if you have trouble walking longer distances, you can still enjoy this precious gem of Phoenix.