Frederik Meijer Gardens

1000 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525, USA

Address:	1000 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525, USA
Phone:	+1 616-957-1580
Site:	meijergardens.org
Rating:	4.8
Working:	9AM–5PM 9AM–9PM 9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 9AM–5PM 11AM–5PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 6

Mary Prins

Beautiful venue, but do not attempt this without an aggressive wedding planner. Staff is unresponsive in the planning stage. You can only email them or leave a voicemail message and hope they call you back. They only work on events in due date order, so if you have a question that affects other decisions, you may have to wait as long as a month for a response. They may or may not acknowledge your email, and they may only answer some of your questions. They will not give you guidance, so if you dont have a wedding planner, you are on your own. Actual schedules that they give you are subject to change on the day of the event. Important note: even though the website states you have free admission to the park, they mean only during the ceremony. We paid an extra $2500 to rent the waterfall space for our wedding. Our wedding was rained out, so we held the ceremony indoors. When the rain cleared after the ceremony, guests wanted to see the waterfall but they were prevented from taking a walk, being told they had to stay in the reception space. So embarrassing! Banquet staff was great, the food was good, but there was way too much unnecessary stress leading up to the event, and the issue of not leaving the building to enjoy a walk when we thought we had paid for that felt deceiving. We told our guests to enjoy a walk during the cocktail hour so we were embarrassed when they were apprehended by security! A wedding is probably the largest party you will give, and there are so many details. I cant recommend this venue unless you have an aggressive wedding planner. For outdoor venues, try Bay Point Inn - they were a breeze to work with, and there was no "fine print" in their contract.

PG Rated

What a wonderful landmark Grand Rapids has to offer at the Meijer gardens. What is there not to love, maybe the omission of a mini theme park/animal sanctuary ...hmm on second thought better not. It would ruin the ambience, although I always hope to see more animals just there in the wild, in their element. Maybe if this was Australia or Africa lol. The gardens are beautiful for a day visit, to take a relaxing walk, maybe somewhere to take a date or out of town guest for something to do. They have a little cafe with reasonably priced, good food ...I like the mac n cheese, they also serve beer and wine I believe. Theres a cute gift shop by the entrance featuring a good variety of quality made items, great for a gift or souvenir to take home. The grounds are well maintained all year round and they have different exhibits and themes for each season. They have different events and a summer concert series which is nice. Cool educational childrens section also as well as throughout the park, like the Michigan barn. Some of their events I personally find boring, but maybe I just need something more interactive or entertaining like a fire dance off! Older folk and kids would love it though. They have event space for weddings, corporate functions and such and always do a nice job with decor and catering, it might be on the pricey side, but as with all things you get what you pay for right. The volunteers, usually older retired folk, are no joke they take their duties seriously and could lighten up, but are generally lovely and hey theyre manning the forte for free!

Susan Hopkins

We have been members off and on for many years, enjoying the gardens, the butterflies, and the concerts. However, we are not going to renew our membership next year for the following reasons: 1.We renewed our membership in April, but just today received the paper cards for membership-a good 4 months time lapse. If this valuable paper card is lost, you only have to pay $5. What a deal! Why not look at their drivers license and issue another paper card? 2. Spouse stood in line for tickets for a concert, and was about the 20th person in line on the first day. Then they told him that all of the concert tickets we wanted were sold out. Members were able this year to go online at the same time the line opened up. This change was not stated prior to the date in question in any obvious way, except for a tiny line at the bottom of the page, or at least not promoted. 3. I have heard some people state that they felt rather dismissed when entering the gardens by the greeters, for reasons I dont understand. 4. In the membership card letter, they state the rules of the gardens, in regards to staying on the path and other obvious rules. Really? This went out to members and not to kids or people who have never been there.

Nick Brown

Had a great time here when we visited Grand Rapids for a weekend. Yes, I think some of the sculptures are strange. True, maybe I dont understand "art" all the time - but it is still really cool to see. The Japanese Garden was nice and the snow-covered waterfalls added some soothing background noise. Now for the fun stuff. Lets start with the indoor gardens. The tropical area is nice and warm with some really cool plants and colorful, tiny birds that I have never seen before that will zip by your head at lightning fast speeds. The carnivorous garden has Venus Fly-traps (among others) that are always fascinating to see. Just dont trick them into closing because they wont reopen for a week! And finally, my personal favorite, the Arid Garden. I had no idea that there were so many different types of cacti - and of course, like a little kid in a candy store, I touched almost every single one of them (pulled out the spines later that night). Overall it was a very cool place. I recommend hitting the gift shop before you leave to pick up some decorative hedgehogs and a cactus to take home.

Joel Fedell

Ive been here before for the butterfly exhibit in the spring. Our visit this time was for the display of the world Christmas tree displays. The displays were nicely done and the exhibits in other parts of the building were changed out from this past spring. I was expecting the trees to all be together in one room, but instead they were spread out throughout the building, which was nice. It was also nice that each tree had the country it was inspired by and a little bit of that nations traditions for Christmas. I think the kid in me enjoyed the train room the best. It was neat to see miniature buildings from around the Grand Rapids area. The broken glass exhibit was really neat too. Everything in the display was made completely out of glass. Overall I like the gardens and feel that you could visit once a season and each time would be different.

A Private User

Just spoke to really rude woman on the phone. I was trying to get some information about the park and accessibly because Im bringing my elderly mother, who can walk, but sometimes uses a wheelchair. The website has no detailed information such as a simple map that shows parking and distances between sites, or even where exhibits are located: inside (where?) outside (where?). Lots of pretty pictures but not much practical information. The woman on the phone was very curt and nasty. Ive been to Meijer Gardens before and loved it, but that was several years ago and I dont remember much about the location itself. Now Im pretty turned off to going again after having such an unpleasant experience with their staff member. I would suggest they improve their staff training and their website.