With temperatures unusually high this summer, finding a way to get outside, stay active, and beat the heat has proven challenging for us. But we’ve found one solution! Besides its 150+ acres of gardens and shaded woods, Norfolk Botanical Gardens boasts a three-acre children’s garden called World of Wonders: A Children’s Adventure Garden. Our favorite part of WOW? The splash pad!
The building pictured below contains bathrooms and Exploration Station, while the blue tent (called a Yurt) holds several curtained and paneled changing areas along with an infant changing station.
Besides the splash pad, there are the passport gardens, a treehouse with slide, play houses, paths to walk (the Trade Route), exploration station, and other fun and educational activities for kids. Click HERE to see a map of WOW and what it has to offer.
Behind WOW is  playground of sorts. There’s a tree house nearby in the shade and in the clearing, a giant pile of sand complete with a slide and plastic cannon. Large, plastic chairs for the adults are lined up under a canopy to block the sun.
The rest of the Norfolk Botanical Gardens are gorgeous! Fountains, flowers, pools, luscious grass, shaded woods and waterways…it’s a lovely place to walk, and most of the pathways are paved and perfect for strollers.
There’s also an airport overlook on the property, near the visitors center. Climb the little hill next to the Norfolk International Airport and watch planes take off and land! If you get tired, hop on their free “train” (it’s basically a golf cart pulling other carts) that cycles around the gardens. They also have pontoon boats that travel the waterways, but that tour is not included with regular admission (so we haven’t tried it yet).
Norfolk Botanical Gardens hosts a myriad of programs for adults, families, and kids. Some are included with admission; others require an additional fee. They even have events for home schoolers.
Ticket Info:
As of July 2013, tickets are: adults- $11, active duty military and seniors- $10, children ages three to 18- $9, children two and under with parent or guardian- free. A family membership for one year is $85. This membership admits six people- adults, children, or a combination. Members receive discounts to the gift shop and cafe; reduced or free admission to reciprocal botanical gardens; magazine subscription; and discounted rates on classes, camps, and workshops.
Visit the Norfolk Botanical Gardens website to learn more.
17 Comments
Absolutely stunning! Thank you for sharing your experience!
That looks absolutely beautiful. Nice and relaxing way to enjoy summer. Great pictures!
lovely… 😀
This place is beautiful! I wished I lived near there.
That place looks so neat! I love the giant sand pile 🙂 We love to do anything involving water play to keep cool in the summer.
Beautiful! We usually only get stuck in traffic in Norfolk; I think that next time we go through there we might just have to take a detour! Thank you for sharing!
Ah yes…the traffic! There are very small windows in which the traffic isn’t bad coming through the tunnels or over the bridges. The rest of the time- yikes!
This looks so relaxing. I love going to the park in the summer and sitting in the shade. It’s so nice and peaceful.
This place looks great! love all your pics!
It looks like a nice place with nice prices too!
Oh that looks like such a fun place – and we LOVE splash pads! That’s the best way to keep cool in the heat! Oh and their prices are very reasonable too, that’s great.
This looks like such a nice place! I will have to remember this when we go to Norfolk next time w/ my husband!
Beautiful! That is one thing I regret is when we lived up in Virginia was not taking a trip down to Norfolk! I know it was a couple hour drive, but I see it would have been worth it!
Where did you live in Virginia?
Emilee, Were you a VT Ambassador? I was, and I was so sad to see the program go with the sale of Big Idea to Dreamworks.
How fun! Thank you for sharing all the pictures. I love going to botanical gardens with my family!