The Lost Gardens of Heligan Reviews 

Found the map given not very helpful. Really long trek and difficult to find your way out.
It was a boiling hot day so had to keep stopping. Good job had bottle water. There must be an easier route around to the one we did. Met several people enroute who were in the same boat.
To be honest would not visit again.

This was a revisit - we'd been a few years ago and it was enjoyable and reasonable value for money. We returned this week (plus son, his wife and the two grandchildren), mainly to see the "Steve Backshall's Wild Heligan" attraction. The good news: Backshall's presentation/show was interesting. The bad news: we had to park in the overflow, overflow, overflow car park, so it was obviously a big attraction. Inside, however, walking around the gardens was a not a crowded experience. But the giant play field - which most people seem to go to for the sake of their kids - was rammed. There'd been no attempt by the management to cater for the enormous increase in visitors, so the queues for, e.g. refreshments, were ludicrously long and service so slow as to be almost static. I visited the gents toilets (by the 'Steward's Lodge?) and they were in the most disgusting state I have ever seen. The urinals had long since overflowed and the sight was enough to make you gag. The 'last visited' sign said 9:31 (I assume a.m.) and this was their condition at around 4:30pm. Appalling. It seemed to me as if the original mission purpose had long since been lost, and instead replaced with a gigantic kiddies playground making huge amounts of money, enhanced by savings from maintaining inadequate staff levels. I note that they do not boast about their Trust Pilot rating on their web site, no wonder. And they don't even bother to attempt to reply to any of the criticisms here. Not the way to run a business at all. Needless to say, I won't be returning and if anyone asks me what it's like I shall be very candid.

Overpriced!! Not worth the £90 to get in at all. Shame as we visit lots of gardens back home that are value for money...this wasnt. After extortionate price to get in you then have to pay for parking. Eish i had read reviews before.Really disappointing and feel we were ripped off.

Way overpriced. Very underwhelming experience, woodland walk, lots of tree ferns disguised as a jungle, all a bit roughly looked after, cafe and drinks way overpriced. For two people we paid £56 or so entry fee.... robbery. Go to your local park, and have a lovely lunch instead.

The overall score of 2.1 is extremely generous. It is overpriced, most things closed, gardens in disrepair, signage is awful, paying for car-parking is a joke. I have more plants to see in my own garden. Please don’t waste your time and money as you will feel like me as if you have been mugged. An entry fee of £5 and free parking is about right.

Wish I had read the reviews.
Just over £50 for two, for a woodland walk, the jungle path was closed, only optio was the rope bridge, no good as we had dogs. Many other paths closed. The pineapple house out for repairs, the melon house under repairs, the gardens not cared for, over grown or nothing grown.
Arriving at the stewards house £3 for one cold drink.
I know they need to make money but I think there are better places to go.
I feel like a complete mug.

Over £50 for us both to get in. Very poor. Paths closed, signs confusing, needed to pay for parking too. They need to seriously look at their visitor experience!

Very expensive and expected a garden as well as a forest. I understood how they begun their journey in rebuilding but very much of a muchness. Sorry very disappointed .

They have built up the experience of advertising this as if it was a wonderful wild but landscaped garden, but I found it expensive just to walk around a wooded area when you can walk around a place like Tehidy Woods in North Cornwall for free with many more interesting features. Also compared to other lovely gardens in Cornwall this doesn't compere and are not so expensive.

Arrived 5 mins before opening time. Opened door to the ticket office and gift shop and finding no-one there we proceeded to look around the gift shop. We picked some items that we wished to purchase and seeing staff members at the till. We made our way to pay for our items and buy entry ticket's. We were accosted by a male member of staff, who wanted to know where we had come from and how we had got in. I informed him that the door was open and we had walked in. He replied that they were closed and the door should not be open. I replied well if you don't want people to walk in, you should lock the door. With barely 2 mins to go for opening, he insisted we left and waited outside. REALLY! 2 suggestions for said male. Please take out your ire on the other male who left the door open. Pop yourself over to Lobbs Farm Shop, where customer service is excellent and good manners are impeccable. They might just rub off on you!

If I’d paid £5 for this place, I’d have shrugged and moved on. At £28.80 plus £3.50 for parking (what?!), I left feeling like I should’ve at least been given a complimentary ski mask and getaway driver.

The “woodland walk” was basically just a normal walk through some trees; the kind you can get for free almost anywhere. The highlight was seeing the new sculpture fox, who honestly looked just as surprised as we were that people were paying to be there.

The farm area was half missing - I genuinely only saw 2 x goats and some poultry. The kitchen garden contained more weeds than vegetables, and the formal gardens looked as though someone had formally given up on them.

The food served in the cafe was delicious though it was a bit manic ordering it - felt like nobody really knew what was happening.

All in all, an expensive lesson in managing expectations. Would definitely not recommend.

If I had paid £15 I would have only been slightly disappointed. At £28.80 I felt I had been robbed. The outer woodland walk could have been any public wooded walk nothing special to see apart from the fox, Half the animals in the farm side weren’t even there, the kitchen garden had more weeds than veg and the formal gardens were just disappointing. To top it off on top of the extortionate entry fee I had to pay another £3.50 for parking. No concessions for pensioners and overpriced food and drink. Would have felt less robbed by Richard Turpin, Calling him Richard as trustpilot wouldn’t allow his abbreviated name as apparently it’s inappropriate 🤣🤣

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..