Royal Botanical Gardens — Attraction in Burlington

RBG WEDDINGS REVIEW It has taken me quite some time to bring myself to write this review from a point of informing people rather than letting my emotions get the best of me. My husband and I booked the RBG as our wedding venue for 2020. We should've taken a hint from our coordinator at the time who highly recommend we consider other venues for comparison as well before making our final decision to go ahead with the RBG. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we had to scratch our initial wedding plans at the RBG, have a small backyard wedding, and reschedule our big celebrations with our loved ones for 2022. Over the years, we went through 3-4 different Coordinators and when it was time to finally go ahead with our wedding plans they changed a lot in terms of how they ran their weddings, the costs, and the perks that came with having our wedding there. Though they agreed to keep some of the things in our contract the same, other things they refused to honour.

Our rehearsal is where we really started to get a glimpse of how our day was going to go dealing with rbg wedding staff. The day og our rehearsal, the ceremony coordinator couldn't make it to and there was a sub sent in to replace her. Unfortunately I had an emergency with my 9 month old and I couldn't make it right on time. Although we had discussed all details with them prior to the rehearsal and had a whole document about how things were going to go, when everyone showed up the coordinator REFUSED to go through anything without me. I tried to tell her over the phone that they need to start without me as I already know what I'm doing and the rehearsal was mostly for everyone else and she refused to do anything until I got there. We were able to go through it once and she said we had to leave because others were coming.

Our wedding day was unlike anything we would have ever imagined.. our main coordinator had to be away and yet again we had a replacement. From the beginning of the day, vendors were arriving and the staff didn't know where to direct them to set things up. When the guests started arriving, they weren't directed where they needed to go either. One of our guests asked if there was a wedding happening there and the receptionist said they didn't know... let alone direction them where they needed to go. When we arrived after the ceremony, there was no coordinator in sight. We had previously booked a private room to use for our baby if needed, and we had to idea where to find it. After walking around for quite some time trying to find our coordinator, we stumbled across the room and was able to access it. The whole time,our MCs, DJ, and other vendors were trying to find her and they couldn't locate her anywhere, having to figure things out for themselves and ask security for help. This continued throughout the night. As the food was coming out, I realized the food wasn't labeled as it was supposed to be since we had a lot of people with allergies (we had buffet style meals). We had to ask the servers which foods were dairy or gluten free to which one replied "what's gluten". Eventually, we had to send one of the servers to find the coordinator because 2 hours into the reception starting, we still had no idea who she was. The whole night, we had to chase people down to access the projector, dim the lights, turn on the lights for the cake, and so many more things that they should've been there for.

We were SO excited initially to have our wedding at the RBG but the wedding staff are so disorganized, and simply did not care to be there and do their job on the day of our wedding. Our views on the RBG have shifted so much and we really wished we had taken the advice of our initial coordinator and looked somewhere else.

On a positive note, the food was good and views in the gardens were absolutely beautiful.

Unless you have your own wedding planner so you don't have to deal with any RBG staffing bs, please save your time, energy, and money. Our wedding day was an absolute disaster trying to deal with the...

I have visited gardens around the world yet I was really impressed with these gardens, especially the Rock Garden, not only because of it's history but also because of how it looks nowadays, or in August 2023 when we visited it.

The gardens are spread over a vast distance (I was wondering if I should bring my little scooter to walk even in the Hendrie park) hence needing a car. This area, coming from Hamilton, passing the Dundurn castle is truly beautiful and we were impressed with the entrance at the Rock garden, well maintained, and where we decided to have a meal at the Rock Garden bistro: the steak was extremely good although a bit pricey

The Rock Garden is a former gravel pit designed around 100 years ago (pictures in the garden show how it looked back then - more like a lunar picture) with 10000 tonnes stones brought here to create the amazing garden you see today: great setting, lots of perennials and my favourite, the hydrangea panicullata (I wish you found it in Europe too) and lots of other massive bushes beautifully organised reminding me of Japanese gardens, especially near the pond with it's colourful lilies (this reminds me how much I miss our USA pond with lilies and koi carp - but again I miss anything relating to wildlife). I was fortunate to visit the gardens mid week with no many people around - I would suspect at the weekend would be a mayhem here, judging from the many chairs and benches the staff cleverly placed around for people to enjoy the beauty of the gardens. There are beautiful views also from the top of the pit, looking down, no wonder we were wondering instantaneously if we should become members and come back in the future here Membership to access all the gardens includes the parking too and if you like autumn or winter nature as we do and come here 3 times per year, as a couple, your membership is well worth it then, as it starts from 100 CAD Membership also give you access to the many trails between the Rock garden and Hendrie Park (via Laking garden, Boardwalk etc - hence needing a map) and Hendrie park has lots of beautiful flower arrangements, not only in the building, where also a very good Gift shop is located, although a bit expensive (membership gives you a 10% discount) : there is a rose garden, more trails, you can have snacks at their cafe (although I wish they had ice cream on the warm day we visited) There is also a Mediterranean garden housed in the building where the Hendrie park shop is and the smells here are just amazing!!! From their info, I noticed they create lots of attractions year round: another reason for us to return and watch the bees, bumblebees, butterflies, dragon flies, hummingbirds etc making this place their home I suspect the management is fully aware of the noise that can be heard from the road nearby (I wish stone walls were in place to diminish this noise) and this must be the reason they decided to play calm music in the Rock Garden - how thoughtful!!! Local people growing their veggies? How great is that, as we passed an area where I noticed people were growing tomatoes, cabbage etc

There is so much more to see here, no wonder I was so impressed and cannot...

It's unfortunate as I was really looking forward to this, having visited the Montreal Botanical Gardens last year and having heard good things about the Hamilton one. But it was an overall bad experience.

I started at the Arboretum, where the staff made my friend and I feel unwelcome in the nature centre (where washrooms were) because there was a camp going on. We tried to do the Native Trees trail and walked up and down based on where the map said we should be, but could not find an entrance. Instead we did the Anishnaabe trail which was quite lovely - the only reason I gave this place three stars instead of one. The trail was beautiful, a nice marsh, and neat facts along the trail.

When trying to drive out of the Arboretum, we couldn't pay at the parking gate. We tried with four different cards and at two gates - nothing worked. Ended up having to call for help, and the person let us through which was kind, but still very frustrating.

Then we went to the Rock Chapel Sanctuary. No bathrooms on-site. The map was unclear so we went on the trail that was much longer than we thought it was going to be, before realizing that this wasn't the trail we wanted. Went back to the start, paid for another hour and a half of parking (that machine also gave issues when trying to pay with card), then entered the trail to see the waterfall. We get about 50 feet down the trail and find out it's closed.

Small things would have made this experience so much better. Much more clear signage at the start of trails so we know the name of the trail, and how many kilometers. If a trail is closed, have that information at the beginning, not 50 feet into it. And fix your maps because they are very unclear.

It's really a beautiful area and I love to support these type of nature conservations, but we found this to be very difficult to follow and largely inaccessible. I hope to return in the future when/if this...