Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo — Attraction in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Let me warn you about this garden.

WARNING 1 Let me warn you first about getting there. You see, it has three names,.

It can be called the Jardín botánico. Or the Jardín canario. Or the Jardín Viera y Clavijo. Or the whole lot: Jardín botánico canario Viera y Clavijo.

WARNING 2 Then let me warn you about the parking. There are two entrances to the Gardens - top and bottom. The road signs direct you to the bottom entrance, where there is no parking. You have to slot into one of half-a-dozen only possibilities for parking at the side of the road. Why direct people to somewhere where they cannot park?

If you ignore the roadsigns at a roundabout where it says Jardín canario to the left, and University campus straight ahead, and take the road to the University, then you come to the top entrance, where there is a good-sized carpark. But from here it is so scary to get down to the bottom of the garden that some people were turning back and never got to see it.

WARNING 3 Let me warn you about the lay-out of this garden. It covers a valley bottom, that's fine. You enter by the bottom entrance (wheelchairs OK) and can meander around looking at the cactus, the artificial seashore area, a pond and waterfall, some nice-ish places. This is the best bit.

But the garden also continues up the side of the ravine. Up. In some places it is almost vertical, with everywhere winding steep paths and steps and steps and steps and steps.

If you start at the bottom entrance, it can be hard going (and impossible for pushchairs - don't even THINK about taking a pushchair here. In fact don't even think about taking a young child. . .).

If you start at the top entrance . . . well, let me give you another warning.

WARNING 4. Let me warn you about the paths and steps up - or down - the side of the ravine. There is a maze of paths criss-crossing as they go up the sheer ravine side. The cliff, basically. These paths - very winding and often with steps - are very steep. Very narrow. very very narrow. And usually with nothing between the edge and a 5ft or 10ft or 20ft or 50ft or 100ft sheer drop. Gulp.

So there you are, huffing and puffing up a narrow steep path with steps, when to your horror you see coming towards you, on a path that has no hand rail and a steep drop, barely enough room for two people to pass cautiously, a whole class of primary school children! What do you do? Back up to the cliff-face, forcing an 8 year old to go near the edge? Or stand near the edge yourself, hoping that one member of the the jolly group doesn't slip and bump into you?

Don't think of taking a small child. You'll have to carry him or her - in many places there isn't room for the two of you to walk abreast holding hands - and would you let a child venture alone on this path with no rail?

WARNING 5. Let me warn you against taking the Steep Steps. They are clearly labelled as such, in English. I thought going up was pretty awful, what with meeting the schoolchildren. But coming down was even worse, although that was partly our fault. You see, we thought we would go down a different way, for a change. To be honest, the gardens on the climb up were not very interesting, so an alternative route back seemed a good idea. So we took the path labelled Steep Steps. After all, it was down, wasn't it?

This was the worst decision ever made anywhere at any time in my life. This was the scariest thing I have ever done. Because the Steep Steps were steep, oh very steep. And narrow, oh very narrow. And windy, and slippery with damp leaves and moss, as the sun never reaches here. And no railings - just a 2 feet wide slippery set of steps with a very very very long drop at the edge.

I do not suffer from vertigo. But I went down them backwards, on all fours, like a toddler just beginning to learn how to negotiate stairs. A woman behind me was crying and unable to move forwards or back, she was so scared.

ADVICE: go to the bottom entrance, explore fully the valley bottom. Give the rest a miss

This was the worst holiday experience...

:) The Garden is 5 stars - Wow amazing (free and has clean public toilets too) Sadly, 1 star is lost because there is still almost zero for safe, disabled capable, elderly friendly, child friendly public transit to the Garden or safe way to walk or hike here from transit stops at top near university or below from hiking trails such as Barranco Guiniguada trail. At the very top of the Valley and way off on the highway above the upper entrance you can possibly catch an inter-island bus Global (#305) going to or from the city of Las Palmas or if you want to take your lives into your own hands and walk the 500m of precarious and dangerous highway shoulder to the University Campus then you can catch a city bus (#25 & #26 city buses for example). Sadly the bus stops are only at the top of the hill and there is absolutely no safe method of pedestrian traffic to reach them in a world reaching 2023. During our last visit an elderly group were forced to ask the security staff to call them a taxi from the lower entrance to bring them up the hill to the bus stops as they were not physically able to return journey up the hill. Very bad planning for Gran Canaria which built a car park at the lower entrance with tourist bus parking spaces but once again forgot the locals. Wow is it absolutely dangerous to even reach the nearest cafe that is not in the Garden. The city could extend the #25 bus route to include the Garden or even the Global buses could run a Global bis past the lower entrance. Not much a tweak to the bus system as they're enough buses passing by above so make some pass below. The Garden has made improvements for safer walking from the upper entrance for pedestrians with a dedicated walkway now instead of just along the road shoulder. BE Careful if you are planning to access here by walking and...

Where to even start.. This botanical garden is more of a cliff with some plants on it.. if you arrive at the top entrance you have very steep, narrow walkways down that don't have any rails (and there are warnings about rocks falling - yay) The plants along the way have absolutely no description and those that do have little plaques were so bleached and overgrown that it was either impossible to read or impossible to know which of the unkept plants around it it was referring to.. The map on top didn't really help, as some signage was bent to the wrong side or had the wrong numbers on them. As we finally arrived at the bottom (after getting lost, since the map we photographed at the beginning didn't really coincide with the actual garden and they only had two in the whole garden!) it did start to get prettier though.. A car had just dropped off a group of tourists and you could see that this was the only side of the garden they care about. Suddenly there was a toilet and shiny new plaques and watered plants. The exit was written down wrong on both maps we found and the gate they designated as the down entrance was closed and chained shut, while the actual entrance was not even marked on the map! We ended up jumping the fence and feeling stupid when we passed the big entrance..

Last warning: This place is not meant to be accessed by foot! There are no bus stops nearby and we had to walk quite a bit alongside a main road to even get there.. I don't know how it's meant to be accessed though since I would have absolutely hated having to climb back up the steep hill to get back to our car.. so either you only see the bottom part or you...