Top Places and Services in Bincombe, Dorset

A wonderful day out. The gardens are beautiful and the layout of paths takes you round all the different areas following printed guide . Personally I would have preferred more plant labelling.
The cafe served good food and drinks and was reasonably priced and the car parking is free. There is also a shop selling an assortment of interesting items, including plants and cards.

A beautiful garden with multiple zones from different parts of the world. We took two hours walking around with a main route to follow but many other paths to explore. The sheer range of plants shrubs and trees is amazing. Well worth a visit and you can get half price access to the Swannery when booked at the same time.

Definitely a dog friendly place. A tropical paradise with flowing gardens of rolling landscape, inter weaved with pathways to explore. Some paths are wheelchair friendly. The 'restaurant' is more of a tea room but serves up usual drinks, cakes and pasty type hot snacks. The toilets are ok but just not big enough for such a popular place, especially for the women. Great plant sales and a small shop. Friendly staff, well worth a visit.

What a wonderfully calming place these gardens are! Admittedly it wasn't packed, the forecast wasn't great and even though we were part of a coachload for the most part it felt like we were the only ones visiting.

We didn't follow the arrows but instead went down all the little paths to see as much as possible. Had we done so I suspect we'd have completed the trail in a couple of hours. We made a point of stopping at the various seating areas and we're pleasantly surprised - there are so many different plants to enjoy, even when doubling back on ourselves after stopping off lunch we spotted something different.

Lunch was a Cornish pastie and a sandwich which were both enjoyed. The pastie could have been a bit larger but was really tasty. The shortbread (and apparently the cakes) were good too.
There's only one set of toilets but even though the gardens are spread out it's not too long a walk back from most points in the garden. The west lawn was closed due to a wedding and the viewpoint over Chesil beach was also closed apparently due to mud after 4 days of rain which was a shame.

We arrived at 11 and departed at 4 which was the perfect amount of time to see everything, stop for lunch, afternoon refreshments and visit the plant sale & gift shop.

I would definitely recommend Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens as a day out - we travelled 2 hours each way and it was worth it.

This is glorious little hideaway. If you take the map given to you at the entrance you will most likely follow the route signposted with white arrows. This route is a short, nonetheless beautiful tour of the garden. For a lengthier tour map out your own tour.

Be sure to climb the viewpoint that provides a fabulous view across local countryside toward Chesil Beach.

The restaurant and outside seating area are really comfortable. Staff are friendly and professional with food food that is also great value.