The Gardens of the World

I don’t get the negative reviews. It’s a small paradise along Thousand Oaks Bl. The one docent we encountered couldn’t have been nicer. Lighten up, relax and enjoy it for what it is.

We were having second thoughts about going to this place due to the negative review about their staffs/​volunteers but since we were only less than 10 minutes away from the hotel where we’re staying we decided to check it out anyway. There were only few visitors that sunday but i’d say it’s such a beautiful, relaxing garden. Luckily, We were never followed by anyone as i have read in some reviews. I understand they do have rules and regulations to be followed especially keeping off the grass as they need to maintain it on a regular basis. What i like the most is free admission and free parking. It took us half hour to do the self guided tour. When we got to the japanese garden there was a female staff in white uniform who greeted us cordially and even asked if we have any questions at all and i replied back with no thank you and a smile. Thank God we didnt feel uncomfortable at all, i was thinking they must have read the bad reviews and did some adjustment on their personality lol. I would bring my friends back here when i take them cherry picking soon, hopefully they will have the same great experience and all the beautiful flowers, wall painting of the mission churches and waterfalls are worthseeing.

I am every disappoint. I live fairly close to the garden and I was trying to setup a photography session with them but it became quite a hassle! The staff didn’t even know how to send paperwork through email! I provide two emails yet the said my email didn’t work which is not true. Never going again! Terrible service!

Imagine you have entered one of the most peaceful places on earth. You see green grass for miles, you hear birds chirping, you smell and see beautiful flowers, its like a little piece of heaven on earth and you suddenly start feeling relaxed when someone comes up to you and says «hello». And, every 5 minutes after that you are greeted again, and again and again, except the greetings are not friendly greetings. They are reminders that someone is watching you and you better not misbehave.
The staff at this beautiful places makes their presence known as you step onto the grounds and they watch you like a hawk! You feel like you are in a beautiful place that you cannot enjoy. Don’t make the mistake of going here with your children. They can’t walk on the grass, they can’t touch anything, god forbid if they speak loudly or start running around… everything is prohibited. We didn’t even feel comfortable eating in the designated eating area!
So if you want to go to see this place make sure to be on your best behavior. Big brother is watching!

The Gardens of the World is located right across from the Civic Arts Plaza, it has a free parking lot and it doesn’t cost anything to visit. Closed Mondays, they’re opened from 9 am-​5 pm.
The place is right off Thousand Oaks Blvd., a bit too close to the road for me, you can hear cars passing by while you walk around. This is one of the reasons why this place isn’t that peaceful to me. There are docents everywhere, watching people, more than I’ve seen in any other garden in the LA area. I did take photos with a small camera and no one said anything to me. There are areas where they have classical music coming from some speakers. I love classical music, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea to relax out in the nature.
The gardens are nicely manicured, well put together, bringing a few corners from all over the world: France, Italy, England, Japan. There’s also a cute area with a courtyard dedicated to the history of California and its missions.
There are nice bathrooms, water fountains to refill your bottle, picnic tables. There are also many posts. with many rules and regulations everywhere. Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t want to picnic here, don’t think I’d enjoy my food.
Other Unilocalers are right, you do feel supervised here, it takes your fun away, that’s why I just gave this place only 3 stars.
It’s a nice place to visit during spring time when everything is in bloom, it’s more like a small park (that’s not the issue), it’ll take you half an hour to stroll and see everything. Don’t come here as your special trip, connect it with other activities in the area.
Pretty gardens, I wish they’d be more relaxing to explore. I felt kinda watched while walking around, it lacks privacy.

Wonderful and FREE place to visit with the fam — park on TO and walk in. Nice place to let the kids roam, bring a book, or meet a friend for coffee

Gorgeous property that really should be an asset to T.O. Unfortunately, I have also experienced the horrible rude staff that treat families with children like criminals. Our children are well behaved normal children that chose to run along a path and we were told that this a private facility not for playing.
I understand the photography policy but again the letter of the law and the implementation of the policy makes the whole experience unpleasant and really not worth the trip.
The policy that means docents attack you when you use your smart phone is completely out of date. Are they not aware that there are millions of people taking smart phone pics in private and public venues throughout the world. My 6 year hold was told she could not draw a picture of a flower. Obviously this is a money making scheme and I realize they need to pay for the beautiful property but come up with something else and try to make the experience more pleasant.
If you have children who live and breath, avoid this place and the rude and unpleasant experience

Beautiful place for a little short walk and respite. Rose Garden is beautiful but I was a little disappointed the rest since I was expecting a little more from the name of the garden. That said, the garden is free. It’s a private garden and as long as you respect their rules, there are really no issues. Of course there are always people who don’t think the rules apply to them and they wonder why the docents are annoyed. I walked with my phone taking pics of the garden the whole time, and didn’t receive any of the suspicious or hostile behavior others described even though I ran across several docents. Actually they’re all quite friendly.

I’m docking stars for their terrible staff (the people in white who look at you suspiciously when you have a smartphone) and for their stupid «no posed photos or selfies» policy. And it’s true what the other reviews say, that the volunteers will follow you to make sure you’re not breaking their rules. It’s quite distracting and obnoxious, but their idea behind banning posed photos is that it detracts from the experience for people who want to enjoy the garden and not wait for you to take your photos. Ok, great, but we went on a Saturday afternoon and it was DEAD. Hardly anybody was there, maybe because of this dumb policy. Not allowing photos unless you fill out paperwork in advance makes no sense to me, for what amounts to a park. It really puts a damper on the fun, even though it’s free admission. But since it’s privately owned, they can do whatever they want. And what they want is to follow you and make sure you don’t sneak any pictures of your friends, your family, or yourself…
I loved the Japanese garden. Enormous koi fish and a cute pagoda make what seems like would be a very relaxing retreat.
The lilacs are out of this world. The lilac fragrance is so potent in the Japanese garden that it adds to that otherworldly feeling.
Really liked the rose garden, very well maintained and meticulously manicured bushes.
The gardens themselves are adorable and charming.
The only real drawback is of course the staff. I didn’t get it why they followed us around. You’d think we would have huge scissors or something with the surveillance we got! The reviewers aren’t joking!

Paid a visit to The Garden’s of the World yesterday to celebrate my best friend’s birthday.
PARKING is a little tight, so be cautious when backing out if you have a large car. There are plenty of nearby restaurants you can check out prior or after your visit to the garden. There is also a outdoor seating area inside the garden with tables where you can have a picnic.
My group and I were in and out of the garden within 25 minutes. Similar to the other comments, we were starred down/​followed by a few of the workers. They are not friendliest. When I asked if there were more flowers elsewhere in the garden, the worker directed me and rudely responded «well it is winter!» I found the comment unnecessary. I am not a green thumb so I have no idea what the seasons are for any plant!
Another bummer was that you could not take group pictures/​selfies, but you are allowed to take pictures of the plants and scenery.
Although I did not have the best first time experience, I would not mind returning. Maybe during the spring time.

I had driven by along the 101 for years and never knew the Gardens of the World existed until I saw an article in the Southern California AAA magazine about this place.
You could spend around 20 minutes here just walking around, it’s peaceful and beautiful. I was impressed by the different variety of gardens that they had such as the Japanese Garden (my favorite) the French Garden, Italian Garden, and the Rose Garden.
I’d recommend if you live reasonably close to Thousand Oaks, are passing through on the 101 to LA/​SD, or use as an alternative if you want to stroll around in a pretty garden yet not spend the money at Descanso or Huntington Gardens (however it’s definitely not up to that scale.) It also seems nice for a day date after brunch. I’d probably go more if I lived closer to Thousand Oaks.

Really gorgeous setting. Well maintained. Lovely clean picnic area. The downside, the docents/​workers are MEAN! They don’t like children! We brought our picnic, read the signs that said to eat only in the designated area. On our way to the picnic area a worker glared at us and our picnic, another worker was eating his lunch in the picnic area but stared us down the WHOLE time. Then when we finished our lunch the kids were eager to sketch the nearby garden. I told the kids they could walk down the path to the bench while I gathered up our trash. So my kids might have run towards the path. They are kids. They want to beat each other to the path. Well a docent rounds the corner and YELLS at them to stop running! (She was 3 feet away.) Then she starts in on a big rude lecture about a brochure and we need to read all the rules on the back and the kids need to be with an adult at all times. (They were about 20 feet away from my husband and me.) I have supervised children for a living. I’m not a flakey parent. I’m not the type that would allow my kids to run nilly willy and harm the grounds or be obnoxious.
It put a real damper on our visit. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone with kids.

Despite some of the negative reviews, I had a pleasant experience here. When I read the sign prohibiting pictures, I was disappointed for a millisecond but I quickly brushed it aside and took tons of pictures anyway. One of the workers even took a picture for me!
Regarding the reviews about the uptight running of the gardens, I didn’t seem to experience any of that. I saw at most, two workers and they didn’t pester us at all.
The gardens were gorgeous, especially the Japanese garden. There was an area with all of the missions in California painted on the walls. The whole area was beautiful and quite peaceful.

I’ve lived in Ventura County for about ²⁄₃ of my life and had no idea this place existed. A few months ago a friend came here and I fortunately saw the photos and vowed to make it here.
As I have family visiting from out of town, I suggested we come here before lunch.
We came by yesterday and had a grand time. There were 9 of us total. Five adults and 4 kids (ages 7 to 15). I brought that up for a reason.
Our timing was perfect because there were only two open spots left when we got there. Upon entering, we decided to go to the left side so that we could make a circle.
The flowers/​plants we got to see were beautiful. There were so many different colors that everything caught your eyes. The whole place was very clean and well maintained. The property itself is very impressive. You would never think it would be that massive from what you see outside.
The reason I brought up the fact that 4 kids was part of my group is that I read the reviews before going and saw that a lot of people had a bad experience. Ours was the exact opposite. The docents we encountered were super nice. Genuinely kind. When we got to the Japanese area, one of them gave my nephew some feeder so he could feed the kois in the pond. He didn’t even ask for any. Some others were helpful when we had a question. Which brings me to this point… I’m assuming the people who claim to have been picked on was because they were doing something they weren’t suppose to be doing.
We took a bunch of photos and no one came up to us to tell us to stop. That’s because we didn’t have a selfie stick or cameras. We took photos with our phone. We also didn’t walk on the grass area because the signs said not to. We didn’t touch the flowers or plants, we simply admired them with our eyes. It’s their place, adhere to the rules and there won’t be any trouble. They don’t ask for much considering you don’t have to pay to be there.
Thank you to the wonderful staff for the kindness and hospitality.

You cannot even take a selfie! It’s good only if you don’t mind about not having pictures of your memories of the day you enjoy with your loved ones.
You can take pictures of the flowers though or we were told so; ridiculous!
Not a welcoming staff at all! They suggested to go to a differet garden. You cannot expect much from a private property; their property their rules! Why to open it to the public in the first place?

I absolutely loved it there. Today I went for the first time. Everybody was very friendly. Yes, they ask you not to use your selfie stick and whatnot, but cmon respect their rules. You can take picture with your phone. The least you can do is follow their rules, as it is free. Anyway I went with my 5 year old cousin and the staff was incredible. They gave him food to feed the beautiful fish. Everything is clean and peaceful. Definitely will return with more family.
Thank you for being great!

We made a huge mistake visiting GOTW. We were followed by their volunteers like they were expecting us to steal something. Not 30 feet behind us but 3 feet behind us. They didn’t respond to polite conversation.
A close friend lead a field trip there and according to her, the volunteers screamed at a child for walking on the grass and things got ugly.
The gardens are no better than many back yards I’ve seen.
Don’t even think of taking family photos. They make you fill out a form and promise to follow ridiculous rules. My photographer was treated horribly. After we spent an hour filling out paperwork, were there a total of 20 minutes taking the photo, we couldn’t wait to leave, it was like the twilight zone. I planned earlier to give a generous donation but decided… not.
Anyway, get out and enjoy the Huntington or Getty (free)
PS we were the ONLY ones there.

We really love to come here to relax… Such beauty and serenity!
Must see it in the Spring when the flowers are in bloom!
It’s free to come here… Today it was raining and it was so nice to have the place to ourselves!
Love the pagoda and the Koi in the Japanese garden!

I think what ruins Gardens of the World is their overly aggressive, overly strict photography policy.
It’s free admission but really you pay in headaches after listening to their staff lecture you on their convoluted photography policies and rules. Not allowing people to take what they called «posed photography» is really frustrating.
Their reasoning for the policy is because they want people to be able to enjoy leisure walks through the garden without having to abruptly stop when people have occupied a section of the garden to take couples photos or things of that nature.
I get that you can also reserve an appointment to take photos but if you’re coming here on a whim, as we were, not being able to take one photo with people in it is a little absurd in my opinion.
Someone described it as a mini-​Huntington Gardens but it really is a fraction of the size.
It is well-​kept but judging from photos from years ago, the garden has been more bountiful in the past.
Tip: Parking at the Lakes shopping center 3hr (Sunday)

This botanical garden may be small, but it SHO’ IS BEAUTIFUL!
–Lots of pretty roses and flowers.
–HUGE colorful fish in the Koi pond
–Flowing water fountains
–Lavender
–Benches and shaded areas
–Tribute to all of the Missions in the State of California
I loved it here! The only drawback? Lots of the areas are roped off, ghetto grandma style, so you can’t access them. You can only look. This reminds me of my grandmother who had a beautiful couch and dining room table, both covered in plastic. We never were able to use either one. We could only look.
Oh well. It was beautiful.