One thing I always slightly resented whilst living in London was how far away everything seemed to be. And as a true testament to my laziness, I found it pretty off putting doing certain things because of this. One attraction I always wished I’d taken the time to visit whilst I lived my merry years in London were the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew. I’ve always been a bit of a plant lover, from the Orchid I used to keep on my uni room window sill (which eventually died a quick death after an over-watering incident – mother of God how do you keep those buggers alive) to my pride and joy giant Courgette plant which is basically taking over my whole garden right now. There is something about plants that gives so much life and soul to a home.
Luckily for myself, Edinburgh is much smaller and more convenient than London (and in my opinion far prettier too). So heading to the Botanic Gardens here was an easier feat. The furthest we had to travel out of Edinburgh to visit an attraction was the Zoo and this was a twenty minute journey on a bus. Yes that’s right bus, not tube. If you tried getting on a bus in London you’d expect it to take twenty minutes just to pull away from the bus stop. The Royal Gardens were a lovely little twenty minute stroll from our apartment and with the glorious heatwave still going strong even in Scotland, it was the obvious option to walk.
As the Gardens are so large they have several gates situated around the park to allow entrance from different sides. We came through the East Gate and were met by a cheery chap who told us as we had arrived just before 4pm, if we wanted to visit the Greenhouses we should head their now as the Greenhouses shut entry at 5pm. Considering you need a good hour at least to look around we scuttled over and nabbed up our tickets before it was too late. The Gardens are free to walk around however if you want to go inside the Greenhouses then you need to pay a small fee of £6.50 (totally worth it).
Overflowing with beautiful tropical plants this part of the Botanical Gardens boasts a total of ten glass houses filled with the likes of Rainforest plants, ferns, palms, cacti and much more. We spent about an hour or so ambling around the different Glass houses taking it all in. You don’t want to do any other pace other than a slow amble tbh as the humidity is quite high in order to replicate the plants natural habitats. If you try to do a brisk walk, expect to turn into a salty pool of sweat and don’t say I didn’t warn you…
We really enjoyed our time here and I would 100% put it on the things to do list if you are considering visiting Edinburgh. It’s breathtaking to see varieties of plants you would never normally see in the UK and the RBGE have done a wonderful job of creating such an accessible wonder for the public to enjoy.
Until the next time lovelies x