Sunken Gardens

Because Sunken Gardens can be thoroughly enjoyed in a short visit, many travelers enjoy pairing this attraction with other activities. Neighborhood walking tours provide a deeper history of the city while eco-focused Segway tours highlight the botanical gardens and other natural features of St. Pete’s ecosystem, such as the manatees near the Tampa Bay seawall.

• Sunken Gardens is an outdoor attraction, so wear sunscreen and consider an umbrella in the summer months.
• This activity is walking-based, but the well-maintained paths are flat and suitable for kids and adults of all ages and abilities.
• Call ahead to see if there are any scheduled nature presentations focusing on specific plants or wildlife.
• You can bring food and beverages into the park for a picnic, but there is no on-site restaurant.

Visitors staying in downtown St. Petersburg can make the mile-long walk to Sunken Gardens without issue. Visitors from Tampa or St. Pete-Clearwater Airport can take I275 south, then head east on 22nd Avenue before turning south onto 4th Street. Overflow parking is available at nearby Crescent Lake Park. The Line 9 bus stops at Sunken Gardens as well.

You can walk through the gardens entirely in one hour, making it an excellent option for a late-morning activity. The gardens typically close late afternoon, and summer thunderstorms may disrupt a mid-afternoon visit. Weekdays are quieter (apart from the occasional school field trip), while weekends are generally much more crowded. Don’t wait until the last minute, as ticket sales end at least 30 minutes before Sunken Gardens closes.

St. Petersburg has a walkable downtown core and a ferry that runs between St. Pete and Tampa. Whether you’re staying in the city or visiting from around the area, other family activities are within walking distance of Sunken Gardens—check out the Great Explorations Children’s Museum next door and the nearby North Shore Park, which has a beachfront playground.

Admission tickets for Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, Florida, are US$15 for adults, US$12 for seniors aged 62 and over, US$6 for children ages 2 to 12, and free for children under two. Members enjoy unlimited admission year-round and other discounts—memberships are US$50 for individuals and US$100 for families.

Yes, visiting Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg is worth it. The botanical gardens are more than a century old and one of the oldest roadside tourist attractions in the US—they are in the Historic Old Northeast neighborhood, house a flock of flamingos, and can easily be visited in 1–2 hours.

Expect to spend 1–2 hours exploring Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, Florida—that's enough time to take a relaxed walk through the grounds and see thousands of plants, waterfalls, flamingos, and tropical birds such as cockatoos and macaws. Docent-led tours available from March to October typically last 1–1.5 hours.

Yes, Sunken Gardens is a great place to visit with kids. It is next door to the Great Explorations Children's Museum and has thousands of tropical plants and flowers, flamingos, and other birds such as cockatoos and macaws—enough to keep kids entertained for 1–2 hours.

You can feed the Chilean flamingos at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg only on rare special occasions, such as the annual Flamingo Festival, and for a fee, which has been as high as US$50. You can feed the fish in the botanical garden's Koi pond throughout the year.

Yes, there are animals at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, Florida. When you visit, you can see butterflies, rescue macaws, Amazons, cockatoos, and a flock of Chilean flamingos that have lived in the botanical gardens since 1956. The gardens are also home to about 50,000 tropical plants and flowers.