The Friends of Geelong Botanic Gardens

Love this place. In my opinion, streets ahead of Melbourne Botanical Gardens. This garden has so much variety and viewing the cottage garden in spring and summer is a must. Have spoken to a few of the staff, and they've all been extremely friendly and happy to answer questions about plants.

Beautiful, well kept botanical gardens with lots of small paths and areas to sneak off to and see the beautiful birds and butterflies that are attracted to the area. I would advise picking up the map so you can check out the special plants that are there - I can't remember exactly, but there's a good number of heritage listed trees that are worth seeing just because you may find it hard to see them elsewhere! A giant redwood (Sequoia) is one of the areas, which is definitely worth seeing as well as a plant that looks like it's being chained to the ground - I don't remember what it's called but it looks impressive and I've definitely never seen one before!
A bonus is that entrance is free and there is a small outdoor cafe that I assume is open seasonally (?) - sadly it wasn't open when I was visiting. It also wasn't crowded when I visited, which made the experience even more enjoyable. With its location so close to the waterfront, it's worth visiting if you're in the area to take a break or just to see the butterflies!

Lovely garden, and a beautiful place for a wedding. The paths and plants really make you feel in a secluded and we'll shaded natural garden, using a relatively small space really well. There are toilets, but they are just rudimentary, i found them clean. Some lovely little shelters and rotunda dotted around. And the gates at the entry overlook the bay. We really enjoyed it.