Bok Tower Gardens, hands down, was my family’s favorite day trip during our visit to Florida for Thanksgiving week. Bok Tower Gardens is located at 1151 Tower Blvd. in Lake Wales, Florida, and be prepared to spend most of the day here, there is a lot to see and do! There is a gatehouse you drive through as you enter the grounds, and it is here that you pay your admission fees. Adults are $17 apiece, children (ages 5-12) are $5, and children under 5 are free. Dogs are allowed on the grounds, and their admission fee is $5. The Gardens are open year-round from 8am to 6pm, with last admission being at 5pm. The Visitor Center, the café, and the gift shop are open daily from 9am to 5pm.
As we followed the winding road out of the gatehouse, and up to the Visitor Center, we spotted Bok Tower off to our left, covered in fog. After parking, we walked into the Visitor Center to grab a map of the grounds, use the bathrooms, and explore the exhibits. All three of my girls were enthralled with the touch-screen display that allowed one to click on various levels and rooms of Bok Singing Tower to learn more about the tower. I had no idea how one played the bells in the tower, but in these exhibits we learned about musicians called carillonnneur who use their hands and feet to strike the keys and pedals. Amazing!
Leaving the Visitor Center behind us, we set out into the gardens. Everything had been decorated for Christmas, and it was beautiful! We followed the well marked paths over to Hammock Hollow, the children’s garden, and spent the morning exploring every nook and cranny! Just past the child-sized gateway, there was Indigo Pass, an area with a giant serpent that one could climb on and sand to dig in. Another area held a giant spider’s web to climb on, and nearby was a music and art area. There was even a stage for children to hold performances on. Stormy loved the giant logs in the Fox Den, and happily clambered up and over them. Rainbow loved using the mallets on the musical instruments, and Pebble, well she was a little tired and cranky, and it took her a while to warm up to the gardens. She didn’t like that her sisters were running ahead of her to explore, and her smaller legs had some trouble keeping up.
In the back corner of Hammock Hollow was the Back in Time Garden. This garden lifted Pebble out of her funk, and it quickly became one of the girls’ favorite spots in this children’s garden. Why? This garden area was set up as a homestead with a hut, and an outdoor kitchen. There was also a working water hand pump here that children could use to clean dishes or make pretend food for the pretend kitchen, like mud pies. Pebble was even able to manage the handpump, but she quickly soaked her shoes. Learning from past experiences, I had not only packed extra clothing for each child, but I also packed water shoes for each. All three girls slipped into their water shoes here, and had a blast! So many mud pies! Wet feet, wet clothes, happy children.
When we eventually left this area of Hammock Hollow behind, we checked out the Bobcat Scramble, and the Cypress Boardwalk before ending up at River Walk, another water based activity area. Here one could press a button, and jets of water would fountain out of rocks surrounding a small walkway. Children could run and dodge the water, or just plow right through. My girls all started out wearing their water shoes, but quickly abandoned them for bare feet. Stormy happily skipped back and forth trying to get hit by as many fountains of water as she could! Pebble was right on her heels, while Rainbow tried to run the course without getting wet, she didn’t succeed!
At lunchtime, we pried the kids away from the water jets, and herded them outside Hammock Hollow to one of the restrooms nearby. There, all 3 shivering, soaking wet children were able to put on fresh, dry clothing. I bagged all the wet gear up, and left it in the car when we swung by it to grab our picnic lunch. There were picnic tables right near the parking lot, and we sat for a bit munching and recharging. After lunch, we walked up to Bok Singing Tower for a closer look. I cannot begin to describe how gorgeous the gardens were, as was the tower. We stopped for a bit on a set of benches near the tower for the afternoon concert. There was a giant screen set up here, so not only could we hear the bells being played, but we could see the musician in action.
When Pebble got restless, we moved on, slowly circling the tower, watching the koi in the water that surrounds the tower on all sides, and listening to the music. The tower is situated on a hill, with gorgeous views on three sides. The girls had fun running up and down the hill, rolling where they could. Stormy even cartwheeled down the hill one time. The girls also discovered clumps of dried Spanish moss lying on the ground, and started an impromptu game of beauty parlor. Rainbow took two clumps and held them up near her ears, a la Princess Leia style, while Pebble was walking around with a clump on top of her head along with the large frond of a plant she’d found on the ground. Silly girls!
After the concert ended, we spent another hour exploring the gardens, stopping briefly to see El Retiro, the mansion, but we didn’t linger to do the tour. We saw so many little lizards, and Stormy swears she saw a small snake. Butterflies flitted everywhere, and it was just magical. When we noticed the girls starting to peter out, especially Pebble, we walked back to to the Visitor Center. There is a gift shop here, and we went inside in search of some Christmas presents. The shop has some lovely gifts, but be forewarned, there are a lot of breakables, too!
This blog post can never convey just how much fun we had, or how beautiful these gardens are, or how neat that singing tower is, but I tried. Like I said before, Bok Tower Gardens was our favorite day trip of this vacation, and we would happily go again. If you are ever in the area, please check this place out, it is worth it! Happy trails!