When you step out of your car at the parking lot for UC Botanical Garden, you are awed by the misty forest surrounding you. Inside, there are plants of all varieties, but the best part are the views of the hills covered in forest. The strands of trees on the distant hills are almost surreal. I loved them! There's a lawn with benches and perfect pine trees next to a herb garden filled with flowers and scents. The Japanese garden has bridges, sculptures and a waterfall. The rose garden sits high up, with views of the bay when it's not a foggy day. Near the rose garden there is the most amazing grass that looks like the golden locks of a giant! Asphalt roads and plenty of lab activity make it more clinical- you don't feel like you're on a hike in the middle of the forest like at Tilden Park Botanic Garden. But the views are spectacular!
Afterwards, explore campus or walk down wild Telegraph Avenue to be transported back to the psychedelic 60s. Or visit Gourmet Ghetto on Shattuck Avenue and have a scrumptious crepe.

Directions

Open 9-5 daily. Closed the first Tuesday of the month and Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thurs in Nov), Dec 24, Dec 25, Dec 31, Jan 1, and Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Cost to enter: adults $12, students and seniors $10, children aged 7-17 $7, and free for kids under 7 years old and for faculty and students of UC Berkeley. The first Wednesday of the month, entrance is free.
The garden is located at 200 Centennial Dr, Berkeley CA 94720, call (510) 643-2755.
From Highway 80 northbound, exit at University Avenue. Go 2 miles and once the street ends, turn left on Oxford Street. Turn right on Hearst Avenue. Turn right on Gayley Avenue. Turn left on Stadium Rimway and then left on Centenniel Drive. After a mile, the garden is on your right and the parking lot is just past it on the left.
Parking costs around $1 an hour and you pay in the parking machine with credit card or cash.

Click on map for interactive view