Big Sur Hidden Gardens Tour

• One-day event held annually in June
• Hidden Gardens Tour website
• Admission charged. Garden Tour raises funds that support Big Sur children’s programs. Buy tickets by mail in advance.

Because attendance is limited and visitors are assigned to different starting points, individual gardens are seldom crowded

• The gardens are open for 6 hours. Get to your first stop as soon as it opens so you have enough time to see them all.
• Wear comfortable shoes. You'll be doing more walking than you might expect.

The Big Sur Hidden Gardens Tour is popular with gardeners and garden-lovers.

If you don't like gardens, plants and gardening, you will not enjoy this event.

I rate the Big Sur Hidden Gardens Tour 4 stars out of 5. It was so interesting that we ran out of time before we managed to visit all of them.

You will get a map and instructions when you get your tickets in the mail. Tours start between the Carmel Highlands and Esalen Institute along California Highway One.

Buy your tickets by phone at 831-667-1530. You'll get your tickets, a tour map and itinerary by mail about a week before the tour.Unless you're lucky enough to have a friend who owns a house along California's Big Sur coast, you're not likely to get a peek inside the gardens surrounding them. Once a year in mid-June, that changes for one day as local gardeners open their properties for the Big Sur Hidden Gardens Tour.

The Big Sur Hidden Gardens Tous is a self-guided tour. The properties open change every year, but might include artist's studios, private greenhouses and other gardens not normally open to the public. At each stop, other activities complement the location, such as quartet performing in the garden of famous musician.

To prevent overcrowding, only a limited number of tickets are issued, so it's best to plan ahead.

Take a photo tour of the gardens I visited.

As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with complimentary admission for the purpose of reviewing this event. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see our ethics policy.