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Over two days I got through all ten of the private gardens in the festival program, plus the Campbell Rhododendron Gardens on top of that. Honeysett and The Braes were my favourites, along with the small but beautiful Westholme — those two Dogwood trees there really won me over. If I could only pick three, those would be the three.
Honeysett is showing for the first time this year. I went once in the rain, and the valley was wrapped in mist, genuinely atmospheric. I went back again today in full sun, and with the valley laid out clearly it was a completely different experience. One of the staff asked why I’d come to the same garden twice, and I told them I just loved it and wanted to see it in different weather. Campbell’s rhododendron season is also worth the visit, though it needs a separate ticket.
The Braes: garden No. 1, and the one that sets your expectations for the whole festival
The Braes is garden No. 1, and it’s worth going to — worth spending proper time in, too. It’s essentially a heritage garden estate, with rhododendrons in full, vivid bloom throughout, plus a little bridge-over-water scene and a fountain. It has more to see than Fjell Heim and photographs more easily as well.
The Braes is also a good gauge for how big the whole festival actually is — expect roughly 10 to 20 minutes per garden, depending on how much time you spend taking photos. By comparison, Everglades House & Gardens is even more worth seeing, though it isn’t part of the 10-garden festival ticket. It’s bigger in scale and well worth the separate visit — budget an hour or more if you’re going to wander and take photos properly.
A single garden costs $10, any three gardens cost $20, and all ten gardens cost $40. Tickets can be bought on the spot at the gate of each garden, or in advance online. There’s also a $10 add-on for the shuttle bus that runs from next to Leura train station, though if you have a car, driving is the better option — most gardens are only 3 to 5 minutes from Leura’s main street, 10 minutes at the furthest, and you just park on the street next to each garden. It’s free and unrestricted, so it’s genuinely convenient.
If it’s your first time: three gardens to start with, and when the whole thing runs
This year’s Leura Gardens Festival runs from the 2nd to the 5th of October, 9:30am to 4:30pm. Private gardens that are normally closed to the public open up together for just these few days. Rhododendrons, tulips, bluebells, wisteria, cherry blossom, all against the Blue Mountains’ own valley scenery — it genuinely feels like a little European town.
There are ten gardens in total this year, and there’s really no need to rush through all of them in one day. Picking three and taking your time is a far more comfortable way to do it. If it’s your first time, I’d particularly recommend Honeysett, which has a lot of flowers and a valley view, and photographs beautifully; Ewanrigg, which has a real “secret garden” feeling, with paths, trees and layered garden beds that are especially lovely; and Carramar, which leans heavily into old trees, lawns and an English-estate feel, and is an easy detour to Wentworth Falls from there. You can have lunch and coffee in Leura village around midday, then spend the afternoon on one or two more gardens — it makes for a genuinely relaxed pace.
As a reference, a single garden is $10, any three are $20, and all ten are $40, with anyone 16 or under getting in free.
What hit me hardest wasn’t the gardens — it was the whole town
Last week we’d just been to the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains, and this week I came back to Leura for the private garden festival that only opens for a few days a year. I’d assumed I was just coming to look at a few gardens. What actually struck me, though, was the entire town.
Walking in, almost every single house was bursting with colour, as if everyone were quietly competing to be the best gardener on the street. What moved me even more was that the whole event seemed to be held up by the local community themselves — guiding people at the train station, checking tickets at the gardens, pointing the way along the route, and a lot of them were grey-haired, slightly unsteady on their feet, and every one of them warm and friendly. The shuttle bus drivers were lovely too, and the town had even designed a dedicated bus route to connect all the gardens together. The ten private gardens that open each year aren’t normally open to the public at all, and the ticket money goes to the local hospital and charities. The whole of Leura felt like something the whole town had made together.
The first stop was garden No. 2, Honeysett. The garden itself isn’t big, but it unfolds in layers following the slope of the land, and right near the back the entire Blue Mountains valley suddenly appears in front of you. I met a 93-year-old woman there, who smiled and said, “I’m 93 now, but I love this place so much, I come every single time — it’s become a kind of habit for me.” A volunteer answered, “Thank you for loving it — we actually live right next door, and we get the same mountain view.” All I could think was: the people of Leura have it so good.
The second stop was garden No. 1, The Braes. This has long outgrown the word “backyard” — it’s a proper small estate. Tall hedges, maples, a pavilion, stone walls, lawns, a view around every corner, arranged with real care, and even a touch of the quiet calm of a Japanese garden. Walking through it, I understood that what poverty limits might not just be my imagination.
The last stop was garden No. 7, Ewanrigg. As soon as we got out of the car, we were drawn to a garden belonging to a house right on the road, and photographed it enthusiastically — only to realise afterwards it wasn’t garden No. 7 at all, just its neighbour, and honestly, I privately think it had already outdone garden No. 7. Garden No. 7 itself has vivid colour and layered planting, and it backs onto a golf course. My favourite spot there was one quiet patch of open space with nothing but two white chairs. If this were my own garden, sitting here every afternoon looking at the big trees and the flowerbeds would probably already be a pretty happy life.
It was only after we’d finished that I realised the real charm wasn’t just the open gardens — it was that the whole town of Leura is one big garden in itself. Last week, standing at the Three Sisters looking out over the Blue Mountains, I thought they felt grand. This week, looking at the same mountains from inside Leura’s gardens, they felt gentle instead.
If you haven’t been to the Leura Gardens Festival yet, remember the name, and make sure you come next spring. While you’re in the area, it’s worth pairing it with a proper day out in the mountains — our guide to the best dinosaur spots around the Blue Mountains and Bathurst is an easy add-on if you’ve got kids with you, and it’s worth checking our NSW school holiday dates before you book, since spring in Leura gets busy fast once the holidays hit. What you end up remembering, in the end, might not just be the flowers in bloom, but a whole town, and how seriously it treats loving something beautiful as simply part of everyday life.
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