Gijón Botanical Garden, Spain: What to See, Prices and Getting There

The Gijón Botanical Garden is on the edge of the city, and you can get there on an ordinary city bus. Inside there’s a laurel maze with a lighthouse in the middle, an oak wood that’s three to four hundred years old, a vegetable garden with white eggplants and exhibition rooms that explain how aspirin came from willow bark.

What Is the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón?

This is one of the places I always recommend in Gijón if you love nature and parks. The garden really is worth it, and it’s also very easy to combine with Universidad Laboral – a monumental building with a tower right across the road.

Gijón (Xixón in Asturian) is the largest city in Asturias, a region in the north of Spain on the Bay of Biscay. The botanical garden is on the eastern edge of the city.

Universidad Laboral was built in the middle of the last century as a huge educational complex, and today it’s described as the largest building in Spain. Its tower is about 130 metres tall and can be seen from almost everywhere, so it’s handy for getting your bearings. These days it houses the Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura arts centre, and you can visit on a guided tour: a colonnaded square, a theatre, a church with an enormous dome and a lift up to the viewing platform in the tower, with views over the city and the coast. But even without the tour you can look around inside and go up the tower. There’s a combined ticket for the tour and the botanical garden, so it’s easy to fit both into one day.

The official name is Jardín Botánico Atlántico, the Atlantic Botanical Garden. It opened in the early 2000s and is dedicated to plants from Atlantic regions on both sides of the ocean. It’s a much smaller and quieter place than Kew Gardens, but in a single walk you go from the Cantabrian mountains to a Canadian marsh with wild rice, and from there into a pine forest like something out of Scandinavia. The garden is divided into four areas: Entorno Cantábrico (the Cantabrian Environment), Factoría Vegetal (the Plant Factory), Jardín de la Isla and Itinerario Atlántico (the Atlantic Itinerary).

What surprised me most was how well kept everything is. The paths are clean, every plant has a label with its Latin, Spanish and English name, and each area has a board with a map and explanations. Several buildings have exhibitions that are interesting to read even for adults, and even more so with kids. A lot of it is in English too, but not everything: some display cases and history panels are in Spanish only.

Juniper bonsai tree in a ceramic pot at the Gijón Botanical Garden entrance pavilion

Autumn 2026 events programme posters at the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Bonsai and the events programme

Small-leaved bonsai tree with layered crown displayed at the Gijón Botanical Garden

There’s a bonsai collection right by the entrance. Pick up a paper map as you go in: all the collections on it are numbered, and the numbers make it easy to find your way around. There’s also a big map on a board.

Large illustrated map of the Gijón Botanical Garden showing four themed areas at the entrance

What to See at the Gijón Botanical Garden

I’m describing everything in the order I walked round. The numbers in brackets are the collection numbers on the garden map.

1. Entorno Cantábrico: Mountains, Bogs and Dunes

The Entorno Cantábrico (Cantabrian Environment) starts to the right of the entrance. The Cantabrian Mountains run across the whole north of Spain, and between them and the sea there’s a huge variety of landscapes. This area shows plants from open habitats: high mountains (9), peat bogs (8), coastal dunes (6) and coastal marshes (7). Lots of rocks, dry grass and shrubs.

Universidad Laboral tower seen through birch trees from the Gijón Botanical Garden — The Universidad Laboral tower

Dry golden grasses along a gravel path in the Cantabrian Environment area of Gijón Botanical Garden

In the dunes area there’s a real wooden fishing boat lying on the sand, and next to it a board about carpintería de ribera, traditional boatbuilding on the coast. Boats used to be made from oak and chestnut: the wood is strong and copes well with damp. But these trees grow slowly, so from the mid-19th century people switched to pine and eucalyptus.

Red and white fishing boat named Angélica resting on sand next to a stone wall

The coastal dunes area

Heath and grasses with the Universidad Laboral tower in the background, Gijón Botanical Garden

2. The Laurel Maze with a Lighthouse

Next to the high-mountain section is the maze – one of the most fun places in the garden. Its walls are laurel hedges taller than a grown-up.

Narrow path between tall laurel hedges with the Laboral tower ahead in the Gijón laurel maze

In the middle stands a small white lighthouse with a red roof. It’s a copy of the lighthouse at Cabo de Torres on the western edge of Gijón, and the weather vane carries the date 1923. The goal is to reach the lighthouse, and you’ll hit more than one dead end on the way.

White replica of the Cabo de Torres lighthouse with a red dome in the centre of the laurel maze — Replica of the Cabo de Torres lighthouse

Red lantern and weather vane of the replica lighthouse above laurel hedges in Gijón

Hidden inside the lighthouse is a 3D model of what a plant looks like on the inside: cells and vessels magnified many times over. We have veins and arteries, and plants have vessels of their own. Some carry water and minerals up from the roots to the leaves, others carry the sugars made during photosynthesis from the leaves to the rest of the plant. If you’re with kids, definitely take a look inside the lighthouse.

Giant model of plant cells and vascular tissue inside the lighthouse of the laurel maze, Gijón Botanical Garden — The model inside the lighthouse

Close-up of an enlarged model of plant cells and vessels inside the maze lighthouse in Gijón Botanical Garden — Plant cells and vessels

Clock tower of Universidad Laboral rising above the trees under a cloudy sky in Gijón

By the maze there are two boards I really liked. The first, “Heroes and Villains of Our Plants”, is about the laurel psyllid (bay sucker), a tiny insect that sucks sap from the leaves and makes them curl up. The garden doesn’t use chemicals against it. Instead it releases a predatory bug, Anthocoris nemoralis, which tracks the psyllids down by their sweet secretions. The board is drawn like a comic, which makes it easier for kids to follow. The second one explains how a laurel stem is built – the same thing the model in the lighthouse shows, only in diagrams. It’s in Spanish and English.

Blooming rosemary branch with small purple flowers in Gijón Botanical Garden — Rosemary

And this is what the maze looks like from above:

Laurel hedge maze with a small white and red lighthouse in the centre, Gijón Botanical Garden

3. American Boreal Biome: Wild Rice Marsh and Maples

Beyond the maze begins the American part of the Itinerario Atlántico. “Boreal” means northern: it’s the belt of conifer forests, bogs and lakes that stretches across Canada and Scandinavia. Here you’ll find black spruce (41) and jack pine (42) forests, a cranberry bog (46) and a wild rice marsh (45). This section only connects to the maze, and you can’t carry on to the rest of the Itinerario Atlántico from here. So I looked round the American part and went back to the entrance.

Wild rice (Zizania palustris) grows around the Great Lakes, and the Indigenous peoples of North America have harvested it since ancient times. It’s called rice because it looks similar, with long dark grains, but it isn’t related to Asian rice. In autumn, migrating birds feed in marshes like this one.

Pond with water lilies and autumn trees in the American Boreal Biome area, Gijón Botanical Garden

Wetland with floating leaves and wild rice grasses under a blue sky, Gijón Botanical Garden

The wild rice marsh

Winding gravel path through pines and grasses with the Laboral tower in Gijón Botanical Garden

The board about jack pine (Pinus banksiana) explains that these forests grow on dry, rocky ground and cope well with fires.

Along the way you’ll pass drinking fountains, and there are several of them in the garden.

Drinking water fountain with a stainless steel spout in Gijón Botanical Garden

Maples grow in the riverside forest with American alder (44). Every spring, the Indigenous peoples of eastern North America cut into maple bark and collected the sweet sap, then boiled it down into syrup. It takes 30 to 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup. Canada is still the world’s biggest producer of maple syrup.

Ivy-covered fallen tree trunk with a plant label in a shady forest, Gijón Botanical Garden

Maple

4. Jardín de la Isla: Footbridges, Ponds and the Story of an Estate

From the entrance I walked past the fern collection (5) and crossed the Peñafrancia stream to Jardín de la Isla. This is the oldest part of the botanical garden, the former estate of Gijón industrialist Florencio Valdés. The garden was laid out in the second half of the 19th century. Closer to the entrance there are ponds with aquatic plants (25), brick footbridges with white railings and tree ferns, and further in, ornamental shrubs (18) and plants of the East (17).

Pink hardy begonia flowers with red stems in La Isla garden, Gijón — Hardy begonia (Begonia grandis)

Brick bridge with white railings over a pond covered with autumn leaves, La Isla garden, Gijón

This part doesn’t feel like a botanical collection at all, it’s simply a lovely old park. It’s shady and quiet, begonias grow along the footbridges and tree ferns hang over the water.

Wild strawberry leaves among fine green ground cover plants in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Small white railed bridge over dark water surrounded by tree ferns, La Isla garden

Wild strawberry and a footbridge over the pond

Begonia grandis flowers and seed pods hanging on red stems

Red brick bridge with white railings and a tree fern in the historic La Isla garden, Gijón Botanical Garden

Begonia and a tree fern

Dense spikemoss ground cover with strawberry leaves in a shady garden bed

Brick bridge pillars with pink hardy begonias growing alongside the path

Begonias along the footbridge

Brick bridge with white railings in a shady part of the historic La Isla garden

Nandina

Along the stone wall there are panels about the history of the estate, in Spanish only. They cover Valdés’s glass factory, his family and how the port of Gijón was being expanded at the time. There are lots of old photos of the house and garden.

Exhibition panel with archive photos about Florencio Valdés y Menéndez

Florencio Valdés and his family

Exhibition panel about the glass factory of Florencio Valdés with archive photos

Exhibition panel about the history of the port of Gijón with old photographs

The glass factory and the port of Gijón

Exhibition panel La Isla florida about the history of the La Isla garden

Exhibition panel La Isla habitada with old photos of the La Isla country house

The estate’s garden and house in old photos

5. The Pavilions: History of Gardens and Cantabrian Flora

From Jardín de la Isla I walked past the New World fruit trees (11) to the upper part of the Factoría Vegetal. There are two exhibition pavilions here, with toilets next to them. Make sure you go inside: they have some of the most interesting displays in the whole garden.

Coral pink roses in bloom in Gijón Botanical Garden, Asturias, northern Spain

The Cantabrian room covers the region’s climate, flora and plant conservation, and there’s a relief model of the landscape with a cross-section of the rock layers. The other room tells the history of gardens: from Eden, Egypt and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the Alhambra in Granada, Versailles and modern parks. At the board about Arab gardens you can smell jasmine and orange blossom. Rotating cubes tell the stories of plants brought to Europe by “plant hunters”. For example, in the 16th and 17th centuries people paid up to 1,500 gold coins for a single tulip bulb.

Exhibition panels about Cantabrian climate, flora and plant conservation in Gijón Botanical Garden — The Cantabrian flora room

Single red rose among dark green leaves near the exhibition pavilions of Gijón Botanical Garden

Purple asters with yellow centres in a garden bed in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

A rose and asters

6. Factoría Vegetal: New World and Old World Vegetable Gardens

The Factoría Vegetal (Plant Factory) is the part of the garden about plants people use: edible, medicinal, aromatic, ritual and honey plants (16). Next to the pavilions there are plants from the Americas, such as the Peruvian pepper tree and agave.

Paved square with tables, potted plants and a traditional building with a wooden balcony in Gijón Botanical Garden — Tables by the pavilions

Peruvian pepper tree branch with clusters of small red berries in Gijón Botanical Garden

Large blue-grey agave plant against a blue sky in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Peruvian pepper tree and agave

Dried seed heads on a plant in the Plant Factory area

Brown seed capsules on a tall stem in sunlight in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

The vegetable gardens are split into the New World and the Old World. The New World gardens (15) grow crops that came to Europe from the Americas: pumpkins, peppers, corn and tomatoes. The Old World gardens (14) have watermelons, okra, eggplants, beetroot and leeks. Each crop has a label with its name, where it comes from and a QR code. There’s even a separate bed of weeds and roadside plants (13).

Orange pumpkins growing on dark soil in the vegetable garden of Gijón Botanical Garden — Pumpkins came from the Americas

Red bell peppers growing on plants in the vegetable garden — So did peppers

Watermelons with orange marigolds and brick raised beds in the vegetable garden — Watermelons and marigolds

Okra plant with green pods growing in the Old World Crops garden

Laboral tower above a tiled pergola and raised vegetable beds in the Plant Factory area

Okra from East Africa

Small kiwi berries hanging among green leaves in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón — Kiwi berries (Actinidia)

The biggest surprise in the vegetable garden was the white “White Egg” eggplants. They really do look like hen’s eggs. That’s where the English word eggplant comes from: the first eggplants Europeans saw were white and oval.

White egg-shaped eggplant fruits hanging on the plant in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Bush with many white egg-shaped eggplants of the White Egg variety

“White Egg” eggplants

Beetroot growing in dark soil with red-veined leaves in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón — Beetroot

Red fuchsia flowers hanging from a branch in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Citrus fruits ripening on a tree against a blue sky in Gijón Botanical Garden

Fuchsia and citrus

7. Quintana de Rionda, a Living Beehive and an Old Apothecary

Next to the vegetable gardens is Quintana de Rionda, a traditional Asturian farmstead with a house, a cowshed, a mill and a hórreo. A hórreo is a wooden granary on stone pillars. It’s raised off the ground to keep mice and damp away from the grain. You still see lots of them in Asturian villages.

Traditional Asturian hórreo granary on stone pillars with a tiled roof and wooden balcony — Hórreo

A large bronze head of the Busgosu hangs on a brick wall. He’s a forest spirit from Asturian mythology, half man, half goat, and the guardian of the woods. The garden has an augmented reality trail, “Los Secretos del Botánico”, where you can meet characters from Asturian legends through your phone.

Bronze sculpture of the Busgosu, a forest spirit from Asturian mythology, on a brick wall — Busgosu

The Factoría Vegetal buildings have exhibitions too. The first thing I saw was a living beehive with glass walls.

Observation beehive with glass walls showing honeycomb and bees inside a wooden case

Close-up of bees on honeycomb frames in a glass observation hive

The board next to it shows you where the queen, the larvae and the honey are. Next door there’s an exhibition about why pollinators are in danger and what each of us can do about it.

Bilingual information panel explaining what can be seen inside the beehive

One of the rooms recreates the study of a travelling naturalist.

Recreated study of a naturalist with a desk, sailboat model, violin and armchair

After that come the rooms about cultivated plants. One board reminds you that Columbus took wheat, grapes and olives to the New World, while corn came to Europe from there. A display case holds cobs of different varieties, and there are scenes with mannequins and old tools.

Mannequin in a straw cape holding a stick in an exhibition diorama — A cape made from plant fibres

Wooden bridge, stone walls and the Laboral tower above autumn trees

The next building has an old mill, with an exhibition about bread and cereals next to it.

Old wooden flour mill machinery with millstones inside a stone building — The millstones

Exhibition table with breads, flour and cereals under warm light

Bowls with dried maize husks, flour and seeds on a round table

Bread, cereals and corn

Wicker basket filled with dried corn cobs in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Bowls with grains, crackers and a bamboo mat on a wooden table

I liked the display of giant packs of everyday products: cocoa, canned pineapple, wine. It shows you straight away how much of what’s in the shops is made from plants.

Giant replicas of food packages including cocoa, canned pineapple and wine bottles

Up under the roof of one of the buildings there’s an old apothecary’s laboratory (la botica): flasks, stills, jars of dried herbs and boards about medicinal plants.

Old pharmacy display with glass jars of dried herbs and a mortar and pestle

Vintage laboratory glassware with distillation flasks in an attic exhibition

The old apothecary

The clearest example is the willow. Willow bark has been used as a painkiller since ancient times. Salicin was extracted from it, and that led to acetylsalicylic acid, in other words aspirin.

Apothecary bottles with amber liquids on a round wooden stand

Round display of laboratory flasks, cylinders and jars in the botica exhibition

Next to it is a board about stimulant plants: coffee, tea and mate.

Glass decanter and bottles with plant extracts on a shelf in the old pharmacy exhibition

8. Old World Fruit Trees

At the bottom of the Factoría Vegetal are the Old World fruit trees (12): pomegranates, persimmons, citrus and medlars. The medlar is an old European fruit that’s only eaten overripe, once the flesh has gone soft. In Spain it’s called níspero común.

Yellow pomegranates hanging on a pomegranate tree in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón — Pomegranate

Medlar fruits on branches of a Mespilus germanica tree in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Persimmon fruit hidden among large dark green leaves in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Medlar and persimmon

Orange persimmon fruit hanging among leaves in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

9. Cantabrian Forests: Holly and Field Maple

From here I walked through the western part of the Entorno Cantábrico: forests (1), aquatic plants (4), shrubs (2) and meadows (3). The forest section brings together typical forests of northern Spain, such as beech woods with dog’s mercury.

Forest path in soft light with ferns in Gijón Botanical Garden

There’s lots of holly in the undergrowth, and in autumn it’s covered in red berries.

Holly

Field maple (Acer campestre), with its small lobed leaves, grows here too.

Field maple

Hedge maple branch with green leaves in the forest in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

10. Back to Jardín de la Isla: Pond, Eucalyptus, Pergolas and an Old Tennis Court

Then I walked past the New World fruit trees (11) again and went back to Jardín de la Isla.

Pond with a fountain jet under large trees and autumn leaves in the historic La Isla garden, Gijón Botanical Garden

Here you’ll find ornamental shrubs (18), rock gardens (23), bulbs (22) and camellias (19), plus a pond with a fountain under big trees.

Cotoneaster branches covered with small red berries in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón — Cotoneaster

Collection of conifers with rocks and paths in Gijón Botanical Garden

Lawn with a large weeping cedar and tall trees in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Conifers and a cedar

Footbridge among dense trees over the Peñafrancia stream in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

This is where the estate house stands, and Jardín de la Isla also has the oldest tennis court in Asturias. This part is full of pergolas, old sculptures, big plane trees and eucalyptus.

Red bottlebrush flower of a callistemon shrub in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón — Bottlebrush (Callistemon)

Orange and red autumn leaves on a branch in Gijón Botanical Garden

In autumn the leaves here are already turning yellow and red.

Branch of autumn leaves turning orange and red in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

The eucalyptus trees here are huge: you have to tip your head right back to look at them.

Eucalyptus

White wrought-iron bench under a pergola with colourful signs, La Isla garden

Moss-covered stone statue of a woman holding a sheaf of wheat in La Isla garden

A statue covered in moss

Shady path with a metal pergola and a large conifer in La Isla garden

Plane tree beside a path and a small wooden bridge in the historic garden

Pergolas and plane trees

11. European Boreal Biome: Spruce, Birch and Pine

Behind the estate house begins the European part of the Itinerario Atlántico. There’s a spruce forest (26), boreal alder (27), birch woods (28), willow scrub (29), Scots pine (31) and a dwarf birch bog (32). Wooden boardwalks run over the wet ground, and boulders lie between the trees. A board explains that Scots pine grows where other trees struggle: on dry, poor or, the other way round, waterlogged soils.

Close-up of fine green horsetail stems in the boreal area of Gijón Botanical Garden — Horsetail

Path through spruces and grasses in the European Boreal Biome of Gijón Botanical Garden

Large boulder under spruce branches near a wooden walkway, European boreal area of Gijón garden

Spruce forest

Wooden footbridge with rope railings among birch trees in Gijón Botanical Garden

Birches, pines and boardwalks – it looks like a northern forest somewhere in Scandinavia.

Birch trunk with peeling white bark and climbing ivy in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Most of the paths here are wooden boardwalks.

Birch trees beside a long wooden boardwalk in the European boreal forest, Gijón Botanical Garden

Wooden boardwalk under Scots pines and shrubs in Gijón Botanical Garden

There are ferns underfoot, and by autumn they turn russet.

Dry fern frond lying across a wooden boardwalk in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

The pine forest is full of light, with a soft carpet of needles underfoot.

Scots pine forest with a winding path and ferns, Gijón Botanical Garden — Scots pine

Winding wooden boardwalk between pines, boulders and ferns in Gijón Botanical Garden

Polypody fern

12. Riverside Alder Forest and Oak Grove

From here the route heads to the far edge of the garden, into the European temperate forests: an alder forest along the stream (35) and an oak grove (36).

Wooden walkway with railings passing a curved plane tree in the riverside forest

The trails switch between bare earth and wooden boardwalks.

Wooden boardwalk with railings through a shady forest in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Carbayo is Asturian for the English (pedunculate) oak, and a carbayera is an oak grove. A board on the trail says this grove hasn’t been logged for about 150 years.

Old trees with ivy-covered trunks along a dirt path in the Carbayera forest, Gijón

Wooden bench next to a massive old tree trunk on a forest path

It’s damp and quiet here, and there’s hardly anyone around.

Wooden boardwalk among ferns and young trees in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Alder forest

Narrow dirt trail through dense green forest in Gijón Botanical Garden

Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis), a common plant of damp broadleaf woods in Europe, grows under the trees, and the fallen trunks are covered in fungi.

Turkey tail bracket fungi growing along a fallen log in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Close-up of striped bracket fungi on a dark log in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Turkey tail (Trametes)

Cluster of small yellow mushrooms on a mossy log in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

The paths here are narrow, with tall grass on both sides.

Woodland path with tall grass on both sides in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Forest path made of wooden boards between ferns and twisted trees

13. The Picnic Meadow

Through the mixed forest (38) the trail comes out into a meadow with wooden picnic tables, almost in the woods. It’s easy to spot on the map by the toilet and drinking fountain icons. Do bring a snack: it’s really nice to sit down and eat here after a couple of hours of walking.

Defibrillator cabinet and first aid signs on a wooden wall in the garden — A defibrillator on the way to the meadow

Wooden picnic tables on a green meadow surrounded by trees in Gijón Botanical Garden — The picnic meadow

14. Beech Forest and the Carbayera de El Tragamón

From the meadow I took the upper trail through the beech (39) and mixed (38) forest and came out at the Carbayera de El Tragamón (37). It’s a protected natural monument, and about half of the grove lies inside the botanical garden.

Path covered with autumn leaves beside a wooden fence and bench

Another board tells the story of the charcoal piles (carboneras). Until the 20th century, charcoal in the Cantabrian mountains was made by hand: wood was stacked around two upright poles, covered with earth and branches and burned slowly with almost no air.

Branch with smooth leaves and clusters of red berries in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Forest road covered with fallen leaves under tall trees in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

Beech and mixed forest

Wide crowns of centuries-old oaks above a grassy clearing in the Carbayera de El Tragamón — The Carbayera’s centuries-old oaks

Large brown wild mushroom on dry grass and leaves in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

More than 60 of the Carbayera’s oaks are over 300 years old, and some are more than 400.

Ancient oak trees in sunlight in the protected Carbayera de El Tragamón forest

15. Bosque de los Niños and the Way Out

Next to the Carbayera there’s a children’s play area, the Bosque de los Niños (Children’s Forest). In the middle is the giant head of a fairy-tale creature among tree ferns: a slide comes out of its mouth, and there’s a crawl-through tunnel next to it. This area is home to characters from Asturian legends, such as the cuélebre, a winged serpent said to guard hidden treasure.

Giant moss-covered creature head among tree ferns in the children's forest

Children's slide coming out of the mouth of a giant creature sculpture with a tunnel nearby

Bosque de los Niños

From here I walked back down to the exit.

Green fronds of a tree fern in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón — Tree fern

Outdoor amphitheatre with colourful seats under trees in Gijón Botanical Garden — The amphitheatre

Shrub with narrow leaves and small orange berries in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

On the way out, primroses were still in flower.

White primrose flowers among green leaves in the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón

You leave through the same main entrance.

Entrance to the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón with its name on a sandstone wall

How to Get to the Gijón Botanical Garden

The garden is on the eastern edge of the city, next to Universidad Laboral. From the centre, the easiest way to get there is by bus or taxi.

Bus: EMTUSA city bus line 1 (El Cerillero – Hospital de Cabueñes route), Jardín Botánico stop. A ticket costs 1.50 €, and you can pay by card or in cash. Other lines also go to the garden, so it’s easiest to check your route on Google Maps
Taxi or Uber: around 7-10 € from the centre
By car: there’s a car park next to the entrance

Practical Information

Address: Avenida del Jardín Botánico, 2230, 33394 Gijón, Asturias
GPS: 43.521502, -5.615784
Opening hours: January, February, October-December 10:00-18:00; March 10:00-19:00; April and September 10:00-20:00; May-August 10:00-21:00 (check the website before you go)
Closed: Mondays (in July and August the garden is open on Mondays too)
Last entry: 45 minutes before closing
Admission: adults 2.90 €; ages 12-26 and over 65s 1.80 €; under 12s free
Universidad Laboral (across the road): guided tour of about 75 minutes, 6 € (reduced 4.50 €), schedule at laboralciudaddelacultura.com
Combined ticket Laboral tour + botanical garden: 7 € (reduced 5.50 €)
Guided tours: included in the ticket price, best booked in advance
Opened: 2003
Size: about 25 hectares, around 30,000 plants of about 2,000 species
Getting there: bus 1 to the Jardín Botánico stop (1.50 €), taxi from the centre 7-10 €
Time needed: at least 2 hours, ideally 3
Website: botanico.gijon.es
Google Maps: link

Tips

Time: at least 2 hours, or 3 if you’re not in a rush. If you read the boards in the pavilions, you can easily spend half a day here
Combine it with Laboral: the building with the tower is right across the road. The tour takes you up to the viewing platform in the tower, and a combined ticket with the garden costs 7 €
Paper map: the collections are numbered on it, which makes it easy to plan your walk
The American section by the maze: you can’t get from it to the rest of the Itinerario Atlántico, so you’ll have to go back to the entrance
Snacks: deep in the garden there’s a meadow with picnic tables almost in the woods, and there are plenty of benches all over the garden
Toilets: by the pavilions in the upper part of the Factoría Vegetal and at the picnic meadow
Water: there are drinking fountains around the garden
Shoes: many of the paths are unpaved and can be wet after rain
With kids: the maze with the plant model inside the lighthouse, the Bosque de los Niños with its slide, the beehive with live bees and the comic-style boards
English: the main boards and plant labels are bilingual, but some display cases and history panels are in Spanish only
What’s on: the events programme by the entrance lists guided tours, workshops and talks. Most of them are in Spanish
Mondays: the garden is closed, except in July and August

FAQ

How do I get to the Gijón Botanical Garden from the city centre?

Take EMTUSA city bus 1 to the Jardín Botánico stop. A ticket costs 1.50 €, and you can pay by card or in cash. A taxi or Uber from the centre costs around 7-10 €.

How much does it cost to visit the Gijón Botanical Garden?

An adult ticket costs 2.90 €, and it’s 1.80 € for young people aged 12-26 and visitors over 65. Children under 12 go in free. There’s also a combined ticket with Universidad Laboral for 7 €.

How much time do you need to see the garden?

At least 2 hours to get round the main areas. If you want to take your time in the woods and read the boards in the pavilions, allow 3 hours or more.

Can you have a picnic in the botanical garden?

Yes. Deep in the garden there’s a meadow with wooden picnic tables, with a toilet and a drinking fountain nearby, and there are plenty of benches too. It’s best to bring your own food.

Is the garden good for kids?

Yes: there’s the laurel maze with a lighthouse, the Bosque de los Niños with a slide, a glass beehive with live bees and comic-style boards. Children under 12 go in free.

Is there information in English?

The main boards and plant labels are translated into English, but some display cases and history panels are in Spanish only.

When is the Gijón Botanical Garden closed?

On Mondays, except in July and August. Opening hours change with the seasons: in winter the garden closes at 18:00, in summer at 21:00. Last entry is 45 minutes before closing.

Is the Gijón Botanical Garden Worth Visiting?

Yes, especially if you like peaceful places. You can just wander, or you can read the boards as you go. I learned a lot here, both about plants and about Asturias. For me, it’s one of the nicest places in Gijón.