Scheduled Group Tours
Bring your garden club, church group, civic organization or other group and explore Cornell Plantations with a guided tour. Our group tours, offered May through October, are designed to provide you with a personalized, close-up look at the Plantations gardens and/or arboretum.
We offer scheduled group tours by bus or on foot. Our tours offer visitors the chance to learn about our gardens, history, and plant collections. Each tour is lead by an experienced staff or volunteer tour guide and lasts approximately an hour.
We also offer free drop-in tours in the Botanical Garden and Arboretum. Check our calendar for dates and times.
Walking Tours
Walking tours of the 25-acre botanical garden highlight the winter, herb, decorative flower, rock and perennial gardens, as well as our rhododendron collection and extensive ground cover collection. Your guide will introduce the themes of each specialty garden and identify key plantings. Although three of the specialty gardens are wheelchair accessible, the majority of the tour is over non-wheelchair accessible terrain. Walking tours of the arboretum can also be arranged, providing a closer look at our tree and shrub collections.
Bus Tours
An experienced guide will board your bus to provide your group with a narrated driving tour of the approximately two-hundred acre F. R. Newman Arboretum. Your guide will share information about the plant collections, history, and educational mission of Cornell Plantations as you view scenic overlooks onto the tree and shrub collections of the arboretum. Buses must be provided by your group.
Cost
Cost for all of our guided tours (walking and bus) is $7 per person with a minimum of $70 for each group tour. Registration with a non-refundable deposit of $25 must be received at least ten business days in advance to reserve a tour date. Full payment (minus the deposit) is due upon arrival.
Registration
To register or to make arrangements for your adult group tour, please call or e-mail Kevin Moss at (607) 254-7430 or cpregister@cornell.edu. Please call at least ten business days prior to the date desired for your tour. (Note: for school and youth group tours, please contact Raylene Ludgate at (607) 255-2407, or rgl3@cornell.edu.)
Cancellations
The tour deposit is nonrefundable. If we must cancel the tour due to severe weather or other causes, we will grant you a credit in the amount of your deposit towards a future tour.
Late arrivals or last-minute cancellations
Please call to inform us if you are running late or have to cancel at the last minute. In most cases, you will be provided with the cell phone number of the tour guide ahead of time. If not, please call our main information line at (607) 255-2400. If you are more than 30 minutes late, we reserve the right to shorten or cancel your tour.
Parking
If your group is not coming by bus, please carpool, as parking is limited. Buses will be directed to an appropriate parking area by your tour guide.
Self-Guided Groups
Not interested in a guided tour? No problem. Your group is free to tour on their own at no charge, seven days a week, from dawn until dusk. However, please make a reservation anyway so we can help maximize your group’s enjoyment. Brochures and visitor maps are available at the Garden Gift Shop during open hours.