点评:Absolutely beautiful gardens and a fantastic place to spend a few hours in Edinburgh. Everything was incredibly well maintained, with good paths, easy-to-follow maps and plenty of interesting and informative exhibitions along the way. The glasshouses were unfortunately closed for renovation during our visit, which was a shame, but there was still more than enough to see.
Entry to the gardens is free, with a suggested donation which we thought was very reasonable. If you’re able to donate, you absolutely should — maintaining somewhere like this must be an enormous undertaking and it’s wonderful that everyone can access it.
We stopped at the café for lunch and this was probably the only part of the visit that could do with a few improvements. Two rolls, a coffee and an iced latte were on the expensive side, although we didn’t particularly mind paying a little more given that the gardens themselves are free. The rolls were okay, served on quite hard ciabatta-style bread. An option to have them toasted and brought to the table would have made them much better.
The ordering system could also be improved. The menu is displayed on a screen that keeps changing, so it can disappear before you’ve finished reading it and you then have to wait for it to come back around. There were also four really nice-looking salads, but you could only choose one rather than having a selection — we would happily have paid extra to have a little of each.
Food and coffees were prepared and handed over individually at the till, and with several customers understandably having questions about the menu, the queue moved very slowly. A fixed menu and separate ordering and collection points would make the whole experience much smoother.
One final warning if you eat outside: watch the seagulls! 😂 They are incredibly cheeky, not remotely shy and apparently consider your lunch to be their lunch.
The café issues are minor compared with the overall experience though. The gardens themselves are beautiful, peaceful and exceptionally well cared for. A wonderful free attraction and somewhere we’d absolutely recommend visiting while in Edinburgh.
翻译:这里的花园美得令人心醉,是在爱丁堡消磨几个小时的绝佳去处。整个园区维护得极为出色:小径整洁有序,地图清晰易懂,沿途还有大量有趣且富有教育意义的展览可供观赏。遗憾的是,我们到访时温室因翻修而关闭,颇为遗憾,不过仍有足够多的景致值得参观。
进入花园无需购票,只需自愿捐款即可,我们认为这个建议捐赠金额十分合理。如果您有能力的话,不妨慷慨解囊。你绝对应该去——维护这样一个地方肯定是一项庞大的工程,能让所有人都能前来参观真是太好了。
我们在咖啡馆用了午餐,这大概是整个参观过程中唯一需要稍作改进的地方。两个面包卷、一杯咖啡和一杯冰拿铁的价格都偏贵,不过鉴于花园本身是免费开放的,我们倒也不太在意多花点钱。那些面包卷还算可以,只是用的面包质地相当硬,类似恰巴塔面包。如果能选择将这些食物烤一下再端上桌,效果肯定会好得多。
点餐系统也有待改进。菜单显示在一块不断切换画面的屏幕上,因此可能还没等你看完就消失了,你得等待它重新出现才行。菜单上还有四种看起来非常美味的沙拉,但只能选择其中一种,无法多选——其实我们愿意多付点钱来尝一尝每一种呢。食物和咖啡都是在收银台处现场制作并逐一递给顾客的。由于不少顾客对菜单有疑问,排队速度变得极为缓慢。如果设置固定的菜单,并分别设立点单与取餐区域,整个流程就会顺畅得多。
最后再提醒一句:如果在户外用餐,可要小心海鸥哦!😂它们厚颜无耻至极,一点都不怕人,似乎把你的午餐当作它们的午餐呢。不过,与整体体验相比,咖啡馆的问题算是微不足道。花园本身十分美丽、宁静,且打理得极为出色。这是一个很棒的免费景点,我们强烈推荐游客在爱丁堡时前来参观。