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Forestiere Underground Gardens
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
10 reviews for Forestiere Underground Gardens
If you love:
California history
Kitsch
Industrious Sicilians
Beating the Valley heat
Gardening
Or any combination of the above, you need the tour this place!
About 5 years ago I was so excited to visit these gardens. I planned a trip for my daughter and I. About halfway through the tour, my daughter needed to use the potty.
When I entered the bathroom, I was disgusted beyond belief. Feces covered the walls, floors, and toilets. My daughter started crying, and I almost vomited. It was the most horrible sight I'd ever seen. We immediately left. I have not returned. I never plan to return.
Visiting the Forestiere Gardens was one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life.
We had stopped by this place on the way home from Yosemite, back in 1967. I thought it was boring as can be, being only 10 years old. As I look back, this guy was more than an engineer! Grafted a citrus fruit tree with something like 10 different citrus fruit varieties! Remember this is coming from a brain of a 10 year old. So, correct me if I'm wrong. Nonetheless, this is a great place to visit.
My sweetheart Ewa, my friend Supriya, and I went to the under ground gardens on 7/4/09 and had a wonderful time.
If you have a chance to go on July 4th I really recommend it. That's the birthday of the place and I thought it was the best day to go there for a tour, although we ended up there on that day by accident.
If you come through Fresno and only have time to see one thing, this is it. You wont want to miss it! I've waited 4 years to get to see it and it was worth the wait.
This is a great place to stop on your way to King's Canyon or Yosemite. The garden is uniquely lovely and is a reminder what you can accomplish once you get off the computer. My sweetheart was reluctant to go but was very thankful afterwards.
It is close off the highway (exit Shaw). No need for GPS! We used old fashioned historic landmark signs from the highway to guide us.
Waiting for our tour to start, we j-walked for drinks and AC at the In'N Out right across the street, and then proceeded to our 2:30 tour. The tour takes about an hour offering you some history about Fresno and about Forestiere. The 81 year old owner (the nephew of the original creator) loves working on the garden and there is a good chance you can meet him.
If you love gardening, want to see some place special and memorable, be sure to stop here.
Forestiere Underground Gardens is world famous --although most
Californians have never heard of it.
Baldessare Forestiere was a Sicilian immigrant who was born in 1879 and came to America in the early 1900's to start a citrus empire.
Instead he spent 40 years building a "habitable underground oasis" with fruit trees and grapevines.
Seeing is believing.....you'll be totally amazed at this wonder of the world. You'll never have that creepy feeling of being underground.
The house is filled with skylights. The skylights also served as openings where the many fruit trees could peek out.
The rooms are small but cozy. Nothing grand but you sense that the family that lived here, lived in comfort.
The tours are still given by family members.
NOTE: Forestiere Gardens is CLOSED until SUMMER 2007 while renovations are done.
Check the website for photos and more info.
http://www.forestiere-...
Fresno doesn't have a whole lot of "local flavor", so when in town, I'll take every bit I can get. Forestiere Underground Gardens are fascinating, and they've just re-opened after being closed for the last year.
From outside, the gardens look pretty deserted. As our group gathered around the chainlink fence, we wondered if we were in the right place, or if they were even open. As a tourist destination, they could use some help repainting the signs and making it look a little more inviting.
Our tour guide was Baldessare's great nephew. He's charming, sweet, and a wonderful storyteller. He made our tour group feel special, filling us in on family secrets, from hushed divorces to hiding trucks in the caverns during the prohibition era. The tour takes a little over 45 minutes.
The gardens themselves are absolutely incredible. One man, with ZERO training in architecture, engineering, or anything else, started with a root cellar, and just kept digging. Maze like passages weave underground connecting little rooms together. This is unlike any underground spelunking I've done before, everything feels light and airy thanks to the many shafts in the ceiling that let in sunlight, filtered through the leaves of citrus trees and other plants.
There's not a lot to do in Fresno, especially on hot summer days. I highly recommend checking out Forestiere's incredible underground gardens.
Current schedule:
Saturday tours start at: 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, and 3:30pm. Sunday's the same, but there's no 3:30 tour. Since they just opened last week, the schedule seems to be tentative for summer of '07, so be sure to check before coming. If the timing changes, please let me know and I'll update my review.
The cost is $10 per adult, cash or check only. Discounts for seniors and kids.
This place is amazing! I've lived in Fresno all my life and have never been here until I had to go for a school paper. Such an interesting story and amazing to see in person. The tour guides were very informative. Adult tickets are $12 and check their website because their tours are always changing times.
http://www.underground.../
I like to find out of the way historical places to explore, found this thru a Discovery Channel program and took the drive up Highway 99 to Fresno.
Rinky A's review has a brief history so I will not go into it.
In the summer it gets HOT in Fresno, but he underground nature of the tour gives someone a break from the heat.
My tour was in the spring so the temp was not too bad. You wait outside of a fence while you wait for your tour guide to collect everyone and begin.
The tour is a hoot lots of interesting facts since your tour guide is one of the Forestiere family members you get the inside scoop.
Check the web page ahead since they have different hours depending on the seasons.. Tours can also be canceled due to weather.
http://www.underground.../
Hokey and touristy but in Fresno, there isn't a lot to do so checked it out. When you drive out to find it, you don't see it because it is underground. All you see is a dry dirt field and some tree tops. You meet outside a chain link fence with the other people who are wondering if they are in the right place too, a guide comes out to meet us, take our $8. Since everything is underground, it is nice and cool, great to escape the Fresno heat, then you see how this guy put so much effort and time to make this a liveable and enjoyable space. Fruit trees are his skylights, fish pond, kitchen, bedrooms, and corridors. I would not go out of my way to check it out but it is fine if you are bored and have nothing to do in Fresno.
