Group Trips & Tours

 
 

Buffalo is a warm and welcoming community full of history, distinctive regional cuisine, and many fun & entertaining cultural attractions.

From group-friendly hotels, restaurants, and breweries to the many garden attractions that include the beloved Garden Walk Buffalo (GWB), Open Gardens on Thursdays and Fridays in July, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House and Graycliff restored gardens, the Erie Basin Marina Trial Gardens, the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, and the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed city parks system, Buffalo Niagara is the perfect place for a garden group getaway. Oh, and we have a little water feature just up the road called Niagara Falls!

Let us help you plan your tour

Whether you visit during Garden Walk Buffalo, or any time other during garden season, we can help with garden visits and accommodations.

Leah Mueller, Visit Buffalo Niagara’s Director of Tourism Sales, can assist you with building an awesome group itinerary and connect you to key local receptive services. You can contact her here, submit an RFP, or call (716) 218-2936 to contract hotel rooms or arrange group travel. She is a great resource to make your planning smooth and trouble-free. It’s never too early to start planning. Hotels are usually at or near capacity Garden Walk Buffalo weekend.

In addition to Leah’s invaluable help, volunteers from Gardens Buffalo Niagara (GBN) can make recommendations regarding public and private gardens to tour and garden centers for shopping, give talks to your group, and mail out GWB maps for your guests ahead of the tour. If you need a step-on guide that knows the gardeners and gardens – we can provide docents. Many of our volunteers are Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners.

Garden Walk Buffalo, July 27 & 28, 2024

America’s largest garden tour turns 30 in 2024!
Bring your garden group or guests to an absolutely free tour of more than 300 creative urban gardens and meet their gracious gardeners. It’s an exhilarating weekend of inspiration and ideas for gardeners of every stripe – novices to master gardeners to landscape designers.

Some tours leave guests to their own devices, each creating their own personal tour of gardens that interest them. Large swaths of gardens are walkable distances from each other. Groups that meet up after a day of touring have lots of information to share for touring the next day – or the bus ride back home!

Other group tours drop off folks to wander a bit in one area then depart for another. There’s always a place to park the bus near each neighborhood of the Walk.

Open Gardens on Thursdays and Fridays in July Extends a Garden Walk Buffalo Weekend Tour

In addition to Garden Walk Buffalo, GBN produces Open Gardens – more than 100 exceptional gardens throughout Erie and Niagara counties. They are open either day for select hours.

Group tours often arrive on Wednesday or Thursday and stay through Sunday or Monday. Open Gardens is a paid tour ($15 for an Open Gardens Guide). For groups, we’ll help choose gardens to make the most of your time at no charge. (Tour operators make a voluntary donation to Gardens Buffalo Niagara).  

Other Garden-Gawking Options for Your Visit

A must-see is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House. The house and gardens are restored from the home’s original plan – and they are extraordinary. Accommodations to see the interior of the house can be made separately.

The Erie Basin Marina Trial Gardens on Lake Erie’s edge is a beautiful test garden of annuals for seed companies from around the world. The plants, if successful, will end up on store shelves in 2-3 years.

There’s also an excellent Elmwood Village Farmers Market the Saturday of the tour, smack-dab in the center of the Garden Walk Buffalo footprint, on a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parkway.

The Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens is a national historic site, education center, and tourist destination of wonderful exhibitions, special events, and exotic horticulture treasures from around the world.

Forest Lawn Cemetery has an unmatched natural beauty with more than 3,500 trees representing 100 different species (an important arboretum!), hills, valleys, lakes and streams, and numerous sculptural masterpieces. Permanent residents include President Millard Fillmore, singer Rick James, and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff has restored gardens designed by Wright himself, in his own hand, with additions by America’s first leading woman landscape architect, Ellen Biddle Shipman. Graycliff is in Derby, NY, a short drive from Buffalo, along Lake Erie’s cliffs with views to downtown Buffalo and Canada.

The East Side Garden Walk is always the weekend before Garden Walk Buffalo. More than 80 gardens are open to encourage visitors to explore Buffalo’s East Side, learning about the perseverance of this community. Visitors meet its gracious gardeners, experience its historic neighborhoods, and wide-ranging architecture. Buffalo’s African-American heritage runs deep! In these neighborhoods you’ll find the Michigan Street Baptist Church (a stop along the Underground Railroad), the legendary jazz history of the Colored Musicians Club and Museum, the historic Rev. J. Edward Nash House, The Freedom Wall featuring massive portraits of 28 prominent Civil Rights leaders, and much more – making for a rich cultural trip into American history!

Other great (non-gardening!) sites to visit in Buffalo:

  • Buffalo AKG encompasses one of the greatest collections of contemporary art in North America.

  • The Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park on Buffalo’s waterfront offers tours of notable decommissioned naval vessels and exhibits.

  • Canalside The Erie Canal terminus at Lake Erie is now an exciting destination with boat tours, kayak rentals, public art, restaurants, and a solar-powered carousel!

  • Buffalo Transportation Museum has the world’s largest collection of Buffalo-built Pierce Arrows – the official vehicle for presidents from Taft to FDR. The museum also features other antique cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed gas station, the Filling Station!

  • Waterfront cruises include sailing with wine in hand on the Spirit of Buffalo, brunch or cocktails aboard with Buffalo River Tours, or fun times aboard the Big Kahuna Tiki boat harbor cruise.

Farther afield on your way to or from Buffalo:

We’re here to help!

For more information, read ”How to get the most out of your visit to Garden Walk Buffalo”.

Reach out! We hope to see you in our gardens next July!