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Weather and Accessibility

TICKET PURCHASE IMPLIES PURCHASER WILL ADHERE TO ALL TOUR POLICIES, POSTED OR VERBAL.

ABOUT OUR TOURS

  • Our guided tours require about 60 minutes of gentle walking, standing, and some stairs with hand rails.

  • You will tour the gardens with a group of up to 18 people and will be given a short presentation and information about each room.

  • We can comfortably accommodate visitors with walkers or canes and offer an alternate route for visitors in standard wheelchairs (26 inches or less). Motorized or electric chairs or scooters of any size are not permitted.

  • The earthen pathways are relatively flat but appropriate footwear for walking outdoors is recommended!

GENERAL TOUR POLICIES

  • Stay with your group and tour host. These are guided tours for your safety and for the preservation of the site.

  • All of the fruit on the tour and the grounds is considered “forbidden fruit” – no picking it! We do sell our fruit in our gift shop when it is in season.

  • We are a true earth environment and our hardpan planters, walls, and surfaces are delicate. Please do not sit or climb on the planters or furnishings.

  • Please keep your children with you at all times. Our open air museum can be exciting for children, but it is not a playground. Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult 18 years of age or older.
  • Photos of the historic site are vacation photos for your personal enjoyment. All rights to photos taken of the site remain with the Forestiere Underground Gardens and may not be copyrighted or sold. (please see our photo policy)

ACCESSIBILITY POLICY

Guided tours require about 60 minutes of gentle walking, standing, and some stairs with hand rails. We can comfortably accommodate visitors with walkers or canes, and offer an alternate route for visitors in standard wheelchairs (26 inches or less). Motorized or electric chairs or scooters of any size are not permitted.

Due to our narrow passageways and true earth environment, we cannot permit:

  • wheelchairs wider than 26 inches

  • motorized/electric scooters or wheelchairs

  • pets of any kind

  • strollers

  • backpack style baby carriers or car seats

For parents with young children we recommend slings, wraps, or other front style carriers.

WET WEATHER POLICY

In order to safely offer tours of our museum, the grounds must be dry enough to walk on with no substantial rain hitting the area. Tours could be canceled and schedules changed without notice, which may be the case due to an overnight rain storm, successive days of rain, or rain showers during the hours of operation. If you arrive for a tour and find our site closed due to rain or wet conditions, we apologize for the inconvenience! If you are visiting during the spring or fall months, please be sure to provide us with a good phone number for day-of communication when making your reservation so we may contact you if we need to close unexpectedly.

HOT WEATHER POLICY

If you are visiting during the summer months, please be aware that while the underground rooms are cooler, there is no central air conditioning underground. Temperatures underground vary about 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the surface, but it still may be uncomfortable for people with heat sensitivity or those with medical conditions.  For the health and safety of our team and our visitors, we may need to close early on days where a heat advisory is in place. If you are visiting during the summer months, please be sure to provide us with a good phone number for day-of communication when making your reservation so we may contact you if we need to close unexpectedly.

We are an open-air museum and it is generally 10-20 degrees cooler underground than ground level. We recommend dressing accordingly and bringing a bottle of water.

All tours are weather permitting.