Garden and home tours near Palo Alto

Palo Alto gardens hit their peak in late April. Roses open, the native sages and ceanothus are in full bloom and the long dry summer has not yet set in. That is when the region's garden tours happen, one after another. It is also when a handful of private gardens open to the public for a weekend. The rest of the year brings quieter options: Filoli's seasonal house tours in Woodside and docent-led walks past the historic homes of Professorville.

This guide covers the recurring garden and home tours near Palo Alto that organizers confirmed for 2026. For each we give the latest date, how the tour works, the cost and how to get there. When we checked on November 2, 2026, no tour had firmly posted its 2027 date, so treat the usual timing as a guide.

The tour calendar

Gamble Garden Spring Tour

The best-known garden tour in Palo Alto is the Spring Tour run by Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden, the free public garden at 1431 Waverley Street. It is the garden's largest fundraiser and has run since the mid-1980s. Ticket holders receive the addresses of several private gardens by email shortly before the tour and visit them in any order over two days, with docents at each stop. Gamble Garden itself becomes the hub, with a plant sale and the Over the Garden Fence resale market.

The 2026 tour ran Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with four private gardens. Presale tickets were $45, or $35 for members. Tickets on tour days were $55. A marketplace-only entry was $10 for adults. The 2027 dates were not posted in early November. The private gardens do not usually suit walkers or wheelchairs, although Gamble Garden's own grounds are accessible. Our Spring Tour guide has the full details and our Gamble Garden guide covers everyday visits.

Free native garden tours

Growing Natives Garden Tour

For gardeners who want ideas they can copy at home, the most useful tour of the year is free. The Growing Natives Garden Tour, formerly the Going Native Garden Tour, is run with the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society. It opens private and public gardens planted with California natives across the Santa Clara Valley and the Peninsula. The tour is self-guided. You register online, pick gardens from a map and drive or bike between them.

The 2026 tour ran Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For 2027 the tour's website showed April 3 and 4 at the top of its page, while another line said dates had not been decided and would likely fall on a mid-April weekend. Treat both as tentative until registration opens. Many hosts are happy to talk about watering and plant choices. Our water conservation guide covers the city's rebates for replacing a lawn.

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

The East Bay's equivalent is larger and adds a Green Home Features Showcase, with electrification resources, to the garden visits. The 22nd annual tour ran Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is free, with advance registration required to get garden addresses. The gardens are spread across the East Bay, so expect to drive across the Dumbarton or San Mateo bridge and pay the toll on the westbound trip home. It falls a week or two after the Peninsula tours, which makes it a good second weekend of garden visits.

Filoli: house tours and the holidays

Filoli, the 1917 country estate near Woodside, is the region's grandest house and garden. Its formal gardens and the house are open to visitors most of the year. In 2026 Filoli added guided behind-the-scenes tours that take small groups from the basement to the attic, plus a Taste of Filoli tour with honey and jam made on the estate. Dates were listed into November 2026.

For the holidays, Filoli dresses the house for the season and brings back Thistlewyck Village with model trains in the redwoods. Holiday Lights, with about 350,000 lights in the garden, runs from November 14, 2026 to January 10, 2027, from 4 to 10 p.m., with a preview night on November 13. All of these are ticketed and popular dates sell out, so book on Filoli's tours page. Filoli is about 15 miles north of Palo Alto via Interstate 280 and Edgewood Road. Our Filoli day trip guide covers tickets and timing.

Historic home walks in Palo Alto

Palo Alto Stanford Heritage, the city's preservation group, leads walking tours of historic neighborhoods on weekend mornings each spring and fall. Its fall 2026 walks covered Professorville on Saturday, October 24, starting at 1005 Bryant Street. The Homer Avenue walk followed on Sunday, October 25, starting at the Woman's Club of Palo Alto, 475 Homer Avenue. Other walks cover Crescent Park and College Terrace. The group says the walks resume in spring. These tours look at houses from the sidewalk rather than inside.

PAST also ran a Holiday House Tour inside decorated historic homes for many years, but its site says the last one was held in 2012. If you want to explore on your own, our Professorville walking tour follows the same streets.

Gamble Garden in winter

Gamble Garden's Winter Festival, December 3 to 5, 2026, is the closest thing to a holiday house tour in Palo Alto today. The 1902 house and grounds are decorated for the season, with an opening night party, a Holiday Marketplace, a holiday tea and a Friday family evening with Santa. Our Winter Festival guide has the schedule.

Planning a garden weekend

The third and fourth weekends of April are the sweet spot. You could spend a Saturday on the native garden tour, then use a Sunday at Filoli or on a wildflower hike in the foothills. Late April is also Stanford Admit Weekend, which runs April 28 to 30 in 2027, so hotels fill. You can compare Palo Alto hotels for a spring weekend early and pick a refundable rate. Our garden centers guide lists nurseries where you can buy what you saw.

Frequently asked questions