Callaway Gardens, exceeds expectations regardless of the season

I don’t really want to spend time in a garden, thank you very much. I was thinking that too in regards to our visit to Callaway Gardens. One of the key reasons we were going there was so that the kids could see their world famous, Fantasy In Lights festival that happens every year from the middle of November through early January. Our time at Callaway Gardens was amazing and ironically the main reason for going turned out to be one of the least enjoyable things there, but that was not the fault of the facility-more on that in a moment.

Located about an hour south of the Atlanta airport, Callaway Gardens is a massive series of lakes, golf courses, nature and forests in Pine Mountain, Georgia. If you like to do something outside you’ll find it here. When you visit during the warm season any and all water activities are at Robin Lake, which is the world’s largest man-made lake. During the Christmas season you’ve got Fantasy In Lights, spring has everything blooming and fall has more tree color than the north Georgia mountains-really.    

It also immediately reminded me of Meatballs. Did you ever see that movie? It’s an early Bill Murray comedy where he plays a summer camp counselor.  It was released in 1979, a year before Little Darlings, another classic summer camp movie. Think that movie, but without Christy McNichol, no teen virginity contest and a whole lot funnier and you’ve got Meatballs.

We stayed in one of these cottages and it was country luxury. Each place has two separate bedrooms, each with two queen beds and its own bath. The bedrooms are on opposite ends of the cottage also which allows for a little bit of privacy between family members. They have a working fireplace and a screened in porch on the back also. The cottages are within eyesight of other cottages, but seem like they’re a world away due to the sheer number of trees.

The butterfly exhibit was stunning. Yeah, you’ve seen butterfly exhibits at your nature center, so have I. However, the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center blew them all away, with their hundreds, upon hundreds of multi-colored, delicate winged insects. The difference is that the Day Butterfly Center gets in new chrysalis every single day. They import them from out of the country so that the circle of life is always turning. They even have a live hatching station where you can watch the chrysalis hang upside down, waiting for the butterflies to hatch.

When you enter the main area you won’t be assaulted by butterflies, but they are there. Here the butterflies have more space to fly and they take full advantage of it. Once you walk around the sealed area you’ll discover hundreds of butterflies, many of which have colors that you’ve never seen. I saw a bright blue, forest green and one butterfly that was a big as a small bird. These were colors that I’d previously never seen in nature, yet here this delicate week old creatures were, blissfully celebrating their mid-life crisis.  Even if you’re not a nature person, this is one butterfly center that will delight you in unexpected ways.

It’s important to point out that even the kids enjoyed the butterflies, but they were also eager to get to the next thing, TreeTop Adventure. As they are 9 and 7 they hooked into the Sapling Course. It’s a ropes course that was perfect for both of them, to an extent. The younger one was howling with laughter while the older one was playing it cool and realized that he could’ve done Discovery Course, the bigger, taller and longer course. The ropes course is an additional fee to the park’s admission, but is great fun.

The Birds of Prey show was also amazing. It was too windy for the show to be outside so they held it inside-and it was still amazing. They had several live raptors and explained why and how the birds came to be with them. It turns out that most of the bird had been ‘helped’ by humans when they were babies. Unfortunately, the birds lost their ability to care for themselves and now reside there in a safe area. Bottom line: if you see a bird on the ground who is struggling to fly- do not help them.

There are also bike paths that meander all over the property. You can rent a bike for the full or half day, better yet, stay there for a couple of days and bring your own bike. Callaway Gardens has festivals for every month and you’ll find yourself wondering what it’s like to visit it in March, April, June, August or any other time.

Ironically, the only aspect of our trip to Callaway Gardens that didn’t measure up was Festival In Lights and that was due to 4 teenagers being seated near us. The light show and narration is very cute and lots of fun. However, those who don’t enjoy light shows or are 11 through 18 will probably find it boring and result to annoying those around you instead. Factor in that Fantasy In Lights cost $35 for same day admission, that’s a lot of cash to dole out on a tween audience that won’t appreciate it. Hint: buy your tickets in advance and you’ll save about 50%.

Our younger children loved the light show and couldn’t get enough of the narration and well timed millions of lights. Regardless of when you go to Festival In Lights you will want to take a blanket. The trolley is slow moving and the breeze coming off of the lake will be very cold.

Our one night stay at Callaway Gardens was too short. In totality it was two days, but even that amount of time didn’t allow us to rent bikes, explore the trails or see all of what the facility has offer. We’ll go back again, in a different season and most likely have a fabulous time for an entirely different reason.