Our next NSW destination? Southern Highlands: BOWRAL! My friend Cyril and I went for their annual tulip festival: Tulip time.
Bowral is about 1.5 hrs drive or 2.5-3 hrs by train from Sydney. We opted to take the train because we expected that there will be lots of people coming to the festival and parking might be limited. Also, no tired driver! We can take a nap during the train ride. 😅
For this annual event, several promotions are being offered. One of them is riding the Old steam trains from Sydney Central to Bowral station. This included the High tea experience during the trip. I think it was around $100+ per person. We didn't want to spend that much hence we opted for the normal (modern) trains. We did have the chance to take a picture of the old trains. Train to Hogwarts anyone? 😆
Entrance to the garden is free. There are donation box at every entrance though. If you have spare change to donate, you can drop them on those boxes. Unfortunately, due to the sudden cold weather, the Tulips have not fully bloomed at the time of the festival. The garden volunteers said that it might take one to two weeks more before they get a full bloom. Nonetheless, I still think it was very pretty! It this is how it looks like now, how prettier will it be during full bloom? 😍
There was also a parade in the afternoon for the event. The festival is for 2 weeks but the parade is only done on the first Saturday of the event. This is the reason why we went on this specific day even though the tulips have not bloomed yet.
Note: Most buildings here are really old. They have the European/historical building feels. 😊
