Review: Lights Up Hillier Gardens is festive delight
MULTI-COLOURED arches, fields of brightly lit tulips and illuminated woodland creatures all feature in a spectacular Light Up trail at Harold Hiller Gardens near Romsey.
Open until Wednesday 1st January the enchanting festive attraction has already welcomed thousands of visitors despite being impacted by two storms, and the theft of £80,000 worth of cables just days before the trail opened.
Having visited Hillier Garden’s for its first trail last December, we were excited to return during the opening week. Offering something for all ages, the beautifully designed route features dozens of photo opportunities, interactive exhibitions and wonderful atmosphere sound effects to accompany some of the trail elements.
New features for 2024 included giant baubles designed by local school children, and a number of interactive walk along pianos which changed colours as children hop, skip and jump along them. The trail has plenty to see and experience so it’s easy to spend a couple of hours admiring the various elements and visiting the Christmas market area which offers sweet treats and seasonal delights – located at the routes half way point.
The attraction has many Christmasy features such as reindeers and baubles so wandering through the beautiful garden trail certainly evokes a very festive feeling. There are a good range of elements aimed at children – and mine were interested and engaged throughout. They especially loved the light up pianos – and thankfully there were several of these installations allowing lots of children (and adults) to play at once.
We loved wrapping for an evening walk around the delightful gardens, and left feeling incredibly festive. New this year are a number of special super peak tickets which feature live theatrical entertainment from Steamship Circus including fire jugglers, breath-taking aerial artists and larger than life characters.
Light Up Trails will be open at Hillier Gardens until Wednesday 1st January. For tickets visit: https://www.lightuptrails.com/events/light-up-hillier-gardens
