burke's garden

Mtnman300

One of the most beautiful places in the eastern United States. It is not developed, farm land with beef and dairy cattle operations, so no restaurants, hotels, or other tourist trap junk. Very nice place to drive around, bicycle, hike, etc. well worth the trip to see, the jem of southeast Va. Nice place for a drive to relax and enjoy the scenery....

beachin2011

It's very scenic....... But so are the surrounding areas. We stopped at the Amish country store for lunch. That's it. There's nothing else. They had landmark signs up in two places.

pisseds2014

No one will answer the phone or return calls. Very poor way to run a business. Who would no if its a nice place when no one will answer calls. How do you make arrangements to go if no one calls back... Do you drive a long way just to possibly disappointed again... This would have been a unique experience but unfortunately we will never know because people won't do their jobs.

wv_travelersX3

I would compare this place to Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountains, without all the traffic. If you can possibly go there during their festival in September, you will not be sorry. You will find everything from homemade crafts to yard sales and delicious food and ice cream as well as mountain music and live story-telling of the history of this beautiful place. I have heard that the country store there has closed, I hope I was misinformed. If you do nothing but ride through this area and view the beautiful farmlands, you are in for a treat.

BlueRidgeTravelGuide

Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains is gorgeous, but I think the beauty at Burkes Garden may be even better. Maybe it's just different, but I was amazed at the scenery of rolling hills and farms surrounded by mountains. The history is interesting too... supposedly the Vanderbilt's first choice for the grand Biltmore Estate was Burkes Garden... but the owners wouldn't sell their land. Good for them. It's an 8-mile wide jewel, 3000 feet above sea level.

a1phonerates

After reading about the history of Burke's Garden we decided to drive up the mountain and take the main loop thru the valley.Most of what we saw was lush, green pasture land and little else (other than cattle). The width and length of the valley is amazing considering that it is surrounded by a "lip" of mountains.The majority of the houses were well off the road but nothing to shout about. The spacious distance between them does seem to be unique to previous valleys of Virginia we have driven thru.We had hoped to get a better view of the camels at the "Lost World Ranch" but they were about a quarter of a mile off the road and almost out of sight. (I did get one zoomed in picture worth viewing.)Being Sunday, the General Store was closed, likely due to the fact that it is run by an Amish family.Beautiful scenery with little traffic to detract from the opportunity to look around, it was a very pleasant. Would not make a special effort to go there if we were not already in the area.

ClinchMtnMan

Beautiful scenery. Nice place for an afternoon drive. Beautiful farms. The country store professes to have great hamburgers. We just got soft drinks as we weren't hungry. Get a map at the store.

Turtlepg

We just took a day ride through this remarkable place, if you have not seen this it's a must. It made a wonderful motorcycle day ride, so peaceful with much to see. We saw so many different species of birds I want to go back and do some bird watching on foot. As you are riding through and you see a farm with what looks like two hump Camels you are not having a heat stroke, on down you will see some Alpacas as well. Now I have to say riding on a road named 666 was slightly disturbing; however, when you take a look around you know you are in God's country - LOL!

travelwithdog08

Burke's garden is one of the prettiest places in Tazewell County. I love just driving over there to see the beautiful scenery. If you have a chance to visit Tazewell County I highly recommend the drive to see this beautiful place. As others mentioned, I'm not aware of anywhere to eat over there so plan on eating before or packing a lunch. A must see!

joand890

Unbelievable to see Mongolian Bactrian Camels in this part of the world. Tour was wonderful and so interesting.

tripeeblonde

i'm not aware of anyplace to eat here - but it's not so far from town, you've got to drive through the garden and take in the rural beauty. They have a festival in the fall that is a lot of fun, be sure and go. The Appalachian Trail runs across the southern border of the garden.

205GlennB

This is a must see for anyone and everyone. It is a wonderful place with acres and acres of farm land. It is great to drive around to take in the scenery. You will not see any big developments here. The land is handed down from one generation to the next. I recommend bringing drinks and snacks because the store that was there is now closed. There are many roads to take and one road in particular circles around the entire area.

mandyb432

Love the scenery here! landscapes are breathtaking and I love the open family own farms that are everywhere!

PTInstructor

Very interesting landscape. Being surrounded by mountains is unique. Really enjoyed the ride up and down the access roads.

MotNat

This was our third visit with another family member of the highest valley in VA, and the mid October color was indeed spectacular. The general store was closed since last we had a great sandwich there. It was for sale, and hopefully will reopen soon. There is a road that loops around the valley that offers terrific pastoral scenes for photographing. There is a 7.5 one lane road that twists tortuously from the south side. We met no vehicles up over the mountain into the valley, but we did encounter four naughty cows on the road who'd found a hole in the fence! The entrance at the other end of the valley from Tazewell was undergoing construction at the bridge by the pond. The Lutheran church has very clean, gratefully accessed his and hers outhouses-with lights. As far as we could tell, the only public facilities in BG. Please use them gently. We found some family ancestors buried in the cemetery on the hill beside the church. There was little activity mid day on a weekday except those tending to the many beef and dairy herds . We could only imagine travel in and out of the garden a century ago.