15 Tips For Visiting The Carlsbad Flower Fields With Kids

The Carlsbad Flower Fields are the perfect full day of fun with your whole family. These famous fields signal the arrival of Spring in an annual burst of color. If you have never been and experienced it for yourself, pictures don’t do it justice. There are acres of giant tecolote ranunculus flowers set against a backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. It seems like it’s almost too beautiful to be real and is one of my favorite things to do in San Diego. 

Located in Carlsbad Ranch, the Flower Fields open on March 1st and close on Mother’s Day in May. Full bloom is around mid-April, but they also rotate the planting so anytime you go you will see beautiful flowers. Click here to check the bloom percentage (top right corner).

While The Flower Fields used to only be fields, it has since expanded to so much more! There are tons of offerings for young children. 

Here is everything you need to know before visiting The Carlsbad Flower Fields with your family.

1. Tickets and Season Passes
2. How to get there and parking
3. Stamp Collection / Scavenger Hunt
4. Tractor Wagon Ride
5. Butterfly Encounter
6. Sweet Pea Maze
7. Santa’s Playground Whimsical Playhouses
8. The Artist Gardens
9. Cymbidium Orchid Greenhouse
10. Carlsbad Premium Outlets (free spot to view)
11. Paseo Del Norte (another free spot to view)
12. Carlsbad Mining Company
13. Armstrong Garden Center
14. Food
15. Special Events

Tickets and Season Passes

To get into The Flower Fields, you need two things: a ticket and a reservation. You will need to choose your arrival time ahead of time. It’s not hard to get tickets, especially on a weekday, but they do not sell tickets at the gate.

There are tons of tickets from early March to early May with mid-April being the most popular. It’s one of San Diego’s most popular attractions. People travel from Los Angeles, other parts of Southern California, and even the greater United States. Grab advanced reservations for your date to ensure it’s not sold out. 

You have the choice between a single ticket admission and a season pass. Adult tickets are $27 and kids are $17 (plus fees). Kids under 3 are free. If you can, go on a Monday because kids get in free with a paid adult! Season passes are $57/adults and $33/kid. So if you plan on going more than twice go ahead and get a season pass. 

Weekends are busy, but weekdays can sometimes be busy too if there is a field trip. I love going in the evening as it’s cooler and you can enjoy the sunset. If you have a group of 25 or more you an get a discount on group tours. Gather some mom friends and do it!

Click here to buy tickets.

How to get there and parking

The address is 5704 Paseo Del Norte, Carlsbad, CA 92008. Do not get it confused with Flower Fields Apartments on Flower Fields Way in Carlsbad. I accidentally drove us there one time and everyone was confused!

There is a large parking lot outside The Flower Fields. It’s free to park, though you may have to wait a bit until you find a spot!

Photo Shoot Tips

The best part of The Flower Fields is getting amazing photos with a perfect backdrop of the rainbow of colors! If you would like to get a photo that doesn’t show the green tape, go into one of the little outcroppings and have the photographer go into the other one. Then take the photo going from East to West (if you want to see the ocean) or West to East (if you want more flowers in the frame).

Another fun tip is to put your phone in the flowers and take a photo with everyone standing over it!

It’s tradition for my kids to melt down in the photos. Don’t be too surprised if yours are busy running around instead of wanting to take photos with you. 

Note that each photo spot has a 6-and-a-half-minute time limit. I don’t know why that is the time allotment they chose. But that’s what the sign says! So make sure to take turns.

Stamp Collection / Scavenger Hunt

When you get there, ask for the scavenger hunt! Kids can run all over the Flower Fields and collect 8 different stamps. The prize isn’t great, they only get a one dollar off at Miner’s Gems. The fun part is finding the stamps and the flags! This scavenger hunt helps ensure you see ALL of The Flower Fields.

Butterfly Encounter

The Butterfly Encounter is NEW this year (2025). It is entirely worth the $5 admission fee. Note that you have to be IN The Flower Fields to do the Butterfly Encounter. It is not included with admission. They give you a little stick with sugar water on it and the butterflies go CRAZY for it. Make sure to wear bright or patterned colors and the butterflies will be landing all over you! Can be slightly scary for younger kids. My daughter who is 2 HATED it. She cried every time a butterfly got close to her. But my older kids loved it!

Tractor Wagon Ride

The tractor-wagon ride is $8 and you get hop-on hop-off access throughout the day. We like to take it up to the top and then hop off and walk down to enjoy the flowers. Sometimes they take you all the way down to the American Flag flowers near the freeway. This is usually later in the season. If it’s crowded at the main entrance, hop on the tractor down by the Sweet Pea Maze. There’s never a wait there!

Make sure to have the kids use the bathroom before boarding the wagon. There are no bathrooms up top and it’s a long walk back down. It’s an open-air wagon ride, so make sure to bring sun protection as it takes about 30 minutes (just long enough for my kids to get sunburned). 

Sweet Pea Maze

The Sweet Pea Maze also blooms later in the season and it’s so much fun! Kids can run through a maze made of sweet pea blossoms. This maze is included with admission. Outside the Sweet Pea Maze, kids can look for four-leaf clovers! My kids ended up spending a lot of time here. 

Santa’s Playground Whimsical Playhouses

This is my favorite part of The Flower Fields. These whimsical playhouses surrounded by gigantic mushrooms are a fun place for kids to play! Best of all, the play area is fenced in with one entrance and exit so that you can relax and let the small children go wild. My favorite house is the pink house that’s slightly sideways with the slide. I also love all the flowers surrounding the play area. There are boxes of sand, so be prepared to remove their shoes before getting in the car!

These houses used to be part of Santa’s Village in Lake Arrowhead, which is also a fun place to play and explore. During the Lake Arrowhead years, the colors were slightly different. If you look just outside there are photos of what they used to look like.

By the way, I do have a guide to Lake Arrowhead and Santa’s Village if you ever find yourself in that area: https://sandiegomamas.com/lake-arrowhead-with-kids/

The Artist Gardens / Butterfly Gardens

This is a fun place to look at the bird aviaries and take more photos! Kids love the little butterfly sculptures and hearing the pigeons. The bathrooms are also right here, make sure to use them before you take the kids on the tractor ride as there are no bathrooms up top. 

Cymbidium Orchid Greenhouse / Poinsettia Greenhouse

This may be more fun for the moms, but it’s worth a look! This Greenhouse has tons of rare orchard varieties. I loved all the seated photo ops here and the lighting is perfect. Make sure to also check out the Poinsettia Greenhouse on the opposite side donated by the Ecke Family. 

Carlsbad Premium Outlets (free spot to view)

You can see the base of the Flower Fields from The Carlsbad Outlets. Go to the Carlsbad Premium Outlet Center. Park in the back lot closest to The Flower Fields. Then walk up the set of stairs and you will get a great view! 

Paseo Del Norte (another free spot to view)

This is my favorite spot to view. It’s a scooter-friendly trail that gives you a perfect view of The Flower Fields and the Pacific Ocean. We like to come here at sunset to enjoy the sun setting over the ocean. No bathroom, bring the travel potty. This spot is really close to LEGOLAND so this would be one of many fun ways to end a theme park day!

Carlsbad Mining Company

If you have kids that are into rocks like mine are, you can pay $4 for them to mine for rocks using the miner’s old method. The scavenger hunt earns you a dollar off, so it would be $5 without the scavenger hunt.

Armstrong Garden Center

This is a dangerous place if you’re a plant mom. After viewing all those flowers, there is nothing I want more than to plant flowers in my own yard. As you exit The Flower Fields to the parking lot, you walk through the cutest gardening store with the most helpful staff. Good luck not buying your own spring flowers here. 

Food Offerings

I was not impressed with the food offerings here. There are a lot of good snacks and treats like cotton candy, dole whips, a pizza trolley, lemonade, ice cream, and more but decent meals I would bring food and have a picnic by the playground OR go eat at the Windmill Food Hall after the fact. We also liked The Green Dragon nearby. 

Special Events

There are tons of special events that happen throughout the season. They included a luxury picnic, yoga among the blooms, live music, sunset wine tasting, and more.

If you thought this blog post was helpful, you will love my other spring blog posts, linked below!

Allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Camille! I am a San Diego stay-at-home mom who is never ever at home. I share a lot of fun things to do around San Diego including parks, restaurants, LEGOLAND, the zoo etc.

My goal with my Instagram account and blog is to make any mom feel prepared for any outing with her kids so that she doesn’t have to stay home unless she wants to. Getting out with my kids was key for me in overcoming postpartum depression so I try to pay it forward by sharing what we do to help other moms in a similar situation. Read more about my story here.

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