7 Tips for The San Diego Cherry Blossom Festival 2025

The Cherry Blossom Festival is held at The Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park! This is one of the best places to see lovely cherry blossoms in Southern California.

The main blooms happen in the lower garden at the beginning of March. This year the dates of the annual cherry blossom festival are from March 13-16, however, you can see the cherry blossoms outside of this time. If you or your kids have difficulty with crowds, I recommend visiting before or after the festival dates. Check this link to see the bloom percentage! As of posting this on March 5th, it was at 30%.

Here are my tips for taking your kids to see the cherry blossoms in Balboa Park!

1. Cherry Blossom Festival March 13-16
2. Peak Bloom
3. Ticket Tips
4. What To Do With Kids
5. The Bonsai Garden
6. Where to Park
7. Where to Eat

The Cherry Blossom Festival

Okay before we go into my general tips for visiting the Japanese Friendship Garden, let’s talk about what is available at the festival!

The cherry blossom festival is a special event that runs over four days. It’s a wonderful celebration of Japanese culture. Throughout the days you will find food vendors, taiko drummers, martial arts, a cosplay contest, merchant vendors, a sake garden, the annual Japanese tradition of hanami, and daily live performances. Each day has a variety of daily performances (including the San Diego Kimono club!) and fun activities for the entire family. 

There are two options for tickets. You can do VIP tickets for $25 or general admission tickets. This allows you enter through the VIP gate. Members of the JFG are automatic VIP ticket holders. Balboa Explorer pass holders fall under general admission and will enter at the general admission gate. 

For the full lineup of what is happening when check out this link here: https://www.niwa.org/cbw

Peak Bloom

Note that the full bloom and the cherry blossom festival do not always coincide. Cherry blossom season usually takes place in March but each year it varies slightly. Last year’s peak bloom was in early March. It looks like this year’s peak bloom will be in mid to late March. You can check online what the bloom percentage is. It is updated daily. The link to that is here: https://www.niwa.org/ (it’s a banner at the top of the page). 

You can also check by walking over to the bridge by Plaza Panama in Balboa Park. It allows you to see down into the lower garden. Peak bloom lasts approximately 1-2 weeks. Any day you go during this time will allow you to view beautiful cherry trees!

Ticket Tips

Okay, there are a lot of ways to see the cherry trees without breaking the bank. First, kids under six are free! General admission is $14 or $12 for military. There is also a resident’s free day. March’s resident’s free day is on March 26th. The blossoms may be waning by then but they will still be beautiful!

Then there is the Balboa Park Explorer Pass. This pass gets you into nearly every museum in Balboa Park and it’s just $265 for the whole family. Yes you read that right. The whole family, not one person costs $265. 

You can also get reciprocal admission if you belong to The San Diego Botanic Garden up in Encinitas (another place I highly recommend visiting with kids in the springtime!). 

To beat some of the crowds, try going in the afternoon. Just note that the last admission is 30 minutes before closing and you will want to leave plenty of time for flower viewing. 

What To Do With Kids When You’re There

When I first went here I wasn’t sure there would be much for kids in a traditional Japanese garden. But it’s surprisingly kid-friendly. They handed us a scavenger hunt with pictures as soon as we walked in. The kids loved learning about the shishi-odoshi (Japanese water fountain) and other things around the garden thanks to the scavenger hunt. They also loved the koi ponds, especially the littles. There’s a children’s area, a tea garden, and a zen garden the kids loved. 

I would not recommend a stroller here as there are steep dirt paths to get down. Bring the baby carrier or just take your chances and walk with the kids. It will make your life so much easier. It’s small with lots to look at so it shouldn’t be too bad without a stroller. 

Bonsai Garden

Don’t miss the bonsai garden! This bonsai garden and the one at The Safari Park are both managed by the American Horticultural Society. I have a neighbor that is in that club and they take such good care of the bonsai trees. He has been working on the same one for months, carefully pruning it and making sure it is perfect. 

Also, someone stole a really old tree from there in February last year and it was major bonsai tree drama. The tree was only worth $500 but it takes a ton of work to take care of it so it will probably die. Anyway, I digress, and here is the link to read more about the stolen bonsai tree: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/bonzai-tree-stolen-from-japanese-friendship-garden-in-san-diegos-balboa-park/3174001/

Parking for the Japanese Friendship Garden

If you know anything about me from my Instagram, you know that I am obsessed with parking. I won’t go unless I know where to park. For the Japanese Friendship Garden the easiest parking spot is by Spreckels Organ Pavillion. You can also park anywhere along the green parking tram route and get off at Plaza Panama to walk back to the garden. The Spreckels Organ Pavillion stop would also work. The parking tram is free and honestly my kids’ favorite part of most of our outings. 

Food Around The Japanese Friendship Garden

There is a little tea house near the entrance of the garden and the food there is quite good! I got a teriyaki salmon bowl and I would definitely get it again. They also have local merchants selling different food for picky eaters like hotdogs most days of the week. The kids were quite happy with the hot dogs while my husband and I ate at the teahouse. For a fancier meal, try Panama 66 nearby in Plaza Panama.

Okay, that’s all! I hope you enjoy the beauty of cherry blossom flowers. It’s a unique experience in the city of San Diego and I loved experiencing it with my kids!

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.

Thanks so much for reading!

If you find any of this information to be incorrect or need updating, please send me an email to sandiegomamas@gmail.com or a DM on Instagram to @sandiego.mamas . There is a reason I chose to call this San Diego MamaS (plural) not San Diego Mama. It takes our whole mom community (which now includes you!) to make sure I can share the most accurate information for your family.

Sharing this post helps the mom behind you and helps my page grow! Please feel free to share this link with any other mom who might need it.

Oh, I also send out a weekly email with theme park updates, my top picks for events (with discount codes!) coming to town for the month as well as tons of other activity suggestions for you to choose from. Basically, it will help you feel in the know for all the fun things happening in San Diego.

Planning all the activities for your family is a hard job, so let me help you! You can find info on signing up for that below.