After getting two recommendations to spend a day at Snug Harbor (and seeing the ads on the bus for Heritage Farms that always made Curious G scream out, “Look at those raw carrots!”), we decided to check it out. To get there you can take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, followed by a 10 minute bus ride if you are coming from another borough.
We started the day at the Staten Island Children’s Museum, which is on the Snug Harbor grounds. As the story goes with many other children’s attractions, we had to goad Curious G from exhibit to exhibit, frantically exclaiming, “Come on! There’s so much more to see!” But, there really was a lot to see, and we were not just being impatient parents. Admission is $8 for everybody 1 and older.
*There's no food onsite during the weekends but we ordered from Crispy Pizza, which delivers to the museum. However, we don’t recommend the chicken parm hero, grandma slices or the spaghetti with sausage.
After Curious G had her fill of the museum, we did a quick run through the Shade Garden, Lion's Sensory Garden, the Perennial Garden, and a few other gardens, then quickly ambled through the Allee, before stopping at Harbor Eats to refresh ourselves with some beverages.
The grand finale of our visit was the New York Chinese Scholar’s Tea Garden, which is inspired by gardens from the Ming Dynasty, and features 8 pavillions, a bamboo forest path, waterfalls, a Koi pond, and a variety of Gongshi Scholar's rocks. We felt transported to China as we strolled around.
Curious G couldn’t stop herself from climbing into the mini bamboo forest. I jumped in to fetch my little panda from the tangle of bamboo trunks when she started to get stuck. Admission for adults to the garden is $5.
