Visiting Bowral for Tulip Time? Here’s What We’d Add to Your Day

If you’re coming to Bowral for Tulip Time, Corbett Gardens is obviously going to be on the list. That’s the reason half the town is here in spring.

But if you’re already making the trip, I’d make a proper day of it.

Not in a “here are the ten best things to do in Bowral” kind of way, because I’m not going to pretend I’ve eaten everywhere or know every hidden corner of town. These are just the places we actually know, the ones we go back to, and the ones I’d happily send you to if you were standing at our shelves at Dirty Janes asking what to do next.

Start with the tulips

Tulip Time runs from 11 September to 5 October 2026 at Corbett Gardens, right in the middle of Bowral.

If you’re going on a weekend, expect Bowral to be busy. Parking can take a bit longer and there will be plenty of people doing exactly what you’re doing, so don’t try to rush it.

Go and enjoy the gardens properly. Have the wander. Take the photos. That’s what you came for.

Then I’d head a few minutes down the road to Dirty Janes.

Dirty Janes is not a quick stop

We’re obviously biased because The Village Providore is there, but even before we moved in, Dirty Janes was exactly the sort of place I can lose hours in.

There are antiques, vintage pieces, furniture, clothes, homewares, handmade pieces and all sorts of odd little treasures scattered through the place. I am particularly hopeless around the glass, crystal and china.

Brian already knows that if I say, “I’ll just have a quick look,” it is almost certainly not going to be quick.

And while you’re wandering, look out for The Village Providore shelves — handmade fudge and nougat, plus our jams, pickles, mustards, dressings and other pantry favourites.

Coffee first. Or high tea if you’re doing it properly.

Highlands Tea Company is inside Dirty Janes, and this is somewhere I’d stop even if I wasn’t already in the building.

The coffee is excellent, but the high tea is the real treat.

Their teas are blended on site and the scones are baked fresh each day. I love the rose-scented ones. They smell beautiful, taste even better and make an ordinary scone feel slightly inadequate afterwards.

If you’ve got time, sit down and enjoy it rather than grabbing something on the run. Bowral is much better when you stop trying to hurry it.

Then wander through Green Lane

From Dirty Janes you can go straight through into Green Lane, which makes this whole little pocket of Bowral very easy to enjoy without constantly getting back in the car.

Suzie Anderson Home is there, and if you like interiors you are in trouble.

There are beautiful homewares, European antiques, rattan furniture, lighting, candles, garden pieces and that relaxed Southern Highlands style that makes you suddenly think your own house needs a complete rethink.

It does not, obviously.

But you may still leave convinced it does.

Lunch at Plantation Cafe

By then, lunch.

Plantation Cafe is right there in Green Lane and we’ve eaten there enough for me to have favourites.

Mine are the house-special butter chicken and the house-made chicken pie.

You can sit inside if the weather is miserable, or outside if it is behaving itself. Outside is particularly good for people-watching, which I consider a perfectly legitimate lunch activity.

Green Lane always has something happening. Locals meeting for coffee, visitors wandering between shops, people carrying plants, and occasionally someone emerging from Dirty Janes with a purchase that quite clearly did not feature in the original car-packing plan.

Then back to the gardens, or keep wandering

If you haven’t already spent enough time in Corbett Gardens, go back through for another wander.

And if you want one little local detour, head over to Glebe Park near the Bradman Museum and find the bronze Mary Poppins statue.

P. L. Travers spent part of her childhood in Bowral, and I like that connection. It is one of those small bits of local history that makes a place more interesting once you know it is there.

If you’re still around for dinner

We often finish at The Bowral Hotel, just around the corner from Dirty Janes.

The steaks are very good, but I keep ordering the steak sandwich.

I know I should probably branch out.

I probably won’t.

After a day of walking, browsing, coffee, lunch and pretending I have not bought anything unnecessary, a good steak sandwich is exactly what I want.

That’s our version of Tulip Time in Bowral

Go to Corbett Gardens because that’s why you came.

Then stay a little longer.

Have coffee. Wander Dirty Janes. Get lost in Green Lane. Eat lunch somewhere good. Find Mary Poppins. Finish with dinner if you’re still standing.

And while you’re at Dirty Janes, look out for The Village Providore shelves — handmade fudge and nougat, plus our jams, pickles, mustards, dressings and other pantry favourites.

For more of the places we actually know and go back to, read Why We Love Bowral – And What We’d Do With a Day in the Southern Highlands, or see our Dirty Janes Bowral page for practical details.