How to Use Your Fantasy in Lights Day Pass to Callaway Gardens

Did you know that every ticket to Callaway Resort & Gardens’ Fantasy in Lights includes a Day Pass to Callaway Gardens?  In this blog post I will share how you can make the most of your free day pass!  Callaway’s spectacularly landscaped grounds impress even in December.  The gardens make using the day pass worth it all on its own, but… The best part of the day pass is that you won’t have to wait in traffic on Highway 27 before Fantasy in Lights!  Follow along below to learn about how my family spent an afternoon at Callaway Gardens before Fantasy in Lights began.

Before You Depart for Callaway Gardens

If you are heading to Callaway Gardens to see Fantasy in Lights for the evening, make a picnic dinner or pick one up at a sandwich shop on the way out of town.  We love to preorder from our neighborhood Jimmy John’s.  We usually bring our own drinks and chips.  This Fantasy in Lights Guide includes tips you need to make the most of your visit to Fantasy in Lights.

Download the Callaway Gardens app and look at the schedule to check for special events such as the Birds of Prey Show or Butterfly 101 at the Butterfly Center.  Be prepared for staff to scan your Fantasy in Lights QR code at the entrance to Callaway Gardens, Christmas Village, and Fantasy in Lights. 

Waze, Google Maps and Apple Maps know the location of the points of interest in Callaway Gardens.  It is simple to follow your GPS from one site to the next. Here is a map of Callaway Gardens to orient yourself. The Robin Lake Beach entrance will open at 5pm for Fantasy in Lights visitors.

Lunch in Pine Mountain

Before you enter Callaway Resort & Gardens, have lunch in the small town of Pine Mountain, Georgia.  We stopped for local BBQ at the Whistling Pig Café.  The line was long when we arrived, but it moved quickly.  We ordered at the counter, and they brought our meals to our table.  We ordered a beef plate, a pork plate, a Q-tater, and a hamburger.  Everything was delicious.  I particularly liked the fried green tomatoes and the fried okra.  We brought home two bags of their homemade pork cracklings. 

We’ve also eaten at the Country Kitchen inside Callaway’s Country Store on Highway 27.  It reminds me of a Cracker Barrel.  The store and restaurant sit on a ridge and the windows offer gorgeous views of Callaway Gardens on one side and Pine Mountain Valley on the other side.  There is an overlook across the street if want to check out the views only.  You do not have to enter the gates to Callaway Gardens to access the Callaway Country Store.  The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch.

What to do at Callaway Gardens before Fantasy in Lights

Callaway Discovery Center

Although it is December, there are plenty of activities open at Callaway Gardens.  All the activities listed below were free with our Callaway Gardens’ day pass.  Our first stop was the Callaway Discovery Center. We took a photo with a red poinsettia Christmas tree and explored the building. 

Callaway Crawleseum

We stepped into the Callaway Crawleseum which is open every weekend.  Inside, you can explore all kinds of creepy crawlies including butterflies, spiders, other arthropods, reptiles, and amphibians. In addition to hands-on exhibits, they offered coloring and etching for kids.

Check the daily schedule to see if any Bug Encounters are slated for the day of your visit. 

Workshops

The Discovery Center hosted a free Holiday Floral Design Workshop the afternoon we arrived.  They had fresh pine boughs, fresh red berries, and lots of ribbons available for guests to make their own wreath.  I was excited to make one. 

The host provided me with a wire ring and showed me how to attach fresh greenery with a wire.  She told me that a small wreath would take 30 minutes and a large wreath would take an hour.  I selected the small wreath on account of time.  I had great fun pulling it together.

Check the schedule to find out if the Discovery Center is hosting a workshop on the day of your visit. Workshops topics may include nature-based crafts, woodland workshops, or Christmas gift workshops. 

Birds of Prey Show

The amphitheater outside of the Discovery Center hosts the Birds of Prey Show.  The raptors who live at Callaway Gardens cannot survive in the wild due to a variety of reasons.  They may have been injured. Or their developmental process may have been interrupted when they imprinted on humans as babies. 

In free flight, these impressive birds swooped into the theater.   The birds flew low and fast.  Sometimes they flew barely above our heads.  Definitely don’t being any small, furry critters to the show with you!  A couple of the gorgeous birds we saw included a Great Horned Owl and a Harris Hawk. 

Check the schedule for the Birds of Prey Show on the day of your visit. 

The Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center

This is one of North America’s largest tropical butterfly conservancies.  The Butterfly Center is so much fun!  It is my favorite place at Callaway Gardens.  You will be delighted when you walk into this beautiful, tropical space filled with butterflies fluttering to and fro.  It is just amazing!  One thousand or more butterflies live here. No butterflies landed on my family on this visit, but it is an extraordinary experience when they do.

Before we entered the conservatory space, we saw a series of cocoons with some butterflies who had already emerged and were drying their wings.  I think that the metamorphosis process is amazing.  Some of the cocoons were astonishingly beautiful.  Inside the conservatory, it was easiest to spot the butterflies by looking up.  Most of them were dark and they stood out against the grey December sky. 

Check the hours of the Butterfly Center on the day of your visit.  It is not open all day and you don’t want to miss it!

Pioneer Log Cabin

The two-room longleaf pine cabin at Callaway Gardens was built in Troup County in the 1830s.  A family lived here until the 1930s.  The last family who made the Pioneer Log Cabin home had 15 members.  In 1959, the cabin was moved to Callaway Gardens.  When the cabin was built, glass was not readily available, so there was only one glass window in the original cabin.  It is the one next to the fireplace.  The other windows were added after the cabin moved to Callaway.   

The second room is the loft above that was originally only accessible by a ladder.  The older children in the family slept up there with the stored grain.  The spaces between the logs were originally filled with mud.  This chinking was removed in the summer months so breezes could cool the interior.  The chinking was reapplied for the winter to keep heat inside the cabin.  Note the well outside the back door. 

The cabin is open when the Gardens are open. 

Nature Trails at Callaway Gardens

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Trail begins near the Pioneer Cabin’s kitchen garden.  Callaway has a variety of Nature Trails to explore throughout the gardens.

Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel

This gorgeous little Chapel at Callaway Gardens features colorful and stunning stained-glass windows.  The windows depict Georgia pines, softwoods, and hardwoods and the progression of the seasons.  Enjoy an organ concert at the chapel most Saturdays and Sundays between 1-3pm.  We had to wait to visit the chapel because a photographer was taking pictures of a bride on the grounds. 

Callaway Brothers Azalea Bowl

In the spring, the 40-acre Azalea Bowl stuns with more than 3000 native and hybrid azalea species.  The shrubs show off their colors with shades of pink, red, lavender, and white.  However, this garden is the perfect place to enjoy fall color in December.  Luckily bright hues of orange and red are still hanging around until almost the winter solstice in Southern Georgia.  The walks in this garden are open when Callaway Gardens is open, so it is the perfect place to stroll around before heading over to the Christmas Village and Fantasy in Lights.

Fantasy in Lights

After we explored the Azalea Bowl, it was time to head over the Christmas Village to prepare for the main event – Callaway Gardens’ Fantasy in Lights.  Although it was not quite dark yet, we got a sneak peek at the light show as we drove towards Robin Lake Beach.

We entered the parking lot at Robin Lake Beach from inside Callaway Resort and Gardens around 5:30pm.  Traffic was backed up outside the Beach Entrance on Highway 27, so I was relieved that we spent a wonderful afternoon at Callaway Gardens – making the most of our Fantasy in Lights tickets – and that we missed the traffic jam. 

Planning Your Day Trip to Callaway before Fantasy in Lights

Fantasy in Lights is open between mid-November and the New Year.  Sometimes the holiday lights are available through the first weekend of the New Year.  Driving down early, enjoying a casual lunch and spending the afternoon exploring the landscaped gardens is a wonderful way to spend a holiday weekend.  For detailed information on how to plan your trip, read my Guide to Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments and I am happy to answer them!

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