SUNNYLANDS CENTER & GARDENS
For nearly 40 years, Ambassadors Walter and Leonore Annenberg entertained high-profile guests, including seven U.S. presidents, British royalty, and cultural and entertainment icons of the 20th century, at Sunnylands, their 200-acre winter estate in Rancho Mirage.
Today, the public is invited to learn about the estate’s cultural, social, and architectural significance at the adjacent Sunnylands Center & Gardens. The 15-acre site includes a contemporary visitor center that features art exhibitions, informational displays, interactive kiosks, a café, gift shop, and more than a mile of walking paths through nine acres of environmentally sustainable gardens. Throughout the day, the 20-minute film, “A Place Called Sunnylands,” plays in the theater.
The Center & Gardens is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 8:30 am-4:00 pm. Admission and parking are always free and reservations/tickets are not required. (Sunnylands is closed during the summer months and on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.)
Sunnylands Center & Gardens is also the departure point for ticketed tours of Annenberg estate, which has been preserved as a venue for high-level meetings to “facilitate international agreement and promote world peace.” On separate occasions, President Barack Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and nearly a dozen leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at Sunnylands.
Tour tickets are made available for purchase online on the 15th of each month at 9 am Pacific time at Sunnylands.org for tours occurring the following month. For example, November tour tickets go on sale October 15. December tickets go on sale November 15. See Sunnylands.org for details.
