On Monday, Oct. 19, a GRTC van will be able to pick you up near your Lakeside front door and drop you at the gate of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden for free. The same ride will reach Bryan Park and Belmont Park. All three places are close enough that many neighbors already drive to them in a few minutes. For a lot of households, though, a no-fare ride you call from your phone makes the trip easier, especially when parking is tight or someone doesn't drive.
The service starts just five days before HarvestFest and five weeks before GardenFest of Lights opens to the public. The schedules don't match up evenly. The ride covers daytime and Saturday outings well. Starting at 8 p.m. and all day Sunday, you'll need another way home.
What changes on Oct. 19
The Henrico Citizen reported on Oct. 8 that GRTC is growing its Azalea LINK microtransit zone by about one square mile. The new area includes Bryan Park, Belmont Park, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Westminster Canterbury, Lakeside Senior Living and CSL Plasma. Before the change, the zone reached places like Brookhill Azalea, Henrico High School, Forest Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Regional Medical Center. GRTC estimates the expansion will reach about 2,100 more residents and 1,400 more jobs.
LINK works differently from a regular bus route:
- Cost: none. LINK is part of GRTC's Open Access system, the same as its fixed-route buses.
- How it works: curb-to-curb shared rides between any two points inside the zone. The van may stop for other riders headed the same way.
- Booking: use the GRTC On the Go app or call (804) 358-4782. Be at your pickup spot five minutes before the van is due. Each booking can include up to four people.
- Wait: about 20 minutes, according to GRTC.
- Hours: Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., no Sunday service.
- Connections: Routes 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 14 and 91.
The rest of this guide is based on two of those details, the 8 p.m. end time and the empty Sunday.
Daylight Saturdays are where the ride fits best
LINK's Saturday hours cover the whole day, so that's where it fits most easily.
The first chance comes five days after launch. Lewis Ginter's HarvestFest is Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with storytime, music and crafts. The van starts running at 8 a.m. that day and runs until 8 p.m., so the event sits well inside service hours. If you call for a ride home around 2 p.m., the roughly 20-minute wait leaves plenty of time before service ends.
Bryan Park is a City of Richmond park on Lakeside's edge, and it's well suited to a LINK trip because a visit there can take as long as you like. Friends of Bryan Park describes 262 acres with two ponds, streams, wooded trails, an 18-hole disc golf course, miles of park roads closed to traffic and a 17-acre Azalea Garden. The Friends group also says the Azalea Garden Pond renovation is finished. Its page has no date, so look around when you get there. A morning disc golf round and a loop on the park roads both end well before the van stops running.
Belmont Park is the zone's sports stop. Henrico lists it as a golf course run by First Tee next to the county's Belmont Recreation Center. First Tee describes the course as a 12-hole championship layout that can be played as a USGA-rated 18-hole routing, along with Little Bell, a six-hole par-3 course, and The Ringer, an 18-hole putting course. The county's Belmont page lists eight tennis courts, six clay and two asphalt, plus a game room and community programs. Program and rental hours run 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. An afternoon tennis match lines up with LINK. A 9 p.m. rental slot doesn't. It's the same gap that shows up at the garden later in the season.
GardenFest keeps going after the last pickup
The Dominion Energy GardenFest of Lights opens to the public Nov. 23 and runs through Jan. 3. This year's theme is "Otherworldly." For the first time, the lights extend into the garden's new gardens and its expanded Conservatory. The Fairy Village, built by garden volunteers, and the model train displays return to the Conservatory Exhibition Hall.
Tickets are sold by arrival time. The 2026 ticket listing shows half-hour slots from 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. The garden says each arrival window has limited capacity and strongly encourages buying online ahead of time. The garden hasn't posted a nightly closing time, so it's hard to plan exactly how long to stay.
The mismatch is easy to work out. On weeknights and Saturdays, the van can get you to a 4:00, 4:30 or 5:00 arrival with time to spare. Taking LINK home means calling for a ride and waiting about 20 minutes before the 8 p.m. cutoff. That works for an early visit. For the 8:00 and 8:30 slots, LINK only gets you there.
The special nights in this year's schedule all fall on weeknights, so they follow the same weekday hours:
| GardenFest night | 2026 dates | Day of week | LINK service that day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fidos nights | Nov. 23, Nov. 30, Dec. 7, Dec. 14, Dec. 28 | Mondays | 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Performance nights | Nov. 24, Dec. 1, Dec. 8, Dec. 15 | Tuesdays | 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| GardenFest for Grownups | Dec. 2, Dec. 3, Dec. 30 | Wednesday, Thursday, Wednesday | 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
Two other events before GardenFest follow the same pattern. Cocktails in the Conservatory is Friday, Oct. 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. LINK can get you there, but the evening goes an hour past the last ride. In December, the garden's events calendar lists a GardenFest behind-the-scenes tour on Dec. 3 and holiday wreath workshops on Dec. 5, which is a Saturday. If you're picking between December outings and want to ride both ways, the Saturday daytime workshop is the most likely fit.
Sundays fall outside the service entirely
The weekend gap affects more than the garden.
Visit Richmond lists the Lakeside Collaborative Market on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sept. 13 through Dec. 27, 2026. It runs only on Sundays, the one day Azalea LINK doesn't operate. The market has about ten Sundays left on its 2026 calendar, and the new service won't reach any of them.
GardenFest has Sunday dates as well. Member previews run Nov. 20 through 22, and Nov. 22 is a Sunday. The public run ends Jan. 3, 2027, also a Sunday. If you're a member planning a preview visit by LINK, go Friday, Nov. 20, or Saturday, Nov. 21. For a final look before the lights come down, Saturday, Jan. 2, works with LINK and Jan. 3 doesn't.
Bryan Park's trails and disc golf course are open every day, but on Sundays you'll have to get there another way.
What's being built next
Henrico is planning a way into the same area that won't depend on service hours. The county's project page for the Lakeside Community Trail describes a 12-foot-wide multi-use path, about two miles long, from Spring Park to Hilliard Road. Construction is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026, with completion projected for 2028. Those dates are projections, and county trail schedules often change. Once the trail opens, it will give people on foot and on bikes an option that works on Sundays and after 8 p.m.
Until then, LINK is the free option, and its hours set the limits. During its first season, it can take you to a Saturday morning at HarvestFest, an afternoon of disc golf or tennis, a December wreath workshop, or an early GardenFest arrival on any night but Sunday.
At Garner Realty LLC, we follow changes like the Azalea LINK expansion across Henrico. If you're a Lakeside homeowner wondering how changes like this one might affect your home's value, we're happy to help. Get your free home valuation, and we'll walk you through it like family.
