England's Gardens: the Chelsea Flower Show, the Cotswolds and Kent

1. Day 1: Arrive in London

   Heathrow Airport to your hotel in central London

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in London
   Day 1 details

   Fly into London Heathrow (LHR), about 25 km west of the centre, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the hour's drive into town. Our hotel is chosen to be within walking distance, or a short ride, of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where the show is held, so tomorrow starts without a scramble across the city. The afternoon is free: walk along the Chelsea Embankment, look into the shops of the King's Road, or rest after the flight. If you arrive early, the streets around Sloane Square are dressed with flowers for the week of the show, when shops and pubs compete in their own floral displays. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: how the show day works, what to wear for garden paths, and how each day is paced. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Pick-up at London Heathrow (LHR)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 3 pm to make the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

2. Day 2: A full day at the Chelsea Flower Show

   Your hotel to the Royal Hospital Chelsea and back, on foot or by short ride

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in London
   Day 2 details

   Today is the reason for the trip. We are at the gates of the Royal Hospital Chelsea when the show opens in the morning, a public show day with a full-day ticket bought for you in advance. The RHS has held the show on these grounds almost every year since 1913, and the first hour is the best time to see the show gardens along Main Avenue, before the paths fill and the queues form at the most talked-about designs. Your guide walks the group round the show gardens first, then leaves you free inside the Great Pavilion, where nurseries show their plants in dense, perfect displays, and among the smaller gardens, the floral marquee stalls and the talks. We meet again in the afternoon for anyone who wants company back to the hotel; others stay until the show closes in the evening. Lunch is your choice from the food stands, so nobody has to leave the grounds. The evening is free.

   Included

   • RHS Chelsea Flower Show full-day ticket for a public day
   • Guided walk of the show gardens at opening
   • Free time in the Great Pavilion and the smaller gardens

   Optional experiences

   • Chelsea Physic Garden, a short walk from the showground

   Easier option: Join the guide's early-afternoon walk back to the hotel and rest before the evening.

   More active option: Stay until the show closes in the evening, when the paths empty and the light is soft on the show gardens.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: A long day on your feet on grass and matting, with crowds by late morning. Benches are few, so the guide points out the quieter places to sit.

   

3. Day 3: Kew Gardens at opening

   London to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in London
   Day 3 details

   Our minibus takes us west along the Thames to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, listed by UNESCO in 2003, and we are at the gates for the 10 am opening. We go first to the glasshouses while they are quiet: the curved iron and glass Palm House of the 1840s, with its rainforest under a humid dome, then the Temperate House, the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse, full of plants from the warm temperate world. Your guide leads the group past the Great Pagoda and through the rhododendron dell and azalea garden, which are often at their best in late May, and up onto the Treetop Walkway, 18 metres up in the canopy, for anyone who likes heights. We are back in central London by early afternoon, and the rest of the day is yours: a museum in South Kensington, a second visit to the show if you bought a ticket, or a quiet pub supper. Lunch today is on your own, at Kew or in town.

   Included

   • Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with your guide: the Palm House, the Temperate House, the Great Pagoda and the Treetop Walkway

   Optional experiences

   • Kew Explorer land train round the gardens
   • A West End show in the evening

   Easier option: Ride the Kew Explorer land train between the glasshouses instead of walking the full loop.

   More active option: Climb onto the Treetop Walkway and walk on to the Queen's Garden behind Kew Palace.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in London

   Activity: About 5 km on flat paved and gravel paths at Kew; the Treetop Walkway has stairs and a lift.

   

4. Day 4: Hidcote and Kiftsgate

   London to Hidcote by the M40, then Kiftsgate Court and on to Cheltenham

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Cheltenham
   Day 4 details

   We leave London at about 8:30 am and drive two and a half hours north-west into the Cotswolds, the drive broken by a coffee stop. Hidcote sits on the northern edge of the hills, and lunch is at the garden before we go in. Lawrence Johnston, an American-born plantsman, laid out Hidcote from 1907 as a run of garden rooms divided by clipped hedges: the Red Borders, the White Garden, the Pillar Garden and the long walks that open onto the view over the Vale of Evesham. Across the lane, Kiftsgate Court is a quieter garden made by three generations of women, hanging over a steep bank with views west; it opens only on certain afternoons, so the day is planned around its hours, and days 4 and 5 may swap to fit them. In the late afternoon we drive half an hour to Cheltenham, a Regency spa town, where we stay two nights. Tonight we have dinner together in Cheltenham.

   Included

   • Hidcote with your guide: the garden rooms, the Red Borders and the Long Walk
   • Lunch at Hidcote
   • Kiftsgate Court Gardens
   • Dinner together in Cheltenham

   Easier option: Stay on the level paths at Kiftsgate's upper terraces; the lower garden is down steep steps.

   More active option: Walk down the steep paths to Kiftsgate's lower garden and its modern water garden.

   Activity: About 5 km on gravel and grass paths, with steps at Kiftsgate. Kiftsgate opening days and hours are confirmed with your final itinerary; if needed days 4 and 5 swap.

   

5. Day 5: Painswick and Barnsley House

   Cheltenham to Painswick, then Barnsley, and back to Cheltenham

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cheltenham
   Day 5 details

   A short drive south over the Cotswold edge brings us to Painswick, a grey-stone wool town, and the Painswick Rococo Garden in the valley below it. Laid out in the 1740s as a pleasure garden, with follies, a Gothic exedra and a kitchen garden, it fell into neglect and was restored from the 1980s, guided by a painting of the garden made in 1748. We walk it in the morning before driving east across the hills to the village of Barnsley, near Cirencester. Barnsley House was the home of the garden designer Rosemary Verey, and her garden is still there: the laburnum walk, usually in flower in late May, the knot garden and the potager, a decorative vegetable garden. Lunch is at Barnsley House, and afterwards there is time to walk the garden slowly. We are back in Cheltenham by mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day is free to walk the Promenade and Montpellier.

   Included

   • Painswick Rococo Garden with your guide
   • Lunch at Barnsley House
   • Rosemary Verey's garden at Barnsley House: the laburnum walk, the knot garden and the potager

   Easier option: At Painswick, keep to the upper paths and the view over the garden from the exedra.

   More active option: Walk the full circuit of Painswick's valley, down to the pond and up past the Eagle House.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Cheltenham

   Activity: About 4 km on foot; Painswick is on a slope, with grass paths that are slippery after rain.

6. Day 6: RHS Wisley, then into Kent

   Cheltenham to RHS Garden Wisley by the M4 and M25, then Royal Tunbridge Wells

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Royal Tunbridge Wells
   Day 6 details

   This is the longest drive of the trip, about three and a half hours in all, so we split it with a long stop in the middle. We leave Cheltenham after breakfast and drive about two and a quarter hours east to RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, the Royal Horticultural Society's flagship garden since 1903. Your guide leads a walk through the long mixed borders, the rose garden and the rock garden, then lunch is together at Wisley. After lunch there is free time for the glasshouse, the trial fields where new plants are tested, or the plant centre, where many of the show's plants are on sale. In the mid-afternoon we drive about an hour and a quarter south-east into the Weald of Kent to Royal Tunbridge Wells, a spa town since the 17th century, where we stay two nights. The evening is free: walk the colonnaded Pantiles and find a table for supper.

   Included

   • RHS Garden Wisley with your guide: the mixed borders, the rose garden, the rock garden and the glasshouse
   • Lunch at Wisley

   Easier option: Stay near the glasshouse and the lake, where the paths are flat and there are benches.

   More active option: Walk up to the pinetum and the trial fields at the top of the garden.

   Free time: Evening free in Tunbridge Wells

   Activity: About 5 km on foot at Wisley on paved and gravel paths, with a slope up to the rock garden.

7. Day 7: Sissinghurst and Great Dixter

   Royal Tunbridge Wells to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, then Great Dixter at Northiam, and back

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Royal Tunbridge Wells
   Day 7 details

   We drive about 40 minutes east to Sissinghurst and aim to be there at opening, before the garden fills. The poet Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson bought the ruined Tudor estate in 1930 and made the garden as a set of rooms around the brick tower: the White Garden, the Rose Garden, the Cottage Garden in reds and yellows, and the nuttery. In the first hour you can usually see the White Garden with almost nobody in it, and climb the tower to Vita's writing room and the view over the Weald. Lunch is together at a village pub in the Weald. In the afternoon we cross into East Sussex to Great Dixter, the home of the gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd, where Lutyens restored the timbered house and Lloyd filled the garden with bold, mixed planting: the Long Border, the meadows and the Exotic Garden. We are back in Tunbridge Wells by early evening for a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Sissinghurst Castle Garden from opening, with your guide: the White Garden, the Rose Garden, the Cottage Garden and the tower
   • Lunch at a village pub in the Weald
   • Great Dixter house and garden: the Long Border, the meadows and the Exotic Garden
   • Farewell dinner in Tunbridge Wells

   Easier option: Skip the tower stairs at Sissinghurst and sit in the Rose Garden; Great Dixter's paths near the house are level.

   More active option: Before lunch, walk the estate trail at Sissinghurst past the lakes and the moat.

   Free time: An hour free in Tunbridge Wells before the farewell dinner

   Activity: About 6 km on foot on grass, gravel and brick paths; the Sissinghurst tower has a narrow spiral stair. Sissinghurst and Great Dixter opening days and times are confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

8. Day 8: Scotney Castle and back to London

   Royal Tunbridge Wells to Scotney Castle, then Heathrow or central London

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   One more garden before we go. Scotney Castle is about 15 minutes from Tunbridge Wells, and we are there at opening. From the terrace of the Victorian house a path winds down through a quarry garden and banks of rhododendrons and azaleas, often in flower in late May, to the ruin of a moated 14th-century castle in the valley, a picture made deliberately in the Picturesque style of the 1830s. Your guide walks the group down to the moat and back up by the other side, about an hour on foot, with time for a coffee before we leave. We leave Scotney at about 11:30 am and drive about an hour and a half to London Heathrow (LHR), arriving around 1 pm, or to a central London drop-off at about the same time. Your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm, which leaves room for traffic on the M25.

   Included

   • Scotney Castle garden and the moated castle ruin with your guide
   • Drop-off at London Heathrow (LHR) or central London

   Easier option: Stay on the terrace and the upper paths by the house; the path down to the moat is steep.

   Free time: Time for a coffee at Scotney before the drive

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm. About 2 km on foot with a steep path down to the moat and back.

   

Wildlife and weather: Late May is peak season in English gardens: alliums, irises, peonies, early roses, wisteria finishing and laburnum in flower. Days are long, with light until about 9 pm, and usually mild (about 12 to 20 C), but showers are common, so the guide can swap the order of garden visits within a base to follow the weather.

• London3 nights
• Cheltenham2 nights
• Royal Tunbridge Wells2 nights