Taste & Wellbeing Guide: gardens
Gemma Nisbet takes a look at some of the options to smell the flowers.
If you are keen to take a tour themed around gardens, you will find a number of options organised around a specific event.
Busselton-based Villa Carlotta Travel (villa.com.au), for example, runs tours to Floriade, the spring flower festival in Canberra — check out the 11-day Floriade Festival and Glorious NSW Gardens in September, which includes garden tours and general sightseeing, and costs from $4440 per person.
Packages for London’s Chelsea Flower Show, which takes place in May, are numerous and range from dedicated garden-themed trips to more general tours and even cruising holidays.
Great Trains of Europe Tours (greattrainsofeurope.com.au), for example, has a few options ranging in length up to the 20-day 2016 Springtime Gardens of Europe & UK itinerary, which includes a full day at Chelsea plus visits to gardens in the Netherlands, France and England. It costs $12,950 per person.
Certain departures of Trafalgar’s nine-day English Country Gardens coach tour (from $2993 per person; trafalgar.com) include entry to Chelsea, alongside visits to famous gardens such as Sissinghurst.
There’s also a good selection of more general garden tours available. Japan specialist Toursgallery (toursgallery.com) runs small-group garden tours to coincide with the country’s autumn colour and spring cherry blossoms. Its 12-day tour, departing on November 18, showcases the autumn foliage and gardens of central Japan and costs $6988 per person.
In China, Wendy Wu (wendywutours.com.au) has a couple of garden-themed tours, including the 15-day Plant Seekers itinerary escorted by former Chelsea Physic Garden curator Christopher Bailes and clematis expert Raymond Evison. The tour departs on September 16 and costs from $9990 per person.
Additionally, there are some specialist companies dedicated to garden tours. APT’s Botanica World Discoveries (botanica.travel) offers garden tours and cruises around the world, ranging from longer international trips such as the 19-day US Mansions & Gardens of the Hudson River & Canadian Lakes cruise tour or the 20-day South American Botanical Discoveries to shorter itineraries closer to home, including some built around events such as the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and the Singapore Garden Festival. For example, its five-day Victorian Homesteads, Mansions and Gardens trip visits private and public gardens and costs from $2995 per person.
New South Wales-based Ross Garden Tours is also a garden tour specialist and has a range of trips from a five-day tour to Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers in September to more unusual itineraries such as garden tours of Turkey and Sri Lanka (rosstours.com). Its 12-day NSW Spring Festivals tour, departing from Sydney on September 23, takes in tulip season in the Southern Highlands, various gardens and events such as the Leura Gardens Festival. It costs $4595 per person.
