8-Nights English Gardens & The Chelsea Flower Show - Marco Polo Journeys — CALL

Itinerary Details

Abercrombie & Kent: English Gardens & The Chelsea Flower Show

DAY 1 London, England

Upon arrival, you are met and transferred to your luxury hotel set among gardens. Enjoy a private welcome dinner at this historic manor house.

Journey to Storrington for a private tour of the 16th-century Parham House and its landscaped Pleasure Grounds. Stroll Veronica’s Maze and The Walled Garden, learning how they are organically maintained. After lunch at Parham House, visit nearby Borde Hill Garden, set on 200 acres of traditional English landscape.

Today, enjoy a private tour of the late Christopher Lloyd’s garden at Great Dixter, conducted before opening hours. Built in the Arts and Crafts style, it mingles vegetables and flowers, a large orchard with pockets of wildflowers and a magnificent herbaceous border. Later, drive to Sissinghurst Castle and stroll its garden. Learn how Harold Nicolson, a diplomat and author, laid down its main lines, while his wife, Vita Sackville-West, a poet and gardening writer, handled the planting. View the influential White Garden, which exemplifies early 20th-century garden designer Gertrude Jekyll’s use of color themes.

Drive north to the quaint and charming Cotswolds area, pausing in a wooded corner of North Hampshire for a visit to the gardens of West Green House. Learn how acclaimed designer Marylyn Abbott fused neoclassical and contemporary influences as you tour the grounds with the senior gardener. Then, stay on site for lunch. Later, toast your day with a Scenic Sundowner before dining at your hotel.

Enjoy a private visit to Kiftsgate Court Gardens and stroll the harmonious, color-schemed upper gardens. Afterward, drive to the lovely town of Chipping Campden to visit its High Street, Jacobean Market Hall and impressive Church of St. James. Continue to nearby Hidcote Manor — one of England’s greatest gardens and a true Arts and Crafts masterpiece — for a guided tour through a series of unique outdoor “rooms.” Nestled in the Cotswolds, a range of hills known for their beauty, the garden offers stunning panoramas across the Vale of Evesham.

Visit the storied grounds of Bowood House & Gardens, a 100-acre country estate that is home to the Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne, for an A&K-exclusive tour of their private walled garden. Then enjoy time at leisure to explore inside the house or break for lunch on your own. This afternoon, privately visit Badminton House, the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort. Explore the house and gardens, pausing for a quintessentially English Chef ’s Table experience, a traditional cream tea.

Drive to Blenheim Palace, a magnificent edifice set on 2,100 acres of beautiful parkland landscaped by Lancelot “Capability” Brown. Enjoy a special talk and tour focused on the life of Sir Winston Churchill, who was born here in 1874. Examine the breadth of his talent and achievement, from bricklayer to the “Greatest Briton.” After lunch at leisure, continue to London.

Attend the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show on an exclusive Royal Horticultural Society Members’ Day. Enjoy a four-course luncheon and an open bar, as well as morning and afternoon tea, in an exclusive Royal Horticultural Society hospitality area. Walk countless exhibits showcasing the finest examples of English gardening and some of the most avant-garde show-garden designs in the world. Return to the hotel in the late afternoon, gathering in the evening for a farewell dinner.

After breakfast, transfer to the airport and depart.