Do you savor beautiful surroundings, meeting local people, exploring their customs and a relaxing pace?
You don’t have to be a gardener to enjoy our tours. Relish the delight of an English garden.
Magnificent Garden Tours in the British Isles
We design and host one of a kind garden tours mainly to England and the British Isles. We specially select private homes and visit 3-4 a day. Imagine meeting the gardeners themselves and browsing their magnificent gardens. Follow the tour with scrumptious cakes (picture the British Baking Show) and tea or delightful Elderflower water.
We travel by region and also choose which public gardens in the area we feel will be most interesting. Our tours are completely private so we can stop when we wish to visit a historic site, a coastal beach or do some quick shopping in a lovely village.
Sometimes we add tours to other countries. Be sure to check out our Tours page.
2024 Tour – England’s Lake District
June 21-29, 2024
From Peter Rabbit to Castles and Lakes, this district of England is overflowing with magnificent gardens for us to explore!
Along with our usual private home owner gardens (specifics to follow), we will visit Hill Top Gardens, Beatrix Potter’s farmhouse retreat, Rydal Gardens inspiring Wordsworth’s poem, “An Evening Walk.” The Royal Horticultural Society’s 2022 finalist, Holehird Gardens among others.
Our tour will be interspersed with activities like walking the hills around the lakes, taking a boat cruise on the lake, shopping in the villages, and more.
Our tours always include flights (unless you opt out) breakfast and dinner each day, all ground transportation, accommodations, and admissions.
Your hosts are Layanee DeMerchant, horticultural expert and Lorraine Whittemore, travel planner. Together we design unique and custom garden tours.
Preliminary Itinerary
June 21
Depart Boston for Glasgow
June 22
Arrive Glasgow. We’ll depart the airport and head south through Scotland to the England border, then, just over the border into the Lake District of England. We will stop at a garden along the way to enjoy afternoon tea and get in the “British” mood. Arriving later, we’ll check into our hotel. Swan Hotel, a former coaching inn from the 1650’s, is one of the oldest hotels in the Lake District.
June 23-28
The next 6 days will be spent exploring the amazing gardens of the Lake District. Along with 2-4 private homeowner gardens, we will visit some of the National Trust properties and other well known gardens in the area, like Rydal, Hill Top, Muncaster Castle, and more.
In between touring, we’ll take an easy hike over the hills between the lakes (optional), visit Keswick for some shopping, and take a cruise across the lake.
June 28
We will drive south through England stopping at some gardens along the way. We will overnight in Slough, at the Copthorne Hotel, close to Heathrow airport, and fly out the following morning.
June 29
Depart for Boston.
INCLUDES:
Flights round trip from Boston
All ground transportation
Hotel accommodations, double or twin share
Breakfast and dinner daily
All entrance fees to gardens listed in itinerary
Tours and activities noted in itinerary
Garden expert and tour coordinator
PRICING:
$4678 per person based on double occupancy. Solo supplement $922
$3380 per person based on double occupancy without flights.
$500 deposit non refundable
Final payment May 10, 2024
CLICK to register
Introducing Layanee & Lorraine (L&L)
Come travel with us and get a perfectly planned, professionally curated garden tour with our expertise.
Layanee DeMerchant is a garden blogger and horticultural expert. Her career was in the garden industry in Southern New England and Layanee co-hosted a Boston Area radio program, “The Garden Guys.” Layanee researches, contacts the local gardeners and selects the gardens we will visit each tour.
https://ledgeandgardens.typepad.com/ledge_and_gardens/
Lorraine Whittemore is a travel agent. With 6 years designing small group tours she knows how to select the best locations, hotels, arrange logistics and make sure each trip goes off without a hitch.
Lorraine (left) & Layanee (right), your tour hosts
Gallery of Previous Tours
Don’t Miss a Beat!
Contact us with questions
860-230-1506
lwhittemore@cruiseplanners.com
Register here to join us on our next tour!
