Join Larry and Lee Newlin on a garden tour of Cornwall and Devon, England’s wild and scenic southwest coast. Cornwall has become one of England’s hottest regions for tourists who love gardens, art, quaint villages, and history. Described as “the garden capital of the world”, Cornwall offers a majestic array of gardens with its mild, sub-tropical climate coupled with its dramatic cliffs, rocky coves, and golden beaches.
Our itinerary takes us to some of England’s finest gardens – the Lost Gardens of Heligan, considered among the best of the best; the amazing Eden Project, with its global garden in the world’s largest greenhouse; Hestercombe, considered Gertrude Jekyll’s and Sir Edward Lutyens’ finest collaboration; and Trebah, offering one of the most dramatic vistas in England as flowering and exotic plants spill down a steep ravine to the river below.
Enjoy free time in the architectural gem of Bath, historic Exeter, the cobblestoned seaside village of St. Ives, the cathedral city of Truro, and the ancient port of Falmouth. Our host hotel in Cornwall overlooks scenic St. Ives on the Land’s End Peninsula. Cuisine is fresh and locally grown or caught. This tour is brimming with variety, fun, and inspiration.
Itinerary
Sunday, June 27th
We gather at Heathrow Airport to leave for Bath by 11:00 a.m. (flights should be booked to arrive by 10:00 a.m.). We arrive in elegant, Georgian Bath to enjoy lunch on your own and free time for shopping and strolling. Enjoy an optional history/architecture walking tour of this city with Roman roots. Hilton Bath City Hotel is our host hotel. Welcome dinner at a nearby restaurant. -D-
Monday, June 28th
After a full English breakfast we leave our Bath hotel and head for nearby Iford Manor ( HHA English Garden of the Year-1998), a hillside Italian garden created by its owner, Harold Peto, one of Britain’s finest designers. The fine designer theme continues as we visit Hestercombe where Sir Edward Lutyens built bold stone terraces softened by Gertrude Jekyll’s swaths of draping foliage and bloom. This is considered the finest collaboration between these two giants of landscape gardening. Enjoy lunch on your own at Hestercombe. We head to Devon’s capital, Exeter, to the Rougemont Hotel near centre city with dinner on your own. -B-
Tuesday, June 29th
We leave Exeter for Mount Edgecumbe, dramatically situated above rugged Plymouth Sound cliffs. In addition to the formal Earl’s Garden, there is the Italian Garden, the French Garden, and the English Garden. The American and New Zealand gardens underscore the family’s connections to these places. After lunch on your own in the Orangery, we head to picturesque St. Ives, where we will have free time for museum hopping (Tate or Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden) or strolling and shopping followed by a group dinner. Our host hotel in Cornwall is the Tregenna Castle Hotel overlooking St. Ives. -B- -D-
Wednesday, June 30th
This morning we visit the most talked about garden on Earth, the Eden Project, with its 8-acre geodesic greenhouses. This 32-acre site is a former china clay pit and offers a breathtaking vision of a new world filled with rain forest, Mediterranean, and plants from around the world in both its biomes and their surrounding gardens. Enjoy lunch on your own at Jo’s Café featuring sustainably grown super foods. Pine Lodge is our afternoon destination. This private garden and nursery features an extraordinary array of different plants (6,000 in all, each labeled, the largest collection in Cornwall) in an immaculately maintained 30-acre garden. We return to our host hotel for free time and dinner on your own in St. Ives. -B-
Thursday, July 1
Bosvigo is a small gem of a garden created by its artist owner that is at its height in summer. The two-acre garden features color themes – hot with red, yellow, and orange; the Vean garden with white and yellow; a cottage garden with silver and pink; and a walled garden with rare plants of purples, magentas, and soft pinks. Enjoy lunch at the Heligan Tearoom before enjoying a guided tour of England’s most mysterious garden. At its zenith in the late 19th Century, the garden soon fell victim to brambles and ivy through economic downturns and war. A remarkable restoration project began in 1991, and today, there is nothing “lost” about Heligan, appreciated as one of Britain’s finest gardens the world over. Our evening is in the quaint and charming town of Truro for shopping, strolling, and dinner on your own before returning to our hotel -B-
Friday, July 2
Our last day in Cornwall takes us to two markedly different but equally beautiful gardens. Bonython is an 18th Century manor with a modern garden touch. There are color-themed herbaceous borders in the walled garden, a contemporary water feature, a series of lakes planted with different motifs, and a traditional Potager garden. We head to the riverside Planters Café at Trebah for lunch on your own followed by a garden tour of one of Cornwall’s most dramatic and exotic gardens. The ravine garden plunges to Polgwiddon Cove below. Rare and exotic flowers and foliage abound through a series of nature walks on the upper slopes of the valley. The valley is filled with gunnera and blue and white hydrangeas. Enjoy a free evening in the 400-year old port city of Falmouth, bustling with shops and restaurants, before returning to our host hotel. -B-
Saturday, July 3
We bid farewell to Cornwall with one last and very memorable garden stop on our way back to Heathrow. Forde Abbey is unforgettable – a Cistercian abbey begun in the 12th Century, grafted by a castle-like structure in the mid 17th Century, with a garden that is almost entirely of the 20th Century. There are walled herbaceous borders at their peak in summer, a bog garden with a profusion of Primula, a magnificent kitchen garden, the rock garden, the shrubbery with magnolia and rhododendron, an arboretum in addition to enormous ancient trees, and a celebratory 500-metre fountain. We will enjoy a group lunch in an abbey atmosphere of the Undercroft Restaurant before heading to Heathrow Hilton Hotel for r&r before our farewell dinner. -B- -L- -D-
Sunday, July 4
Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before heading to your flight or venturing off for extended vacation in London and the UK. -B-
Back to Top B, L, D = Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodations
- Hilton Bath City Hotel , Rougemont Hotel, Tregenna Castle Hotel and the Heathrow Hilton Hotel Our host hotel is the Tregenna Castle Hotel overlooks St. Ives Bay and is set in a 72 acre gardenesque estate. Our other hotels to and from Cornwall are the Hilton Bath City Hotel located in the heart of Bath on the River Avon, the Rougemont Hotel near Exeter’s centre city, and the Hilton London Heathrow Hotel for our final evening.
Dining
- Southwest England is known for its fresh seafood and delectable produce. Our group meals include 7 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 3 dinners.
Group Travel
- You will make independent arrangements for your air travel to London Heathrow Airport on or before the morning of Sunday, June 27, 2010. Do not book your flight until the minimum registration for the tour has been reached and then make a reservation to arrive by 10:00 Sunday morning. Those arriving in London earlier for sightseeing will need to meet the group before 11:00 to begin our motorcoach tour (there is an express train to Heathrow to Paddington Station).
Registration
- Registration fee is $2899.00 per person and must be paid in full by May 1, 2010. If traveling alone, we will attempt to pair you with a compatible roommate. If a roommate is not available, or you prefer a single room, a single room supplement of $500.00 applies and must be paid by May 1, 2010.
- Registration fee includes hotel accommodations for 7 nights, 11 meals, motorcoach transportation, all fees for garden entrances, tour and guides, and the expertise and hospitality of your tour hosts, Larry and Lee Newlin.
- Purchase of travel insurance through an agent is recommended.
- Full registration payment is due by May 1, 2010.
- Written notice of cancellation must be received by May 1, 2010.
TO REGISTER:
- To pay by check:
- Take a discount of $25.00 if you pay by personal check by the due date of May 1st, 2010
- Download the registration form and mail to Garden Discoveries, 1910 Strathmore Drive, Greensboro, NC 27410.
- To pay by credit card (MasterCard and Visa accepted):
- Register by phone at 336.288.1314
- Download the registration form and mail to Garden Discoveries, 1910 Strathmore Drive, Greensboro, NC 27410.