Chelsea Flower Show Garden Tours

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the world's most prestigious horticultural event, held each May in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. For garden travellers, it is an essential reference point — not simply as a spectacle, but as an annual survey of where garden design, plant breeding and horticultural craftsmanship currently stand.

Our tours combine a full day at the Chelsea Flower Show with five or six days visiting the finest gardens in England — Kent and Sussex, Kent Surrey and Sussex, or the Cotswolds, depending on which departure you choose. Every tour is small-group and escorted, with an expert garden-specialist tour leader throughout.

What the Chelsea Flower Show is

Chelsea is not a garden — it is a competitive exhibition. The show gardens are purpose-built to the highest standards, assessed by RHS judges and awarded gold, silver-gilt, silver or bronze medals. The Great Pavilion displays cut flowers, floral art, nursery exhibits and horticultural collections from around the world. For garden designers, plantsmanship is on display at a level you will not find anywhere else.

What makes Chelsea exceptional for garden travellers, as opposed to day-trippers, is the ability to see a show garden in the context of a week spent visiting real, mature, working gardens. A designer whose show garden you have just admired may have influenced a garden you visited two days before. The connections only become visible when you spend time in both.

Gardens on the programme

All our Chelsea tour programmes are designed around the best gardens in southern England, selected for their quality, their instructiveness and their suitability for extended visits. Depending on your departure, the programme may include Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, RHS Wisley, Hidcote, Kiftsgate Court, High Beeches, Leonardslee, Nymans, Wakehurst and Kew Gardens — a range that represents the full scope of English garden tradition from the seventeenth century to the present.

Choosing your tour

We offer four distinct departures for the Chelsea Flower Show. Two Kent and Sussex programmes pair the same celebrated garden region with a choice of country hotels and slightly different itineraries. The Kent, Surrey and Sussex programme adds RHS Wisley and a wider sweep of southern England. The Cotswolds programme offers a gentler landscape and a programme centred on the Arts and Crafts garden tradition.

All four include admission and a full day at the Chelsea Flower Show, with travel from and to London as part of the tour programme.

When Chelsea takes place

The 2027 RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 May. Tuesday and Wednesday are RHS members' days; public days run from Thursday to Saturday. Three of our tours attend on Thursday 20 May, while the Kent and Sussex tour based at Buxted Park attends on Friday 21 May. Chelsea admission is included in each GardenTours package. Travellers who want a standalone show ticket should obtain it directly from the RHS.