Chelsea Flower Show 2027 & Gardens in Kent, Surrey & Sussex Tour

This is the first of two nights that we will stay at the very comfortable RIU Plaza Victoria during this tour. With direct access from London Heathrow Airport, guests can check into the hotel from 14:00. We’ve chosen this hotel not only for its comfort but also its location. From here you can explore some of London’s iconic landmarks and neighbourhoods on foot, including Covent Garden, Regent Street, Soho, Hyde Park and Oxford Street.

Join your tour leader and fellow garden enthusiasts for dinner at a local restaurant.

After breakfast, we leave London and travel by private coach to RHS Wisley Gardens, one of two gardens that we’ll visit today. Gifted to the Royal Horticultural Society by Sir Thomas Hanbury in 1904, Wisley is an important centre of learning and research and boasts one of the most important demonstration gardens in Europe. As the RHS flagship garden, there is something special to see here at every time of year. During our spring visit we expect to enjoy fine displays of rhododendrons, camellias, magnolias and deciduous azaleas, especially in the celebrated woodland garden at Battleston Hill. There are also glasshouses with plants from around the world as well as specialist collections and beautifully maintained ornamental plantings throughout the garden.

Later we continue to Loseley Park House, an Elizabethan mansion and home to the More-Molyneux family for more than 500 years. Its 2.5 acre walled garden holds more than 1,000 old-fashioned roses in shades of pink, red and white. Yew hedges create a series of distinct garden rooms, many planted in a style that reflects the influence of Gertrude Jekyll. There is also an exceptional herb garden divided into sections according to traditional uses, making this one of the most interesting and beautifully structured gardens on the tour.

At the end of the day we travel to Wotton House Hotel, where we will spend the next three nights. Dinner is included during our stay.

Today we visit two of the most influential gardens in England. In 1930 Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson created Sissinghurst Castle Garden around a moated Elizabethan house. The garden became highly influential, helped in part by Sackville-West’s writing, in which she documented its development. The garden is designed around a series of axial walks, each terminating with a statue or other focal point, with enclosed garden compartments opening out along the way. Many areas have their own distinct seasonal or colour theme. During our spring visit we expect to experience the famous Lime Walk with its rich tapestry of bulbs, along with the White Garden and the Cottage Garden, each with its own distinct planting character.

We then continue to Great Dixter, one of the great historic gardens of East Sussex. The large timber-framed house dates from 1450 and was restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Lloyd family. The gardens, once a farmyard, were designed by Lutyens, but it was Christopher Lloyd’s extraordinary planting vision that established Great Dixter as one of the most influential gardens in England. His richly layered and experimental style of gardening, often described as tapestry planting, combines plants of different heights, colours and textures into unified, exuberant compositions. Now cared for by Fergus Garrett and his team, Great Dixter remains one of the most inspiring gardens anywhere in the world.

We return to Wotton House Hotel for dinner.

Although Wakehurst Place house was built in 1590, the garden was not created until the early 20th century. Its owner, Gerald Loder, sponsored many plant collecting expeditions, and some of the plants introduced through these adventures can still be seen here today. The garden includes a glade planted with Himalayan species, water gardens, walled gardens of differing character, outstanding collections of rhododendrons and conifers, and the internationally important Millennium Seed Bank. Wakehurst is a garden of both scientific significance and great ornamental beauty.

Later we continue to Nymans, a romantic garden created around a house and ruins of great character. Here we find a mixture of formal and informal areas, including a potager, a walled herb garden, long borders and woodland plantings. The garden is especially admired for the way it combines structure, atmosphere and rich horticultural detail. Spring is a particularly rewarding time to visit, when the flowering shrubs, herbaceous planting and evolving seasonal displays bring the garden vividly to life.

At the end of the day we return to Wotton House Hotel for dinner.

Today we check out of Wotton House Hotel and travel to Sheffield Park. In 1775, ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped 120 acres of gardens and woodland here for Lord Sheffield. Later enlarged and further developed, Sheffield Park remains one of the finest examples of an English landscape movement garden. The garden is especially noted for its scale, with five lakes linked by cascades, and for one of the finest collections of trees in the British Isles. During our spring visit we expect to see a particularly fine display of flowering trees and shrubs, including azaleas, rhododendrons, Cornus and Amelanchier, together with mass plantings of daffodils and carpets of bluebells.

At the end of the day we travel back to the RIU Plaza Victoria hotel in central London. Make your own arrangements for dinner this evening.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the world's most prestigious garden event, held each May in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The show runs over five days; we give you a full day to explore at your own pace.

We leave the hotel early to arrive when the show opens. Every exhibitor — whether show garden, nursery or floral display — has been selected and judged to the same high standards. The Chelsea Gold Medal is one of the most coveted awards in horticulture, and the quality of work on display reflects the level of competition.

If this is your first visit, your tour leader will offer guidance on what to prioritise. After the show, the coach returns the group to the RIU Plaza Victoria. Those who prefer to stay on and explore Chelsea or the surrounding area are welcome to make their own way back in the evening.

Make your own arrangements for lunch and dinner.

This morning we visit the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The Temperate House is the largest remaining Victorian glasshouse in the world and houses a remarkable collection of rare and threatened temperate zone plants. Kew is one of the world's great botanic gardens, offering botanical richness alongside magnificent landscapes, historic glasshouses and inspiring horticultural displays.

We return to the hotel in the early afternoon, allowing you to relax or explore London for the rest of the day.

Please join us this evening for dinner at a local restaurant.

Checkout of the hotel will be 12 noon. After check-out, travel the short distance to London Heathrow Airport for your onward flight or perhaps stay in the UK a little longer. Either way you will depart with lasting memories of Chelsea Flower Show, the remarkable gardens of southern England, and the outstanding gardens of Kent, Surrey and Sussex.