Tour Overview
Any gardener knows that it takes time for a garden to grow and mature, and The Eden Project is no different. The plants inside the great domes have filled out and the surrounding terraces and gardens have matured into a beautifully landscaped setting. While Eden still attracts its fair share of visitors, the queues have disappeared and you have time now to appreciate this remarkable, multi-faceted project in all its glory. There is still nowhere else quite like it, and this is as close as you can get to experiencing the drama and diversity of the world’s plants without leaving the country. Since it opened in early 2001 the Eden Project has been an unqualified success and has established itself as one of the foremost visitor attractions in the country, living up to its billing as the 8th wonder of the world. Its mission is to promote the understanding and responsible management of the vital relationship between plants, people and resources, which it achieves in the most spectacular way.
Enjoying the warmth of the Gulf Stream the magical gardens of Cornwall are home to a wealth of the most exciting rare and beautiful plants and trees in the British Isles. The creative genius of the early nineteenth-century Cornish garden owners and their hunger and passion for exotica led them to sponsor the great Victorian plant hunting expeditions. The seeds and plants, which they brought back from all over the world helped create these unique examples of wild and magnificent living theatre.
Day 1
We depart from Newcastle, Edinburgh or Glasgow airport on a morning flight to Bristol. Upon arrival in Bristol we will join our coach for a visit to Hestercombe Gardens, near Taunton, one of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens’ greatest masterpieces. The garden is home to a round pool in a round walled garden filled with wintersweet and roses, a Dutch garden of lamb's ears, lavender and the most beautiful orangery of the 20th century. Everywhere there are details of design and planting from which any gardener can learn.
We continue to our hotel, the comfortable Bay Hotel, Newquay (or similar) to arrive in time for dinner. The evening will be at leisure to relax.
Day 2
Today following our full English breakfast we will travel to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. The award winning gardens, asleep for more than seventy years, are the scene of the largest garden restoration project in Europe. In the spring of 1991, the Gardens of Heligan lay under a blanket of bramble, ivy, rampant laurel and fallen timber. A year later the restoration team opened the gardens to enable the public to share in the excitement of their discovery.
Our next visit is to Trebah Garden, near Falmouth, which is a wild and colourful Cornish garden with something for everyone. The garden was laid out originally in the 1840s and flourished to become one of England's great gardens by the 1930s. After the death of the then owner, the garden was sadly neglected for many years until it was taken over by the Hibbert family, who still run it today. Wander down the "Zig-Zag", a slope where a rare collection of exotic Mediterranean plants was recently planted. You may also see Rhododendron Valley, a huge amphitheatre of sixty foot high rhododendrons, many of which were imported as seed in the 1890s. We return to our hotel in time for dinner.
Day 3
Today, following breakfast, we will travel to the exciting Eden Project, near St Austell. The Eden Project is a 50 metre deep, 34 acre china clay pit which has been reclaimed and transformed to house 2 controlled environment plant conservatories, the larger of which recreates the climate of the Tropics and displays some of its plants such as cotton, rice, rubber, orchids, bamboo and rainforest flowers. At its highest point it reaches 50 metres, taller than Nelson’s Column. The second conservatory recreates a warm temperature climate and houses plants from Southern Africa, the Mediterranean and south western America, with orange trees, olives, grape vines and hundreds of colourful flowers.
Our last visit today is to the remarkable Pine Lodge Gardens. Set in 30 acres of parkland Pine Lodge boasts a pinetum arboretum, a marsh garden and many rare and tender plants. The plants are labelled for easy identification. Dinner is served at the hotel in the evening.
Day 4
Sadly today we must return home. En route there is still time to visit the gardens of Killerton, near Exeter. Countless trees and shrubs thrive here in the acid soil including rhododendrons, magnolias, stewartias and maples. A masterly rock garden in an old quarry sparkles with hellebores, hostas and geraniums among mossy rocks under a canopy of old camellias and maples.
Following our visit we will return to Bristol Airport for our evening flight to Edinburgh, Newcastle or Glasgow, where on arrival the group will disperse.
• 3 nights at the comfortable Bay Hotel, Newquay (or similar) on a dinner, bed and English breakfast basis. All rooms with private facilities
• Return scheduled flights with EasyJet from Edinburgh, Glasgow or Newcastle to Bristol
Comfortable coaching in Cornwall
• Entrance to The Eden Project, Lost Gardens of Heligan and the gardens of Hestercombe, Trebah, Killerton and Pine Lodge
• Services of a Brightwater Holidays Tour Manager
• Single room supplement £45.00
• May to September departure supplement £30.00
• Insurance £19.00 (66 and over £38.00)
PLEASE NOTE, FOR ANYONE TRAVELLING ON ANY FLIGHT, PHOTOGRAPHIC IDENTIFICATION IS REQUIRED BY THE AIRLINES AT CHECK-IN – INCLUDES DOMESTIC FLIGHTS WITHIN THE UK
A 4-day package by coach from London, Reading, Swindon or Bristol is available from £295 per person
- ask for our separate brochure.
Newcastle Airport
Edinburgh Airport
Glasgow Airport