Coopersmith's Garden Tours for 2024

Spring Gardens & Treasure Houses
of East Anglia & Cambridgeshire
May 9-17, 2024. 9 days, 8 nights
Land price: $5995; single supplement: $895
A Limited Edition Tour. Maximum 18 members

THE ANCIENT EAST ANGLIAN KINGDOM OF NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, AND ESSEX IS AMONG ENGLAND’S BEST-KEPT SECRETS: quiet, out-of-the-way places that tour groups often overlook. We’ll make our home for the first four nights at the much sought-after, four-star Beechwood Hotel, an exclusive country house hotel with a penchant for the dramatic, in the small market town of North Walsham, close to the Norfolk coast. From there, we travel south to the delightful town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, overlooking the North Sea, and known for its international music festival and associations with the 20th-century composer, Benjamin Britten. Our home-away-from-home for the tour’s final four nights: the Wentworth Hotel, acclaimed for its impeccable service and run by the same family since 1920. Along the way we’ll venture into Bressingham Gardens, the private domain of Adrian and the late Alan Bloom, both among the most celebrated horticulturists of their day; take in the grandeur of King Charles III’s Sandringham House; visit the stately home in which Anne Boleyn is said to have been born; delight in the beauty of the Beth Chatto Gardens, among the very finest in all of Great Britain; gaze in awe at Helmingham Hall, where nineteen generations of Lord & Lady Tollemache’s family have lived; and be the exclusive guests at delightful, lesser-known gardens that rarely open to the public. A full day in the historic, architecturally outstanding university city of Cambridge, adds to the tour’s appeal.

Spring Gardens & Stately Homes
of Buckinghamshire & Hertfordshire
May 19-26, 2024. 8 days, 7 nights
Land Price: $6295; Single Supplement: $995
A Luxury Edition Tour. Maximum 18 members

JUST BEYOND THE CLATTER AND COMMOTION OF THE GREATER LONDON AREA, to the North and Northwest of the metropolis, lie the "Home Counties" of Buckinghamshire & Hertfordshire. Protected by the Greenbelt, "Bucks" and "Herts" boast some of Great Britain's most storied gardens and stately homes. Highlights include Ascot, a grand 16th-century hunting lodge, later the country retreat of the Rothschilds; Cliveden, a glorious treasure house - now a five-star hotel - formerly the home of Nancy Astor and the site of the infamous Profumo Scandal of the early 1960's; and Hatfield House, a magnificent Jacobean estate and setting for dozens of films and TV miniseries. Not-to-be-missed: Waddesdon Manor, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild's grandiloquent 19th-century French Renaissance-style chateau, with its priceless collections of paintings, 18th-century French furniture, and Sevres porcelain. We'll also be treated to exclusive tours of smaller, private gardens, several of which rarely open to the public. Home base for this late-spring, Unpack Once extravaganza, will be Hartwell House, a Jacobean mansion, later an erstwhile palatial refuge of the exiled Louis XVIII' now a much-acclaimed hotel and spa set in lush gardens and operated by the National Trust. Tour members may wish to extend their stay in London in order to see the Chelsea Flower Show---showcasing unique, avant-garde creations by the world’s foremost garden designers.

Springtime in Scotland:
Gardens & Castles
May 27-June 4, 2024. 9 days, 8 nights
Land Price: $5995; Single Supplement: $995
A Limited Edition Tour. Maximum 18 members

SCOTLAND IS A PLACE LIKE NO OTHER: rainbows arching over craggy mountains whose peaks seem forever blanketed in moody clouds; fairy tale castles punctuating the shores of sky blue lochs; centuries-old towns and cities fashioned from granite and built to last forever. This tour, a reprisal of a trip we operated back in 2010, starts in Troon, Ayrshire, with four nights at the 4-star Piersland House Hotel, overlooking the ocean. We finish up with four nights at another fashionable 4-star hotel, the Blythswood Square in Glasgow. A city that has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years, making it one Europe's most exciting cultural centers, Glasgow offers fine restaurants and sophisticated hotels, world-class museums and avant-garde theater and galleries. In both venues we’ll acquaint ourselves with some of Scotland’s most noteworthy gardens and castles, among them Culzean Castle, Mount Stuart, Little Sparta, and Brodick Castle, along with some smaller, lesser-known ones. At this time of year, the rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and other spring-flowering shrubs and trees should be spectacular. For a change of pace, we’ll visit two renowned art collections---the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and the Burrell Collection---plus some neolithic stone circles and ancient Pict wall drawings..