We tailored the best journeys for who wants to enjoy Italy, England, Spain or Corsica in small groups with like-minded people, without facing any logistic or cultural problem. Are you traveling solo? Join us and we promise you a travel…
Are you planning a special vacation with your best friends but don’t want to organise all the logistics? Do you want to choose the itinerary suited to your taste but don’t want to have to put it all together? Our…
You choose your destination(s) and the experience you absolutely want to live, determine when you want to leave and select from our wide choice of activities. Once we have your choices we will work with you to put it all…
Bring your own group on our small group Garden tour and enjoy a slice of that well-loved Englishness which has been so beautifully expressed in the gardens of the United Kingdom: with a focus on a joyous display of colours! Walk through rhododendron and azalea plantations, photograph the sun lighting up bluebells in the woods, gaze up at magnificent magnolias and other flowering trees and mature shrubs in our gardens.
Gardening is a way of life for the English and we have chosen some of the best and most representative gardens and historic houses for you to enjoy. English gardens and their history – a great way to learn more and discover England!
N.B. Tours based in England are charged in local currency (GBP £). All the other conversions are approximate. For any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
DURATION: 8 days
PICK UP: Richmond
DROP OFF: Heathrow airport
How many kinds of sweet flowers grow in an English country garden?
Join us for a week visiting some of England finest private and public gardens. Enjoy a slice of that well-loved Englishness which has been so beautifully expressed in their gardens – a joyous display of spring colours: rhododendrons, azaleas, bluebells, magnolias and other flowering trees and shrubs in the gardens. We have chosen some of the best and most representative gardens and historic houses of England.
Before or after the tour you might plan to extend your visit and spend time in London with a trip to the theatre. Why not include a day at the Chelsea flower show, floral wonderland for the public with imaginative garden designs exhibited at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea?
We begin in Southwest London where you can enjoy a nice long walk in Richmond Park and around the extensive Gardens at Kew where George III and other Princes and Princesses of Wales has left their mark – more recently also the Greenhouse built by the late Princess Diana.
Visit Hampton Court Palace and its majestically laid out formal gardens. What an insight into the lives of our royal families of the past (Henry VIII, William III of Orange and George II).
We then continue to the Heart of England where we stay in a village not far from the ruins of Kenilworth Castle – favourite residence of Queen Elisabeth I. From here we visit the famous Cotswold gardens of Hidcote and Kiftsgate and a number of historical homes and gardens now belonging to the National Trust.
This is a very enriching tour which everyone can enjoy – passionate gardeners, people who love historic houses and monuments and people who enjoy gentle walking and being outdoors.
We look forward to hosting you.
Why not extend your trip and take the opportunity to explore another destination like Italy or Spain for example? Have a look to our Tour Calendar. We would be delighted to offer you a discount on your second tour in the same year! Do not hesitate to write us an email. We would be happy to hear from you and help you planning your next adventure!
NOTE: Tours based in England are charged in local currency (GBP £). All the other conversions are approximate.
We meet at the hotel in Richmond at 13.00 to check in and then go out for the afternoon.
Pre-formed groups can inquire about an pick-up from a London airport* (*not included).
Visit Royal Richmond Park & the Isabella plantation Azaleas and Rhododendrons at the Isabella plantation surrounded by deer in the park. Walk around the gardens of historic Pembroke Lodge (17th century Mole-Catchers house!) with fantastic views across London.
After the afternoon surrounded by flowers and Nature, we head to our hotel to get ready for our special welcome dinner.
After a nutritious English style breakfast, we visit Hampton Court Palace and its majestically laid out formal gardens situated on the Thames river.
Restored by Queen Elisabeth II after the fire of 1986, it is a real insight into the lives of British royal families of the past.
Building of the palace began in 1515 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII. In the following century, King William III ordered to rebuild and expand the Palace with the intention to rival Versailles, destroying much of the Tudor palace. Work ceased in 1694, leaving the palace in two distinct contrasting architectural styles, between Tudor and Baroque even if a unity exists due to the use of pink bricks and a symmetrical, if vague, balancing of successive low wings.
The last monarch to reside in the palace was King George II.
Hampton Court Palace’s world-famous gardens include 60 acres of spectacular formal gardens and 750 acres of parkland, all set within a loop of the River Thames.
The gardens are home to the world’s oldest puzzle maze, a record-breaking grape vine – the largest in the world as of 2005-, 3 National Plant Collections, over 1 million flowering bulbs in the Wilderness and a huge variety of wildlife, including the descendants of Henry VIII’s deer herd.
Today we visit the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, house of ”the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”* .
It’s a magical garden at any time of year with extensive landscaping, monuments, glasshouses and plant collections built up over centuries under the influence of master gardeners and enthusiastic Princes and Princesses of Wales.
Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park in Middlesex, England, its living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over seven million preserved plant specimens.
Royal Botanic Gardens is a World Heritage Site.
Hidcote is an Arts and Crafts garden in the north Cotswolds, a stone’s throw from Stratford-upon-Avon. Created by the talented American horticulturist, Major Lawrence Johnston its colourful and intricately designed outdoor ‘rooms’ separated by walls or hedges with outstanding herbaceous borders are always full of surprises.
Many of the plants found growing in the garden were collected from Johnston’s many plant hunting trips to far away places. It’s the perfect place if you’re in need of inspiration and relax for your mind.
Find a quiet spot and sit on one of the ornate benches and watch green woodpeckers search for their lunch or listen to the calls from the buzzards circling overhead.
The perfect match with Hidcote Garden is Kiftsgate Court Garden, the result of three generations of women gardeners. Its founder, Heather Muir, was a close friend of Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote and she was helped and inspired by his work. She later decided that the garden would develop organically, rather than planning everything on paper, giving the garden a distinctly feminine feel, almost in direct contrast to the more masculine lines being employed by Johnston at Hidcote.
Kiftsgate Court Garden is a beautiful stroll to end our day with upper gardens planted to give harmonious colour schemes and sheltered lower gardens providing a home for plants from warmer climes and an atmosphere of the Mediterranean.
Blenheim is one of England’s largest houses and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1987). It is a monumental 18C country house and the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. It has stunning formal gardens (Henry Wise), rock gardens and pleasure grounds, all within an extensive landscaped park (Lancelot, Capability Brown) with a formal canal scheme and lake covering 975 hectares! Restored to magnificence in the late-19th and early-20th centuries it is a great day out!
Another fantastic day exploring historical houses and gardens.
Overlooking the river Avon on the edge of Shakespeare’s Stratford, Charlecote Park has been part of this corner of rural Warwickshire for centuries. Still the Lucy family home after 900 years, you can explore the vision of the Victorian owners George Hammond Lucy and his wife, the formidable Mary Elizabeth, who extended their home and filled it with treasures from their European travels.
Stroll through the gardens that Mary Elizabeth loved so dearly, from the formal parterre to the shady woodland garden with rare plants and borders full of colourful herbaceous planting.
Explore atmospheric Baddersley Clinton dating from the 15th century, built by Henry Ferrers, a lawyer, diarist and antiquarian, in the late 1500s. It remained the home of the Ferrers family for 500 years and was a sanctuary not only for the Catholic Ferrers family, but also for persecuted priests who were hidden in its secret hiding places during the 1590s.
The priest holes are concealed in the structure which is surrounded by a moat, a delightful formal garden, herbaceous border, stew ponds and a nature walk which leads runs all around the lake.
Our last day we visit Kenilworth, Caroline’s hometown and its medieval castle. Kenilworth Castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as ”the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant for its scale, form and quality of workmanship”.
Walk in the footsteps of the great Tudor queen through the garden and imagine the opulence and splendour of Elizabethan Kenilworth. Lost to the world for almost 400 years, this beautifully recreated Elizabethan Garden is a haven of peace and tranquillity, full of colour and fragrant walkways.
Walk through the Abbey Fields park with free time for a little last minute shopping and then visit a family garden in town and enjoy a cup of tea. Then it is time to pack bags before joining us for our farewell dinner party.
Departure from our hotel at 9.00 to travel to Heathrow airport (approx 2 hour drive).
If you wish we can help you to extend your stay or make other independent departure arrangements. Feel free to contact us to have a chat.
We look forward to hear about your dream holiday!
Baddesley Clinton at sunset. You will enjoy magical atmosphere!
On our English Garden tour you will live the authentic "British life-style"
Outdoor picnic
We will bring you to taste traditional specials in quality local restaurants.
A nice hotel and a good night’s sleep are an important part of your overall travel experience!
When considering a hotel, we look at more than just the rooms. We look for hotels or bed and breakfasts which are committed to ensuring their guests are well looked after and pay attention to detail, for example offering locally sourced breakfast produce, or a special selection of toiletries, or tea and coffee making facilities in the room. Wherever possible your hotel* will be perfectly positioned for exploring and will have a historical charm or maybe a new and innovative design. We choose the best possible places to stay ensuring that each night you are comfortably settled in a place that is welcoming and full of authentic local charm. We are on a mission to find the ingredients you need to wake up feeling rested and looking forward to each day of your Caspin Journeys tour!
Take a closer look at some of the places we have chosen for you…
London Richmond & Warwickshire – 7 nights / 8 days
*Hotels may vary.
Just follow this link. If you prefer us to call you back, please provide also your telephone number and the best day and time suite you to receive a call from us.
Yes, it’s possible.
Once you have chosen your tour, click on the Book Now button. It will redirect you to our online booking form. We will personally send you a payment request by email just for the deposit, usually 25% of the total tour price.
Feel free to decide the best payment method for your needs! We accept credit/debit cards and bank transfer.
When it will be time to pay the rest, we will send you another email with the other payment request. We will assist you through all the steps and we will available to answer to all your questions. our booking system allows you to choice if pay the full amount or only a deposit .
Yes, absolutely! Here are our bank details:
GBP payments:
We recommend you fly to one of the London international airports. Make your way into London via one of the many shuttle services available.
Pick-up – we meet at the hotel in Richmond which can be reached using a local bus or the London Underground tube.
Drop off is Heathrow airport (included).
Private Groups:- We can work together to coordinate the best meeting point. We can meet you at one of the London airports. N.B. Transport from the airport to London is not included.
Tours based in England are charged in local currency (GBP £). All the other conversions are approximate.
We believe that where you sleep is an important part of your overall travel experience. So, we put a lot of effort into carefully choosing the hotels for each tour.
Our priority is to find attractive, clean, and quiet rooms with private bathrooms in the best possible accommodation. We make sure that each night you are comfortably settled in a place that is welcoming and full of authentic local charm.
The result is a fabulous selection of delightful hotels, medieval palaces, family-run hotels, country residences, manor houses, historic inns, luxurious alpine hotels – sometimes with a spa, sauna, or swimming pool facilities – and all with character, tasty food and a friendly atmosphere.
You will have to keep coming back to experience them all! Sweet Dreams!
We love our jobs and personally lead all our small group tours. Italy, Spain and England are our homes and our passion. We bring that excitement with us on all our tours so that you too share our favourite places.
We are very experienced and handle all the logistics while you relax and become immersed in the local culture, history and traditions.
We know the locals on all our trips and they love meeting our groups. We are small enough to get into private homes, chat to villagers, fit in small restaurants and enjoy all kinds of unexpected events that aren’t accessible to large groups of tourists following a red umbrella.
Our customer reviews say that Caspin Journeys takes the best care of you. We are a sustainable travel company and the only thing we leave behind is our footprints!
Read more about Caspin >
Getting out and about on foot is a wonderful way to slow down the pace, relax and get some healthy exercise.
When we walk we see so much more – grapevines, wildflowers, ancient oaks, wheat fields, avenues of cypresses and pine, time resistant hills and valleys.
As we stroll through historic towns we learn about the culture of the people; as we stand in the splendour of the countryside, beneath the soaring columns of ancient temples, abbey walls and turrets of medieval castles we marvel at man’s ability to conceive of and construct such monuments.
Food is an all important part of each and every one of our journeys. We are foodies, we love to savour the authentic flavours of each destination we visit. And let’s not forget the wine “the drink of the gods” which will accompany every meal, even picnics!
Picture yourself eating Buffalo mozzarella from a farm in Amalfi, tasting a Sicilian cannolo with fresh ricotta cheese, home-made pasta, organic vegetables, fresh fish and so on.
Or why not consider a Gourmet Cooking Holiday in Tuscany, where you will learn directly from the locals?
If all this sounds mouthwatering then look no further, you are in the right place 😉
On our small group tours we use a combination of gourmet restaurants, local trattorias, traditional pubs, tapas bars and farmhouse meals, to give you the best overall experience!
Each adventure combines fantastic hikes and authentic cultural experiences which make for a phenomenal and enriching travel experience. – admire Giotto’s frescoes in Assisi – walk in the Castle gardens of Henry VIII – stand at the tomb of St James in Compostela – gaze at and touch the columns of a Greek temple – visit the birthplace of Napoleon Buonaparte – see how a Duke lives at Blenheim Palace – tread the streets of Pompeii – admire mosaics in a Norman cathedral – understand more about the Roman Empire Travel in the richest artistic heritage in the world, many of which are part of UNESCO. What are you waiting for? Don’t miss out on an unforgettable trip.
Our travel style attracts a similar type of people, outgoing, interesting, adventurous, cultured and curious.
You’ll enjoy the company of your fellow travelers on our small group tours. Italy’s food and wine, England’s local pubs, and Spain’s meditative and spiritual pilgrim route are best experienced amidst the camaraderie of the group.
Guests who join our small group tours become our friends. They return again and again to share new adventures as we explore these unforgettable destinations with like-minded travellers and build ever-lasting memories together.