English Gardens Itinerary Advice please
 

We will be in England in mid May spending a week in the countryside. We are focusing primarily on garden and houses for this week. Could you review our planned itinerary - I can't decide if we have too much on our plates.

Day of arrival- Drive to Windsor and tour the castle then go to Oxford where we will spend the night

Day 2- (Sat) drive to Stratford-upon-Avon; visit Anne Hathaway's cottage; early dinner and performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Day 3 Sun- Midlands Gardens Tour:
Hidcote Manor Garden
Broadway for lunch
Snowshill Manor
Mill Dene Gardens (if they are open that Sunday)

Day 4 Mon Drive to Salisbury- on the way visit the Vale of the White Horse; then Salisbury Cathedral & Mompesson House Any suggestions for restaurants in Salisbury?

Day 5 Tues- Wilton House; Stourhead and Stonehedge

Day 6 Wed- Drive to Royal Tunbridge Wells - Is it terribly out of the way to go to Brighton and visit the Royal Pavilion?

Day 7 Thurs- Visit Knole House, Sissinghurst & Hever Castle

We plan to get the National Trust passes. Since we are over 60 will our passports or drivers licenses suffice for proof for senior discounts?

Have we missed anything or including something that isnt worth the time?

From there we go into London for a week.

I just skimmed because I'm heading out in a couple of minuted but >>Day 7 Thurs- Visit Knole House, Sissinghurst & Hever Castle<<

Would be a VERY full/nearly impossible day. Each requires about half a day (not fully half a day each but when you factor in the travel time and lunch - yep basically half a day each.) Just the drive from Hever to Sissinghurst takes about an hour and Knole > Hever 30 - 40 minutes.

Sissinghurst fits well w/ Scotney Castle Gardens. Knole and Hever could be done on the same day.

sounds wonderful - there is a wonderful garden down the road from Hidcote (which we loved) and could be easily visited in the same day, but the name escapes me. We also loved Blenheim Palace (home of the Churchills) and Sudely Castle (Katherine Parr's final home) I can't speak to the whole itinerary but Day 5 sounds pretty full as Stonehenge is definitely worth at least half a day. hope you have a wonderful time

My reading of senior membership is that you have to be a current member for at least 5 years in the past 10 to get National Trust Senior .

janisj, just the sort of reply I was hoping for. I will adjust the two days in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

lauramsgarden, I think you are referring to Kiftsgate Court Garden. They are open in the afternoon and we were planning Hidcote for the morning. Should we rearrange the order that day to accommodate Kiftsgate?

northie, oops I wasn't asking about the National Trust Senior. Just general senior discounts.

Not sure if you have time, but it would be cheaper to buy a US Royal Oak membership rather than a UK National Trust one. You get the same benefits.

https://www.royal-oak.org

thursdaysd, the Royal Oak membership is $95 for the year which is cheaper than the National Trust touring pass for £52.00 for 7 days. Unfortunately I don't think we will be back to the UK within the year to take advantage of the Royal Oak membership. Thanks for the information though.

sounds wonderful - there is a wonderful garden down the road from Hidcote (which we loved) and could be easily visited in the same day, but the name escapes me.>>

Yes it's Kiftsgate and yes definitely worth it.

I agree that you won't be able to see Knole, Hever and Sissinghurst all in one day. Another garden that you could team with Sissinghurst is Great Dixter, a garden created by plantsman Christopher Lloyd and now maintained by a trust set up in his name. For those who are interested in garden design and the use of plants, it's a must and I'd definitely prioritise it over Scotney, nice though that is:

https://www.greatdixter.co.uk

it's only about 30 mins from Sissinghurst and less than an hour from RTW.

That's definitely where I'd go!

I agree - Great Dixter would be a really good pairing w/ Sissinghurst.

Very nice trip plan; how lovely to see all those gardens. One you might try to fit in is Virginia Water, near Eton. You may know this--I didn't and only learned it from a British friend whom we visited--but Stourhead is pronounced as in "sour." And Reading is Redding. Love those place names!

lol, underhill, that there might be a pronunciation problem didn't even occur to me.

So for the sake of completeness, Hidcote is pronounced "Hidcut" [or something like that,] not "Hidcoat".

One place I would <B>100%+</B> try to get to is RHS Wisley. It fits in nicely on day 6 (instead of Brighton) since it is very near the junction of the M3 and M25 which is the fastest way from Salisbury to RTW. One could very easily spend an entire day there but half a day en route would be a wonderful addition to your gardens theme. Have lunch there too -- the main restaurant is closed while the Welcome center is being rebuilt but there is a coffee shop and I think another cafe. More to see than at even some of the 'biggies' like Kew or Sissinghurst.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley

JJ - i would agree with you about Wisley being 100% worth a visit, but I don't think that you can really compare it with Sissinghurst, or any of the National Trust properties which each has a character of their own. Wisley, OTOH has wonderful plants in abundance, but character perhaps not quite so much.

Oh -- I didn't mean it was 'better' or even charming. But it really does have a lot to see and the demonstration gardens, the glass houses, the 400+ foot herbaceous/mixed border etc, are a gardener's dream. The place is ENORMOUS.

http://www.nathancphotography.co.uk/...GlassHouse.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7384/1...6f577367_b.jpg

http://www.visitsurrey.com/imageresi...=ProductDetail

Heck -- I spent nearly an hour just out in the trials fields.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/getmedia/36eb...HS-0005659.jpg

I had been considering RHS Wisley since we joined the society to get tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show the following week. I know I am going to be so sad that I won't be able to take plants or seeds home with me but ideas will be great.

Thanks for all the great comments and ideas.

AGM, I'd forgotten that you'd joined the RHS. As well as the main RHS gardens like Wisley and Rosemoor [the closest one to us] which are free to members and a guest, they have "partner gardens" all over the country some of which may well be on your route/list - I note that Mill Dene is mentioned:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/searc...er&facets=10;1

They offer discounts at different times of the year so you may not be in luck, but it's worth a try!

ACM, this sounds like a wonderful trip. I've visited a few of these gardens, but not all of them. I'm a little envious :)

Ok So we have changed Days 6 & 7 to

Day 6 Wed- Drive to Royal Tunbridge Wells - RHS Wisley & Sissinghurst

Day 7 Thurs- Visit Knole House & Hever Castle

Would RHS Wisley be better than Great Dixter? Oh so little time so many things to see!!!

Underhill we are from MA so know about pronunciation issues. I am sure we will flub a number of them.

>>Day 6 Wed- Drive to Royal Tunbridge Wells - RHS Wisley & Sissinghurst<<

I really don't think that is possible. The drive from Salisbury to Tunbridge Wells (about 3 hours) plus several hours at Wisley will eat up the day.

Salisbury > Sissinghurst > Tunbridge Wells is about a 3.5 hour drive so again - just the one garden pretty must fills the day. But maybe you could squeeze in a short visit to Great Dixter..

:( So we will just plan on Sissinghurst on Day 6. We have to return the car to Gatwick on the 8th day and go into London. Maybe we will plan to return it later and go to Wisley that morning.

Thanks for all the advice.