The most amazing garden holidays to take in 2025
There's no better escape for green-fingered travellers than a great garden holiday, where you can enjoy the best of nature in some breathtaking outdoor attractions in the UK and abroad.
Country Living's garden holidays take in floral havens with TV stars and experts, invite you to discover the world's botanical wonders and allow you to meet the best-loved designers and gardeners to learn gardening tips and tricks along the way.
Whether you travel in spring or summer, there’s a horticultural break for you. Spring is a fantastic time to seek ideas for your own garden in fabulous venues around the UK, in locations such as the Isles of Scilly or Kent. Or venture further to Madeira with its famously fragrant flower parade or the Netherlands’ Keukenhof Gardens, renowned around the world for their riotously colourful spring tulips. Meanwhile, France beckons for blissful holidays with a horticultural slant.
Many of these unforgettable trips feature VIP tours and talks by experts in the field – gardeners and garden designers, writers, TV presenters and other fascinating folk keen to share their enthusiasm and knowledge with you as you discover some of the world’s greatest gardens in their company. We guarantee you’ll come away overflowing with new ideas for your own patch.
Here are the best garden holidays for 2025.
Discover Kent and Sussex's garden secrets with Sarah Raven
This enlightening three-night horticultural break includes an exclusive talk by garden designer, writer and broadcaster Sarah Raven, who, over the course of 25 years, transformed a dairy farm into the 90 acres of botanical delight that is Perch Hill.
You’ll also enjoy a private tour with the gardeners and sit down to a delicious lunch made with the freshest produce from the garden. Guests also benefit from a private early-bird trip to Sissinghurst to see the superb manicured gardens before they open to the public.
Visits to Great Comp Garden, Scotney Castle, Lullingstone Castle, Pashley Manor and Great Dixter are also included, as well as a relaxing base in Tunbridge Wells.
When? June 2025
Celebrate Madeira’s colourful Flower Festival
Some of Madeira's finest gardens, including the Palheiro Gardens, Funchal Botanical Gardens and Monte Palace Gardens, are all on the itinerary of this trip to the subtropical volcanic island of Madeira.
The Portuguese island is known as the ‘floating garden of the Atlantic’. It’s timed to coincide with the island’s famous Flower Festival, where you’ll get a grandstand seat to watch the Allegoric Flower Parade, with the chance to see (and smell!) fragrant floats passing along the streets of central Funchal to the accompaniment of live music.
You’ll be based at the Enotel Lido in Funchal, with its infinity pool and sea views.
When?
April 2025
Witness the wonderful wildlife and gardens of the Isles of Scilly
This six-day trip includes a visit to sub-tropical Tresco Abbey Gardens, dubbed ’Kew without the glass’ and established around the ruins of a Benedictine abbey by Augustus Smith in the 19th century. It’s now home to plants from across the world’s Mediterranean climate zones, including Brazil and Burma.
You’ll also take in the gorgeous harbours of St Martin’s and spot porpoises, dolphins, seals and other wildlife – including some species not seen anywhere else in the UK, which you’ll learn more about during a talk by (and dinner with) Julian Branscombe, head of the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.
Your base is Star Castle, with a pool and archipelago views.
When? April and September 2025
Admire the gardens that inspired Claude Monet
Spend four nights in the largest chateau hotel in France, Château de Montvillargenne, using it as a base to explore the gardens that inspired Monet’s famous paintings. The holiday includes a guided tour of Giverny – the little village where Monet lived – accompanied by gardening expert Paula McWaters. This is where you’ll see those famous water lily ponds and the gardens that inspired his work.
The perfect complement to a visit to Giverny on a Monet-themed trip is calling at Musée de l’Orangerie, where you’ll see a selection of Monet’s paintings, Les Nymphéas.
When? July 2025
Delight in Cotswolds’ gardens, stately homes and rare farm breeds
Amid the rolling hills, honey-hued buildings and cosy pubs of the Cotswolds sit some of Britain’s best gardens, such as Batsford Arboretum, Sezincote House and Painswick Rococo Garden, and Sudeley Castle and Gardens.
The area is also home to the Cotswolds Farm Park, where Adam Henson – famed for his conservation work and sustainable farming – will show you some of his rare breeds, including Gloucestershire Old Spot Pigs, Suffolk Punch Horses and Highland cattle.
Other outstanding sights include Chedworth, which was one of the grandest Roman villas in Britain, while it would be a wouldn’t be a true Cotswolds holiday without a traditional afternoon tea in Broadway, one of the loveliest villages in a place known for its lovely villages.
When? September 2025
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