Villa d’Este: The world’s greatest water garden
My first visit to Villa d'Este was a long journey. Loraine and I took the train from Rome and then a bus for the final few miles up to Trivoli, the hill town where...
PHILADELPHIA 2014
On February 27, 2014, I took a group to Philadelphia, primarily to see the famous flower and garden show held there every spring, but also to visit some of the city’s historic sites and...
ENGLAND TOUR 2016
In May, 2016, I was in Shepherd’s Bush, London, meeting people at our hotel there to start a 12-day tour to the West Country and the Sicily Isles before returning to London for the...
SOUTHERN FRANCE 2013
Once the Southern Italy came to a happy conclusion in Catania, Sicily, we flew to Aix-en-Province to get ready for our next tour, one from Provence to the Cote d’Azure.
With a few advance days...
JAPAN 2014
In April, 2014, I took 42 people on a 14-day tour of Japan, starting out in Tokyo and ending in Kyoto, visiting many famous gardens and cultural highlights along the way.Our flight to Tokyo...
ENGLAND WEST COUNTRY TOUR 2010
In May, 2010, we did our first land-tour in England, starting out in London and going down to the West Country to see gardens in Somerset and Cornwall before heading back to London, via...
ITALY 2015 TOUR No. 1
In September, 2015, I led two tours back-to-back in Italy, starting in Venice and moving to Tuscany before continuing on to Puglia (in the heel of Italy) for the final days.
When we decided to...
SPAIN-MOROCCO 2014
In September, 2014, we went to Spain, where we first gathered for a few days in Madrid before heading south to Toledo, Cordoba, Seville and Granada, then crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North...
FRANCE TOUR 2011/ No. 2
The hard part of doing back-to-back tours is that you have to say goodbye to one group and hello to a new group and show no loss of interest or energy or enthusiasm.
This...
SOUTHERN ITALY 2013
In May, 2013, we returned to Rome for another Italian tour, only this time out of Rome and down to the Amalfi Coast and then farther south to Sicily. This turned out to be...
ITALY LAKES TOUR 2011
After the success of our England West Country Tour and our two back-to-back France/Paris/Loire Tours, it only seemed natural to think about going back to Italy. We love Italy and have never had a...
FRANCE TOUR 2011 /No 1
After the success of the England West Country tour, it seemed only natural to look over to France and think about next doing a tour there.
In 2011, we launched a spring tour that started...
BRAZIL 2013
In September, 2013, we went to Brazil for the first time to lead a tour from Rio de Janeiro to Belo Horizonte and ending in Iguazu Falls, bordering Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
This turned out...
SOUTH AFRICA 2012
In October, 2012, we went for the first time to South Africa with an ambitious plan to take the Garden Route from Cape Town before moving on across the Little Karoo to Knysna and...
HOLLAND-ENGLAND TOUR 2012
In 2012, I hit on the idea of doing a garden tour in Holland to coincide with the huge Floriade event that is held there once every 10 years.I figured it would be a...
BEST OF BRITISH TOUR 2015
In May, 2015, I led a 10-day tour to England. This adventure was promoted as The Best of British Tour and was a little different to previous tours in that the itinerary was entirely...
ITALY 2015 No. 2
On Sept 26, I arrived back in Venice for the second Italy - Puglia Tour after the first of the two back-to-back tours concluded in Ostuni, Puglia.
It was a strange feeling arriving back in...
MYANMAR TOUR 2016
On Feb 25, 2016, I was in Hong Kong with a group of people heading off on a tour to Myanmar (formerly Burma) and then to Singapore before returning to Vancouver via a last-days...
CHINA 2015
In April, 2015, we went to China to lead a 16-day garden/culture tour, from Shanghai to Beijing, stopping on the way to visit Suzhou, Luoyang, Xian and Guilin. This included a boat ride on...
ITALY CRUISE TOUR 2009
In 2009, when I was working for The Vancouver Sun as the garden columnist and New Homes editor, my publisher called me into his office and asked if I would like...
