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May 25, 2026
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Travel Journal
Chelsea Flower Show & The Cotswolds
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From Chelsea Flower Show to private gardens in the Cotswolds, a little look back at our week in England.
We just came back from the most lovely week in England with our group, and honestly we are still thinking about it.
Between London and the Cotswolds, the days were completely filled with gardens, flowers, countryside lunches, antique shopping, long dinners, and many very good conversations along the way. We spent one full day at the Chelsea Flower Show during Members’ Day, visited extraordinary private gardens with the people who actually created and care for them, and somehow got incredibly lucky with the weather almost the entire week.
One of the things we loved most about this tour was how different every visit felt. Some gardens were grand and historic, others much more personal and intimate, but all of them had stories behind them. And hearing those stories directly from gardeners, owners, and guides honestly changed the way we experienced the places completely.
We wanted to share a few moments from the week with you.
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Chelsea Flower Show
Of course, one of the biggest highlights of the week was spending the day at the Chelsea Flower Show during Members’ Day.
For anyone who loves flowers, gardens, or simply beautiful things, Chelsea really is unlike anything else. The entire show feels incredibly immersive, from the extraordinary floral displays inside the pavilion to the large competition gardens outside, where designers and landscape architects create entire worlds using plants, water features, sculptures, pathways and flowers.
We loved walking slowly through the different gardens, discovering award-winning designs, unusual flowers, and seeing the incredible level of detail and creativity everywhere. There is also something very British about the atmosphere of Chelsea itself, elegant but still relaxed, with people discussing plants over champagne and garden tools treated almost like fashion accessories.
A very perfect way to start the week.
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Hidcote Manor Garden
One of the most special visits of the tour was our early private visit to Hidcote before the garden opened to the public.
Experiencing a garden like Hidcote in complete calm and silence felt incredibly rare. Created by Lawrence Johnston, the garden is famous for its “garden rooms”, outdoor spaces divided almost like a series of hidden worlds, each with its own atmosphere, colours and planting style.
Our guide Geoff made the visit particularly fascinating because he mixed the history of the garden with stories about Johnston himself, using letters and personal anecdotes to bring the place to life in a very human way. It never felt like a formal lecture. More like slowly uncovering the personality behind the garden while walking through it.
The planting was spectacular everywhere we looked, but what stayed with us most was the atmosphere of the garden early in the morning before anyone else arrived.
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Asthall Manor
Our private visit to Asthall Manor with the head gardener Owen felt completely different again, in the best possible way.
Unlike some of the grand historic gardens we visited during the week, Asthall Manor feels much more intimate and personal. It is still an extraordinary property, but there is something very approachable about it too. You can really imagine living there and gardening there yourself.
Walking through the garden with Owen made the whole visit feel incredibly alive because everything came with stories, decisions, experiments, successes and failures that happen when people truly live with a garden every day.
We loved seeing how much beauty and atmosphere can be created on a smaller scale. It was less about perfection and more about personality, which honestly made it one of the visits we connected to the most during the trip.
©MFCH
Upton Wold Garden
Another very memorable moment of the week was our private visit with the owner of Upton Wold Garden.
We always love private visits because hearing directly from the people who created a place changes the entire experience. Suddenly you are not only looking at a beautiful garden, but understanding the years of thought, work and inspiration behind it.
One of the most interesting parts of the visit was hearing how parts of the garden had been inspired by Hidcote. As we walked through the different garden rooms and hidden spaces, you could recognise certain influences while still feeling the owner’s own personality throughout the property.
One particularly beautiful moment was discovering the hidden water pool towards the end of the visit. You suddenly arrive at a higher point in the garden and look down onto it almost unexpectedly, which makes the reveal feel incredibly dramatic and peaceful at the same time.
The owner explained that the garden had been developed over the past fifty years, which honestly made it even more inspiring. Some gardens have existed for centuries, but places like this remind you how much can still be created within one lifetime.
©MFCH
Chipping Campden
Another stop everyone loved during the week was spending time in Chipping Campden.
The village is honestly exactly what people imagine when they think of the English countryside, beautiful stone houses, tiny little streets, old storefronts covered in flowers, antique shops, bookstores, cafés… everywhere you look feels picturesque.
We had such beautiful weather that day as well, which made it even more enjoyable to just wander around slowly without any real plan. Some guests found antiques and little treasures to bring home, others stopped for tea or spent time browsing all the lovely shops around the village.
©MFCH
THE PIG-in the Cotswolds
One lunch everyone kept talking about afterwards was our afternoon at The Pig in the Cotswolds.
The property itself is beautiful, very relaxed, very English countryside, with gardens surrounding the restaurant and a large kitchen garden that supplies much of the food served there.
Before lunch, we spent time visiting the vegetable garden and seeing where many of the ingredients were grown. Everything felt seasonal, fresh and deeply connected to the landscape around us.
The meal itself was exactly the kind of lunch we always hope for during these tours: simple, generous, seasonal food, long conversations around the table, and absolutely no one wanting to leave afterwards.
MFCH Travel Experiences
Looking Ahead to Sussex in 2027
After such a special week this year, we are already very excited about our Sussex Gardens journey in 2027.
The tour will once again combine beautiful gardens, private visits, antique shopping, with the possibility to extend the trip to attend the Chelsea Flower Show afterwards.
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