D1 Tuesday, 3 June

National Herb Centre & Broughton Grange

Tim will collect you from the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, immediately north of Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport and, once we are all together, we drive just north of Banbury, Oxfordshire, to the National Herb Centre for lunch and a look around their extensive range of herbs – from kitchen to medicine cabinet.

We’re not far from Broughton Grange, where we spend the afternoon exploring this wonderful contemporary garden. Set amongst some 350 acres of parkland and farmland, with planting that owes its origins to the Victorian era, the gardens at Broughton Grange were brought into the modern era by the current owner, Stephen Hester, when he bought the estate in 1992. Hester commissioned leading landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith to transform the six-acre south-facing field into a walled garden and now Broughton Grange is widely recognised as one of the most significant private contemporary gardens in Britain.

It is not too far from our hotel, The Slaughters Country Inn, in Lower Slaughter, a picturesque Cotswold village, where we will arrive in good time to check in, relax and enjoy a drink before dinner at the hotel.

Today's total driving is about 100 miles/160 km

D2 Wednesday, 4 June

Upton Wold, Batsford & Sezincote

Our day starts with a private guided tour of Upton Wold, like Broughton Grange, an exceptional private garden. Created by its owners, Ian and Caroline Bond, it is astonishing to think that there was no garden here at all, when they moved to Upton Wold in 1973, just a piece of land surrounding a beautiful house, two very ancient yews, an imposing holly, some old apple trees and a very beautiful view.

Our second visit is to nearby Batsford Arboretum, for lunch and to explore its wide-ranging collections, including the National Collection of Japanese Flowering Cherries. Batsford Park, the house (closed to the public), was home to the Mitford sisters.

Today’s final visit is to neighbouring Sezincote, an extraordinary English County House built in the 'Indian Style', a unique combination of Hindu and Muslim architecture. The gardens, designed with the help of Humphrey Repton, are a romantic landscape of temples, grottoes, waterfalls and canals, all reminiscent of the Taj Mahal. We’ll stop in Stow-on-the-Wold, one of the Cotswold’s chief market towns, on our way home to the Slaughters Inn, where we will have dinner.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D3 Thursday, 5 June

Hidcote & Kiftsgate

We start the day exploring Chipping Campden, a busy, honey-stoned Cotswold market town, where we visit St James' Church, a fine example of a medieval wool church. Then to Hidcote Manor, the world-famous Arts & Crafts gardens created by Lawrence Johnston. Johnston, an American anglophile who settled in Britain with his mother, bought Hidcote in 1907, was gardening by 1910 and, by the 1920s, had 12 gardeners! Hidcote was his life's work and remains one of England's most influential 20th-century gardens.

We enjoy the whole of the mid part of the day at Hidcote before crossing the road to neighbouring Kiftsgate Court. Another Arts & Crafts garden, Kiftsgate is a romantic garden enjoying stunning, far-reaching views over the Vale of Evesham and, of course, it is home to the Kiftsgate Rose. Unusually, Kiftsgate has twice passed from mother to daughter – from Heather Muir, who created the garden, via Heather’s daughter, Diany Binny, to Diany’s daughter, Anne Chambers, who, with her husband, Jonny, gardens Kiftsgate today.

We stop for dinner at The Halfway, Kineton, en route home to Lower Slaughter.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D4 Friday, 6 June

Oxford

e spend the whole day in Oxford, a busy, historic city most associated with its university.

The University of Oxford can trace its teaching to 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It also has the world’s largest university press and the largest academic library system nationwide.

Important though the university and its 39 colleges are, Oxford is much more than that. From Alice in Wonderland and Inspector Morse to Harry Potter, and from boutique shopping to exceptional heritage, there is a great deal to occupy a day in Oxford and to help you get the most out of your day, we start our visit with a guided walking tour with superb, specialist guides from Footprint Tours.

There is plenty of time to explore and visit colleges and museums, before we meet for tea and scones at the Old Parsonage Hotel, after which we will return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D5 Saturday, 7 June

Kelmscott & Buscot

We start our day in Burford, for a brief walk around this charming, busy Cotswolds market town, before a late-morning visit to Kelmscott Manor, the country home of the writer, designer and socialist William Morris. One of the 19th century's most celebrated designers and a leading light in the Arts & Crafts Movement, Morris made Kelmscott his home from 1871 until his death in 1896.

We have lunch at Kelmscott before enjoying the afternoon at nearby Buscot Park, a beautiful Italianate country house. Built between 1779 and 1783, it is the home of Lord Farringdon and his fabulous art collection. Overlooking a lake and surrounded by extensive pleasure gardens the late 18th-century house has, to one side, the original kitchen garden, now the Four Seasons garden, and, to the other side, woodland walks leading to one of Britain’s finest Harold Peto water gardens. An unusual, but wonderful, marriage of Italianate formality with an English parkland landscape.

We’ll dine out at one of our many favourite pubs, en route home to Lower Slaughter.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D6 Sunday, 8 June

Misenden, Bibury & the NGS

We begin the day at Misenden, an early 17th-century house and garden overlooking the rolling Cotswold hills. It is a tranquil garden with magnificent mixed borders, an array of roses and perennials and a contrasting topiary yew walk. After morning coffee at Miserden, we meander along the ever-so-pretty Coln Valley, stopping in Coln Rogers, to visit the 11th-century Saxon church of St Andrew, and stopping in Bibury, to visit Arlington Row, a row of 17th-century Weavers’ Cottages, ending up at the extraordinary Burford Garden Company for lunch and a little light shopping.

We will visit private gardens in the afternoon, courtesy of the National Garden Scheme (NGS). Over the course of a year, some 3,000-4,000 gardens across England & Wales open their gardens to the public, charging for entry and donating those fees, via the NGS, to charity. So far, the NGS has raised over £55m for nursing charities since 1927, when the scheme began.

We won’t know which gardens we’ll visit until nearer the time, but wherever it is we will return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 80 miles/130 km

D7 Monday, 9 June

Rousham House

Our final day starts at Daylesford Farm, an organic farm shop like no other, where we pick up supplies for our picnic lunch, before setting off to Rousham House, an historically important, 18th-century landscape garden designed by William Kent, and one of the few gardens of this period to have escaped alteration. To one side of the house are two large walled gardens, complete with herbaceous borders, parterres and an original pigeon house.

The Sheraton Heathrow Hotel is just over an hour away, where the tour ends and where we plan to be in good time for evening flights home. If you are staying in the UK and don't need, or wish, to return to London or Heathrow, then please let us know your onward travel plans, so that we may assist you in getting to your next destination.

Today's driving is about 90 miles/145 km