travelrite garden tours

Deryn Thorpe

Journalist, garden writer and garden consultant

Deryn first worked as a tour guide in the mid 1980s for Top Deck Travel, taking young people around Europe while sleeping, cooking and travelling on a double decker bus. In the late 1990s Deryn started tour leading around Australia and overseas.

She has maintained her enthusiasm for new adventures and passion for sharing the travel experience, but these days prefers to explore the world of gardens, art and history in a little more comfort.

For more information on her tours visit Travelrite International

Autumn Colours Garden Cruise to the USA & Canada

11th – 31st October, 2024

Join Deryn Thorpe on an unforgettable Autumn Colours Garden Cruise departing from Montreal on October 11, 2024, aboard the MS Zuiderdam. Witness the spectacular fall foliage in Canada and the USA, with stops in Charlottetown, Halifax, Sydney, Portland, Boston, Newport, New York City, and Philadelphia. This all-inclusive journey includes flights, accommodations, luxury cruise, guided sightseeing, and garden visits, offering an immersive experience in the vibrant hues of autumn. Don’t miss this chance to cruise through the breathtaking landscapes of North America’s eastern coast. Tour Highlights:

• Tour leadership by Deryn Thorpe
• Sightseeing tours of Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, USA; Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Quebec & Montreal, Canada
• Welcome drinks on MS Zuiderdam
• La Serena farm, which displays wonderful seasonal vegetables
• Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silverbush
• Enjoy a relaxing walking tour of the Colonial Town of Old Sydney
• Visit the 19th-century Halifax Citadel National Historic Park
• Halifax Public Gardens
• Travel to Kennebunk to visit Snug Harbour Farm
• Isabella Stewart Gardner House Museum
• Glen Magna Farms, a three hundred acre retreat for the Peabody-Endicott-Crowningshield families for 144 years
• Blithewold Gardens
• Lyndhurst, the Gothic Revival country house of railway tycoon Jay Gould
• Highline Park, a 1.45 mile section of the former elevated rail spur called the West Side Line
• Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
• Brandywine Valley – Enjoy Longwood Gardens, a kaleidoscopic floral paradise covering more than 1,000 acres
• Bartram’s Garden
• Farewell dinner in Philadelphia

For more information visit https://www.travelrite.com.au/garden-tours/usa-autumn-garden-tour-oct-2024.php

Garden Tour to Italy & London, including the Chelsea Flower Show

21st May – 11th June, 2024

Join Deryn Thorpe on the Travelrite International Garden Tour to London and Italy including the Famous Chelsea Flower Show. Visiting London, UK; Rome, Siena, Florence, the Italian Lakes and Venice, Italy.

Tour highlights include:

• Leadership by Deryn Thorpe
• Kew Gardens, London’s largest UNESCO World Heritage Site
• The famous Chelsea Flower Show
• Welcome dinner
• Hampton Court Palace and Garden
• Tour around Rome with a local guide
• The wild and romantic Ninfa gardens
• The amazing private gardens of Torrecchia Vecchia Cisterna
• Famous Villa d’Este
• The magnificent gardens of Villa Lante near Viterbo
• Tour around Siena with a local guide
• Enjoy a walking tour of the historical center of Florence
• Villa Balbianello, one of the jewels of lake Como
• Private boat across to Isola Bella, the most spectacular of the Borromean Islands
• Giardini di Giusto; one of finest examples of an Italian garden
• Guided sightseeing tour of Venice
• The iconic Piazza San Marco and its grand cathedral
• Farewell dinner

For more information visit: https://www.travelrite.com.au/garden-tours/london-italy-garden-may-2024.php

Garden Tour to the South Island of New Zealand

18th – 30th November 202 3

Join Deryn Thorpe for a spectacular Garden Tour of the South Island of New Zealand, visiting Christchurch, Omarama, Queenstown and Dunedin.

Tour Highlights:

• Christchurch Botanic Gardens
• Travel to the pretty village of Akaroa
• The Giant’s House a 6★ garden created by Josie Martin
• Fisherman’s Bay Garden
• Visit Amberley House, established in 1876
• Flaxmere gardens, rated 6★ by the NZ Garden Trust
• Lake Tekapo
• Visit Trotts Garden rated 6★ by the NA Garden Trust
• Journey to Queenstown, the magnificent holiday capital of New Zealand
• Lake Wakatipu
• Visit Da’Vella Gore’s two acres of English garden
• Chantecler, a 40 acre property with 12 acres of themed garden styles
• Visit A Wild Dream
• Four acre Birchwood Garden
• Explore the city of Dunedin
• Dunedin Botanic Gardens, the oldest public garden in NZ
• Visit New Zealand’s ‘castle’
• The historic, Jacobean-style Olveston House
• Farewell Dinner

For more information visit travelrite.com.au

Hi Deryn, a belated thank you for the Ballarat and Melbourne Garden Tour – it didn’t only live up to expectations, it exceeded them! It was a wonderful week, made even better by your expert guidance and relaxed manner. A highlight for me was meeting Phillip Johnson, he is such an inspiration. Lynne, Fremantle

Thanks for the superb French tour. It was very interesting both historically and horticulturally and you made everyone in the group feel very welcome and relaxed. You managed everything in such a relaxed and friendly way that it felt like we were a group of friends travelling together rather than an ‘organised tour’. I have already recommended your tours to my friends.”A bientot” Aline, Mosman Park

I booked on to the Melbourne and Ballarat tour rather on a whim, as I wanted to see Paul Bangay’s garden. However our tour took us to so many wonderful gardens, thank you. My sincere thanks for the planning, knowledge and commitment you put into our tour. You are an excellent tour guide, good with a group and not intrusive, and it was a very happy week indeed. Anne, Melbourne

I had the pleasure of being part of an Italian Garden tour with Deryn as the horticultural guide in May 2014. Deryn’s plant knowledge with historical context complimented the beautiful gardens and places that we visited. Her relaxed style, gentle good humour and sense of fun ensured that we all had a wonderful experience. Caroline, Mt Lawley

South Africa Garden Tour of - Travelrite International

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Join The Senior's Maureen Lucas on Travelrite garden tour

Gardening writer Maureen Lucas and her husband Paul will escort a tour of some of the best gardens in NSW and the ACT with The Senior and Travelrite International in September.

The 12-night tour to Canberra, the Blue Mountains, the Hunter Valley and Sydney will include a feast of wonderful gardens - both public and private.

In Canberra the tour will include visits to Floriade, the Australian National Botanic Gardens and National Arboretum . Travellers will love the bonsai and penjing collections.

In the Blue Mountains, there are visits to Mayfield Garde n in Oberon, one of the world's largest privately owned cool-climate gardens, Nooroo in Mt Wilson - started by William Hay in 1880 and developed by the Valder family over 75 years - and the Everglades in Leura, the grandest example of the work of designer Paul Sorenson.

Of course no visit to the region for garden lovers would be complete without checking out the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden at Mt Tomah . There's also chance to visit Withycombe at Mt Wilson, a beautiful and elegant garden begun in 1878 by George Henry Cox.

The cherry tree walk at Bilpin's Wildwood Garden , which we will stop at on the way to the Hunter Valley, should be in flower during our visit.

Then we will enjoy lunch at a local winery and a visit to the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens as well as the Hunter Valley Gardens .

Travelling down to Sydney, there's a stop at the delightful Edogowa Commemorative Garden in Gosford on the Central Coast. This peaceful space was designed in accordance with the principals of the Japanese, Hein period 700 AD. It is based on a traditional strolling style, incorporating Japanese features.

In Sydney we will visit the Lisgar Gardens in Hornsby and the nearby Eden Gardens in Macquarie Park - a fascinating garden centre with water dragons everywhere and lots to see and buy.

A highlight of the tour includes a visit to Wendy's Secret Garden in Sydney's Lavender Bay. After her the death of her artist husband Brett Whitely in 1992, Wendy Whitely started clearing the rubbish in the unused railway land in front of her house. She had no idea what she would find, but beneath the rubble there were large Moreton Bay Figs, bamboo and other plants used as the bones for the garden she has created today.

The price of the tour includes sightseeing tours and garden visits, led by Paul and myself, first class coach travel, four nights' accommodation in Canberra, three nights' in the Blue Mountains, three nights in the Hunter Valley and two nights' in Sydney including breakfast and welcome and farewell dinners and lunch at a Hunter Valley winery.

• NOTE: As well as being a regular contributor to The Senior, Maureen and her husband Paul are both nationally qualified judges in their fields, Maureen in horticulture and photography for Paul. Their award-winning garden in Melbourne , which has been accredited as a Garden for Wildlife, has been opened to the public many times including for Australia's Open Gardens. Together the couple has travelled to every continent on earth and more than 85 countries.
• Garden Exploration of Canberra, the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley with Maureen and Paul Lucas, September 18-30, $4495 per person twin share or $5,670 per person single fare. Phone 1800 630 343 or email [email protected]

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Our themed escorted group cruises, are dedicated to a variety of hobbies and interests such as golf, gardening, food and music . Our specialist international tours and Senior Cruises are hosted by well-known Travelrite ambassadors such as Jane Edmanson, Chris Smith, Ita Buttrose and Bernard Salt . We have over 30 years’ experience organising unique special interest tours to many wonderful and exotic locations worldwide. We are a family business that values integrity, quality and providing customers with fantastic value.

On these tours we are able to make the most efficient use of time in the most relaxed way possible. Forget about navigating your way through an unfamiliar road system or dealing with parking. No stress and no hassles. Everything is taken care of. Everything is planned. We have found the most interesting places to see, so come and let us look after you. 

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Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro Tour is included in most guided tours’ itineraries. Opened in 1935, under Stalin’s regime, the metro was not only meant to solve transport problems, but also was hailed as “a people’s palace”. Every station you will see during your Moscow metro tour looks like a palace room. There are bright paintings, mosaics, stained glass, bronze statues… Our Moscow metro tour includes the most impressive stations best architects and designers worked at - Ploshchad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya, Kievskaya, Novoslobodskaya and some others.

What is the kremlin in russia?

The guide will not only help you navigate the metro, but will also provide you with fascinating background tales for the images you see and a history of each station.

And there some stories to be told during the Moscow metro tour! The deepest station - Park Pobedy - is 84 metres under the ground with the world longest escalator of 140 meters. Parts of the so-called Metro-2, a secret strategic system of underground tunnels, was used for its construction.

During the Second World War the metro itself became a strategic asset: it was turned into the city's biggest bomb-shelter and one of the stations even became a library. 217 children were born here in 1941-1942! The metro is the most effective means of transport in the capital.

There are almost 200 stations 196 at the moment and trains run every 90 seconds! The guide of your Moscow metro tour can explain to you how to buy tickets and find your way if you plan to get around by yourself.