Gardens of Southeast Australia

Day 1 – Arriving in Sydney

G’day garden lovers! The moment has finally come. Your horticultural adventure Down Under is about to begin. We know that the excitement is already building, but, since Sydney isn’t the easiest city on the planet to reach, take this afternoon to snooze off any jet lag and just relax. The good news is that your hotel is literally steps from the arrival hall. Stroll across, drop your bags, take some time, and then prepare to meet your fellow green-fingered travelers over a welcome dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow, you get your hands dirty, so to speak!

Accommodation: Rydges Sydney Airport, Sydney (or similar)
Included: Dinner

Day 2 – The Gardens of the Blue Mountains

Bid farewell to the big city – you’re bound for the fabled Blue Mountains, named for the hazy blue mists that form over the thick forests of eucalyptus that cover the highlands west of Sydney. As you might imagine, the drive up is a treat in itself, with views that get progressively more “wow”-worthy the higher you go.

Something special awaits up there to kick-start the trip, too, because you’re going to glimpse a totally private garden known as The Ridge. Few other travelers get to step here, to survey the meticulous collections of cool-climate plants that were laid out more than 100 years ago by pioneering Welsh planter William Wark.

The next stop is the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, set in the UNESCO World Heritage Area of Mount Tomah. Mixing garden paths and wilderness tracks, it’s home to around 21,000 plant species, including 900 local varieties and loads of rare species.

And, then, just as you thought this mountain domain couldn’t possibly offer up any more gems, you delve right back into yet another private garden. It’s a secret spot managed by a long-time local of the region. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that the view is best taken in with a drink in hand on the terrace.

Accommodation: Kyah Boutique Hotel, Blackheath (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Day 3 – Azaleas and Wisterias

Your first stop today is Tallawong, which doubles as both a garden and a piece of art you get to walk through. Gentle spirals and rhythmic earth shapes circle a central pond and there are sculptures placed throughout, making each turn you take around the garden a new, constantly changing experience.

Next up is Bebeah, a garden with real character, lovingly shaped over more than 40 years by its owners Barry and Miguel. You’ll be impressed before you even enter the garden itself as the driveway is lined with masses of azaleas to greet you as you step out of the car.

Your final stop of the day is Nooroo, a garden which leads with a collection of wisterias, rare maples, rhododendrons, and a variety of flowers and trees. Settle down for a picnic lunch in the quiet atmosphere of the garden before taking the time to walk the premises and really enjoy the majesty of the wisterias.

Accommodation: Kyah Boutique Hotel, Blackheath (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Picnic Lunch

Day 4 – The Mayfield Garden

There’s just one garden on the menu today, but don’t go thinking you’ll have loads of time to kill afterward, for it’s a true biggie. In fact, it’s so darn big that it claims the title of being the largest privately owned, cool-climate garden in the entire Southern Hemisphere. There’s a whopping 160 acres (65 hectares) to get through; 160 ultra-varied acres.

A lily-dotted water garden rests at the heart of it all, but it’s not something plucked from a Monet painting. Instead, you’ll be faced with ambitious terraces hardscaped into the surrounding terrain, and a towering obelisk keeping watch at one end. You may also get lost in the hedge maze (the largest private box hedge maze in Australia, no less), find yourself walking behind the stream of a waterfall at the grotto garden, or enjoy a serene moment beneath the Chinese pagoda.

The garden in question? The Mayfield, a spot that showcases such a mix of thoughtful design and dedicated caretaking that it’s developed its own ecosystem and biodiversity. It’s enough to keep you and the rest of the Carexplorer Crew busy all day long!

Accommodation: Kyah Boutique Hotel, Blackheath (or similar)
Included: Breakfast

Day 5 – Cottages and Meadows

It’s a slow, quiet kind of day that will treat you to a whole new level of garden relaxation and chill vibes.

Morning takes you to the Hartvale cottage garden, where you’ll enjoy breakfast tea surrounded by colorful flowers and buzzing insects. It’s easy to understand how the lively charm of the garden inspires the art of its owner Jennifer, whose paintings in her garden studio complete the dreamy atmosphere of the Hartvale cottage.

Lunchtime awaits you at the terrace of the young and swiftly growing Highfield Gardens, home to a collection of rare and unusual plants.

Your third and final garden of the day is the sweeping Wild Meadows, where color-themed flower beds and a backdrop of evergreen eucalyptus trees create the perfect spot to finish your day.

Accommodation: Kyah Boutique Hotel, Blackheath (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 6 – Gardens of Leura

No horticultural adventure through New South Wales could possibly be complete without a pit stop at Leura – they don’t call this “The Garden Village” for nothing! In this heartland of cool-climate gardening there’s not one, not two, but three stops to make, each as fantastic as the last.

First up, it’s the private garden at Misty Vista. As the name implies, it’s got some hefty views. Survey the eucalypt forests and the great canyons of the Blue Mountains National Park below. Then it’s Craignish’s turn, where you’ll need to check with your fellow Carexplorers that you haven’t been teleported to California without noticing. The whole thing feels more US West Coast than Australia’s East Coast, as you wander gravel paths through naturalistic plantings of bulbs and perennials. Then, time for Leura’s grand hurrah, Everglades House. Nearly 100 years old, it stands atop a cliff beside the great bluffs of the Blue Mountains. Notice the contrast between the European-styled lawns and flower beds in the foreground and the gum-tree-covered escarpments behind.

You’ll have a couple of hours in the car to decompress and discuss all the gardens you’ve seen before arriving back in Sydney, where you settle in for dinner at Doyles on the Beach, a local legend of a bistro, where the Doyle family has been serving fresh-out-of-the-sea seafood like jumbo prawns and Tasmanian mussels right on the edge of the sand since 1885.

Accommodation: Novotel Sydney Darling Square, Sydney (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 7 – Royal Botanic Gardens

You jetted into Sydney almost a week ago, but today’s the day you really get to know this ocean-splashed city. And, trust us when we say, she’s certainly worth getting to know!

The morning begins with a visit to the Art Gallery of NSW, where you’ll enjoy a close look at classic and contemporary Australian art. Afterward, grab lunch at your own pace. Sydney is a hubbub of uber-cool cafés and street kitchens – it’s hailed as the brunch capital of the world, after all!

Then, it’s garden time, and it’s a marvel. Founded 210 years ago, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is the oldest botanical garden in the country. Overlooking the famous Sydney Harbour and filled to the brim with nearly 12,000 plant species from Australia and the world, it’s like the Southern Hemisphere’s answer to Kew – AKA a pilgrimage for horticulturalists on this side of the globe. Tour the palm houses, the fern nurseries, and beds packed with a gazillion orchids in the company of a local expert who’s ready for all the in-depth botanical questioning you can throw their way.

Your day then continues with a visit to the Sydney Opera House, another must-see. Don’t worry, no judgments here if you need some time to take a thousand selfies! Once you’re done, Barangaroo calls. You’ll wander around with a guide, seeing how they’ve converted this old container port into a buzzing arts and garden district, complete with waterside gathering spaces and terraces of native trees.

Accommodation: Novotel Sydney Darling Square, Sydney (or similar)
Included: Breakfast

Day 8 – Welcome to Melbourne

This morning you’ll hop on a plane, and before you know it, it’s  touchdown in Melbourne! The day is yours to explore the city at your own pace. Find a great brunch spot or hit the streets without a solid plan and see where the day takes you. You might stroll along the Yarra (the local river that splits the city in two), dip into one of Melbourne’s many galleries and museums, or check out the street art and small shops.

Rendezvous with the Crew later in the evening for dinner at Ludlow Bar and Dining Room. It’s right on the riverside, and the menu is modern Australian, built on local Victorian produce – a nice local steak, anyone?

Accommodation: Pan Pacific Melbourne, Melbourne (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Day 9 – Gardens of Melbourne

The Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden gets you rolling in Melbourne, with 120 acres (50 hectares) of open, highland garden that’s packed with big, flowering specimens. Our advice would be to not attempt to count them all, since they claim there’s over 15,000 rhododendrons and 12,000 azaleas here!

Then it’s on to the Chelsea Australian Garden, which led its trailblazing design team to become the first Australians to win Gold and Best in Show at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. That was over a decade ago, and today the garden has grown into an even more exceptional site, with the striking waratah sculpture surrounded by 15,000 Australian plants as its centerpiece.

Weave into the hills east of town for yet another garden and a spot of lunch on your own at the Kuranga Native Nursery. Duck under the shimmering berry clusters of lilly pilly plants and dodge the fuzzy buds of kangaroo paw flowers in perhaps the largest collection of cultivars in Australia.

Continue out to the winelands of the Yarra Valley, where you’ve got a special dinner date lined up. The location? The protected bushland of the Healesville Sanctuary. The company? None other than some of Australia’s best-known inhabitants – wombats, kangaroos, koalas. The vibe? Intimate – you’ll be let in after the sanctuary has closed for the evening. No crowds. Just you, your fellow Carexplorers, local food, and the odd appearance from an emu.

Accommodation: Chateau Yering, Yarra Valley (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Day 10 – A Museum Interlude

Today presents you with the best kind of sandwich there is – gardens, art, and then more gardens!

Begin at Alowyn, where you’ll instantly be shadowed by great arcs of wisteria on the main walkway, which knits together nine different green spaces. Take one turn and you’ll be faced with the perfectly pruned hedgerows of the Parterre Garden. Take another to find granite monoliths poking up from the ground between pockets of Japanese grass – that’s the Zen Garden. Between those are serene groves of maple trees and proper Australian dry gardens filled with hardy succulents.

Later, the TarraWarra Museum of Art promises to inject some culture into the trip, though you’ll have to resist the temptation to explore the grounds, which are a symphony of Toolangi rainforest and rolling vineyard. It’s worth it, though, as you’ll soon find yourself face to face with some of the best landscape and abstract art in all of Australia.

Art-induced appetites will no doubt be firmly worked up by this point, which is why you go straight from the gallery to a secret private garden close by. The owner will show you around, of course, and there’s a picnic lunch ready and waiting.

And, for the afternoon? We’ll keep that a surprise, but here’s a clue. A certain master potter by the name of Ted Secombe lives in the region…

Accommodation: Chateau Yering, Yarra Valley (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Picnic Lunch and Dinner

Day 11 – Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne

The first stop of the day is the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, a contemporary garden which houses over 100,000 plants. Hop on the explorer bus to cruise through sections of the garden’s 6-mile (10-kilometer) trail network, then slow things down with a guided walk.

Take a break at the café before continuing your journey. Afterward, you’ll transfer to your new base at Flinders Hotel to settle in. The final stop today takes you to Pt. Leo Estate for a laid-back afternoon that once again treats you to a mixture of nature and art. Dinner will be back at the hotel.

Accommodation: Quarters at Flinders Hotel, Flinders (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Day 12 – Mornington Peninsula

You wake this morning on the salt-washed Mornington Peninsula, the coastal back garden of Melbourne, where forests of drooping sheoaks and tea trees meet golden ribbons of sand. Yep, it’s pretty spectacular. As are its local gardens. You’re booked in to see three of them this morning alone, but we’re keeping the actual destinations a secret. Just know that they’re all beautiful private gardens, and you’ll enjoy morning tea at one of them. 

Accommodation: Quarters at Flinders Hotel, Flinders (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Day 13 – Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and the Macedon Ranges  

There’s likely to be a feverish energy about breakfast this morning. The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria lie in wait today, 180 years old and counting. You’ll learn all about the most important plants in the garden and its significance for the community from landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw. He serves as your guide for this visit and brings the stories behind the design, plant collections, and heritage landscapes to life.

Your head abuzz with the 8,500 species that grow there, you then drive out of the city to the north. As you compare notes on succulents and gum trees, watch as the landscapes get rural, as the horizons open into rolling fields. It’s up there that you find your hotel for the night, a little sanctuary in the Macedon Ranges. Your dinner spot is a real treat, too, a local artisan brewery in the town of Lancefield.

Accommodation: Cleveland Estate, Lancefield (or similar)
Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Day 14 – The Final Gardens

Can you believe your trip is coming to an end? There might be some wistfulness today but don’t get too sad, because there’s still time for a few more gardens…

The first one is a real dream of a garden, too. Follow your fellow Carexplorers into the patchwork of gigantea grasses, Russian sage, and foxgloves that grows at Stone Hill. It’s a masterwork in perennial planting that’s a bit of a local A-lister – it’s been featured in magazines all over the globe!

From there, head across to The Stones, a property which has stood the test of time since the 19th century and features hardy plants suited to the region’s extreme conditions.

Your last garden – the last of the whole trip, in fact – will be Bank House, where a long allée leads to a mysterious destination beyond wrought-iron gates. It’s a worthy final stop, as its hedges and pathways offer up a romantic, almost whimsical cherry on top of your garden adventures.

The bittersweet evening concludes with a farewell dinner back at the hotel. It’s a chance for you and your newfound friends to swap contacts, share photos, and maybe even get going on making plans for that next garden adventure!

Accommodation: Cleveland Estate, Lancefield (or similar)
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 15 – Farewell, Friends

With a camera roll full of flower pictures, and memories you’ll hold dear for many months to come, it’s time to say goodbye to your fellow Carexplorers and head home.

As you take to the sky and watch Australia get smaller in the distance, you’ll recall that each plot of land that’s just a dot outside the plane window holds a luscious garden full of many, many special flowers. And you have seen them for yourself.

Included: Breakfast