FLORIADE – HOLLAND & BELGIUM
24 April to 7 May 2022
ITINERARY
Once a decade the horticultural industry of Holland celebrates with a grand expo called Floriade. Each massive event is held in a different location within Holland. In 2022 it will be on reclaimed land at Almere near Amsterdam. It’s a flower filled fantasy you won’t want to miss.
Sunday 24 April 2022
Sydney – Amsterdam
Meet your Tour Leader at Sydney International Airport. Take a Qantas group flight to Amsterdam via London. Option to make your own travel arrangements and meet up at our hotel in Amsterdam on Day 2.
Monday 25 April 2022
Amsterdam (D)
Arrive into Amsterdam, transfer to your hotel located near iconic Dam Square for five nights. Welcome dinner this evening to meet your fellow travellers.
Accommodation: Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, Amsterdam
Tuesday 26 April 2022
Floriade (B/L)
Early departure this morning for Floriade 2022. Spend this day at the International Horticultural Exhibition Floriade, that is staged once every ten years in the Netherlands. Floriade 2022 will be the seventh such expo, held this time in Almere, built on a reclaimed parcel of land near Amsterdam. Participating countries and horticultural companies will showcase the world’s most exquisite horticulture: flowers, plants, trees, fruit and vegetables. The theme in 2022 is “Growing Green Cities”.
Accommodation: Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, Amsterdam
Wednesday 27 April 2022
Keukenhof Gardens (B/L/D)
Keukenhof is our destination today, one of the world’s largest flower gardens located in the SW of Holland near Lisse. More than seven million bulbs are planted annually. It’s a spectacular sight. Spend the day exploring the exhibits including the large conservatories.
Accommodation: Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, Amsterdam
Thursday 28 April 2022
Aalsmeer Flower Market (B)
Early morning visit to the famous Aalsmeer flower auction. It’s the largest in the world, where more than 32 million flowers and plants are sold daily and sorted for worldwide shipment.
Afternoon visit to Hortus Bulborum, a museum garden of old and ‘lost’ bulbs including heirloom varieties that have been preserved and saved from extinction. It’s a treasure trove of 4,000 spring-flowering historical bulbs, some from the 16th century.
Walking tour this afternoon through the city centre and along the canals.
Accommodation: Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, Amsterdam
Friday 29 April 2022
Het Loo Palace & Mien Ruys (B/L)
Morning visit to Het Loo, the former Royal residence, with sumptuously furnished interiors, where the Dutch Royal Family lived for three hundred years. Reconstructed ‘Baroque’ gardens breathe the atmosphere of their seventeenth century origins with fountains, parterre and espalier fruit trees, best viewed from the semicircular colonnades at the rear of the formal garden. Lunch included today.
Afternoon visit to the influential garden of Mien Ruys, the ‘Mother of Modernism’. This garden of 28 rooms (from 1924), shows how Mien Ruys experimented with plants and materials making her one of the most important garden architects of the twentieth century.
Accommodation: Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, Amsterdam
Saturday 30 April 2022
Amsterdam – Bruges (B/L)
You will be buzzing with ideas today at this magnificent collection of model gardens of Appeltern. Garden design and trends, water gardens, Oriental gardens, courtyards, vegetable gardens, products, plants and materials; make this an exciting opportunity. Lunch included today.
Afternoon travel on to Bruges, one of Europe’s best preserved cities with cobble stones, market squares and canals. Check in to your boutique hotel in the heart of medieval Bruges for the next two nights.
Accommodation: Hotel Peellaert, Bruges
Sunday 1 May 2022
Bruges (B)
Enchantment this morning with a walking tour of Bruges. Economic prosperity of the 15th century brought rich merchants to Bruges. They lived in majestic city palaces filled with art treasures. Free afternoon to visit museums, art galleries and to explore the rich cultural history of this city.
Accommodation: Hotel Peellaert, Bruges
Monday 2 May 2022
Ghent Floralies (B)
Spend the day in Ghent and see the grandiose gabled, scrolled and chiselled architecture of the merchant houses on the waterfront. Grain and wool were the commodities that elevated Ghent from barren marshland to wealthy trade centre of the Middle Ages.
Ghent Floralies will be in full swing, a dynamic floral environment held in Citadelpark every four years and postponed from 2021. The theme for 2022 is ‘My Paradise, a Global Garden’.
Travel on to Brussels and check into your elegant hotel situated next to one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, for three nights.
Accommodation: Radisson Collection Hotel, Brussels
Tuesday 3 May 2022
Kasteel Hex and Floralia (B/L)
Visit Kasteel Hex just outside Brussels, a working vegetable and flower farm. The kitchen garden has retained its authenticity over the centuries, one of the few examples that has been in cultivation for almost 250 years without interruption. Lunch included today.
Accommodation: Radisson Collection Hotel, Brussels
Wednesday 4 May 2022
Serres Royales (B/D)
Serres Royales is a complex of Victorian glasshouses built in classic style for King Leopold 11 in 1873, to house his collection of plants from the Congo. They have the appearance of a city of glass, situated in a beautiful park-like setting and filled with rare plants. Free afternoon to explore Brussels. Farewell dinner this evening.
Accommodation: Radisson Collection Hotel, Brussels
Thursday 5 May 2022
Brussels – Home (B)
Morning at leisure. Afternoon transfer to Brussels airport for return flights home via London.
Friday 6 May 2022
In flight
Saturday 7 May 2022
Arrive Home
HOW TO BOOK
To secure your booking and make your deposit, please complete our online booking form. You will be contacted by a Ross Tours Travel Manager to confirm your details and preferred method of payment.
CANCELLATIONS
Cancellations received 180-120 days prior to departure will incur loss of deposit.
Cancellations received between 119-60 days prior to departure will incur a 50% cancellation fee.
Cancellations received between 59-30 days prior to departure will incur a 75% cancellation fee plus any non-recoverable costs incurred.
Cancellations received within 30 days prior to departure will incur 100% cancellation fee.
Cancellations must be sent in writing.
Cancellation fee is based upon the total amounts paid including tours, airfares and all other travel arrangements.
Please refer to the Ross Garden Tours standard terms and conditions
TOUR INCLUSIONS
TOUR ESCORTED BY
COLIN BARLOW
- Deluxe air-conditioned motorcoach throughout tour
- Deluxe accommodation for 10 nights
- Breakfast daily, 5 lunches and 3 dinners
- Entrance fees to all gardens and sightseeing including Floriade Almere, Keukenhof Gardens, Aalsmeer Flower Market, Hortus Bulborum, Het Loo Palace, Mien Ruys Garden, Gardens of Appeltern, Nuit Blanche, Beguinage Garden, Ghent Floralies, Kasteel Hex, Brussels Floralia
TOUR PRICE
Twin Share land only $8,495 per person
Twin Share including air $10,495 per person
Single Supplement $2,295
All prices in Australian Dollars.
Prices based on minimum 15 passengers.
Price is based on departure from Sydney.
Price from NZ and other Australian ports available on application.
DISCOUNTS
Early Bird $200 (Book and pay before 20 December 2021)
Previous Traveller $100
Garden Clinic Member $50
POSTCARDS
A little sneak peak at Floriade 2022.
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Japan Spring Festivals
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