Art in Bloom Garden Tours
not only shuffles off to Buffalo, but we do it in style!
Welcome to Buffalo Garden Walk and Niagara Falls Canada
• July 16th - July 21st, 2025, 5 days
• Six Days – Five Nights
ABOUT THIS TOUR
Art in Bloom Garden Tours not only shuffles off to Buffalo, but we do it in style! Every summer, the city of Buffalo hosts the largest garden walk in America. Tens of thousands of gardening enthusiasts will visit Buffalo during the last weekend of July to enjoy the efforts of “more than 300 creative and gracious gardeners.” This year is the 30th anniversary of GardenWalk Buffalo and you’re going early to get a sneak preview! Other spectacular site visits include Niagara Botanical Gardens, Royal Botanical Gardens.
Maximum Group Size: 25 Guests - Limited availability
Wednesday, July 16th, 2025
Plan your travel to arrive at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport by 12 noon.
After everyone is collected, we will board our coach to go have an included plated lunch at 1:30 p.m. at Templeton Landing, a delightful establishment with a magnificent view of Lake Erie.
From there, we will walk over to the Erie Basin Marina Trial Garden. “These gardens are unusual because they are specialty annual trial gardens. Visitors can view specialty cultivars that are grown and evaluated for the coming years. There are new annual varieties – more than 3,000 plants! – from all over the world.” A representee from Cornell University Extension Master Gardener program will be on hand to give us an overview and answer any questions.
Check-in time at your home for the week – Embassy Suites by Hilton Buffalo – is at 4 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., we will convene back in the hotel lounge for a welcoming reception, then sit down for our opening-night meal at the Bella Ciao.
Thursday, July 17th, 2025
Remember the sneak peak of Garden Walk Buffalo mentioned earlier? This is when it will happen. Each day of the tour starts with an included breakfast – hot buffet and made-to-order omelets – at the Embassy Suites.
On the bus we head off to creative and famous Open Gardens of Buffalo’s garden walk. After wandering the photogenic, themed gardens in the neighborhood, we will visit the home of Jim Charlier, co-author of award-winning book, Buffalo-Style Gardens. Jim’s garden is famous for his “Harry Potter” garden shed, featured in magazines, newspapers, and television, all over the world. Jim will host us in a private reception to close our day. Afterwards, we head back to our hotel, where you will have time to enjoy your choice of the many fine restaurants within walking distance.
Friday, July 18th, 2025
Got your passport handy? Because you’re going to need it as we head to Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side. After breakfast, the first stop will be the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens. “Spanning 99 acres of meticulously designed landscapes, this haven showcases award-winning gardens that burst with vibrant seasonal blooms and lush, overflowing greenery”. After a 90-minute visit, we’ll stop by the iconic Niagara Floral Clock.
Then it’s on to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Canada’s largest botanical garden. Encompassing over 2,100 acres – including more than 2,000 of nature sanctuaries – the Royal Botanical Gardens features more than one hundred acres of cultivated gardens and an arboretum. After lunch at one of the RGB’s on-site dining facilities – there will be a short tour before tour members will have an hour or so to wander the grounds on their own.
Next, we’re heading to Niagara Parks where we will experience a breath-taking “Journey Behind the Falls.” “To stand at the heart of Niagara, you’ll first need to descend 125 feet and explore 130-year- old tunnels through the bedrock, but you’ll feel the thunderous vibration of the Horseshoe Falls long before you see them.”
We will have an opportunity to do a little shopping and sightseeing on your own before dinner at the Table Rock House Restaurant, where the spectacular view is “the closest you can dine to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.”
Saturday, July 19th, 2025
Time for another Garden Walk; today is to the East Side where the 100+ featured gardens are an eclectic mix of private homes with innovative and theme gardens ranging from cottage, herb gardens, Asian, gazebos, amazing tropical containers, train gardens, and classical to modern art infused throughout.
Our next stop is the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor where a guide will share with us the history of Buffalo’s role in Underground Railroad. Afterwards, we will stop in East Aurora for lunch and time to do some shopping.
Then it’s on to the Roycroft Campus, “the best preserved and most complete complex of buildings remaining in the United States of the ‘guilds’ that evolved as centers of craftsmanship and philosophy during the late 19th century. The Campus, designated a National Historic Landmark district in 1986, contains nine of the original fourteen structures including the Inn, the Chapel, the Print Shop, the Furniture Shop, and the Copper Shop.” We will go on a one-hour tour to learn about the history and get an overview of the campus, its philosophy, and its workings. There will be time to explore the campus on your own. A lovely dinner will be provided at the Roycroft Inn, where we will dine among the historic Arts and Crafts landscape.
Sunday, July 20th, 2025
Today’s focus will be the “Prairie Style” architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. After our included breakfast, we are off to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff, featuring formal gardens and lush landscaping designed by the American, “Dean of Women Landscape Architects,” Ellen Biddle Shipman. The Home & Garden Tour is “a 90-minute experience which focuses on the history and restoration journey of historic gardens and grounds and includes a tour of the first floor of the main house.” The garden tour covers the details of the truly first woman landscape architect. Shipman’s style, which was called Cornish style blends the modernity of geometric patterns with colonial landscape beds.
We will enjoy an included lunch during a stop at Buffalo’s AKG Museum to experience culture at its finest. “Impressionism and post-Impressionism are well represented with works by leading nineteenth-century European artists such as Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh.” Then it’s off to tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House. a residence built “between 1903 and 1905. A grand tour of the famous home and gardens considered one of the great achievements of Wright’s career.
Our last night together will be celebrated with dinner at Texas de Brazil, a churrascaria steakhouse where the “… meats are cooked the gaucho way - over an open flame with natural wood charcoal,” along with a delicious buffet and dessert.
After our last grand breakfast, it’s off to the airport, with our hearts and minds full of garden inspiration and a lifetime of memories.
Monday, July 21st, 2025
After our last grand breakfast, it’s off to the airport, with our hearts and minds full of garden inspiration and a lifetime of memories.
YOUR PACKAGES INCLUDE
5 Nights’ accommodation
5 Breakfasts
2 Lunches
4 Dinners
2 Receptions
Tour led by landscape designer/author/syndicated gardening radio show host, Teresa Watkins
Pick-up from and delivery back to Buffalo-Niagara International Airport.
Hot buffet breakfasts with made-to-order omelets every morning.
Docent overview of Erie River Basin Trial Gardens.
Welcome Reception at Embassy Suites.
Included dinner at Bella Ciao.
Garden Walk – Lunch on own. (variety of walkable restaurants)
Reception at garden author Jim Charlier’s home.
Dinner on own. (variety of walkable restaurants)
Admission fees to Niagara Botanical Gardens and Royal Botanical Gardens.
Included lunch at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Admission to Niagara Parks “Journey Behind The Falls.”
Dinner at the Table Rock House Restaurant, Canada.
East Side Garden Walk.
Admission to Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor.
Lunch on own in East Aurora. (variety of walkable restaurants)
Introductory docent tour of Roycroft Campus.
Included dinner at the Roycroft Inn.
Admission and docent tour of Graycliff House and grounds.
Admission to the Buffalo AKG Museum.
Lunch on own. (variety of walkable restaurants)
Admission and docent tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Martin House.
Included dinner at Texas de Brazil.
Private motor coach service throughout the tour
Taxes and gratuities (NOTE: Gratuities for the local guides, tour manager and coach driver are not included and are at your discretion based on service.)
PRICING INFORMATION
Per person double occupancy: $3325.00
Per person single occupancy: $2400.00
$500.00 deposit for all registrations.
NOTE:
Prices do not include airfare.
Prices and itinerary are subject to change.
ART IN BLOOM GARDEN TOURS LLC is registered with the State of Florida as a Seller of Travel. Registration No. ST45420l. City of Orlando BUS 1113171. Copyright 2025