Singapore/Bali Garden Tour 2015 - Culturally Fascinating & Wonderfully Picturesque! March 6–17, 2015

PANAMA CITY - Nov. 28, 2014 - PRLog -- Singapore is not only a City in a Garden, but full of so much beauty and gardens you will delight with each new day as we discover it.  Your hotel is the outstanding Shangri-La and your room is in the Garden Wing surrounded by gardens and a secret herb garden too.  I have stayed here and can tell you that the floral arrangements alone are breathtaking and so will our Afternoon Tea be in their legendary Rose Veranda.

Our visits will take us to a very unique hospital which is both a hospital in a garden and a garden in a hospital, full of therapeutic green spaces providing calming surroundings to soothe and rejuvenate.   Bollywood Veggies is a sanctuary in the country catering to nature lovers and those who love to grow organic.  We will also enjoy eating some of this bounty in their bistro.  We will see one of the last Dragon Kilns used to fire ceramics, visit roof gardens on the 50th floor for views of the city that are breathtaking.  How about seeing 80 ceramic pots that are each over 10 feet tall and planted with trees inside a lobby of a hotel?  You will see that too on your way to some retail therapy time at a fantastic mall which just happens to include Jim Thompsons Silk shop.  Gardens by the Bay is our next stop and I guarantee you have never seen anything like this before…it is truly amazing and made more so because we will also enjoy Dinner at the very posh Pollen Restaurant set inside one of the Domes of Gardens by the Bay.  The Singapore Botanic Gardens is also on our list of must do…the orchid collection here is magnificent and the Ginger Collection will have you snapping away like mad.  If that doesn’t warm your heart then take a walk among the over 650 species of palms and just the location of this garden is perfect enough.  We also head to the Ritz-Carlton to visit the Millenia Singapore modern art collection from some of the best artists around including David Hockney, Henry Moore, Dale Chihuly, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

Our trip to Chinatown will have us visiting traditional and heritage shops and ending with some sweet tastings.  We will learn all about tea at the Tea Chapter,  take in some baroque Peranakan architecture  dating back to the 20’s and 30’s and visit a flower shop.  We also visit the Marina Bay Sands Hotel to take in another incredible view from the Observation Deck on the 57th floor. Here you can also see one of the largest infinity pools ever.

Our visit to Bali will be so different from Singapore.  It will be very hard to leave your boutique hotel surrounded by emerald green and lush rice paddies,  designed by one of the leading designers, whose own home and garden we will visit.  Here in a tropical setting we will see a whole different world.  Rice paddies are every where and lend such a peaceful feel to this side of our tour.  Our visits take us to Sari Organik, specializing in growing organic veggies and rice as well as other products.  When the visit is finished we find ourselves enjoying a vegetarian meal set in the middle of the rice fields.  A visit to Blanco Renaissance Museum, surrounded by lush gardens, rice fields and a banyan tree standing over his families temple.  The Blanco family is very much a part of this Museum as one will likely guide us along.  Many Balinese families still live in a traditional walled compound and we will visit one to see how they blend families and gardens together.  There will also be visits to water gardens, special temples and to end our tour we spend the last three nights on the beach.  It only seems fitting to end this perfect tour with sand, sun and tropical delights in a sanctuary recreating the ambience of a traditional Balinese community.

Soothing and restful as a holiday should be but we still have a few other sights to see here.  The traditional market with exotic spices, fruits, veggies and even art.  The Bali Botanical Gardens is not large but full of local plants.  One of the icons of Indonesia and UNESCO marked are the rice terraces at Jatiluwih also giving you one of the most beautiful views of the area.  We visit a sea temple as well to enjoy a magnificent sunset before heading off to dinner and Balinese entertainment.  To round off our tour we end up having some fun with a ceramic painting course where you will create your own memory to have it delivered to our hotel before leaving.  Villa Bebek, the private garden of Made Wijaya (who owns our Bali boutique hotel) and was featured in 80 Gardens Around the World is our last garden visit and Bali Orchid Garden is our last public garden visit…then the last day of the tour is yours to spend as you like…kicking white sand through your toes, a spa treatment or just sitting on the beach and dreaming about all the beauty your mind has just seen on this tour.

The tour dates are March 6th – 17th, 2015

The full day by day is at our tours only site.  Since 1998 Offering Unique Garden Inspired Tours Around the World!
The tour is going so come along with me and make your own unforgettable memories

Donna Dawson, Tour Operator, Master Gardener

http://www.gardeningtours.com

2015 Garden Tours – Singapore/Bali, China Peony Festival, Chelsea Flower Show, Italy, Australia and more!