Garden-themed tours by AAA for the National Garden Festival

For Buffalo's National Garden Festival, the Automobile Association of America (AAA) is again this year organizing garden-oriented tours of Buffalo Niagara. They're all great itineraries—and great hosts (I'm one!) and great lunches are included. They'll be promoting these tours to more than 800,000 AAA members in Central and Western New York State.

Many of these tours are based on the great tours we gave to the garden writers and bloggers from 23 states and Canada that visited last summer. The bloggers were our guinea pigs -- you can read some of their comments here.

For more information, visit www.HorizonClubTours.com.

Friday, June 24
Forest Lawn and the Botanical Gardens
Tour Host: Sandy Starks, Interpretive Program Director, Forest Lawn Cemetery
Visit: The gardens and ancient trees of Forest Lawn Cemetery, tour the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and “Walk & Talk in the Perennials Garden” with guest author Kerry Ann Mendez.
Lunch: Curly’s Grill
Price: $79 per person

Friday, July 1
Buffalo’s Celebrated Olmsted Parks
Tour Host: Brian Dold, Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy
Visit: All six of the Olmsted Parks (Cazenovia, Delaware, Front, Martin Luther King Jr., Riverside and South) and the Parkways connecting them.
Lunch: The Lunch Box at Parkside Lodge, Delaware Park
Price: $65 per person

Friday, July 8
Southtowns Bouquet
Tour Host: Mike Shadrack, international hosta expert and author
Visit: The hosta and shade garden of Mike and Kathy Shadrack in Boston, as well as outstanding private gardens in Hamburg and Eden.
Lunch: Lockwood’s Greenhouses
Price: $75 per person

Friday, July 15
Buffalo’s Famous Private Gardens
Tour Host: Jim Charlier, President, Garden Walk Buffalo; and Sally Cunningham, Director, National Garden Festival
Visit: Selected gardens of the famous Garden Walk Buffalo in the Cottage and Elmwood Village districts.
Lunch: Cabaret
Price: $75 per person

Friday, July 29
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex and Private Gardens of Amherst
Tour Host: Mary Van Vorst, Master Gardener
Visit: The Darwin D. Martin House and its traditional plantings, private gardens in Amherst and Tonawanda.
Lunch: DiGiulio & Company
Price: $79 per person


Tours include:

• Roundtrip transportation from AAA Western and Central New York, 100 International Drive, Buffalo, N.Y. and the Hyatt Regency Buffalo, Two Fountain Plaza, Buffalo, N.Y.
• Expert Tour Host
• Sit down lunch, including all taxes and gratuities
• Gratuity for your driver