Are you thinking of visiting Sarah Raven Gardens for one of her open days? Take a look at the visit my friend and I did when we travelled in style with Dicovercars.com and hired a nice BMW to get us there. We visited in late September for the Dahilas, which didn’t disappoint and the garden was filled with colour.
Sarah Ravens Garden has been on the bucket list for a while, but it’s over 2 hours away from us, so we decided to make a couple of days of it and treat ourselves for my friend’s birthday and also stayed over nearby as well. Sarah Raven Gardens is at Perch Hill in East Sussex and is open on various dates throughout the year for you to visit, as well as running events and courses to attend.
If you don’t know who Sarah Raven is, she is an inspirational teacher who has been running cooking, flower arranging, running growing and gardening courses. She has been on TV, writing books and opening her garden to the public to welcome them in to show the quality of her products. She now sells the best seeds, seedlings, plants, books and kits. Sarah trials most of the things she sells in her garden at Perch Hill, knowing she is only selling the very best to us.
Getting There With Discovercars.com
Sarah Raven Gardens is in Perch Hill, East Sussex, this is about 2 hours away from us, so we wanted to share the driving there. I was given the opportunity to try out a hire car experience with Discovercars.com and was gifted a voucher to use to pick a hire car of my choice. We both drive practical family cars, so I thought it would be nice to pick something fun and a bit of luxury!
When booking with Discovercars.com you are searching from all the different hire companies in the area you’ve selected. We live near the airport so were given quite a good selection. Think of Discovercars.com as a comparison site, allowing you to filter options that suit you, new selections of cars will be shown based on the filters and you can pick your best. I would suggest you use unlimited miles and you can pick fill to full once you’ve finished and not set mileage limits.
So I picked a BMW 1 series to get us to the gardens!
When booking online with Discovercars.com you pay for all the car hire, and I suggest you purchase full coverage to make sure you are covered up to £2600 if there is any damage to the car. You can then claim back that money from Discovercars.com, I 100% suggest you purchase this, we had a damage claim on ours when returning it, for a superficial scratch that SIXT charged us £708 for. In my opinion a very large amount for the damage caused, it has also taken about 2 weeks for them to sort everything out and get it settled. This isn’t Discovercars.com fault regarding the high price, this is settled with the hire company you hire directly with.
You cannot pay for extras when booking through Discovercars.com, I paid for an additional driver which had to be paid for when you collected the car. When booking online you must have a valid credit card in the name of the main driver, this will be presented when you collect the car, along with ID, driver’s license, a driver’s license check code, and your booking details. There is a list of things you must do beforehand, and bring along. Be aware of this before collecting the car.
When we arrived at Southampton Airport to collect our car it was all ready for us, although after walking out and finding it outside of the multi-storey car park in the pouring rain, I got a phone call to say he gave us the wrong car to start off with, a manual version, not the automatic we had booked! We then found the correct car, not out in the rain and very much ready for in the dry, looking sparkling clean and very smart. We were given a 23 plate M series BMW, top of the range, and we were excited to head to Sarah Raven Gardens in style now!
First of all though, when you collect your hire car, make sure you video the full car, take photos of it in the condition that it is in, and take note of any damage that is already on the car. The staff member told us we didn’t need to worry about doing this as any damage that was already on the car was noted on my rental agreement, this was sent over about 20-30 minutes after we left and they were closed. So if I had seen anything extra I couldn’t have noted it with them, and also if they claimed I had damaged the car and it was on there beforehand, I wouldn’t have any way to prove through the damage claim that it wasn’t me.
This BMW was so nice to drive, the inside was comfortable, and it felt very nice driving around in something a little nicer!
Sarah Raven Gardens Dahila Open Day September
Getting to Sarah Raven Gardens was easy enough, but make sure you follow the directions she suggests as the roads near her gardens are narrow and it is best to come in the more main route. The car park is a field, so be aware of this when you arrive. We did think that as this was mentioned before meant we had to take wellies for the gardens, but they were not needed. The gardens themselves are pathed and not muddy, but the car park field was.
We had lunch at Sarah Raven Gardens booked on arrival, so we headed straight through the gardens, and towards the back of the gardens and barn where there was a large marquee with lots of seating for people, and the food being served.
You were given a couple of options of food on arrival, and a fruit cordial as a drink with your meal.
The food was really nice, a very unusual collection of food items as you had petals in your food too! It was really nice, fresh and colourful. Everything was picked from Sarah Ravens Garden, and you could even see that when we walked through the vegetable path the kale had been freshly picked and used. All the meals offered, were also in Sarah Raven’s cooking book, so you can make them yourself at home too.
After lunch we headed out to the gardens, walking around the different areas and themes of each area. I loved this little hut surrounded by plants and colour but with a rustic look. It really wanted to make you go in and look at the garden from a different perspective.
This area of the garden was mixed borders of summer-flowing plants, some were going over, but the Dahlias were showing themselves off to make up for it!
I was so glad we visited when the Dahilas were at their best. I’ve tried for a couple of years to grow them in my garden but the slugs have always got them, this year I purchased a greenhouse and it was a game changer. I’ve grown some beautiful, healthy and large Dahilas, so I was on the lookout for some more to add to the garden next year.
This part of Sarah Raven Gardens is the large bank next to the greenhouse, a perfect space for Dahlias and their heat-loving needs. It was full of Dahlias in all different colours, shapes and sizes. It was a perfect place to spot ones you love or see in person some of your favourite ones.
This one is coming to my garden next year for sure, it’s stunning!
As you can see I love pink, and this is like the one above but a smaller version.
Was is good is that most of the plants are labelled, so look out for the labels of the ones you love and take note. That way it’s easy to find them when you want to put them in your garden.
I also was very colour-co-donated to the gardens as well, don’t we love a bit of colour!
It did rain for a little while whilst we were here too, but it didn’t put a damper on our trip, it was so nice walking around the garden. So peaceful as well, even with others walking around too.
We then headed into the vegetable patch where she had so many different types of vegetables, and they all looked so healthy and well looked after, they looked good enough to eat!
The large greenhouse was great to see how she hangs and supports her tomotos, how it all looks so well established and how she uses every possible area to grow something up.
I would imagine she hosts some lovely workshops in here with the fire going to keep it all warm and cosy in the cooler months.
Near here is also a lovely-looking shop where you can purchase some of the flowers you’ve seen in either seed form or currently bulbs. I loved the way she displays the cut flowers in little vases, so you can see the seeds and what the flower looks like in real life.
Here you can also purchase glassware, cooking books, garden tools and items and it’s all so beautifully displayed.
We had a walk around the Oast garden which was stunning, with the beautiful building behind and the hot colours from the flowers against the rustic walls of the building. I have lots of pinks, purples and whites in my garden, but if my garden was big enough I think I would love an area that was for just hot colours!
If you weren’t coming for lunch you could just visit the barn for hot drinks and cake, the cakes were so nice!
We just went here for a sit-down and top up before we left as it was open till 4pm.
We had a lovely few hours at Sarah Raven Gardens, it was one place ticked off the bucket list and now I have a list of new plants I want in the garden!
Tips For Visting Sarah Raven Gardens
- Pre-booked event
- Times are either AM or PM
- Can book lunch as an extra
- Parking in the field, which is muddy when wet but pathed in gardens
- Small shop for seeds, vases and garden tools
- Cafe for cakes and hot drinks
- Take the route in that Sarah Raven suggests
- Take note of the names of flowers you find that you like
Where Did We Stay?
As it was further afield and my friend’s birthday treat we headed off for a night away and a spa day at Bannatyne Hastings. They offer a midweek deal which includes the room, dinner, access to the health spa and an hour’s treatment. This was such a nice treat for us, it was only about 25 minutes away from Sarah Raven Gardens.
Bannatyne Hastings Hotel Stay
It was such a lovely place to drive up, with the large front and grand front door it’s got an impact! Our room was actually looking out over this on the 1st floor with those large double windows.
We had booked an executive twin room, which upon arrival we were given room 29 which was on the 1st floor and had a large double bed and a single twin. It felt a bit strange like this as me and my friend were then separated and it felt like the single bed was tucked in the corner. Fine as an extra bed added for a child, but not that welcoming as an adult. However, it was lovely having a sofa in the room where we could sit to watch TV rather than on the beds. It was also lovely seeing out over the front lawn and tennis courts.
The bathroom was a good size with shower over bath, and towels provided, shame the extractor fan didn’t seem to work though.
We had a nice walkway through to the room, with a desk area, seating and plenty of cupboard storage for hanging clothes. This is also where the kettle and teabags etc were stored.
Dinner At Bannatyne Hastings
Included with our stay was dinner at the restaurant in the evening, with a two-course meal we decided to get a starter and main and we were not disappointed. It was so nice getting ready in the room and just having to go downstairs for dinner, not having to worry about taxi’s or where to go.
They had a lovely range of mocktails and cocktails to start us off with! We had a bottle of wine included with our package, but none of us drink wine, so they then gave us an allowance to spend on our meal instead.
We both had carrot soup to start, which was so nice, it was the nicest carrot soup I’ve ever had and wish I knew how they make it!
Then I had duck for my main dinner, which was so nice and I couldn’t say a bad thing about it.
My friend had the pea risotto which was really lovely too and was very generous with their portions!
Health Club and Spa
After our lovely hotel breakfast that is included in the package, we headed over to the health club and spa. We had our treatments pre-booked at 12pm, so we had a couple of hours of relaxation before these. You can’t take your mobile phone with you, so I don’t have any photos of this, but I can tell you that they were really nice!
The health club has a pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, with outside relaxation pools and inside relaxation rooms in the spa area. There was quite a young vibe here, with a broad mix of people but good clean facilities.
I had a little issue when leaving as we had purchased the spa robe, bag and flip flops for £8 each, but you had to put through £10 each person deposit down, refunding it back to me when we took back the robes and locker key. However they couldn’t find my payment to refund me, so had to leave on trust that they would sort it out, and call to get it refunded from them. It was fine though and this was refunded to me afterwards.
Returning The Car
After our couple of lovely days away we had to return the car, it was a lovely drive home in it as it was a smooth car to drive, very comfortable and I am quite taken to BMW’s now!
We dropped off the car in the SIXT return bays, do make sure you take a video and pictures of the car in the condition you’ve returned it in, as the car was not able to be checked over with us at the time as the staff remember said he couldn’t leave the desk. So if something was to happen after you’ve left it and damage occurred, you wouldn’t be able to prove that without pictures.
We filled up the car to full like we had to before returning, however this ended up us putting over 100 more miles into the car than it started with. So the car wasn’t full when we collected it, make sure you take photos of the car’s mileage when collecting.
We had a wonderful couple of days visiting Sarah Raven Gardens, our hotel spa break and topped off by being to enjoy having a nice luxury car to get us around. The booking process with Discovercars.com was easy to do, very well explained and it was nice being able to compare a variety of hire car companies on one website. I would recommend you use them, and hope you have fun on your journeys.