About Tours by Marie

I grew up in gardens.
Every weekend, we left the city for the country so my parents could garden, hands in the soil tending to their plants and discussing, endlessly it seemed to me, the best place and growing conditions for each beloved specimen.
At the dinner table, we spoke about plants by name, the way some families speak about beloved relatives. And so, at a young age, I learned the difference between a rose and a tulip, how to tell a beech from an oak, and the merits of boxwood vs privet.

I caught the travel bug early, too. After college in the US, I set my sights on becoming a travel agent. But in those days I couldn’t reconcile my wanderlust with my need for financial independence, so I ended up in international private banking – first in New York, then in Switzerland and Germany.

Eventually I left finance to raise a family and settled in the countryside in Belgium, just a stone’s throw from Germany and the Netherlands. We drew up plans for a garden of our own and planted our first trees. The children grew. So did the trees. And somewhere along the way, a new chapter began.

It arrived, as these things often do, with a phone call.

An American friend was planning a short garden trip to Belgium and wondered if I could help. With only five days, she wanted to spend her time in the gardens, not tangled in logistics. So I made a few calls, opened a few gates, and built a little itinerary.

After the trip she said, “You should start a business!”
And just like that, Tours by Marie was born.

Since 2010, I’ve been creating tailor-made garden tours across Europe for small, intimate groups—garden clubs, groups of friends, and fellow garden lovers—who want to travel deeper, not faster.

I design every itinerary myself, drawing on years of experience and long-standing relationships with gardeners, estate owners, and horticultural insiders across Europe. Think private visits, conversations with head gardeners, and unforgettable moments you simply can’t arrange from a guidebook.

My tours are crafted for travelers who love gardens in all their forms—formal, wild, historic, contemporary, and everything in between.
Whether you know your cultivars by heart or simply enjoy losing yourself in a beautiful border, you’re in the right place.

Accommodations, transport, reservations, garden access, and the thoughtful touches that make a journey smooth and deeply enjoyable.
Many of my guests are American travelers who want a seamless European experience with time to savor each garden (and yes, the local cuisine too).

And yes—I’m with you every step of the way, from the first email to the final garden gate.

Some destinations are classics—Holland in tulip season, the iconic gardens of England, the lakeside villas of Italy, the châteaux and potagers of France. Others are quieter treasures: Belgium’s private gardens, the hidden gems of Normandy, or the camellia gardens of Porto – those places that don’t appear in glossy magazines but linger in your memory long after you’ve returned home.

Wherever we go, the goal is the same: you’ll see places you wouldn’t find or access if you were traveling on your own.

Many of my clients come back year after year. They tell me they value the relaxed pace, the thoughtful planning, and the feeling of discovering Europe’s gardens with someone who knows them well—both the famous names and the tucked-away marvels.

If you’re curious what the experience is like, here’s what they say.

You can explore some of my tours below, or reach out and tell me what you’re dreaming of via my contact page. I’ll help you shape your dream into a journey that feels personal, seamless and beautifully memorable.

After all – Life’s too short for anything less than your dream garden tour.