Discover the great gardens of the USA with three new RHS tours

Brand USA has partnered with RHS to launch three new garden holiday tours in the USA, taking place in spring and summer 2017.

• A 9-night tour of the Historic Gardens and Plantations of Charleston (pictured) is scheduled from 2nd April 2017, from £4,695. An idyllic location in the spring, travellers will be guided by a local horticulturalist to private houses, gardens and plantations which are not usually open to the public. Other highlights include Middleton Place and Magnolia, the oldest unrestored gardens in the USA; a boat trip through old flooded rice fields along the Ashley River; and Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea producer outside of Asia, Africa or South America.
• With more than 300 days of sunshine a year, Texas' capital, Austin, offers a host of urban gardens, hiking trails and outdoor activities. Wildflowers and Gardens of Austin is a 9-night tour from 25th April, £3,695 per person. Highlights include bat watching at sunset; a fruit orchard and winery; visiting Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Centre and Zilker Botanical Garden.
• Oregon: In the footsteps of David Douglas is a 12-night itinerary from 8th June 2017 following the journey of Scottish botanist David Douglas, who was sent on a plant hunting expedition to the Pacific Northwest in the 1820s, which led to the introduction of several notable species in the UK including Douglas Fir. The tour – from £5,595 per person – begins in Portland including a number of selected private gardens and the Grand Floral Parade, part of the Portland Rose Festival. Travellers will then go on to the Pacific coast, follow the Sugar Pine Trail in the mountains and see the majestic Douglas Firs among the unparalleled scenery of the Columbia River Gorge.

www.VisitTheUSA.com / www.rhs.org.uk

Follow the Prince Trail as Paisley Park opens for tours

 From 6th October 2016, the private estate and studio complex of the late rock icon Prince will open for daily tours, with plans announced by his siblings to transform Paisley Park into a museum. Situated in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, where Prince died in April, the 70-minute Paisley Park tours will give fans the unprecedented opportunity to experience the private sanctuary and production complex in which Prince famously created, produced and performed his music. Visitors will see artefacts from Prince's personal collection including his iconic concert wardrobe, awards including seven GRAMMY Awards and his Academy Award for film Purple Rain, his instruments, rare music and video recordings and motorcycles. Tickets are available online in advance from $38.50.

www.VisitTheUSA.com/Minneapolis / www.officialpaisleypark.com

Obama establishes Katahdin Woods and Waters as National Monument

On 24th August, the eve of the U.S. National Park Service centennial, President Obama announced the establishment of the Katahdin Woods and Waters area in Maine as a National Monument. Now under the protection of the National Park Service, the largest region of federal parkland in the state at 875,000 acres was donated by the founder of Burt's Bees, producers of natural skincare products. Regarded by President Obama as having an “extraordinary natural and cultural landscape” with “objects of significant scientific and historic interest”, visitors can enjoy the  landscape by hiking, camping, paddling, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, with snowmobiles and ATVs allowed in designated areas. www.VisitTheUSA.com/Maine / www.nps.gov/KAWW

Minnesota hosts the Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup will be played in Minnesota for the first time this month, as Hazeltine National Golf Club becomes host to the biennial battle between the American and European golf teams. Opened for play in 1962, Hazeltine is the premier destination for golf in the upper Midwest region of the U.S., having an immaculate Robert Trent Jones layout 18-hole golf course spanning rolling hills, mature woods and lakes, situated on the outskirts of Minneapolis. With the last three tournaments being a success for Team Europe, the last Ryder Cup won by Team USA was on home soil in Kentucky, 2008. The Junior Ryder Cup event will take place from 26th – 27th September in Edina, Minnesota while the main event takes place from 28th September.   www.VisitTheUSA.com/Minnesota / www.rydercup.com

Get a taste of Denver's Art scene as Clyfford Still comes to London

For the first time, Denver's collection of Clyfford Still abstract paintings will be loaned from the Clyfford Still Museum, in the first major exhibition of Abstract Expressionism to be held in the UK in almost six decades. Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy of Art will feature over 150 paintings in the exhibition, Clyfford Still's pieces will feature beside other acclaimed American artists associated with the movement including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Clyffors Still is widely considered the Father of Abstract Expressionism and after his death his will stipulated that his estate be given to an American city willing to establish a permanent museum dedicated solely to his work, ensuring its survival for exhibition and study, and until now it has remained in Denver ever since. Visitors to the exhibition which is open from 24th September 2016 – 2nd January 2017 will get a taste of Denver's art scene, which boasts numerous world-class museums beside art-centric neighbourhoods and an Art hotel. Pictured: Clyfford Still, PH-950, 1950. Oil on canvas, 92 x 70 in. (233.7 x 177.8 cm) Photo: Ben Blackwell. Courtesy of the Clyfford Still Museum © City and County of Denver / ARS, NY

 www.VisitTheUSA.com/Denver / www.clyffordstillmuseum.org / www.royalacademy.org.uk

Miami welcomes new hotels with star significance

Following the success of his hotel The Greenwich in New York City, Hollywood actor Robert De Niro has partnered with Chef Nobu Matsuhisa to open Nobu Hotel Miami Beach, which will debut within the Eden Roc Miami Beach resort. The property has 206 guest rooms and suites with views of Biscayne Bay or the Atlantic Ocean, including the 2,500 sq. ft. Nobu Penthouse which occupies the top floors of the hotel. The hotel will include a Nobu Bar and Nobu Restaurant, 16 years since the opening of Chef Nobu's original restaurant launch in Miami.  The hotel will open on 16th September with prices from $379 per room, per night. Also due to open in Miami before the end of 2016, The Surf Club Four Season Hotel in Surfside will open on the site of the 1920's social Surf Club that once entertained Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Winston Churchill who came to parade on the Club's infamous Peacock Alley. The 77-room hotel includes rooftop gardens, private swimming pools and private beachfront cabanas to enjoy the views as its previous famous visitors did.

www.VisitTheUSA.com/Miami / www.nobuedenroc.com / www.thesurfclub.com

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Discover this land, like never before VisitTheUSA.com 

Brand USA is the public-private partnership responsible for promoting the United States as a premier travel destination and communicating U.S. entry/exit policies and procedures. Established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010, the organisation's mission is to increase international visitation to the United States while working in partnership with the travel industry to maximise the economic and social benefits of travel. These benefits include creating jobs essential to the economy and fostering understanding between people and cultures. For industry or partner information about Brand USA, visit TheBrandUSA.com.

For information about travel to and around the United States, please visit Brand USA's consumer website at VisitTheUSA.com / VisitTheUSA.co.uk

For further Brand USA, UK/Ireland press information, contact:

Polly Beech / Sarah Barnett / Allie Williams

pbeech@thebrandusa.co.uk / sbarnett@thebrandusa.co.uk / awilliams@thebrandusa.co.uk

020 7845 6359 / 020 7845 6378 / 020 7845 6384