Europe’s cities are hiding leafy secrets. Often just steps away from major landmarks, these gardens are slices of urban rebellion that invite a slower pace, whether it’s a wildflower plot blooming beside a Swedish greenhouse café, a cactus garden clinging to a Spanish hillside, or a Baroque labyrinth behind a Czech palace.
These hidden sites – such as the ancient garden of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Venice, which recently reopened its gates to the public – offer the chance to skip the obvious attractions and perhaps share space with a park-bench-seated local, their nose buried in a paperback or find an unusual panorama of the metropolis.
We’ve rounded up our top 10 favourites to help you find a botanical sanctuary on your next city break.
1. Kyoto Garden
London, England
Just a stone’s throw from regal Kensington High Street and its high-end boutiques, Kyoto Garden sits in the heart of Holland Park and serves up London’s most unexpected dose of zen.
Gifted by the city of Kyoto in 1991 for the Japan Festival, it’s designed in the traditional kaiyushiki stroll-garden style, inviting visitors to meander and reflect as they pace along winding cobbled pathways that lead toward a tiered waterfall trickling into a pond glinting with golden koi carp. Peacocks and herons strut around. Pro tip: visit in spring when the park blushes with pastel-pink cherry blossoms
Hux Hotel (020 7600 2000) has double rooms from £170, room only.
2. Vrtba Garden
Prague, Czech Republic
Just 10 minutes from the crowds, a few steps away from Prague’s Charles Bridge, tucked behind a courtyard at Karmelitská 25, Vrtba Garden (entry 160CSK; £5.50) forms part of Vrtbovský Palace and stuns with its quiet theatricality.
A Baroque masterpiece layered into the hillside, it spirals upward in sculpted terraces, each revealing sharper geometry and sweeping views of red-tiled roofs below. Filled with statues of Greek Gods and frescoed walls, it feels like a secret stage where the hum of the city is muffled by hedges.
Hotel Nerudova 211 (00420 601 211 000) has double rooms from £152, including breakfast. Ryanair fly direct from London Stanstead to Prague from £53 return.
3. Rosendal’s Garden
Stockholm, Sweden
Rosendal’s Garden isn’t polished, it’s purposeful. Set on the island of Djurgården in central Stockholm, this biodynamic garden combines art-studded orchards, greenhouses and organic fields with a farm-to-fork garden café, artisanal wood-fired bakery and, come summer, a cut-your-own flower field.
Reached by taking Tram No 7 from T- Centralen/Sergels Torg and alighting at Bellmansro and a five-minute walk, this garden celebrates slowness, soil and grown-from-seed food.
Prince van Orangiën (0046 85 51 53 05) is a 1930s-era boat with six high-design cabins from £154, including breakfast. Scandinavian Airlines fly direct from London Heathrow to Stockholm from £136 return.
4. Giardino degli Aranci
Rome, Italy
The crush of Rome can be overwhelming, so ascend Aventine Hill to cool off beneath pine trees in the free-to-enter Giardino degli Aranci (Orange Garden). Locals also call it Parco Savello after the 10th-century Savelli family fortress that once stood here. Today, just the walls remain.
Entirely symmetrical and split by a central orange tree-lined boulevard – stories abound about the fruits’ magical properties, but no picking allowed – this green space is part lookout, part sanctuary, with a staggering panorama of Rome’s domes, rooftops, St Peter’s Basilica and the Tiber River threading it all together.
Rhinoceros Roma (0039 06 678 4467) offers five-star apartment-style stays from £272, including breakfast. Vueling fly direct from London Gatwick to Rome from £100 return.
5. Parc de Bagatelle
Paris, France
Parc de Bagatelle is Paris without the performance. Hidden in the Bois de Boulogne, it centres around Château de Bagatelle – built in 64 days thanks to a bet between Marie-Antoinette and her brother-in-law, the Count of Artois – and its famous garden of 10,000 roses. It’s a mischievous hotch-potch of waterfalls, a grotto – even a Chinese pagoda – surrounded by stunning blooms.
To get there take the Metro to Pont de Neuilly then bus line 43. Pro tip: Visit during Weekend de la Rose à Bagatelle held in early June and you’ll have crashed Paris’s most fragrant secret.
Novotel Paris Suresnes Longchamp (0033 140 99 00 00) sits just across the Seine and offers doubles from £160, including breakfast. Eurostar has direct trains from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord from £165 return.
6. Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona’s best view isn’t from Park Güell or Montjuïc Castle, it’s from a cactus garden most people miss. Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera clings to Montjuïc’s southern slope, a surreal, sun-drunk sprawl of succulents and desert flora that feels more Baja than Barcelona.
Towering agaves, freakish euphorbias and prickly beasts from three continents bask in the dry Mediterranean heat. It’s weird, wild and blissfully quiet with panoramic views of the port and sea. Pro tip: Go just before sunset when golden light ignites the plants.
Hotel Miramar Barcelona (0034 932 81 16 00) offers doubles from £250, including breakfast. British Airways fly direct from London Heathrow to Barcelona from £207 return.
7. Jardin des Senteurs
Namur, Belgium
Tucked into the shadow of Château de Namur, the ‘Garden of Scents’ is redolent. Designed by Belgian garden historian Catherine Mathys, it’s made up of six themed micro-gardens and more than 350 plant varieties, all arranged by scent, texture or emotional impact.
There’s a lavender garden, a taste garden, even one for emotions, but the most curious is the garden of strange smells, dedicated to the plants with the most fragrant perfumes. With no crowds, no noise and free to all, it’s an adventure for the nose and mind.
Hotels Les Tanneurs (0032 81 24 00 24) offers doubles from £210, including breakfast. Eurostar has direct trains from London St Pancras to Brussels from £100 return. From there take Belgian National Railways to Namur from £24 return.
8. Grüner Bunker
Hamburg, Germany
Part war relic, part urban sci-fi, Hamburg’s ‘Bunker’ is a Second World War anti-aircraft tower turned vertical forest, hotel (see below), concert hall and restaurant.
Rising from St Pauli like a concrete monolith, its brutalist shell now bursts with greenery thanks to a verdant rooftop garden planted with wild grasses, fruit and pine trees and the perfect spot to relax at dusk. It’s the least quiet garden on our list, but it earns points for rewriting a history of violence with vines.
Reverb Hotel (0049 408 081 411 02) is housed in the bunker and doubles from £250, including breakfast. British Airways fly direct from London Heathrow to Hamburg from £123 return.
9. Embassy of the Free Mind
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Embassy of the Free Mind has a historic library and hosts a variety of exhibitions designed to foster autonomous thought, regardless of religion, culture or age. What better way to free your mind than sitting its wildflower garden?
Visit Amsterdam in mid-June for Open Garden Days to visit more of the capital’s private gardens, including Museum van Loon, former home of Rembrandt pupil, Ferdinand Bol.
Hotel Craftsmen (0031 20 210 12 18) offers doubles from £269, including breakfast. Eurostar run direct trains from London St Pancras to Amsterdam from £190 return.
10. Botanischer Garten der Universität Zürich
Zurich, Switzerland
Not quite a secret, but nowhere near as visited as it should be, the University of Zurich Botanical Gardens – just a short tram ride from the old town – allows you to travel the world in a day thanks to its futuristic glass domes that house around 8,000 species of plant – from alpine roses and old-world medicinal herbs to south-east Asian orchids.
It’s a green labyrinth where carnivorous plants share space with ancient cycads. And because it’s covered, it can be enjoyed in good or bad weather.
Signau House (0041 44 201 96 96) offers doubles from £349, including breakfast. Swiss Air fly direct from London Heathrow to Zurich from £110 return.