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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For

You don’t have to be a horticulture enthusiast to visit these captivating gardens around the world. From tropical treasures to desert oases and Arctic blooms beneath the midnight sun, each is a destination all its own.

By Jessica Keller

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, South Africa – Sprawling across the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch combines theatrical mountain vistas with the extraordinarily diverse plant life of the Cape Floristic Region. Visit from late winter into spring to see the famous fynbos shrubland at its most colourful, when king proteas, pincushions, ericas and other indigenous blooms put on a spectacular show. For far-reaching views, follow the sinuous “Boomslang” tree canopy walkway as it snakes through and above the arboretum. Come summer, the garden takes on a different guise, as the lawns of Kirstenbosch transform into a natural amphitheatre for the popular Summer Sunset Concert series.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Singapore Botanic Gardens – Encompassing 82 hectares just west of Orchard Road, this urban oasis is the only tropical botanic garden to make Unesco’s World Heritage list. Here, the National Orchid Garden takes top billing, with thousands of hybrids (many bred on-site) arranged across expansive, colourful beds. For a wilder edge, visit the Rain Forest area – one of the last patches of primary rainforest left standing in Singapore – or head for the Learning Forest, with boardwalks, interactive displays and signage that turn a stroll in the jungle into a masterclass in ecology. Add in playgrounds, walking trails, an arboretum, a botanical art gallery and more, and you have a Singapore sight worthy of a full itinerary day – or three.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Chicago Botanic Garden in Chicago, USA – No need for a dramatic coastal or tropical location: 155 hectares in suburban Glencoe are enough to earn the Chicago Botanic Garden a spot among the world’s best. Start your visit in the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden; split across three islands, its serene waters and sculpted pines reward slow, contemplative wandering. Then, among the Bonsai Collection, admire more than 200 trees moulded by a team of specialists into living works of art. End your tour on Evening Island, an example of the New American Garden style best experienced at golden hour, when the light hits the lakeside paths just right. Beyond the scenery, this institution runs one of the most serious education programmes in US horticulture, with workshops spanning everything from floral design to photography and birdwatching, alongside lectures and hands-on family activities.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, USA – Spread over 57 hectares against a backdrop of sandstone buttes, Arizona’s Desert Botanical Garden holds more than 50,000 plants, including hundreds of rare and endangered species found almost nowhere else. Five looped trails divide the experience by theme, such as the Sonoran Desert Nature Loop that climbs toward mountain views lined with saguaros, and the Plants & People of the Sonoran Desert Trail, which explains how local Indigenous communities have used desert flora for food, medicine and tools across generations. Photographers and aesthetes, meanwhile, will have a heyday on the Harriet K. Maxwell Desert Wildflower Trail, where spring rains bring bursts of desert bluebells and lupines, while the towering cacti and red-rock buttes become particularly photogenic in the soft light of sunset.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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The Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, Canada – What began as a depleted limestone quarry, mined bare by cement magnate Robert Butchart in the early 1900s, has become a cradle of botanical life. Butchart’s wife, Jennie, turned the desolate pit into a Sunken Garden, whose ivy-draped walls and vibrant flower beds still form the centrepiece of the site some century later. Now, visitors can also take in the Japanese Garden, complete with koi ponds, stone lanterns and a teahouse, as well as a stately Italian Garden, an enchanting Rose Garden and an exotic Mediterranean Garden, in addition to seasonal shows and spectacles – from Saturday-night fireworks in summer to live entertainment on the Concert Lawn and illuminated walks that transform the grounds after dark.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, England – For horticultural enthusiasts, the gardens at Kew need no introduction. As the world’s largest collection of living plants, Kew has spent more than 250 years building a reputation as both a beautiful garden and a pre-eminent scientific institution. Your first stop should be the emblematic Palm House, a Victorian conservatory sheltering an indoor rainforest of towering palms and rare tropical species. It’s rivalled only by the nearby Temperate House, which can claim to be the world’s largest Victorian glasshouse, restored in 2018 and packed with 10,000 plants from temperate zones worldwide. Then, head on up to the Treetop Walkway, which lifts visitors 18 metres into the canopy for vistas over the wider grounds and its 11,000-strong arboretum. Beyond the pretty plants and distinctive sights – from an 18th-century pagoda to a royal palace – the garden’s real weight lies in its research and conservation initiatives, among them the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in West Sussex, where the largest wild plant seed collection on Earth safeguards billions of seeds against extinction.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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The Eden Project in Cornwall, England – A former china clay pit near St Austell, once abandoned, has been given a new lease of life as a global garden, educational charity and social enterprise, consisting of two giant biomes flanked by thriving gardens. The larger houses the world’s biggest indoor rainforest, dense with bananas, rubber trees and bamboo flourishing beneath a canopy walkway that affords visitors a view over the tropical foliage. The smaller Mediterranean Biome trades humidity for heat, its olive groves and citrus trees pulled from climates as far-flung as California and South Africa. Beyond the domes, outdoor gardens and interactive exhibits push the site’s main mission of sustainability education, aimed at making complex environmental ideas genuinely engaging.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, Morocco – Diminutive yet distinguished, Jardin Majorelle is as much a garden as a design landmark. French painter Jacques Majorelle set about creating it in 1922, layering in cacti, bamboo groves and palm trees while painting his Art Deco studio a colour so distinctive it now bears his name: Majorelle Blue. After his death in 1962, the garden fell into disrepair until nearly two decades later, when fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé bought and restored it; Saint Laurent’s ashes were later scattered in the rose garden of the adjoining Villa Oasis. Since 2011, the former studio has also housed the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, showcasing more than 600 Amazigh textiles, jewellery and artefacts – adding a dose of North African heritage to an already alluring mix of botany and art history.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in Sydney, Australia – Founded in 1816, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is Australia’s oldest scientific institution, and its setting alone justifies a visit: 30 hectares of manicured lawns unfurl along the harbour, framing views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. It’s the perfect spot for a picnic, but make time to take in the other draws while you’re there, including the jungle-like Palm Grove, the colossal green wall at The Calyx, and the guided experiences exploring the history and culture of the Aboriginal Gadigal people. Round things out with a walk to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, a sandstone lookout offering one of the city’s most photographed harbour viewpoints. Those craving an exclusively Australian focus can take a day trip to the sister garden at Mount Annan, an hour’s drive southwest. Spanning over 400 hectares of native Australian flora and natural bushland, it’s a wilder counterpoint to Sydney’s harbourside icon.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden in Tromsø, Norway – Situated some 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the world’s northernmost botanical garden largely eschews tropical specimens in favour of alpine and Arctic flora from across the globe. The garden is organised into roughly two dozen themed collections, arranged in rock landscapes built to mimic real mountainous terrain from the Himalayas to the Andes. The result is a whirlwind world tour: step from a Chilean scree slope to a Svalbard snow-bed collection in a matter of paces, and take in true botanical rarities – from Himalayan blue poppies to Ranunculus wilanderi, found in the wild at just one location in Svalbard. The best part? The garden is gateless, free, open 24/7 and set against a majestic backdrop of mountain peaks and the Tromsøysundet strait. We recommend visiting by the light of the midnight sun during the Arctic summer.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Jardim Botânico da Madeira in Funchal, Portugal – Another garden where the setting almost steals the show, the Jardim Botânico da Madeira is perched on a hillside above Funchal, delivering expansive views across the city and out to the Atlantic. But the botanical attractions hold their own: the eight-hectare site boasts an impressive subtropical collection, ranging from Madeiran endemics to desert succulents and fragrant orchids. The signature feature is the terraced flowerbeds, with geometric patterns of shrubs and blooms making for a mandatory photo stop near the entrance. Then there’s the arboretum, a cactus and succulent garden, and an on-site Natural History Museum that provides context on Madeira’s unique biodiversity. Easily combined with a cable-car ride up from central Funchal, the garden pairs well with a visit to the Monte Palace Tropical Garden higher up the hillside – and an exhilarating ride on the famed wicker toboggan back down toward town.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Inhotim in Brumadinho, Brazil – Few places blur the boundaries between botany, art and architecture as successfully as this captivating slice of paradise in southeastern Brazil. Part tropical garden, part contemporary art museum, Inhotim encompasses 140 hectares of native flora, free-form water features and enigmatic art installations by world-renowned names like Yayoi Kusama and Olafur Eliasson. More than 24 galleries are dotted throughout the forests, lakes and gardens planted with thousands of species, including giant water lilies, bromeliads and rare tropical specimens gathered from every continent, plus one of the world’s largest palm collections. Far more than a half-day jaunt, Inhotim is a destination in and of itself. Make a trip of it and book into the swish Clara Arte eco-resort, the only hotel inside the grounds; guest-only access to Inhotim on select days is included in the daily rate.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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Jardín Botánico de Quito in Quito, Ecuador – Tucked into fewer than two hectares inside Parque La Carolina, this compact garden packs in a heady cross-section of Ecuador’s biodiversity, all at 2,850 metres above sea level – making it one of the highest-altitude botanical gardens anywhere in the world. Within a short walk, visitors move through an Andean cloud forest, a high-altitude páramo, and a recreated slice of the Amazon rainforest; it’s a special chance to experience three of Ecuador’s distinct climatic zones without leaving the capital. A bonsai collection, a cactus garden, carnivorous plant displays and two show-stealing orchid gardens round out the admirable offerings that draw comparisons to some of the world’s most renowned institutions, despite its modest size.

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14 Spectacular Gardens Worth Travelling For.

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The Garden of Ninfa in Lazio, Italy – Stone bridges draped in wisteria, roses climbing crumbling parapets, a crystal-clear river meandering through it all – this is a garden straight from a fairy tale, with a suitably dark fairy-tale past. Over the centuries, Ninfa, once a prosperous medieval town, fell prey to conflict and disease: sacked in 1382 and plagued by malaria, it was eventually abandoned. Its homes, churches and castle were left to decay until, in 1921, the aristocratic Caetani family began planting an English-style garden around the ruins. Now, more than 1,300 plant species thrive in the humid microclimate of what many have called the world’s most romantic garden. The catch? Visiting takes a bit of luck and good timing. Ninfa opens only on select days between spring and autumn, strictly protected as a natural monument to preserve its fragile ecosystem. Be sure to book your tour well in advance.