Embark on a global journey through nature’s most exquisite creations as one explores the world’s most spectacular gardens. From the grand symmetry of Versailles to the serene rock gardens of Japan, this comprehensive guide unveils 16 must-visit horticultural masterpieces across five continents.
Irish writer, poet, and lyricist, Thomas Moore, once said, “The garden reconciles human art and wild nature, hard work and deep pleasure, spiritual practice and the material world. It is a magical place because it is not divided.”
What Moore emphasises is the harmonious integration of the various elements within a garden. The quote highlights the unique and magical quality of gardens as spaces where diverse and seemingly opposing aspects of life are reconciled and integrated into a single, harmonious experience.
And this is why gardens have long been spaces of beauty, tranquillity, and inspiration. From meticulously manicured formal gardens to wild and naturalistic landscapes, the world’s best gardens offer visitors a chance to immerse themselves in nature’s splendour.
North America
Butchart Gardens, British Columbia, Canada
Once a limestone quarry, Robert and Jennie Butchart envisioned a grand garden on their property in 1912 after cement production exhausted the limestone quarry that was started in 1904. With time, Butchart Gardens transformed into a stunning 55-acre display of floral splendour. Designated a National Historic Site of Canada, The Sunken Garden, Rose Garden, and Japanese Garden are particular highlights.
This was quite a departure from gardens in Japan which typically follow one singular style. The Garden sits nestled in the hills of Portland, overlooking the city. The garden is beautiful all year, but to view cherry blossoms, visit during the springtime or in autumn to see gorgeous fall colours.
In 2022, the Japan Institute was established as a sibling organisation to be a global cultural voice for understanding, peace and sustainability. They aim to foster and enhance international partnerships while continuing to connect through shared experiences about peace, beauty, and connection of nature.
Africa
Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech, Morocco
Extending over an area of more than 9,000 sqm, this vibrant garden is one of the most enchanting and mysterious gardens in Morocco. Created by French painter Jacques Majorelle in 1922, and later owned and lived in by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé to save it from the destruction by hotel developers in 1980, the garden is famous for its striking cobalt blue buildings, exotic plant collection, and Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts.
Created over forty years, the garden is enclosed by outer walls comprising a labyrinth of crisscrossing alleyways on different levels and boldly-coloured buildings that blend Art Deco and Moorish influences. Visit between March to May or between September to November to enjoy the pleasant weather in the garden.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa
Set against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch is renowned for its diverse collection of indigenous South African plants, with a breathtaking view of Table Mountain and Cape Town.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa’s six different biomes, and also ranked 17th in Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best.
The garden includes a large conservatory, the Botanical Society Conservatory, exhibiting plants from many different regions, including savanna, fynbos, karoo and others. Outdoors, the focus is on plants native to the Cape region, highlighted by the spectacular collections of proteas.
The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway offers breathtaking views of the garden and surrounding mountains. There is a 450m Braille Trail for visually impaired visitors to discover an indigenous forest unassisted, allowing them to engage their senses to explore the plants and poetry independently. Visit during spring between September to November for the wildflowers or in summer between December to February for the outdoor concerts.
Europe
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom
Kew Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the world’s largest collection of living plants. Temperate House, the iconic and world’s largest Victorian glasshouse, houses rare and threatened plants.
Its Edible Science: Kew’s Kitchen Garden grows edible plants for healthy and sustainable food and are used in Kew’s restaurants. There is a blog detailing the Garden’s development on crop experimentation.
To share their botanical knowledge, they partner with London universities on postgraduate training and research courses in MSc and PhD, as well as continuing professional development and future leader fellowships.
The best time to visit is during spring when the blooming flowers and colourful foliage make it garden stunning. The gardens are beautiful year-round, with special attractions in each season.
Gardens of Versailles, France
The world’s largest gardens, the Gardens of Versailles, is the epitome of French formal garden design. Created by André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV over 40 years from 1661, these gardens showcase symmetry, grandeur, and the power of human design over nature.
With its magnificent fountains, sculpted hedges, and vast parterres, Versailles is a testament to royal opulence and artistic vision. It is also the world’s largest open-air sculpture museum with over 400 statues of marble, gilded lead or metal.
A must-see view is the Grande Perspective from the central window in the Hall of Mirrors, which stretches to the horizon in an east-west direction, which dates from before Louis XIV’s reign.
Springtime around April to May and summer between June to August is the best time to enjoy the garden in its full glory and enjoy the musical fountain shows.
Keukenhof Gardens, Netherlands
Known as the ‘Garden of Europe’, Keukenhof is one of the world’s largest flower gardens, famous for its spectacular display of Dutch tulips and other spring flowers in its 75th year. With over 7 million bulbs planted annually, it’s a fuse of colour and fragrance, with 100 participating companies to show their living catalogue. Furthermore, 500 more growers present many cut flowers and pot plants at 20 flower shows throughout the season.
Keukenhof Park covers an area of 79 acres and while it is known for its tulips, it also features numerous other flowers, including hyacinths, daffodils, lilies, roses, carnations and irises. There are additional landscaped gardens to see: the Reconnection Garden for sustainability; the Red Romance Garden; the Tropical Beach Garden for palm trees, hammocks and planted boats; the Green Tea Garden for mint, lemon balm, camomile and aniseed; and the Cottage Garden for wild plants and bulbs.
The best time to visit is between mid-March to mid-May when the gardens are open and the flowers are in full bloom. It is currently closed, slated to be opened from 20 March 2025 to 11 May 2025.
Generalife Gardens, Granada, Spain
Part of the Alhambra complex, the Generalife Gardens showcase the beauty of Moorish garden design. Its name is said to have originated from the term ‘Yannat al-Arif’, meaning ‘Garden of the Architect’. The garden is divided into four terraced gardens, a residential area, and a meadow surrounding the estate.
There are also significant irrigation channels like the Acequia Real, as well as remnants of walls and defensive towers from the medieval period. The garden stands as the sole remaining example of what Hispano-Muslim gardens were like. Spring or fall are the best times to visit the garden.
Villa d’Este, Tivoli, Italy
This Renaissance garden is famous for not only its elaborate fountains and water features but also its palace. The garden is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive illustrations of Renaissance culture at its most refined. Its innovative design along with the architectural components in the garden including fountains, and ornamental basins make this a unique example of an Italian 16th-century garden.
Offer stunning views, the Villa d’Este, is one of the first giardini delle meraviglie, an early model for the development of European gardens. Spring between April and May gives visitors pleasant weather and blooming flowers while early autumn between September to October has fewer crowds and one can enjoy the garden without battling people.
Asia
Amrit Udyan (Garden of the Holy Nectar), Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, India
Inspired by Mughal and English landscape style, the Amrit Udyan (Garden of the Holy Nectar) was formerly known as the Mughal Gardens. The main garden has two channels intersecting at right angles running in the cardinal directions which divide this garden into a grid of squares or a charbagh.
There are six lotus-shaped fountains at the crossings of these channels. The terrace garden are two longitudinal strips of the garden, at a higher level on each side of the Main Garden, forming the Northern and Southern boundaries. The gardens are open to the public from February to March every year during Udyanotsav which is also the best time to visit.
Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore
Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 – the only tropical botanic garden and the first Asian and third botanic gardens to be inscribed – Singapore Botanic Gardens has come a long way since the idea of a botanic garden was mooted by Sir Stamford Raffles, modern Singapore’s founder and a keen naturalist, in 1822. The Gardens was formally founded in 1859 at its current site, and handed to the British colonial government in 1874.
In the early years, the Gardens fostered agricultural development in Singapore and the region, and one of the earliest and most important successes was Para Rubber. From 1928, orchid breeding and hybridisation started and continues to this day. For Singapore’s tagline ‘City in a Garden’, the Gardens play a key role by introducing plants of horticultural and botanical interest, as well as being a leading tropical botanical institute in Singapore and the region.
Many heritage areas in the 82-hectare Gardens are conserved and stayed in their original condition. There are other sights as well: the National Orchid Garden, Symphony Lake and Stage, the Visitor Centre, Ginger Garden, the 17-hectare core, Evolution Garden, Botany Centre, Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden, Healing Garden, Learning Forest, OCBC Arboretum and Seedbank, Centre for Ethnobotany, and Botanical Art Gallery.
The vast green spaces are common gathering spots for the public to chill and relax. With Singapore being just one degree north of the equator, the tropical climate makes year-long visits a must for nature lovers.
Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
This futuristic nature park combines cutting-edge technology with horticultural artistry that presents the plant kingdom in a whole new way, entertaining while educating visitors with plants seldom seen in this part of the world, ranging from species in cool, temperate climates to tropical forests and habitats.
Attractions including the Supertree Grove, Cloud Forest, and Flower Dome offer unique experiences that blend nature with architectural marvels. Gardens by the Bay can be visited year-round as Singapore’s climate is consistently warm. Visit in the evening to see the Supertrees illuminated. Gardens by the Bay has also been named the eighth best attraction in the world on Tripadvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Awards Best of the Best 2024.
Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou, China 
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is considered one of the finest examples of Chinese garden design, originally built in 1509 by Wang Xianchen, a retired imperial censor of the Ming Dynasty. Its intricate layout of ponds, bridges, and pavilions creates a serene and poetic landscape.
Covering 5.2 hectares, it was listed as a cultural relic of national importance in 1961. The eastern part of the garden is rustic and extensive, giving the appearance of being a village settlement of Jiangnan. The middle part features Venetian scenes. With a winding and undulating roofed walkway, the western part of the garden is noted for its sumptuousness.
The garden boasts a wild expanse of lotus ponds with water occupying one-fifth of the total garden area. The annual Lotus Blooms Festival from June to October is famous worldwide, where 10,000 pots of lotus flowers are on show. Spring between March and May or autumn between September to November are the best times to visit the garden for the best weather and sights.
Kenroku-en Garden, Kanazawa, Japan
Considered one of Japan’s three greatest and most beautiful landscape gardens, Kenroku-en is a masterpiece of Japanese landscape design. Its name means ‘Garden of the Six Sublimities’, referring to spaciousness, seclusion, artificiality, antiquity, water features, and panoramas.
Located on the heights of the central part of Kanazawa, next to Kanazawa Castle, the garden has an area of 11.4 hectares. The Maeda family, who ruled the Kaga Domain, which is present-day Ishikawa and Toyama, maintained the garden from generation to generation.
One of Kenrokuen Garden’s most stunning attractions is its large artificial pond called Kasumigaike with the Horai Island located near the centre of the pond. The pond is often seen to symbolise the sea and Horai Island a sacred island out at sea, on which an ageless hermit with miraculous power was believed to live.
The garden can be visited year-round with cherry blossoms in spring, colourful foliage in autumn and snow-covered landscapes with yukitsuri, a traditional technique for protecting the branches of the pine trees in the garden from heavy snow.
Oceania
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne
Queen Elizabeth II granted the ‘Royal’ to the gardens’ name in 1958. Combining beautiful landscapes with scientific research and conservation efforts, Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens has stunning vistas, tranquil lakes and diverse plant collections.
The Australian Forest Walk and the Fern Gully are particularly enchanting areas to explore. In the past, Aboriginal people used to gather there with its abundant source of food and material. Explore The Aboriginal Heritage Walk, a free guided walk by an Aboriginal guide to develop an understanding and appreciation for their customs and heritage.
Guilfoyle’s Volcano offers visitors a fabulous precinct to explore. The Children’s Garden has everything that children could want to help them discover the natural world, with plant tunnels that they can crawl through, rocks that they can climb and a bamboo forest in which they can hide.
During summer, the lawns come alive with outdoor cinema, theatre performances and exhibitions. The best time to visit is during spring between September to November for blooming flowers or autumn from March to May for pleasant weather and fall colours.
Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton, New Zealand
Located 1.5 hours from Auckland, the 54-hectare Hamilton Gardens is unlike traditional botanical gardens. This garden explores the relationship between people and plants through a series of 18 themed gardens representing different civilizations and periods.
Situated on the banks of the Waikato River, the garden includes enclosed gardens, open lawns, a lake, a nursery, a convention centre and the Hamilton East Cemetery. The gardens are grouped into the Paradise, Productive, Fantasy, Cultivar and Landscape garden collections, and there is space for gardens which are still in development. To think that the last use of the site was as the city’s rubbish dump! Summer between December to February is the best time to visit for the wonderful weather and garden events.
In Awe of Sculpted Nature
Kanazawa CastleThese gardens represent some of the finest horticultural achievements from around the world. Visiting them allows you to marvel at the beauty of nature, the skill of landscape design, and the cultural significance of gardens across different societies. Whether you are a passionate gardener, a nature lover, or simply someone who relaxes and idles in the beauty of Mother Nature, these gardens are sure to inspire, educate, and delight. They offer moments of tranquillity in a busy world, connect with nature, and often provide insights into the history and culture of their locations.
