Inspirations

Cooking and enjoying the out­doors

Real holiday feeling often only sets in when everyday life moves outdoors – from cleaning vegetables, to cooking, and enjoying meals. A selection of accommodations with outdoor kitchens, fire pits, and plenty of space under the open sky.

in August 2025

Bran­denburg Patio

Shady and enchanted – St. Oak’s pleasant cour­tyard in Kyritz, Bran­denburg, offers respite even in the most intense summer heat. Recom­mended ingre­dients for the perfect day here: fresh fruit and vege­tables from the market in front of the house and good company.

Both apart­ments in St. Oak share the enchanted cour­tyard – yet there is room enough for retreat and intimate con­ver­sa­tions, for example under the plum tree. The high walls of this Art Nouveau town­house are covered by ivy and wild vines; lavender and herbs perfume the air. Here you can cook as well as eat out­doors. How about a freshly caught, grilled zander from the nearby lake? The outdoor kitchen con­tains ever­y­thing you need for simple summer menus. And you can take your sweet time – even late in the evening, it’s cosy here, with the sun-warmed walls shielding you from any chilly winds. Just long lei­surely evenings with family or friends.

More about St. Oak

A departure point for journeys of the mind

Ending the evening with a view of the sunset, closer to the sky than the hustle and bustle of the streets—that sounds like a true vacation. Of course, you’ll need a roof terrace for that!

The outdoor seating on the roof of Con­vento Olhão in the eponymous Por­tu­guese coastal town is perfect for those times when you want to trade being seen for a chance to cast your gaze into the distance. The two rooms of the Con­vento, only acces­sible via a narrow spiral staircase, are closest to the roof terrace and its pool. From here, the view extends far and wide: sweeping over the Moorish-style old town of Olhão and the Ria Formosa nature reserve with its lagoon, all the way to the Atlantic’s vast expanse. Truly the perfect place to let your ima­gi­nation soar.

More about Con­vento Olhão

Mökki way for some­thing dif­ferent

A cliff on the water, a fishing rod, and enjoying the fish in the evening—still warm—while over­looking the sea? What sounds like escapist fantasy also exists in a very sophisti­cated form. For example, on a private rocky islet in the Baltic Sea.

On the Finnish island of Skjuls­käret, in the Saa­risto archi­pelago 70 kilo­metres south of Turku as the crow flies, a house with an outdoor kitchen and smoker pati­ently awaits anglers and fish lovers. The house—an ele­vated variation of a Finnish Mökki—with the name “Project Ö” let’s you be at one with nature without having to give up anything—like, for example, a shel­tered terrace with a big table and com­for­table chairs. Here, a bar­becue grill, as well as a pizza oven, and smoker encourage you to cook. Dry wood is stored underneath—heating is done in the tra­di­tional way here. And sud­denly you feel pretty close to nature after all.

More about Project Ö – Skjuls­käret

Cine­matic Terraza

Are you still inside or already outside? Such ques­tions are not always easy to answer, espe­cially in the south. At the Casa Costa in Tenerife, for example, it can be dif­ficult to distin­guish here and there. But that’s not really important—since this is about some­thing com­pletely dif­ferent.

If one had wanted to shoot a sequel to Delay’s La Piscine with Romy Schneider and Alain Delon ten years later, it would defi­nitely have had to be here: The inte­riors of this cubist house from the 1970s blend seam­lessly into its outdoor space; the pool on the terrace is the only round element far and wide. And the carefully sel­ected fur­niture – both inside and outside – is even cooler than that of Schneider and Delon. The house’s location on the cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean directs the eye to the endless blue – no luxury car car­rying Jane Birkin needs to pull up here. No one pays attention to that anyway.

More about Casa­costa

Ter­races galore

The rooms of Mas Le Clos Souris are so beau­tiful and inte­resting that you don’t really want to leave them. But doesn’t one holiday in the south of France in part because one wants to spend as much time out­doors as pos­sible?

Not to mention, the former artists’ resi­dence here near Alès offers a huge sel­ection of open-air lounging areas. Each of the three indi­vidual units has a private terrace for relaxing and dining; on top of that, there is shared outdoor seating around the pool, as well as in the wild garden across the street. Each terrace fea­tures dif­ferent seating options set on a variety of sur­faces: natural stone, wood, and gravel. Oh yes, and there is a bar­becue and fire pit as well. Iro­ni­cally, even on vacation deciding on a terrace can become a hea­dache.

More about Mas Le Clos Souris

Sicilian Cuisine

Interior, exterior—such con­cepts are only relative in this house, located within sight of the Sicilian Baroque town of Noto. The kitchen, for example, is somehow neither here nor there. It depends entirely on whether the sliding doors are open or closed.

There is no need for an outdoor kitchen here: the stove, ref­ri­ge­rator, work surface, and oven are already aligned between two spa­cious, floor-to-ceiling ope­nings to the outside. The sink offers a view of the Medi­ter­ranean. The fact that, in con­trast to some other holiday accom­mo­da­tions, there is only one kitchen here is, inci­den­tally, quite logical – after all, Gaëtan Le Penhuel and his team designed the ter­races simply as natural exten­sions of the interior. The prac­tical side effect: no need to walk between the kitchen and a second cooking station – because con­stantly running back and forth hardly sounds like a holiday.

More about Casa Bendico

Poolside grilling

You eat with your eyes – and they help with the cooking too. When the outdoor kitchen at Casa Agila is in full swing, you’ll have to be careful to stay focused on the ingre­dients. Not an easy task with this view!

Here in Sicily, you can chop and season, fillet and fry, all while enjoying the views of the pool, olive trees, and the Gulf of Noto. The ele­gantly mini­malist outdoor kitchen has ever­y­thing you need for bar­be­cuing: a work surface, a sink, and, of course, a grill. The compact outdoor fur­niture is made of con­crete, cast, as it were, in one piece with the pool. With a workspace like this, kitchen tasks have their own unique appeal – after all, cooks can jump straight into the water once they’ve finished their work. Or they can first enjoy the meal they’ve pre­pared at the adjacent table. And finally, swim a few “digestive laps” before dessert.

More about Casa Agila

Colourful and out­doors

Just over 200 kilo­metres south of Thes­sa­loniki, the sea is blue, the land­scape rugged, and the open-air kit­chens colourful – just like ever­y­thing else at the Afei­lianes Stone Houses on the cliffs near the fishing village of Pla­tanias.

This is a great place to bar­becue – and then savour the results of your culinary efforts while over­looking the sea car­essed by a light breeze. Each of the four vacation homes has a roofed outdoor kitchen, one even fea­tures a bread oven. The indoor kitchen is also located directly next to the terrace – if you’ve for­gotten some­thing in the fridge, it’s only two steps away. What’s more, you’ll find plenty of herbs here to enhance your deli­cious dishes – rosemary, lavender, and sage can be har­vested right outside the door. The only catch: the spec­ta­cular view of the sea ine­vi­tably dis­tracts from wha­tever you might serve here.

More about Afei­lianes Stone Houses

Text / Com­pi­lation: Barbara Hallmann & Anne-Birga Niepelt

Photos: Fotos: Luisa Brimble via unsplash.com (Cover picture), Laura Muthesius (St.Oak), Theo Gould (Con­vento Olhão), Mike Kelley (Project Ö – Skjuls­käret), Jean-Marc Wull­schleger (Casa­costa), Mat­thias Matt­müller & Lieven Her­reman (Mas le Clos Souris), Fran­cesco Caristia (Casa Bendico), Fran­cesco Caristia & Moo­lenar Bart (Casa Agila), Mireille Papa­mil­tiades (Afei­lianes Stone Houses)