Outside! Accommodations with exceptional gardens

Organic growth

Hof Flieth [Flieth Estate] in the Uckermark region not only offers its guests the best conditions for personal development. The wonderfully diverse garden, which is partly untamed, also follows the yearning for more naturalness and less order.

Here you can raise your head into the sun in the morning, sway in the wind, flourish and grow beyond yourself. Whether you are wandering through the orchard meadows, reading under a tree, counting cucumbers in the vegetable patch or musing among hundreds of perennials and shimmering grasses. Right in the middle of it all are two houses made of brick and fieldstone, which can accommodate from two to six people. Sometimes small, with great historical charm, sometimes open and minimalist. Step out of one of the doors and you and the garden merge directly into the endless expanse of the terminal moraine landscape. Until you reach the next forest or lake. Or a convivial gathering around a table in the middle of a meadow.

In a sea of flowers

Bougainvillea, magnolia, camellia, lavender, jacaranda – at the Quinta da Bouça d’Arques in Portugal, visitors are immersed in a world of botanical poetry. A stately home in the middle of vineyards and forests, where there is an abundance of the lush green splendour of the Costa Verde.

Even the names of the apartments and cottages pay homage to the colourful vegetation surrounding the former 17th-century manor house, which has been extended to include a new building made of concrete, wood and glass. Whether you opt for a room with traditional flair or prefer an apartment with a more modern look, it is entirely up to you. When the weather is nice, the romantic garden with its English lawn takes centre stage. It’s easy to resist a trip to the nearby Atlantic Ocean, because after all, the hotel’s own saltwater pool provides refreshment and the breeze makes the waves in the sea of flowers.

Baroque Botany

If you walk through the white garden gate of Herrenhaus Barthélemy [Barthélemy manor house] on the Southern Wine Route, you will find yourself in a different world and time. Beyond the gate, a French bourgeois garden opens up with a wide view of the Rhine Valley.

Winding paths and vine arbours lead past roses in bloom, shrubs and fruit trees to a water basin with a fountain and a garden house with frescoes. Those who prefer something more mystical should visit the grove with its rock gate, rose tendrils, water étagère and mysterious freemason symbolism. But it is not only the artfully designed garden that tells a long story; the old beams, stucco ceilings and antique furniture of the heritage listed manor house also look back on a long history. Today, the lavishly refurbished property, in the style of a maison d’hôtes [ guest house], impresses with three suites and three holiday apartments and invites guests to experience the art of living in the Palatinate.

Garden of Eden

Looking for the carefree scent of summer? With its sun-warmed aroma of citrus and almond trees, prickly pears and wild herbs, Villa Vendicari in the middle of the nature reserve of the same name is a sensual distillation of Sicilian vegetation.

Even with your eyes closed, you can picture it: a largely untouched garden with a white house hidden in the middle. With curved walls and rounded corners, it looks as if the salty wind itself had shaped it. Inside, there is a cave-like retreat with large windows, organic furniture and a bright atmosphere. A stand-alone structure and a secluded pool with a tree house complete the picture. Time stands still under the pergola, and the view from the roof extends to the sparkling sea. An experience that will stay with you long after the summer is over.

A composed play of colours

While snowflakes are still falling from the sky elsewhere, Mallorca is covered in a blanket of almond blossoms from the end of January, bathing the Can Miret estate in a fragrant sea of flowers.

The design of the traditional Mallorcan house in the north of the island is as carefully coordinated as the interplay of the Mediterranean flora, which provides changing colour and scent combinations throughout the year. Whether in flowerbeds, or in typical terracotta pots, which line the terraces, pool and natural stone paths. Here, lavender, roses and bougainvillea mingle with agapanthus and trumpet vines, as well as shrubs, olive and almond trees, creating an atmospheric backdrop that blends seamlessly into the natural surroundings. A wonderfully atmospheric place that combines tradition and modernity, and is best explored barefoot.

Thoughtfully designed

Like a slice of cake, the garden of Die kleine Acht [The little eight] stretches into the wide fields of the Uckermark, protected by tall prairie perennials and grasses.

Garden designer Rainer Elstermann engages with philosophical considerations and designs scenes in his gardens that give us back a piece of our origins. In the holiday home Die kleine Acht, the garden also becomes a multifaceted microcosm in the big picture. The best way to experience blossoms, colours and shapes is to follow the narrow paths and take a seat on the terrace in the middle of the meadows and fields. Inside the converted 1950s house, large windows also open up to the landscape, with puristic, sometimes rough materials and minimalist furniture, leaving the stage to nature.

Sicilian oasis

Palm trees reach up into the bright blue sky, surrounded by citrus and almond trees, dense greenery, white and red flowers, dancing agaves and aromatic herbs. In between, there is a buzzing and whirring. A meeting place for flora, fauna and those seeking peace and quiet.

In addition to its two-hectare park and fascinating biodiversity, the Dimora delle Libellule Estate [Dragonfly’s Home], situated on a hill near Noto, is home to a light and airy renovated historic wine cellar called palmento, as well as a modern guest house – two white holiday apartments that combine traditional architecture and elements with contemporary design. Around the house, shady seating areas invite you to rest, read, chat or dine, while an elongated pool with a waterfall completes the paradise. A beguiling place as light-footed as the beat of a dragonfly’s wings.

Berlin Hamptons

If you want to get away from the big city for a few days and take a deep breath in the countryside, just an hour from Berlin you will find a huge garden with old fruit trees, lime trees, flowering perennials and villa from the Gründerzeit that offers families and friends a casually elegant atmosphere.

Even though the Uckermark is no longer an insider tip, its idyll never ceases to amaze. The landscape here is more endless and time seems to pass more slowly. This is also the case at Villa Auguste, a heritage listed building that charmingly tells of its time of origin with high, partly stuccoed ceilings, cassette windows, original floorboards and a Meissen tiled stove, celebrates nature with botanical wallpaper, tiles and wall maps, and invites you to be outside in an enchantingly beautiful garden. Whether on the lawn, between the flowerbeds or in the shade of the trees.

Arcadia in Occitania

A château in the middle of a romantic landscape park at the foot of the Pyrenees. That’s almost all that needs to be said to transport you to this magical place. Even if the Château de Sibra itself exceeds even the wildest imagination.

The 13th-century property was purchased in 1878 by a French industrialist couple and over the decades transformed into a passionate Arcadia – a 15-hectare jardin exotique  adorned with flowers and trees from all over the world, small follies and rocaille ornaments. Today, the artfully restored château in the troubadour style offers not only five chambres d’hôtes [guest rooms] but also three holiday apartments and a private holiday home in the outbuildings, from all of which guests can enjoy garden and park. An aesthetic work of art and natural experience that allows creativity to flourish and imagination to bloom.

Deeply rooted

From the agora [gathering place], along the apple and lime tree avenues, past the cloud hedge and climbing shrubs to the orchard – at the Schnitterhaus in Groß Sperrenwalde in the Uckermark region, a landscape architect with a doctorate and a passionate vegetable farmer have breathed new life into the grounds of an old market garden.

The former day-labourer’s house from the 1920s, which borders directly on the well-designed, three-hectare garden kingdom, has also been lovingly restored in every detail and converted into a bright, open holiday home for six people, using lots of wood, bright colours and natural patterns. It combines Scandinavian design, a touch of nostalgia, warm cosiness and large windows overlooking the garden, where a covered seating area awaits you.

Text / Compilation: Julia Hauch & Anne-Birga Niepelt

Photos: Cee Cee Creative (Titelbild: Can Miret), Andreas Zaremba (Hof Flieth), Joao Cruz (Quinta da Bouça d’Arques), Hans-Georg Merkel (Herrenhaus Barthélemy), Giovanni Costa & Domenico Piccione (Villa Vendicari), Ina Steiner (Die kleine Acht), Cristina di Paola & Alberto Moncada (Dimora delle Libellule), Daniela & Martin van Eickels (Villa Auguste), Jeanette Corbeau & Stöh Grünig (Château de Sibra), Marc Wend (Schnitterhaus)