Hot hotels: inner-city gardens

In a city as green as London, you might think finding a hotel garden would be a doddle. Turns out, they’re surprisingly thin on the ground. High Life’s favourite, meanwhile, doesn’t technically have its own garden at all... Instead, The Cadogan, A Belmond Hotel turns every guest into a certified Chelsea resident with a set of keys to West London’s most exclusive green space: the – ordinarily very private – Cadogan Place Gardens. Just opposite the hotel’s historic doors (including the secret side door used by socialite Lillie Langtry during her trysts here with Edward VII), this locals-only patch is a manicured sprawl of impassioned sculptures, mulberry trees and tennis courts. It’s one of the few London staycations that’ll give you magnificent rooms and blooms all in one go.

HIGH LIFE SAYS
Belmond has a nifty way of turning everything it touches to gold, and its garden picnic is no exception. Crafted by its chef patron wunderkind Adam Handling, this patriotic whirl of delicate sandwiches and still-warm scones will come and find you wherever in the gardens you end up. Exceptional fodder for the old Instagram, too.

Any riad worth its salt will give you a lush little courtyard packed with sunbathing spots, succulents, supersized banana leaves and wall-crawling palms. But, for something exceptional, there’s Royal Mansour Marrakech (opening image): a meticulously designed Moorish fantasy that’s both high-drama and endless subtlety, whose gardens spill beyond its interiors into two-and-a-half hectares of rolling greenery. Think Arab-Andalusian fairy tale (courtesy of Spanish landscape architect Luis Vallejo) meets rose-lined English country estate, and you’re somewhere close. Inside, none of the 53 individual riads shies away from a bit of green (we have a soft spot for the Superior Riads courtyards), while Le Jardin serves up the best breakfast and birdsong in the city. 

HIGH LIFE SAYS
Earlier this year, the hotel unveiled a new garden extension that includes an organic vegetable orchard (with produce heading straight for the hotel’s Michelin-starred kitchens), herb garden (the lavender and sage are put to good use in the hotel spa) and a greenhouse studio with an art therapist in residence for those feeling creative (or stressed).      

Honouring the brains of Barcelona’s late, great city planner, Ildefons Cerdà (the Catalan architect responsible for the revolutionary Eixample district), Alma Barcelona is all about the green. Just as Cerdà created space for fresh air and foliage in each of his superilles (‘superblocks’), so has Alma, with its whimsical, densely vegetated courtyard – a rare treasure in this glossier side of town. It will play host to your sunny breakfasts, candle-lit tapas and, better yet, most rooms overlook it.  

HIGH LIFE SAYS
From the welcome drink to the free mini-bar, cocktails on the rooftop to the signature lavender bourbon, this is boozy Barcelona at its chicest.  

Like London, LA isn’t quite as hotel-garden-packed as one might first expect, especially when you consider the city’s propensity for all things Zen. Now, Hotel Bel-Air may not be strictly inner-city LA (still, ten minutes from Rodeo Drive isn’t hard going), but the real estate is simply too lush to ignore. Swans drift like origami across the hotel’s lake, while a whopping 438 tree specimens fill up the hotel’s tropical 12-acre garden.

HIGH LIFE SAYS
Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air is the hottest al fresco table in town – make sure you snag one of the plush, private alcoves that back directly on to the foliage.    

Sofitel Legend is well known for snapping up landmark properties, and The Grand is no exception. From a 15th-century convent to a 19th-century royal palace, it’s now a 21st-century hotspot for Amsterdam’s staycationing elite – attracted to its tall, red-brick walls by the enchanting garden courtyard that lies within. It’s a pocket-sized paradise of hanging lanterns, gentle ponds and palm-sheltered spots for a quiet glass of red.

HIGH LIFE SAYS
The hotel is home to some famous restaurants (Bridges is a Michelin guide favourite), but this garden calls for The Grand Afternoon Tea.   

Japanese gardens are a thing of beauty. And, while many tourists will spend their time in the country seeking them out, guests of Hotel Chinzanso need not to go much further than the hotel’s own back yard. A world away from Tokyo’s frenetic crossroads, this gorgeous estate is a feudal-era throwback of pebbles and ponds, koi and camellias, blossom and bamboo. One look and it’s easy to see why this spot plays host to 2,000 weddings every year.  

HIGH LIFE SAYS
The hotel’s concierge leads a daily tour of the gardens – trickling it with trivia from their 700-year-old history.