We are excited as UK hotels and others around the world start to reopen for outdoor dining next week, many capitalising on their outside-in and inside-out spaces and vibes to herald the start of the summer season and celebrate us getting out into the world again. As fans of al fresco eating and drinking, we’ve already booked our table next weekend at The Lanesborough’s Garden Room to celebrate coming out of lockdown. In doing so, we found a number of other Oetker Collection gardens … properties with fabulous green spaces!
We (and most, if not all of the UK) are psyching ourselves up to leave the house for a night out on the town, for the first time in a long time on or shortly after the 12th of April. In true British spirit (and stubbornness), even April showers won’t stop us. Well, some of us. The Experientialist has opted for an inside-out space – the Garden Room at the Lanesborough – to see in a new chapter of post-pandemic life. This outdoor, covered oasis is hidden away from the bustle of Hyde Park Corner, is surrounded by lush greenery to bluff us into a tropical vibe, but we’re told that fires and heaters are primed at the ready to keep us warm on the mid-April evening. We’ve long been fans of outdoor drinks and we think OutThere travellers will be seeing a lot of terraces and rooftops by default this year, between some fabulous spaces on offer (not to mention, a greater appreciation for them) and a post-pandemic desire to be out in the open air.
The Lanesborough is just one of a number of Oetker Collection gardens across the world. Le Bristol Paris‘s new garden – reimagined and reopened just last year – is a calming and serene space lined by blossoming orange trees, designed by renowned landscape designer Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd. Exuding a rural-France feel in the centre of Paris, Lady Arabella redefined the garden’s geometry, instilling sustainable gardening concepts to her design, with every single plant handpicked and many native to the Paris region. The result is a gorgeous, escapist space at the heart of the bustling French capital.
Elsewhere in France, there’s another, fine, Provençal example of the Oetker Collection gardens. Opening this year, the Château Saint-Martin & Spa is really one big garden escape, with just six private villas for a southern France, luxury bespoke stay, designed personally for each guest. The 12th-century French manor complex is spellbinding in itself, but its garden is the icing on the cake. We can’t wait to visit, and hide away in one of their garden cabanas in the late afternoon sun beneath a wisteria gazebo, lulled by glorious birdsong; or perhaps spend the morning in the sublime pool overlooking the gardens. When evening comes, a feast is promised too and you can just guess where the produce will be coming from!
Over in São Paolo, Brazil, the Palácio Tangará pulls the essence of the three other properties above all together, as if to summarise the power of the Oetker Collection gardens. Like London and Paris, the Tangará very much a city hotel, but as in Provence, the property is wrapped completely – as if in a great, big, green hug – by Burle Marx Park’s lush greenery. And from within the hotel, everywhere you turn, you’ll see greenery, which is incredible considering the city is a vast, concrete jungle. The term ‘urban oasis’ is very much overused when it comes to describing hotels, but in this case, it is perfectly apt.
Photography courtesy of Oetker Collection
