LUMIRA Stays / Magnificent Garden Hotels
Spend an hour in nature and you’ll emerge refreshed but spend a night and it may just change your life. A cleansing breeze invites slumber, dreams perfumed by blossoms; then, the first rays of morning sun dancing through foliage. A calm sense of renewal greets the day, imparting focus and possibility.
With their magnificent garden settings, these hotels capture such feelings and are a treat for luxury lovers and horticultural enthusiasts alike.
For the armchair traveller, our Il Giardino home fragrance collection has been designed to artfully evoke the beauty of a garden within your own home. A lively green floral, its intoxicating bouquet of jasmine, magnolia, gardenia and neroli turns any room into a sensorial sanctuary.
PASSALACQUA, LAKE COMO
One of Italy’s last remaining grand hotels, Passalacqua has been luring in-the-know Europeans to the shores of Lake Como since the 18th century. Its fusion of absolute luxury and contemporary offhand elegance is found in each room and suite on the property. From the grand Pilazz at the top of the estate, an enfilade of gardens spills towards the lake, manicured hedges giving way to rambling climbing roses and olive groves. This means no two areas are quite alike and there is always a new garden, scent and vista to enjoy.
BELDI COUNTRY CLUB, MOROCCO
Hectares of lush gardens surround the inimitable Beldi Country Club, infusing this village-like resort with colour, scent and life. With a team of 18 full-time gardeners, nothing here is left to chance: roses ablaze in rows of blush, crimson and palest lemon; greenhouses are named for the colour of their foliage as much as their design; and a cactus garden is renowned as one of the city’s finest. This garden is functional, too – bouquets of roses adorn the tables and the olive groves yield an annual crop of precious oil.
AUBERGE DU SOLEIL, CALIFORNIA
Nestled in the heart of Napa Valley’s wine country, Auberge du Soleil harmonises American hospitality with the European charm of its French founders. The gardens continue this transatlantic dance – you could be in the French countryside but, as you survey the panoramic views over olive groves and oak trees, the air perfumed with wild lavender, you wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else.
HÔTEL LE PIGONNET, AIX-EN PROVENCE
Over the past century of its existence, Le Pigonnet has been a magnet for countless artists inspired by the stunning natural beauty of the French countryside. Its most famous resident was Paul Cezanne, whose radiant paintings capture the shifting light and dappled countryside of the mountains around Aix-en-Provence. Tributes to the artist can be found throughout this hotel but that’s only one reason to visit. Another, equally compelling, is the gardens – verdant, manicured and crowned by a beautiful rose-covered trellis that forms a fragrant canopy.
Written by Michelle Bateman
