Ready to open your eyes to a sprawl of color, with flowers blooming against vibrantly green meadows or reflected in clear blue waters? Gardens can provide some of the most calming days you’ll have on your vacation, as well as provide incredible background for photos. Titan Travel, a U.K.-based travel company, recently researched the world’s most beautiful gardens—and we’re excited to report that two on this list are right here in the U.S.
In fact, believe it or not, the No. 1 most beautiful garden in the entire world is right here in Pennsylvania: it’s Longwood Gardens just outside Philadelphia. This botanical garden stretches for 1,077 acres and has woodlands, meadows, and manicured gardens. Longwood earned the most social media posts with 307,185 Instagram posts and 6,096 TikTok tag mentions, and over the last two years there has been a 22.2 percent increase in online searches for it. It’s recommended that you reserve three or four hours to see the majority of the gardens, including the conservatory. On view now is the Festival of Fountains, which has a very Versailles vibe.
The U.S. next appears at No. 10 on the list. That honor is for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City, an urban botanic garden that encompasses 52 acres in the heart of the city. Visiting here could take all day as you linger over the various areas of the garden (the Cranford Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, Woodland Garden, and more). In September, the roses should have a second flush.
What’s the methodology? Titan Travel created a seed list (no pun intended) of the most famous gardens from articles in publications like Veranda, The Times, and Time Out (hey, that’s us!) and looked at Google Ads Keyword Planner to see the increase in searching for each garden over the last few years. They tabulated the number of hashtags and sought out the number of reviews for each on Tripadvisor, along with the frequency of the reviews using the word “beautiful.” All data is effective as of April 18, 2024.
Here is the list of the 10 most beautiful gardens in the world:
1. Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania, U.S.
2. Shinjuku Gyo-en, Tokyo, Japan
3. Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, New Zealand
4. Kenroku-en, Kanazawa, Japan
5. Volksgarten, Vienna, Austria
6. Dubai Miracle Garden, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
7. Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore
8. Mirabell Palace, Salzburg, Austria
9. Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
10. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York City, U.S.