The Best Parks in Europe

Palace parks

Nineteen of the parks on the list belong to a palace, and most of them are in Europe. The Gardens of Versailles and the Parc de Sceaux were both laid out by André Le Nôtre. Schönbrunn Palace Park in Vienna climbs a hill to the Gloriette and its main gardens are free. Peterhof has fountains fed by gravity that run down to the Gulf of Finland, and the park and the palace are ticketed separately. Villa d'Este in Tivoli is terraced down a steep hillside with hundreds of fountains.

Landscape parks

Stourhead in Wiltshire is laid out around a lake, and the loop takes about an hour. Wörlitzer Park and Muskau Park in eastern Germany are free to enter; Muskau lies on both banks of the Neisse and is shared with Poland. Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel runs a cascade down the hill from the Hercules monument. Sofiyivka Park in Uman fills a rocky ravine with lakes, waterfalls and grottoes.

City parks

El Retiro in Madrid, the Englischer Garten in Munich, Vondelpark in Amsterdam, Hyde Park in London and the Tiergarten in Berlin are all free and lie in the middle of their cities. Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in Paris was built on a former quarry and has cliffs, a lake and a grotto. The Jardín del Turia in Valencia follows the old bed of the Turia River below street level. Krasnodar Park lies beside the city's stadium and covers about 22.7 hectares.