Reading Outdoors: Four Gardens to Experience Around the World

Reading is not only about a book in hand. Reading is about the places books can take us.

Reading is also an experience. Some books will remind you of a specific phase in your life. Some make you remember the ones who gifted them to you. Others take you back to a place.

My reading around the world literary trail offers insights into places and spaces where reading has taken me. These four gardens I visited around the world gifted me a feeling of tranquility that has remained. They can also offer readers and travelers the perfect escape or a quiet retreat for reading.

Upper Barrakka Gardens in Malta

Each time you read about the Mediterranean, you read about sea breeze, warm colors, centuries-old architecture, and church bells. Well, you can find it all here, on the small island of Malta.

Valletta, the Capital City of Malta and a UNESCO World Heritage site, hosts the Upper Barrakka Gardens, my favorite space in Malta.

If you’re visiting Malta, one of the quickest ways to get around is with a private tour (which you can book here through our partnership with Get Your Guide).

However, you don’t want to miss visiting Malta’s beautiful public gardens: The Lower and Upper Barrakka Gardens. Perched at the highest point of Valleta, the Upper Barrakka Gardens offers stunning panoramic harbor views. It is a free public garden, except for a small payment for the Upper Barrakka Lift (which I suggest taking).

Although the Upper Barrakka Gardens is a very busy place, you can find your pocket of quiet. In the mornings, it feels like the perfect place to find a corner, reflect, and read. Take a shawl, comfortable shoes, and a reading blanket.

Luxembourg Garden in France

Hemingway and Orwell walk through the gardens in their memoirs. It is here that that Marius first sees Cosette walking with Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo.

For a tour of Paris literary women, you can book here, through Reading Around the World’s partnership with Get Your Guide).

I picnicked with a group of writers in this enchanting Parisian space. Some of us talked, some of us drank wine and ate cheese, some of us discussed books.

The Luxembourg Garden is in the 6^th arrondissement of Paris, France, between the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain. An escape and a literary landmark, it is the perfect place to take a picnic basket, a blanket, and a book.

Butterfly Conservatory in Canada

The feeling I had in this butterfly conservatory is one that I cannot adequately describe. With over 2,000 beautifully colored butterflies fluttering above and around me, I felt an indescribable sense of oneness and peace.  

The Butterfly Conservatory is at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, about 10-15 minutes from Niagara Falls, in Canada. I must say, this is a crowded space and popular tourist site. Even the more reclusive butterflies tend to hide from the crowds.

If you are a nature lover like I am, there are pathways and hidden waterfalls where you can sit and relax with the butterflies. Open a book and consider yourself lucky when a butterfly grazes the pages of your book.

If you’re visiting Canada, you can book a visit to this conservatory.

Rose Garden at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, Washington

You often hear about Seattle Washington’s main attraction, the Space Needle (which you can book here through our Get Your Guide partnership).

However, just outside of Seattle, you can find this beautiful garden that features over 400 different roses. This fanciful space at Washington’s premium winery offers you a glimpse of Washington wine country with a blend of the whimsical.

When you enter a garden that feels like a fairy tale, you can’t help but think of books. Although you spend a pretty penny on having the Rose Garden Experience at Chateau Ste. Michelle, you do get your money’s worth with tastes of several delicious wines and some bites. It is the perfect book club setting.

I have always been a fan of Chateau Ste. Michelle’s wines and I often pair them with a book I’m reading, so it was a surreal experience to visit them while I was in Seattle.

Chateau Ste. Michelle is in Woodinville, Washington, approximately a 30-minute drive from Seattle. There are cabanas and garden seating all around that are also great for reading, but my favorite, of course, is the private rose garden experience.

For more literary travel experiences, join me in the Reading Europe Challenge. To purchase books, please visit the Reading Around the World Shop, where we support independent bookstores.