5 Hotels with an orchard in Europe – From the orchard to the guests’ table

As you know, urban gardens are in fashion … Gardens in schools, in restaurants, gardens in hospitals and health centers, community or neighborhood gardens… We have talked about many of them in other posts in the “Gardens around the world” category, but I still had to show you some very interesting hotels with orchards.

And it is that this matter of orchards in cities does not respond only to a fashion or a matter of style, the matter goes further… In addition to the improvement of aesthetics and social and health benefits (which are many), the «philosophy» is the reduction of the carbon footprint: if we produce food closer to where we are going to consume it, we will spend less energy and fuel in transporting it.

Hotels with orchards take advantage of all these advantages:

• They offer guests fresh, freshly cut vegetables and greens, which they themselves can see in the bushes… Which is an important attraction for customers, who appreciate this «healthy and natural cuisine».
• They save on the shopping basket since there are many aromatic herbs or vegetables that they do not have to buy because they can pick them directly from the garden. This also reduces the carbon footprint.
• As we saw in the article “ Decorative gardens: the new trend of gardens with style ”, these hotels with gardens also take advantage of the decorative potential. Vertical gardens, beautiful compositions of shapes and colors on the terraces, keyholes… There are many possibilities so that, in addition to food, these hotels with gardens take advantage of the beauty of plants.

Once the theory has been told, I am now going to show you some of the European hotels with orchards that have most caught my attention:

Examples of hotels with gardens

1. The Manor House (UK)

This grandiose 5-star hotel is located in the county of Wiltshire, in the south-west of England.

The hotel is surrounded by green spaces with different sections: fruit trees, wildlife, a beekeeping space where they produce their own honey, gardens to walk around, a large organic garden, greenhouses…

In the garden of this hotel (2) hundreds of types of vegetables, aromatic herbs, red fruits are produced… Its philosophy is «From plot to plate» (something like «from the land to the table»).

2. Hotel Savoy Gardens (Portugal)

This beach hotel is on the beautiful island of Madeira.

In the orchard of the Savoy Gardens, the restaurant’s chef, Teresa Barradas, plans and collects the fresh vegetables for her dishes. In addition, hotel guests can also participate in the cultivation tasks and learn about how to cultivate an organic garden.

3. Swinton Park (UK)

This Yorkshire county castle converted into a country hotel has more than 300 years of history.

In it you can enjoy a lot of organized activities, such as fruit and aromatic harvesting, cooking classes or gastronomic and wine days. In its restaurant, as in most hotels with gardens, they serve freshly harvested vegetables.

4. Hotel Mont Blanc (Italy)

In the town of La Salle, in Italy, is this other 5-star hotel that has joined the trend of hotels with orchards.

It has an organic garden of more than 1000 square meters where they grow tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce, cabbage, red fruits, medicinal plants and aromatic herbs that are later used in the hotel kitchen.

5. Hotels with orchards in France

Surely there are many more hotels with orchards in France, but this great news that I wanted to echo caught my attention:

One of the most famous French hotel chains, Accor hotels (with almost 4,000 hotels worldwide) has embarked on a new path towards the sustainability of cities. The multinational joins the European 2020 Objective and has committed to building 1,000 urban gardens in its hotels within four years.

I hope you liked this selection of hotels with orchards in Europe. Soon I will publish another article about hotels with orchards in Spain.

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