You Need to Visit These 11 Incredible Gardens on Your Next Trip to Mexico (2024)

The State of Mexico’s capital city of Toluca is home to the Cosmovitral Botanical Gardens, located an hour west of Mexico City in a former 20th-century market. Here, visitors will find a diversity of national and foreign flora and fauna, along with a series of different gardens adorned with cacti, lotus ponds, gurgling fountains, and fern-covered bridges.

Elevating this natural beauty are the garden’s glorious stained-glass murals that beam throughout the property. Chief among them is The Sun Man, a huge central wall of glass made by Mexican artist, Leopoldo Flores, representing the dualities of cosmic forces, from life and death to creation and destruction.

‘Magic’ is a word that’s often used to describe Javier Senosian’s dreamy organic architecture. Case in point, one of his latest projects, El Nido De Quetzalcóatl. This hidden gem and private housing complex, which opened in 2020 and is available to book on Airbnb, features a winding, serpent-shaped structure with views to the gardens surrounding.

Here, guests are invited to immerse themselves in the natural world. Though the neighboring Quetzalcoatl Park is still closed to the public and undergoing an extensive renovation under Senosian’s stewardship, a booking at El Nido de Quetzalcóatl comes with a special sneak peek and guided visit.

Guests lucky enough to stay in one of the twenty-five suites at Hacienda de San Antonio are in for a treat. The 19th-century hacienda, tucked into the remote foothills of the Volcan de Colima in Jalisco, feels preserved in time. And while there is no shortage of activities to partake in across the more than 5,000-acre working ranch, it’s hard to beat an afternoon on the grounds, with a fresh garden picnic under the sun.

The hacienda’s back lawn features a maze of planted pathways, gurgling fountains, and ornate formal gardens planted with boxwood and flowers, leading down to an inviting, 110-foot swimming pool.

The Japanese word, Sumiya, means place of peace, tranquility, and longevity. At Hotel Sumiya, these values ring true throughout the former Japanese-style-mansion-turned-private-hotel-complex, which was built by the American heiress and socialite Barbara Woolworth Hutton. The property, located in Cuernavaca or ‘the city of eternal Spring,’ was also the site of her marriage to her seventh and last husband, the Vietnamese prince, Raymond Doan Vinh Na Champassak.

Today, visitors can wander the hotel grounds, which are open to the public. In addition to two distant volcanoes adding to the dramatic backdrop, Sumiya’s spectacular gardens bloom with a rich variety of Mexican flora and fauna.

Diego Rivera’s grandson and fellow artist, Pedro Diego Alvarado, is just one of the many ardent fans of Las Pozas, Edward James’s spectacular Sculpture Garden in the Magic Town of Xilitla in Huasteca Potosina. The British poet, artist, collector, and patron of the Surrealist movement passed away in 1984, though his garden lives on today as a living and breathing intersection between fantasy and reality.

Las Pozas, or ‘the pools’ in Spanish, is named for the medley of pools and waterfalls that exist across the grounds. Over thirty Surrealist-inspired sculptures rise amidst the verdant jungle, from columns with capitals appearing like giant flowers to dramatic gates, and spiral staircases winding skyward as if to heaven itself.

Despite being just 20 miles from the buzzy city of Puerto Vallarta, the internationally acclaimed Vallarta Botanical Garden feels a world away. Here, locals and visitors can enjoy the vast diversity of Mexico’s lush flora and fauna, including the most-visited public collection of orchids in the country.

Wander the cultivated green spaces and conservatories brimming with botanicals and breathe the fresh forest air. In addition to a vanilla plantation onsite, the estate also has hiking trails, a popular restaurant, culinary programming, and a river for refreshing mid-afternoon dips.