A little local perspective
Worth knowing.
Worth going.
- Destination
- Paris, France
- The selection
- 10 hotels
- Your kind of trip
- couples · summer · food · special occasion
$$$ to $$$$ — roughly 400-1,600 euros a night, peaking in June and September
Paris is a dense city that hides its open space. Nearly every building in the centre is built to the street line around an interior court, which means the greenery is real but private, invisible from the pavement, and unevenly distributed. Some hotels have a genuine walled garden with mature trees behind a plain door on a busy street. Most have a light well with three pots in it and call the result a patio.
The distinction barely matters in April. It matters enormously in July, when the city reaches the mid-thirties, when the older buildings have shallow-set windows and inconsistent air conditioning, and when the public parks close at nine and the terraces are three deep.
Why a private garden is the Paris luxury
A room in central Paris is small. That is not a criticism of any particular hotel, it is what happens when you convert Haussmann-era apartments into bedrooms with bathrooms. Chain hotels outside the centre offer twice the square metres for half the money and are the wrong answer.
The right answer is a hotel where the shared space compensates. A garden you can sit in at eight in the evening with a drink, before walking out to dinner, converts a compact room into a comfortable stay. It is also the only reliable way to be outdoors in Paris without being on a pavement.
The twelve below all have one: an enclosed garden, a planted courtyard large enough for tables, or in two cases an actual private park. They are grouped by bank and quarter.
The Right Bank palaces
The grand hotels of the eighth arrondissement, where the courtyards are the size of small squares.
Le Bristol Paris has the finest hotel garden in Paris: a French formal courtyard of roughly 1,200 square metres, with clipped hedges and mature trees, where lunch is served all summer. It is also the most consistently excellent hotel in the city. If the garden is the reason for the trip, this is the answer.
Ritz Paris has the Grand Jardin behind Place Vendome, which is the most beautiful place in Paris to have breakfast and one of the hardest tables to get in August. The hotel itself needs no introduction and the rooms are the most opulent in the city.
Hotel Plaza Athenee wraps a courtyard hung with red awnings and geraniums that is among the most photographed spaces in Paris, and rightly. It faces Avenue Montaigne, so the shopping is at the door and the Eiffel Tower is visible from the upper rooms.
Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris has a large planted courtyard and the most contemporary interior of the palaces, with an art collection and a cinema. It sits near the Arc de Triomphe, slightly out of the centre, which keeps the rates marginally lower.
Hotel Costes is the courtyard everyone knows from the first arrondissement: ivy, statuary, and a scene at eight in the evening that has not changed in twenty-five years. The rooms are dark and theatrical. You are booking the courtyard and you should know that.
The Left Bank
Saint-Germain and the fifth, where the gardens are smaller, older and more secret.
Relais Christine sits behind a gate off a Saint-Germain side street with a private garden courtyard, a vaulted spa in a thirteenth-century cellar, and the feel of a townhouse. It is the best-kept of the Left Bank options and the quietest.
Hotel de l'Abbaye Saint-Germain occupies a former abbey building near Saint-Sulpice with a small walled garden and a fountain, and it has been the reliable Left Bank choice for decades. It is a four-star and the garden is the reason it belongs on this list.
Hotel du Jeu de Paume is on the Ile Saint-Louis in a seventeenth-century real tennis court, with a courtyard garden and a beamed interior. Staying on the island is a specific pleasure: it is central, surrounded by water, and empty after eight in the evening.
The Marais
Pavillon de la Reine sits in the corner of Place des Vosges behind its own courtyard garden, which is the single best-located garden in Paris given that the square itself is on the other side of the wall. It is small, expensive and worth it.
Les Jardins du Marais has the largest courtyard garden in the Marais, big enough for proper dining, and a spa. It is a four-star with five-star outdoor space and it is the best value on this list.
Beyond the centre
Two hotels with genuine parks rather than courtyards, at the cost of a metro ride into town.
Saint James Paris is the only chateau-style hotel with a private park inside Paris, in the sixteenth arrondissement, with a garden of a size that simply does not exist elsewhere in the city and a library bar that is a members' club. It is fifteen minutes from the centre and feels an hour away.
Hotel Particulier Montmartre occupies a nineteenth-century mansion in Montmartre with a private garden behind gates, five rooms, and no sign on the door. It is the most secret address in Paris and the closest thing the city has to staying in a private house.
What we have left off
Cheval Blanc and the Lutetia are excluded, and both are extraordinary. Their outdoor space is a rooftop terrace rather than a garden at ground level, which is a different thing on a hot evening in July.
What to do with the evenings
Paris rewards the long walk more than the itinerary. From the Marais along the river to the Ile de la Cite and across to the Left Bank takes an hour and is the best introduction to the city there is.
Book the Louvre for a Wednesday or Friday evening opening, when it is half empty. The Musee d'Orsay is better than the Louvre for most visitors and takes half the time. The Rodin Museum has a garden and is the most pleasant hour in Paris.
Eat in the eleventh and the tenth for the modern bistros, in Saint-Germain for the classics, and book everything, because the good rooms are small and full.
Go to a market. The Marche d'Aligre on a weekend morning is the one Parisians use.
Practical notes
Charles de Gaulle connects by RER B in around 50 minutes, or a flat-rate taxi to the Right Bank is 56 euros and the Left Bank 65, which is worth it with luggage. Orly is closer and cheaper.
May, June, September and October are the best months. August is hot, and while the old story about the whole city closing is exaggerated, many of the best small restaurants do shut for two or three weeks. Winter is cold, quiet and beautiful.
Museums close on Mondays or Tuesdays depending on which. Restaurant dinner starts at eight.
Explore 4 & 5 Star Paris Hotels
Prices shown are sample rates from upcoming dates — not quotes for specific dates. Open a hotel and choose your own dates and guests to see the exact price.
Questions people actually ask
Are Paris hotel rooms really that small?
In the centre, yes, and consistently. A superior room in a Paris five-star is often smaller than a standard room in a New York four-star. Judge a hotel here on its public space.
Which arrondissement should you stay in?
The first, fourth, sixth and seventh for a first visit. The third and eleventh for better food and lower prices. The eighth for the palaces and the shopping.
Is the garden worth paying for?
From June to September, clearly. In winter it is a nice-to-have, and the same hotels are usually cheaper then.
How many nights?
Four minimum, five preferably. Paris is one of the few cities where a week is not too long.
