City dwellers so often long for a natural green space to spend a few hours, so large parks have become common in most major cities. Amid traffic, smog, and skyscrapers, park visitors can find grassy areas, trails, and even lakes. The best of these parks are filled with art installations, museums, zoos, and so much more. Here’s a look at the 30 best city parks from all around the world.
Luxembourg Gardens, Paris
The statues, trees, and famed Medici Fountain of Luxembourg Gardens have been the setting of many books and films. Marie de Medici designed them in the 1600s, combining French and English garden styles. The park spans 56 lush acres in Paris.
High Line, New York
In a place you might least expect to find a park, you have High Line. High Line sits above New York City as a repurposing of old rail tracks. It provides a serene green oasis in the middle of one of the world’s busiest cities.
Stadtpark, Vienna
The oldest park in Vienna is Stadtpark, Vienna built in 1862. It sits on either side of the Wien River in the center of the city. The park is filled with monuments and sculptures and features fountains, a playground, and a concert pavilion.
Hong Kong Park
Hong Kong Park is barely 30 years old and relatively small. What makes it special is that it is built around some of the oldest British buildings in Hong Kong. While there you can also visit one of the largest greenhouses in the region or the Museum of Tea Ware.
Hamarikyu Gardens, Tokyo
Once imperial and shogunate gardens, these Tokyo gardens are nestled along the Sumida River. Open to the public since 1946, the gardens have a floating tea house that provides a quintessential cultural experience.
Centennial Park, Sydney
One-third of the Centennial Parklands, this park was built on converted marshlands. Originally called “The People’s Park” it is dedicated to recreation and has picnic areas, playgrounds, BBQs, and sports fields.
The English Garden, Munich
The Isar River is one of the only places you will ever find to go surfing inside city limits! It’s just one of many unique things you will find to do at the English Garden in Munich. There are also sports fields, trails, and a Japanese teahouse that performs authentic tea ceremonies.
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Golden Gate Park hosted the 1894 World’s Fair. It has hundreds of acres of forests, more than 30 acres of lakes, and botanical gardens and museums. This is one of the rare places where you can still see bison in the wild.
Imperial Gardens, Tokyo
The gardens at the Imperial Palace and home of the Japanese royal family are some of the most beautiful in the world. Tours of the grounds outside the walls are available to the public and the inner grounds are opened to the public semiannually.
Mount Faber Park, Singapore
Mount Faber Park stands as one of Singapore’s most historic parks, with its pristine rainforest creating a rare natural oasis within the urban landscape. Visitors can explore the park’s heritage through guided tours, enjoy panoramic city vistas, and catch the cable car to Sentosa Island.
Park Guell, Barcelona
Park Guell began as a park city and as the city grew up around it, transformed into a city park. Its most famous resident, artist Antoni Gaudi, left his mark on the area adding his signature tiled works giving the park bursts of color and style.
Yoyogi Park, Tokyo
Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park has all of the lovely blossoming cherry trees you would hope for and expect in a great Japanese park. It is also packed with historical significance. This park is where the first flight of a powered aircraft took place in Japan and is also the home of the 1964 Olympic Village.
Park Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo is a sprawling metropolis, but at its center is a wonderful park filled with green spaces. museums, and a large concert hall. The park was built to celebrate the city’s 400th anniversary and is now just a few decades away from celebrating its 500th anniversary.
Mount Royal, Montreal
There are great activities year-round at Mount Royal. Summers have plenty of shade trees, trails, picnics, and Beaver Lake. In the winter the park has winter favorites like skating, skiing, and snowshoeing. This park is a perfect place for active family fun.
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia
Founded in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition, Fairmont Park is divided into east and west by the Schuylkill River. The busy city dwellers of Philadelphia are treated to more than 2,000 acres of rolling hills, trails, waterfronts, and woodlands minutes from their historic downtown.
Metropolitan Park
The largest park in South America is Chile’s Metropolitan Park. The park is where you will find one of the country’s most iconic statues, the Virgin Mary on Cerro San Cristobal. The best way to see this park as well as the Chilean capital is from the cable cars above.
Lumpini Park, Bangkok
In 1942, Bangkok opened its first public park. The park is used as a place for people to find a respite in nature amid the bustling city atmosphere. It has plenty of green spaces, trails, and art installations, as well as statues to improve the cultural and artistic experience.
Vondelpark, Amsterdam
One of the greatest public beautification programs ever, Vondelpark was built on what was once the city’s dump. The swampy area took more than three decades to build into the beautiful respite that it is now. The park is named after poet Joost van den Vindel, whose statue can be found in the park.
Kings Park, Perth
Kings Park is a bastion of European and Aboriginal history. It has a botanic garden with more than 3,000 plant species native to Western Australia. The best part of visiting the park is the outstanding views of the Darling Ranges and the Swan and Canning Rivers.
Central Park, New York
Spanning from 59th to 110th Streets and stretching between Fifth and Eighth Avenues, Central Park is a globally renowned landmark. The park features playgrounds, monuments, museums, a zoo, an open-air theater, skating rinks, boating lakes, fountains, and scenic paths for walking and biking.
Phoenix Park, Dublin
Phoenix Park is one of the largest parks in Europe. Once a British Army base, it became public land in 1747. The park now features the city zoo and offers room for sports fields, horseback riding, and flying drones and model airplanes.
Chapultepec, Mexico City
The largest city park in Mexico belongs to Mexico City. It is also the oldest park in South America and its name translates to “Forest on Grasshopper Hill.” Here you will find nine museums, a zoo, and an amusement park.
Emerald Necklace, Boston
Boston Commons and Boston Public Gardens are both part of the Emerald Necklace, along with seven other interconnected parks. The entire area spans over seven miles and is one of the most beautiful and notable green spaces in the northeastern US.
Stanley Park, Vancouver
Vancouver’s largest and oldest park sits on the city’s northwestern peninsula. It has a blend of coastal beaches and forest trails with a lush canopy of half a million trees. It features an aquarium, a water park, and restaurants. One of its most unique attributes are its many totem pole sculptures.
Regent’s Park, London
Once royal hunting grounds, John Nash designed Regent’s Park in the early 1800s and it was opened to the public in 1841. The modern incarnation of the park includes the London Zoo, museums, and sporting fields along with lakes and trails throughout.
Grant Park, Chicago
Grant Park, known as “Chicago’s Front Yard,” spans 312.98 acres in the city’s central business district. It features landmarks like Buckingham Fountain, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Museum Campus. The park hosts major events, including The Taste of Chicago, Lollapalooza, and the Chicago Marathon, while also offering gardens, sports facilities, and scenic lakefront views.
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park, one of London’s most famous green spaces, spans 350 acres in the heart of the city. Known for its rich history and scenic beauty, the park features landmarks like the Serpentine Lake, Speaker’s Corner, and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. It hosts major events, concerts, and recreational activities, offering gardens, open spaces, and cycling paths.
Piedmont Park, Atlanta
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this triangular park in the heart of Atlanta was originally a driving ground for the Gentleman’s Driving Club in the late 1800s. Renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted advised on its design for the 1885 Cotton States and International Exposition, and by 1909, his sons transformed it into the scenic space it remains today.
National Garden, Athens, Greece
Originally known as the “Royal Garden” or “The Garden of Amalia,” the National Garden was completed in 1840 under Queen Amalia’s supervision. A devoted gardener, she spent hours tending to the space and personally planted its iconic palm trees. Today, the garden features over 7,000 trees surrounding six lakes, offering a lush retreat in the heart of the city.
Djurgarden, Stockholm
This Swedish city park sits on its own island, with a name meaning “animal garden” due to its history as a zoological garden since the 16th century. Once royal hunting grounds, it is now a scenic space featuring biking and walking trails, museums, gardens, and palaces, while remaining under the ownership of the Swedish monarchy.
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