The continent is rousing itself from its winter sleep, bringing with it the vivid sights, sounds and smells of spring & summer, each destination offering its own unique geographies, languages, culture and culinary traditions – all within relatively close proximity to each other. It’s why Europe rocks!
Let’s start in the north: Karma Lake of Menteith sits at the gateway to the Trossachs, minutes from Stirling and its castle-crowned rock, on Scotland’s only natural lake. In June, ospreys fish the shallows and the light barely fades before midnight, while newly minted head chef Giacomo Gulisano turns the freshest local ingredients like Sea Trout and farm-to-table sirloin and Highland Chicken into culinary masterpieces served shoreside.
Head south into England and Karma Salford Hall offers a different kind of quiet – our famous Tudor manor dates back to 1487 and nestles deep in the Vale of Evesham, where spring brings the cherry and plum orchards into extraordinary bloom and the Cotswolds begin just beyond the hedgerows. Not to mention a standout new menu at award-winning Tempest Restaurant.
Off England’s southwest coast the Atlantic rewrites the rules. Karma St. Martin’s sits among the Isles of Scilly, where a unique microclimate, warmed by the Gulf Stream, nurtures plants that have no business growing this far north. Subtropical gardens, endemic sea thrift carpeting the headlands, puffins nesting on the offshore rocks. The beaches are white, the water improbably clear. In a word: magic.
Cross the Channel and the temperature climbs. Karma Château de Samary commands the approaches to stunningly preserved mediaeval citadel Carcassonne, where the ramparts glow amber at dusk and Languedoc rosé was invented for exactly those kinds of evening. Roll eastward and into Italy and Karma Borgo di Colleoli settles into the Tuscan hills between Pisa and Florence – stone farmhouses, long cypress avenues, olive groves silvering in the heat – and the artistic legacy of the Medici.
Drop south into Andalusia and Karma La Herriza perches above Gaucin, the Eagle’s Nest of the Serranía de Ronda, with views across the Strait to the Moroccan coast on clear days. Europe ends here, spectacularly and cities like Seville wear their grand moorish history on their sleeves. In the eastern Mediterranean, Karma Minoan anchors everything in Crete – ancient gorges, wild thyme hillsides and the long, unhurried warmth of a Greek summer.
By contrast, Karma Bavaria overlooks the deep-green waters of Lake Schliersee amid Alpine meadows thick with wildflowers with the Bavarian Alps rising spectacularly behind – best enjoyed while perusing the brand new menu of Lombardi-inspired dishes at Dario’s Osteria.
Eight properties. One continent. A myriad magical experiences.
