Madeira is best enjoyed in beautiful surroundings

Stay away from Funchal and head inland for the best of Madeira

We took a spring holiday in Madeira this year. It was awful. We thought we might stay at Reid's Palace, the island's most famous "fine hotel". But after a quick look at the website, my husband announced he'd rather stay at home in the rain than be forced to stay somewhere where he had to wear a tie for supper, and where the highlight of his trip was to be a weekly dinner dance.

So, informed by the Madeira Tourist Board that the Cliff Bay Hotel down the road had views that were just as good but was also perfect for children, we went there instead. Big mistake.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.