The Beacon, Countisbury Hill, Lynmouth, Devon

A house built in 1904 on a wooded hillside for a shipping magnate who wanted to observe his ships passing in the Bristol Channel. It has a lookout room offering 180-degree views towards the Welsh coast. 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 receptions, coach house, 10.2 acres.
Price: £2.5m Jackson-Stops 01271-325153

Glen Doll Lodge, Glen Clova, near Kirriemuir, Angus

A renovated Victorian former shooting lodge dating from 1872 on the edge of Glendoll Forest at the foot of Craig Mellon. It has open fireplaces with wood-burning stoves, 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 3 receptions, kitchen, 2-bed cottage, stone bothy, 0.7 acres.
Price: £875,000 Savills 01738-477525

High Mote, Elsdon, Northumberland

A renovated former farmhouse within walking distance of a village, set in large gardens with extensive views over the Northumberland National Park. It has beamed ceilings, wood-burning stoves, a kitchen with an Aga and a range of outbuildings. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 receptions, conservatory, separate home office, outbuildings, 3.37 acres.
Price: £740,000 Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

Kirby Knowle Castle, Kirby Knowle, Thirsk, North Yorkshire

A renovated, Grade II-listed, 13th-century castle largely rebuilt in 1653 and set on high ground with far-reaching views across rural Yorkshire. It has ceilings with ornate mouldings, open fireplaces, a bespoke dining kitchen and grounds bordered by stone walls. 8 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, 3 receptions, library, cinema, wine cellar, gym, 2-bed cottage, parkland, woodland, 65.6 acres.
Price: £7m Savills 01904-617820

Ty Fry & Ty Fry Isaf, Peniel, Denbigh, Denbighshire

Two independent residences with far-reaching views over the Vale of Clwyd. Each property has a wood-burning stove and a bespoke kitchen. Ty Fry: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining room, open-plan kitchen/living area. Ty Fry Isaf: 4 bedrooms, bathroom, reception, 2 loft rooms, barn, 26.24 acres.
Price: £950,000 Fisher German 01244-409660

Lower Carhullan, Askham, Cumbria

A renovated stone barn with striking views of the Lakeland Fells and the Pennines. The interiors include high ceilings, exposed stonework, underfloor heating, a wood-burning stove and a bespoke breakfast kitchen with an Aga. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, reception, dining kitchen, utility, store, laundry, boot room, detached 1-bedroom annexe, gardens, paddocks, 3 acres.
Price: £750,000 Finest Properties 01228-583109

Pollanaich, Nedd, Drumbeg, Sutherland

This traditional croft house is situated on a hillside overlooking a loch, an island and the surrounding mountains. It has been extended to include a tower room accessed by a spiral staircase, which commands panoramic views. The gardens lead down to a boat shed with a sedum roof. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, dressing room, 3 receptions.
Price: £575,000+ Galbraith 01463-224343

Monte Cielo, Malvern, Worcestershire

A renovated, Italianate-style property dating from 1870 in a commanding position on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills. An external staircase leads to a roof terrace that affords panoramic views across the Severn Valley and Bredon Hill. It has feature fireplaces and terraced gardens leading down to an oak-framed hut that is currently used as a summer kitchen. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 receptions, balconies, garage, gardens, 1 acre.
Price: £1.35m Knight Frank 01905-574 6884

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Italy is a country of amazing landscapes, but few are as beautiful as the 50-kilometre stretch of the Amalfi coastline. One of its most iconic villages is Positano, its houses appearing to cling to the cliff, with its cobbled streets tumbling down to the sea. It's so picture-perfect that it has a starring role in many films and TV programmes, most recently as the location for Amazon Prime's crime drama, Hotel Costiera.

The luxurious hotel at the heart of the series is Treville Positano, built into the cliffs overlooking Positano and the sparkling Tyrrhenian Sea. Discreet and luxurious, it was originally the home of Franco Zeffirelli, now converted into a boutique hotel that remains true to the maestro's vision, surrounded by beautiful terraced gardens, including a vertiginous organic vegetable garden with fragrant lemon trees. Its 16 suites are spread across six houses over two hectares of gardens.

I stayed in the Callas suite, inspired by Zeffirelli's close friend and muse Maria Callas. With high, curved ceilings and tiled floors, it includes a luxurious bathroom with stained-glass windows adding flashes of colour. It goes without saying that the linens and toiletries were of the highest quality, right down to the plush slippers branded in the hotel colours with an embroidered logo. But the real highlight of the suite is the private terrace and garden with a pool overlooking Positano, where the staff will bring you wonderful cocktails while you fantasise about living the life of the rich and famous.

While the individual suites pay homage to Zeffirelli's influences, the public areas are almost exactly as he left them, complete with their original decorations, ceramics and photographs. It's a rare feat to have retained all the exotic charms of the original home without it feeling like a museum. Finding that balance between theatrical high camp and quiet luxury is quite the trick, but nothing feels overdone or out of place.

The Bianca Bar is a Moorish-inspired sanctuary all in white, with ornate moulded ceilings and the original tiled floors, almost exactly as Zeffirelli left it. But now this pristine place is home to a celebration of botanical marvels, where the bartenders distil herbs and botanicals straight from the gardens to create memorable cocktails.

The hotel's real showstopper is the dining terrace, part of restaurant Maestro's, with its sea views. It features heavily in Hotel Costiera and, as you sit out on the shaded terrace, you can see why. If you want, head chef Vincenzo Castaldo will take you through a cooking class where you can perfect the art of making pasta, shaping different varieties and then cooking simple sauces using produce from the gardens. His enthusiasm was encouraging, although I doubt any of the chefs were worried for their jobs. But the simple pleasure of kneading dough surrounded by the sea and sipping espresso martinis made for a delightful afternoon.

We made cheese-stuffed anolini with a simple sage and butter sauce and fettucine with fresh tomatoes and basil. Mainly it was a lesson in how a few simple ingredients harvested at peak ripeness create much more than the sum of their parts.

Relax and admire the view from Treville Positano

In the evening we gathered on the terrace to enjoy more of the delicious food, including a salt-baked fish, more truffle-covered pasta and wonderfully fresh baked breads with olive oil for dipping. Single estate, organic and extra virgin, it was frankly good enough to drink. But what really brings this place alive is the attention of the staff.

If you're looking to stretch yourself after all that food, there is a wonderful cliff-side gym with state-of-the-art equipment. For a more gentle workout, opt for the spa housed in a greenhouse transported from the set of Zeffirelli's staging of the opera La Traviata. Shielded by lush planting and overlooking the sea, what's left of any troubles you may have will be soothed by skilled hands using products from Dr. Barbara Sturm, whose cult brand harnesses science and nature to soothe all skin types, and who consulted on the spa's development.

Take the time to enjoy the hidden plunge pool and steam room, sit and watch the sea, or wander down to the shore with its private terraces of loungers and umbrellas and steps leading down into the water.

From there you can also take a trip on one of the hotel's boats. For instance, you could take a trip up the coast to Raito, near Vietri Sul Mare, a small town famous for its ceramics and home to Lucio Liguori the creator of much of the ceramic artwork on display at the hotel. His work is world renowned and exhibited in museums, but he took the time to give us a quick lesson on the terraces of Treville Positano, where we were even less skilled at throwing pots than we were at making pasta. But his joy in his craft was inspiring and his workshop is worth a visit.

Positano itself is full of shops selling local pottery, much of which is decorated with images of the local lemons. Once you've wandered through the bougainvillea-covered streets and visited the church, I suggest ending your trip at one of the beachside restaurants. We ate the freshest fish and seafood at Restaurant L'Incanto (lincantopositano.com).

Still, you may find it hard to leave the hotel. Treville Positano has been playing host to the stars since Zeffirelli bought it in 1969, including Leonard Bernstein, Liza Minnelli, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who was a frequent visitor. Now is a great time to visit with the heat of the summer past and the crowds gone home – you can enjoy la dolce vita in peace.

Natasha was a guest of Treville Positano. Prices from €830 a night. Visit villatreville. com for details.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Flexjet’s new terminal is the first of its kind in Europe, providing ground-to-air hospitality, relaxation and a dedicated space for business owners.

As I walked into the new terminal, I was taken back by its spectacular design features – in particular the lounge which recreates a full size, ultra-long-range Flexjet cabin, the Gulfstream G700 jet.

Flexjet, which specialises in luxury private aviation, says the expansion taps nicely into the growth of private jet travel.

Flexjet CEO Mike Silvestro tells me private aviation is up 20% in the UK and Europe. According to The Wealth Report by Knight Frank, there has been rising activity across routes linking financial and lifestyle destinations.

Silvestro says Flexjet creates an environment “that people like to come to because of the attention to detail and the hospitality".

Starting out in comfort

While the 2,098m2 Flexjet terminal is top notch, the experience of luxury travel starts way before you get there via a Flexjet helicopter.

I arrive by a chauffeur-driven car to London Battersea's heliport, where I would travel in one of its luxury helicopters to the Farnborough terminal.

I was lucky to ride one of its latest helicopters – 9H-FXVE – complete with cream leather interior and notably spacious seating.

It was a pretty seamless and smooth trip, taking around 20 minutes.

FlexJet’s Farnborough terminal

As I arrived at its new terminal, I was greeted by Flexjet staff, who also train at the terminal at Flexjet’s ‘finishing school’ for cabin crew.

The terminal is situated in a new ramp side building, separate to the airport’s existing main terminal, and it is from here you would board one of its 350+ private jets.

Flexjet’s aim is to provide a personal ‘home from home’ environment for Flexjet’s aircraft owners compared to traditional fixed based operator terminal or lounge services at airports, which are open to all private or general aviation flyers.

As well as the standout lounge, for owners who want to fly in for an in-person meeting, they can choose to use one of the fully-equipped meeting rooms in the terminal, meaning they can simply fly in, have a meeting, and then fly back home.

And of course, like any good lounge, there is a bar, serving healthy food, snacks and even smoothies to help you on your travels.

The oval bar is a notable centrepiece where you can fully relax before setting off.

The FlexJet fleet

I was lucky enough to step onto one of FlexJet's private jets, which can get you from London to New York in just over five hours.

The jets live up to everything you can expect from Flexjet – luxury, attention to detail, impeccable service, safety and seamless travel.

For discerning travellers, Flexjet services will certainly move you.

Visit Flexjet.com to find out more.

Art market watchers are hoping that Claude Monet will fuel a recovery in sales in this year's important autumn auction season. The French painter, best known for his late-19th-century Impressionist works, died 100 years ago this December. To mark the occasion, a number of his paintings are appearing at auction in Paris, the city where Monet was born in 1840.

Fittingly, Sotheby's is focusing on Monet's late career, when the artist was working on a painting called Iris in his famously colourful garden in Giverny, Normandy, just a few months before he died. It is a large painting and one of only a few to reside outside the collection of a museum. That perhaps explains why its existence had only been known thanks to a black-and-white photograph – until now. Iris will lead Sotheby's “Le Temps Retrouvé: The Schlumberger Collection” sale on 22 October, where it will appear alongside several other works assembled by collector Jeanne Schlumberger over four decades from the 1950s.

Monet's Iris could fetch €30 million

Yet, it is not even its first public viewing that makes Iris so special. It's what it tells us about the development of Monet as a painter. It doesn't so much represent the “final chapters of Impressionism,” says Sotheby's, as it does “the opening pages of Modernism and Abstraction” – artistic styles that Monet had begun to explore in the mid-1920s. It's little wonder, then, that Iris has been given an upper pre-sale estimate of €30 million – the highest ever bestowed on a painting at auction in France. A second late-career Monet is also appearing in the sale – Saule pleureur (Weeping willow), painted in 1918-1919 and valued at up to €12 million.

Beyond the Monets at Sotheby's, highlights of the sale include La Ferme, Arbres au Bord de la Rivière and Ciel Entre les Arbres, all painted by a young Paul Cézanne in 1862-1864 as a single large mural at his home in Provence. The mural was later detached from the wall and transferred to canvases, including these three with upper estimates ranging from €600,000 to €800,000. As rare, early examples of Cézanne's work, they have been designated Trésors nationaux – important works of major value to France's cultural heritage.

Paris, however, is not quite done with Monet. Over at rival auction house Christie's, also on 22 October, Monet's Impressionist work Bord des falaises à Pourville (Edge of the Cliffs at Pourville) is leading the marquee sale of paintings from the collection of the revered 19th-century collector Paul Durand-Ruel, who was also Monet's art dealer.

Painted during Monet's stay in Pourville-sur-Mer in 1882, it “ranks among the artist's most remarkable depictions of the Norman coast,” says Christie's. It is expected to fetch in the region of €11 million to €15 million.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Pennington House, Lymington, Hampshire

A Grade II-listed house dating from 1735 set in formal gardens and parkland. There is a large walled kitchen garden and a stable courtyard. 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 receptions, library, wine cellar, office, coach house, 2 cottages, 2 lakes, woodland, 42.4 acres.
Price: £8.25m Knight Frank 01962-834010

Alderton Hall, Montford Bridge, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

A Grade II-listed country house with formal gardens including a tennis court and a stable yard with an all-weather manège and paddocks. 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 receptions, study, garden room, wine cellar, swimming pool, 9.7 acres.
Price: £2.5m Savills 01952-239511

Castleton, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

An equestrian estate founded in 1793 by John Breckinridge, a US senator and attorney general under Thomas Jefferson. It has extensive stables, horse barns, indoor schools, fence-and-rail paddocks and prime land used to breed thoroughbred horses. 7-bed main house, formal gardens, further 9 dwellings, 952 acres.
Price: $57.5m Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty +1 859 983 9933

Ladyswood House, Malmesbury, Wiltshire

An Edwardian country house built in 1905 with large gardens and grounds and extensive equestrian facilities including stables, an indoor sand school and outdoor manège along with further outbuildings. The interiors have high ceilings, leaded-light windows and period fireplaces. 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 main receptions, garden rooms, 3-bed apartment, staff flat, swimming pool, 60 acres.
Price: £9.5m Strutt & Parker 01285-653101

Hoddern Farmhouse, East Sussex

A Grade II-listed property with equestrian facilities currently let out as a livery yard that include 28 boxes, a sand school and fenced paddocks. 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 receptions, office, cellar, barn, stores, workshop, mature gardens, 27 acres.
Price: £2.45m By Design Homes 07873-831564

The Sanctuary, Shobrooke, Crediton, Devon

A country house with equestrian facilities including an indoor sand school. The house has the original tiled floors in the entrance hall, grand fireplaces with carved wood surrounds, wood panelling, stone mullioned windows and a large breakfast kitchen with Aga. 11 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 2 receptions, billiards room, 3-bed lodge, indoor pool/gym, office, garden, pasture, woodland, 60 acres.
Price: £5.75m Strutt & Parker 01392-914200

Warenton Farm, Belford, Northumberland

A farmhouse with an attached cottage in landscaped gardens that include stables. Inside there are wood floors, the original fireplaces with wood-burning stoves and a large open-plan dining kitchen room with bespoke cabinetry and range cooker. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 receptions, utility,garage, greenhouse, garden room, pasture, 5.6 acres.
Price: £950,000 Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

Craigluscar Farm, Dunfermline, Fife

A C-listed traditional stone farmhouse with equestrian facilities that include stables and a tack room and indoor riding arena. The restored farmhouse has beamed ceilings, exposed stonework, open fireplaces and a large dining kitchen with an Aga. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3 receptions, utility, 2 sun rooms, cloakroom, further outbuildings, gardens, paddocks, cattle-handling pens, grazing land, 56.1 acres.
Price: £1.25m+ Galbraith 01738-451111

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

If you're looking for a get-away-from-it-all holiday with an ample helping of nature, let me suggest Chablé Yucatán, a charming five-star boutique hotel in the heart of the Mexican jungle, 45 minutes from Mérida airport. This is the first hotel from Mexican-owned company, Chablé. There's a second hotel on the coast near Playa del Carmen and a third, which will focus on the farm-to-table experience and local wines, is due to open on the west coast (Baja, California) in the next few months.

From the moment you arrive at the sunny yellow casita (cottage) at the entrance to Chablé, everything about your stay is carefully curated to your personal likes and dislikes, yet it never feels stuffy or overly formal. After the friendly check-in process, you're whisked through the vast grounds in a buggy to your own casita. If you're lucky, as you pass by, you will get to see some of the cute white-tailed deer that make their home in the woods surrounding the hotel.

These private casitas (think Chateau Marmont bungalows) are nestled among the trees, each with its own winding path leading from the central road that circles the property. Bikes are left outside for you to use (although the buggies are always available) and there's a handy privacy rope to mark yourself as do/do not disturb. The casitas come with their own private patio – split into a shaded area with a table and comfortable chairs, perfect for breakfast or after-dinner drinks, and a larger limestone sun terrace complete with a hammock and your very own plunge pool.

They are light, airy and capacious, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and wooden doors that open onto the patio. There's a huge indoor shower as well as an optional rain shower that's open to the elements, if you fancy baring your skin to the jungle life (not me) and more useful toiletries than you could possibly get through in a short stay.

Family villas have two bedrooms and sleep up to six guests. There are also the top-of-the-range Presidential and Royal Villas, which sleep up to eight and have larger terraces with communal areas.

Food at Chablé Yucatán is focused on heritage

Chablé is a foodie's delight. There's a focus on local, seasonal cuisine, with much of the delicious fresh produce grown and then made from scratch on-site. A lovely example is the welcome gift of freshly-baked tartas margarita (tiny tequila and lemon tarts decorated with edible flowers) that were waiting for me when I arrived. Those lovely customised touches are seen everywhere, from bedside turn-down chocolate truffles to the daily hand-made warm pastry, madeleines or other sweet treats that appeared, as if by magic, on my patio table along with a fresh pot of tea or coffee every morning before breakfast.

Chablé's Ixi'im restaurant (“corn” in Mayan) and Ki'ol, its (“healthy”) open-air, poolside eatery, both focus on foods from the Yucatán peninsula – corn, pumpkins (grown at Chablé), peppers, tomatoes, pork, and mezcal – a traditional Mexican spirit made from the agave plant, similar to tequila. Wines from the Baja California region of Mexico make an appearance on the menus in the various bars and restaurants. Pride in local heritage is woven into every part of the hotel experience.

The farm-to-table Ixi'im restaurant is Chablé's Michelin-starred flagship. It has the world's largest collection of tequila (3,600 bottles), some of which form part of an unusual but delicious pairing menu. Think spicy pumpkin soup with octopus, paired with an amber Mexican beer. Then a fresh fish taco followed by the most tender short-rib tamale paired with smoky mezcal (Real Minero Cuishe) and a venison risotto matched with an earthy red wine (Sic Itur Ad Astra). And to finish, a light-as-a-feather melon cream dish perfectly matched with a Mexican sparkling white (Vinaltura GW).

Activities and wellness

There's a daily schedule of activities from the more usual mini golf, yoga and pilates classes to workshops on Mayan cooking, pressed flowers, breathwork and, lest it get too healthy, tequila tasting.

Of the activities not to be missed, there is the four-course Mayan breakfast prepared by local cook Doña Tere. The breakfast is not just delicious but also an absorbing cultural experience, as she makes everything from scratch using traditional methods in a small outdoor kitchen in the grounds. From fresh fruits to empanadas to tacos, the dishes kept coming. Huevos motuleños, a spicy egg, tomato and black bean concoction, was a particular favourite.

Another fun activity is the “Dimensions Experience” – a slightly confusing name for what turns out to be a delightful bike tour of the vast grounds, taking in the vegetable and flower gardens and the meliponarium – a walled sanctuary that houses the stingless Yucatán bees that make the delicious honey you get to sample at breakfast.

Just a short stroll or bike ride from your casita is the beautifully laid out wellness centre. There are daily exercise classes, two state-of-the-art fitness areas and an outdoor pool with ample loungers for relaxing after your exertions. There's also an extensive menu of spa treatments – everything from open-air hydrotherapy pools, multi-temperature steam rooms, saunas and icy cold plunge pools, all set around the hotel's cenote (a large natural water pool linked to an underground cave system common on the Yucatán peninsula). I wish I could go into more detail about the massage I had, but I was out cold from the moment the first drop of (specially curated) aromatherapy oil hit my skin. Absolute bliss.

Louise was a guest of Chablé Yucatán. From $1,019 a night for a casita with private pool, including breakfast and taxes, visit yucatan.chablehotels.com

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Vivienne Westwood, the late doyenne of punk fashion, may not have been the most obvious bedfellow for the elegant Mandarin Oriental brand. But the Hong Kong-based hotel group needed someone to design the signature fan for its latest opening in Mayfair, and only Westwood would do. It would be her last project before she passed away in 2022, aged 81.

Each Mandarin Oriental property gets its own fan, which then becomes that hotel's emblem. The fan for the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair would have to be extra special because, aside from being the group's newest property in London, it would also be the first fan to be designed and made entirely in Britain in 70 years.

It shows the blue and red silhouettes of a man and woman dancing before the sketched outline of Hanover Square, where the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair opened in 2024 (and a short stroll from the Vivienne Westwood boutique on Conduit Street). Look closely and you will see that, actually, Hanover Square is upside-down. That was a necessary but happy concession to the shape of the fan – and it works. The design is imbued with energy and it is easily the loudest and most chaotic fan of the Mandarin Oriental family. Would you really expect anything less from a designer who was as happy creating a bondage suit in the 1970s as she was a silk fan for an elegant Asian brand? When you walk in the entrance, you will find it on the wall, next to the concierge desk.

What makes Mandarin Oriental Mayfair special

But why did London need a second Mandarin Oriental in the first place? It already had the rather grand-looking Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park not too far away. The Mayfair property, it was explained to me, was to have more of a “boutique” feel to it. Unlike its noble Victorian sibling to the west, the Mayfair hotel is a new build – one designed to settle in quietly among its wealthy neighbours rather than to stand out as an architectural statement. As for Hanover Square, it is a relatively quiet corner, tucked into the busy intersection that is Oxford Circus.

Consider, too, that the hotel has 77 residences, but only 50 rooms and suites for visitors and you begin to get a sense of its raison d'être. This is no grande dame of London, but rather a luxury hotel for everyday life – “everyday”, that is, if life is nipping out to Savile Row around the corner and popping into the scattering of upmarket boutiques. So, it may sound like a bit of a cliché, but the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair was created to be a home from home. It feels very much like a sanctuary.

For starters, there's the spa downstairs in the basement. The dark tiles of the long swimming pool are stylishly lit, and off to the sides, you will find the vitality pools, steam room and sauna. Moving upstairs, you come to the Atrium Restaurant, with its iconic spiral staircase and large overhanging sculpture on the wall by Charlie Whinney. The Mandarin Oriental Mayfair is even home to its own late-night jazz den in the form of Esmeralda's. There is no shortage of nooks in which to relax.

Several floors further up, our “Mayfair” signature suite was massive. It had floor-to-ceiling windows all the way along, and it certainly felt light and airy. But it struck me there wasn't actually a view from the windows – nothing of note at any rate. Then, it dawned on me. The view is within, not without. The eye is drawn to the polished red marble in the kitchen and the large bathroom with a separate double shower and a tub (home to “Doug”, the rubber Mandarin duck).

The spectacle is in the arty chandelier above the round dining table. Most impressively, it is in the hand-painted silk wallpaper, created by London design house de Gournay in the bedroom and especially the dressing room. It is magnificent – a tableau of birds and butterflies on floral branches. How often can you say the walk-in wardrobe was one of your favourite spaces? To commit the crime of using a second cliché, the Mayfair suite is your own cosy nest.

Home never tasted as good as dinner at Mazarine

I say there wasn't a view outside, but that isn't entirely true. You just need to go to the rooftop. Here, you will find the Hanover Bar and its cocktail menu inspired by the local area. Naturally, I gravitated towards The Hanover – a concoction of plum-infused whiskey, umeshu sake and vanilla amontillado sherry. “When in Rome…” The Hanover Bar has an outside terrace with a view of the London skyline – it is an elegant spot to come for an aperitif.

Dinner was to be found at street level, at Mazarine. This is a stylish, upmarket French restaurant serving classic dishes centred around seafood, with a contemporary twist. It is, for instance, home to the famous Croque Mazarine, made with black truffle and blue lobster. The blue-fin tuna tartare, served with a drizzle of ten-year-old olive oil (£24), was a particular highlight of the meal, as was the grilled red mullet, served with a light and bright Provençal artichoke barigoule sauce (£33). A posh take on familiar favourites, then – what says Mayfair more than that?

Chris was a guest of Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. From £1,000 a night; visit mandarinoriental.com.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Saltford House, Saltford, Somerset

A Grade II-listed, late Georgian house with a walled rear garden with a large lawn, a patio and a greenhouse. The house has decorative plasterwork, wood floors, period fireplaces and a large kitchen with French doors. 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 receptions, 3-bed flat, garden room.
Price: £2.75m Hamptons 0117-911 1455

Allardice Castle, Inverbervie, Montrose, Angus

An A-listed, 16th-century castle with a walled garden and grounds bordering Bervie Water, on which it has fishing rights. It has an inglenook fireplace and a spiral staircase leading to a watch tower. 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 receptions, library, outbuildings, 3 acres.
Price: £950,000+ Strutt & Parker 07384-826784

The Garden House, Stockland Green Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

An award-winning contemporary property situated in a large walled kitchen garden. The house has floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors overlooking the landscaped walled gardens. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 receptions, study, breakfast kitchen, boot room, cinema room, gym, outbuildings, gardens, 1.25 acres.
Price: £3.75m Knight Frank 01892-772947

Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

A Grade I-listed Jacobean manor with mullioned windows and a balcony. The gardens include a front courtyard, a moat, a walled kitchen garden and wooded grounds with a stream cascading into lakes. It has a 17th-century carved oak staircase, oak panelling, open fireplaces and a kitchen with an Aga. 9 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 4 principal receptions, indoor swimming-pool complex, 2-bed gate lodge, coach house, 9.10 acres.
Price: £3.95m Fisher German 01530-410840

Newburn House, Newburn, Northumberland

A Grade II-listed Georgian house set in walled gardens that include a courtyard garden and a Japanese garden. It has open fireplaces and a large kitchen. 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 5 receptions, workshop, 0.87 acres.
Price: £850,000 Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

Dillington Hall, Dillington, Norfolk

A Grade II-listed Georgian house dating back to 1780 with landscaped gardens that include an established walled garden bordered by woodland. The house has open fireplaces and a large dining kitchen with an Aga. 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 receptions, study, office, old laundry, 2-bed apartment, cellars, stables, garage/workshop, stores, grounds, heated outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, 2 acres.
Price: £1.75m Sowerbys 01362-693591

Barholm Castle, Gatehouse of Fleet, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries & Galloway

A restored, A-listed 15th-century tower house surrounded by landscaped gardens and walled gardens overlooking Wigtown Bay. It has a turnpike stone staircase, a great hall with a painted beamed ceiling and a barrel-vaulted kitchen. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, study/bedroom 4, 2.75 acres.
Price: £695,000+ Savills 0141-222 5875

The Old Rectory, St Just in Roseland, St Mawes, Truro, Cornwall

A Grade II-listed Georgian house on an estate in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has walled gardens, a vegetable garden, a Mediterranean-style courtyard designed by an award-winning landscape gardener, and is situated 100 yards from St Just Creek with direct access to the beach. 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 receptions, breakfast kitchen, library, orangery, games room, 2 annexes, 1.09 acres.
Price: £5m Fine & Country 01326-334658

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

There is a great wave of money – and artwork – heading the way of younger generations. The value of the “great wealth transfer” from the post-war baby-boomer generation in Britain alone has been estimated at £5.5 trillion over the next 30 years.

Baby boomers were prolific art buyers. “Spending on art accelerated as the rich got richer, moved into ever-larger houses and became eager to splash out on discretionary purchases,” says Felix Salmon on Bloomberg. That in turn led to a boom in artists who could afford to live by the brush. There were 8,300 artists whose works had sold at auction in 1988, according to the Artnet Price Database. In 2012, that number had ballooned to 90,275.

Sadly, unlike Hokusai's Great Wave – a print of which came from a single-owner collection amassed over years to sell for HK$21.7 million (£2 million) in Hong Kong last October – the great art wave racing towards the younger generations is mostly made up of works of questionable value. What to do with it all? “The sheer tonnage of boomer-owned art is vast, and the total demand for it doesn't come close to the amount of supply that's about to arrive,” says Salmon.

The big auction houses are only interested in the most-valuable artworks. So, that's fine for the likes of businessman Joe Lewis, 89, whose collection of paintings by Freud, Bacon and other celebrated artists sold for £296.3 million in late June to become the most valuable single-owner collection ever sold in London. And it's fine for the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, whose collection fetched $1.6 billion in 2022 to set the global record. Other inheritors will count themselves lucky if they can slough off a painting or two to the local auctioneer. More probable, says Salmon, the whole lot will be sold to a professional estate liquidator.

What can you do with the unwanted artworks?

You could, of course, simply give them away. The cultural gifts scheme and acceptance in lieu can both be used in Britain to reduce inheritance tax bills.

But the artworks must be of a sufficiently high calibre and you must be able to find a museum or gallery willing to take them. That's not a given, since it involves a lot of time and expense, from cataloguing and restoring artworks to insuring and keeping them safe if not for immediate public display. And increasingly, museums can take their pick, because they are not short of offers.

So, after all that, you might as well admit defeat and keep the damn thing – which is probably what the original collector had intended or hoped you would do from the start. The trouble is, fashions change and what was fresh and exciting half a century ago may seem dull or worse in the social-media age, or the artist may have faded from memory, rendering their works worthless. It is a conundrum inheritors of art will have to face in the coming years.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Arriving at ROMEO Napoli felt less like checking into a prestigious luxury hotel and more like wandering into a contemporary art gallery. A Christian Leperino sculpture was there to greet me, and there were artworks at every turn. It was easy to forget I was visiting the heart of Naples. But only momentarily, since ROMEO Napoli does such a good job of delivering incredible food and a vivid, vibrant atmosphere – two things that are very much associated with the city.

Elegance meets modern comforts at ROMEO Napoli

Each ROMEO property has been designed by a different architect, giving each hotel its own identity. The Naples hotel, designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, strikes a balance between contemporary luxury and elegance.

I stayed in a deluxe harbour room, where rich macassar ebony wood, soft lighting and modern furnishings came together to create a warm, calming space. The hotel offers a range of rooms and suites to suit different stays, from stylish harbour-view rooms like mine to expansive wellness suites with their own steam room and sauna. At the top end is the two-bedroom penthouse suite, spanning 165 square metres.

Naturally, there are plenty of spaces to relax beside your room, at ROMEO Napoli. I particularly liked the games area in the lobby, where a vintage radio, table football and a carefully laid-out chess board are surrounded by contemporary artwork. There's also an impressive wine cellar with more than 600 bottles, giving guests another reason to stay in for the evening.

Spa experience to remember

However, the spa was the highlight of my stay. The spa experience starts before you have even stepped inside the treatment room. I walked down a softly lit corridor, with warm orange lighting and calming music playing, before misted glass doors slowly opened to reveal the spa area.

I started with the hot and cold stone walkway (a hydrotherapy feature, where guests walk barefoot through shallow channels of water at different temperatures), before moving between two Jacuzzis, each set at a different temperature, followed by the steam room and sauna. The facilities were excellent, but it was the atmosphere that really made it special. Dark stone, soft blue lighting and gentle water features created a space that felt so calming. I could easily have spent the entire afternoon there.

As if the spa weren't enough, the rooftop infinity pool is another highlight.

Looking out across the Bay of Naples towards Mount Vesuvius, it's the kind of view that makes you want to stay in the water a little longer. It was the perfect place to slow down after a day exploring Naples.

Dining chez Alain Ducasse

No trip to Naples would be complete without experiencing the city's food, and dining at the hotel's Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse Napoli didn't disappoint. Breakfast was served each morning here, and it quickly became one of my favourite parts of the day, the breathtaking view being reason enough. There was something so peaceful about eating breakfast while overlooking the water. We also returned one evening for the restaurant's five-course tasting menu. Every dish was beautifully presented, but what really stood out was watching one of the pasta courses being finished right at our table. Seeing it prepared in front of us made the whole experience feel that bit more special.

Seared red mullet with carrot and seafood kimchi, followed by roasted Laticauda lamb (a local breed), served with a pearled jus, are two dishes that feature on the tasting menu (€270 per person). It was also the attention to detail and the interactive nature of the meal that made the dining experience so memorable. For example, when the bread arrived, it came with two small wooden spoons – one topped with butter and the other with sea salt and pepper that we crushed using traditional stone grinders. Such a simple touch, but it turned something as ordinary as seasoning bread into part of the experience.

Exploring Naples and beyond

The location is one of the best things about ROMEO Napoli. Sitting right by the waterfront, it was the perfect base for exploring the city. During our stay, we made the most of the city's famous food scene, trying authentic Neapolitan pizza, hunting down the legendary €1 Aperol spritz, and ending many afternoons with some of the best coffee gelato I've ever had. Naples was the perfect way to begin our trip, offering a taste of Italy's history, culture and energy before we continued on to the Amalfi coast. A visit to Pompeii was also easy to arrange, with the ancient city just a 40-minute bus ride away, and the coaches conveniently located opposite the hotel. From there, we continued to Amalfi, with a stop in Sorrento – a fitting next destination, as the ROMEO Collection is set to open its next hotel there shortly.

Vaishali was a guest of ROMEO Napoli. From €555 per night, visit theromeocollection.com.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

New Year in the Maldives

Join Pixie Lott in the Maldives this Christmas. The British pop star will be performing on New Year's Eve at the InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau as part of the resort's "12 Pearls of the Ocean" programme of festivities. Each "pearl" is a day of activities and entertainment following a theme, starting with the lighting of the Christmas tree on 22 December. Santa arrives by boat on Christmas Day, the "Pearl of Champagne" features an exclusive yacht cruise with Champagne, while the Pearl of Play takes the form of a lively lagoon party and a moonlit dinner by the sea. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the sky above Maamunagau will be illuminated with fireworks and a drone display to see in 2027. In tandem with the "12 Pearls of the Ocean", guests can also learn about marine life with British artist and diver Janavi Kramer or enjoy a treatment in the spa, where wellness practitioner Braj Raj Singh will be taking up residence.

From around $1,500 a night, maldives.intercontinental.com.

Live like a local in Munich

Have you ever wished you could experience a place the way the locals do? Kempinski, Europe’s oldest luxury hospitality company, has launched a programme to achieve just that. Called E.R.A.s, which stands for Experience Real Access, guests staying at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich can undertake a literal flying visit of Bavaria’s royal castles aboard a private flight, guided by two historians. There is, as part of the programme, also a hosted dinner with live music in the royal halls of the Nymphenburg Palace. Alternatively, guests can brush up on their skills as painters, discover Bavaria's famous beers and the region's automotive heritage. Or they can take the plunge – into the Eisbach canal, guided by a Wim-Hof expert and go for a morning run with legendary German former footballer Lothar Matthäus.

E.R.A experiences from €130 per person, kempinski.com.

Starry nights in Northumberland

Matfen Hall's location on the edge of the International Dark Sky Park in Northumberland makes it the ideal luxury stay for enjoying starry nights in Britain. The area offers some of Europe's clearest night skies. The wild and rugged Northumberland National Park is also just a 25-minute drive away from the hotel, encompassing around 400 square miles of untouched landscape, tranquil rivers and sweeping moorland close to the Cheviot Hills. But if the nights prove too brisk, you don't even have to leave the comfort of your room – the spacious suites have their own telescopes. Within the Dark Sky Park, the Kielder Observatory will also be hosting stargazing activities. Afterwards, warm up in Matfen Hall's three AA Rosette The Emerald Restaurant.

From £350 a night, matfenhall.com.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

The Old Mill, Linztford, Rowlands Gill, County Durham

A Grade II-listed former paper mill on the banks of the River Derwent. It has exposed stonework, wood floors, a wood-burning stove and a large kitchen with an Aga. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, reception, double garage, studio, riverside terrace, gardens, 0.34 acre.

Price: £700,000 Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

The Stack, Trelyon, Truro, Cornwall

A five-storey, Grade II-listed former engine house dating from the 1800s overlooking a valley. It has granite walls with arched doorways and a wood-burning stove. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining kitchen, reception, terrace, workshop, studio, gardens, 0.6 acres.

Price: £895,000 Rohrs & Rowe 01872-306360

Lakeland Cottage, Spark Bridge, The Lake District

This converted 1850s bobbin mill was originally one of the oldest continuously operating industrial sites in the country. The gardens include a pond and a bridge over the river that leads to a pavilion. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 receptions, study, orangery, dining kitchen, balconies, garages, gym, greenhouse, outbuildings, workshop, private riverside jetty, grounds.

Price: £1.995 million Fine & Country 01539-733500

Rhydlewis, Llandysul, Ceredigion

A mid 17th-century mill in west Wales that was rebuilt in 1811. The former mill has solid stone walls and a full-height living area with a vaulted ceiling with exposed wooden rafters, timber panelling, a Danish wood-burning stove and large glass doors that open onto a substantial balcony that overlooks the garden. 2 bedrooms, bathroom, open-plan kitchen/living area, mezzanine, parking, gardens, grounds.

Price: £350,000 Savills 0292036-8915

The Old Foundry, Panxworth, Norfolk

A former iron foundry and smithy dating from 1869 on the edge of a village. It has double-height ceilings with a mezzanine, exposed beams and a large fitted kitchen. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, reception, study, office, roof terrace, gardens.

Price: £550,000 Sowerbys 01603-761441

Royal Mint Street, London E1

A penthouse apartment in a converted Victorian factory originally constructed in 1890 for the tobacco manufacturers Thomas Bear & Sons. It has a dual-aspect kitchen and reception with double-height vaulted ceilings, exposed brickwork, the original cast-iron columns, timber floors and Crittal windows. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, office/bedroom 4, open-plan kitchen/dining room, share of freehold.

Price: £2.25 million Knight Frank 0203-597 7687

The Old Fire Station, Worcester

A top-floor apartment in the award-winning Old Fire Station development in the centre of Worcester. The flat has an open-plan interior with wood floors and modern fittings. It comes with its own private balcony that commands views over Worcester Cathedral and also has access to a communal roof garden. 2 bedrooms, bathroom, open-plan kitchen/ living area, parking.

Price: £260,000 Allan Morris 01905-612266

The Wheelhouse, Canterbury, Kent

A Grade II-listed former industrial building dating from the 18th century just outside the city walls in the Nunnery Fields conservation area. It has a 32ft vaulted drawing room with a log-burning stove and a 36ft sitting room with a vaulted ceiling, exposed timber beams and a Juliet balcony. 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4 receptions, study, conservatory, breakfast kitchen, greenhouse, garage, courtyard garden.

Price: £900,000 Strutt & Parker 01227-473700

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Skiing made easy

Wellness, luxury and indulgence come together at Hotel Nesslerhof. This five-star Austrian retreat is ideally located for hiking year-round. But its location within the Alpine valley of Großarl also makes it particularly well-situated for skiing.

Guests can pre-order their ski equipment online before they arrive and find it waiting for them in their personal locker after check-in. They can then cross the road to the Kieserlbahn cable car that will take them up to the Grossarltal-Dorfgastein ski area – part of the vast Ski amadé network (Europe’s largest), with 70km of immaculate slopes and 18 modern lifts. The ski area, where snow is guaranteed from December to April, is suitable for skiers of all levels.

Afterwards, guests should head to restaurant Sky Lounge Wolke 7 for panoramic views at the top of the Kieserlbahn or unwind at the Nesslerhof’s 1,800-square-metre wellness area and spa.

From £428 a night, including breakfast, visit nesslerhof.at/en.

Autumn food festival

The Culinary autumn food festival is returning to Schlosshotel Fiss, high in the Tyrolean Alps, from 5-25 September. Guests can take part in wine tastings and cooking workshops, as well as outdoor activities such as food-themed hikes through the mountains and events at the local distillery.

While the festival is bound to be indulgent, Schlosshotel Fiss has tied it in with its wellness programme so that guests can, for instance, go on guided walks through the hotel’s herb garden to learn about the Alpine plants that go into seasonal dishes.

There will also be yoga sessions beside Lake Wolfsee and sauna sessions in the evenings, accompanied by singing bowls.

Schlosshotel Fiss is situated in the sunny little village of Fiss, at an altitude of 1,438m. In the warmer months, it is ideally located for hiking and mountain biking, and in the winter guests are able to go skiing and snowboarding.

From €746 A night in winter, full board, schlosshotel-fiss.com/en.

Family fun on the slopes

Specialist ski operator Powder Byrne has been organising high-end holidays for families for 40 years. A range of ski programmes is available for children of all ages and abilities and, new for this year, Powder Byrne is introducing a ski clinic for adults to master their form.

The highlights this winter in Austria and Switzerland include Christmas in Arosa. Guests will be able to enjoy reliable early-season snow at Hotel Valsana – a refined hideaway in the Swiss Alps with a focus on staying healthy.

From £19,146 for a family of four for seven nights, with first-class train transfers.

And you can spend Easter at Hotel Maiensee in the Austrian Arlberg at an altitude of 1,800m, which has access to the Arlberg ski area. The pretty little resort of St Christoph is part of the bigger and better-known St Anton ski circuit.

From £19,256 for a family of four for seven nights, visit powderbyrne.com.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

I am contemplating the Torre di Chia from the balcony of my suite at the Conrad Chia Laguna Sardinia hotel. The Spanish built the defensive round tower in the 16th century – on the far side of the lagoon from where I am standing – to ward off pirates raiding the southern coast of the Mediterranean island. Other than its half-millennium of history, there isn't very much that is remarkable about it.

What is remarkable is what it sits on – ancient Bithia. This settlement, built by the Phoenicians, had existed since at least the eighth century BC. But when the Phoenicians arrived, there were people already living in the area – a people we call the Nuragic civilisation. We don't know what they called themselves. Curiously, they haven't left us any writing – or none that we have found at any rate. So, historians have named them for the often monumental dry-stone structures that lie dotted around the interior of the island in various states of preservation. One of the most impressive Nuragic sites is at Su Nuraxi, a 90-minute drive due north from Conrad Chia Laguna.

(Sardinia is peppered with archaeological sites. Another, called Nora, is located 25 minutes from the Conrad and it is also well-worth visiting. Like Bithia, it was founded by the Phoenicians, but it is the impressive Roman ruins that you see today.)

What remains of Bithia – and there isn't very much – is to be found on the raised promontory, marked out by the Torre di Chia (one of the area's relatively more recent additions). Here, the coastline is stunning, with two golden beaches – Monte Cogoni and Dune di Campana – just off to the side. It reminds me a little of the famous Mayan ruins at Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, and I wonder why Bithia isn't better known.

Three hotels in the Chia Laguna Nature Resort

The Conrad is one of three hotels in the Chia (pronounced “kia”) Laguna Nature Resort, along with Baia di Chia Resort Sardinia, Curio Collection by Hilton; and The Village. The first two are run by the Hilton Group, and all of the accommodations are charming.

The rooms and suites at the Baia di Chia have more of a cottage feel to them, and they either overlook the lagoon or the sea. Guests of the resort can use the large pool and restaurants here and, of the three hotels, it is closest to the beaches and cabanas. I am told this is where the Germans like to stay – and, really, who could blame them?

The Italians, arriving in family groups, apparently enjoy the relaxed fiesta atmosphere of The Village, where there is live music and entertainment in the evenings and a buffet restaurant.

As for the British, we – and our American cousins – like our luxuries and it is to the Conrad hotel that we retire. The decor is elegant and the colour scheme reflects the natural, neutral tones of the area – wicker, stone and terracotta-tiled floors. Amphorae have been arranged in the recesses of the stairs and corridors to remind you of the local ancient history.

Drink the elixir of life at the Conrad Chia Laguna

The Conrad has a terrace bar and restaurant, called Bar Bollicine and La Terrazza respectively. The restaurant serves a menu centred around local and Mediterranean dishes. I recommend the seafood fregula, which are very small balls of Sardinian pasta. You must also try the seadas, which is the local sweet speciality. It is a fried pastry containing pecorino cheese and covered in local honey. It sounds savoury, but it is really very nice. (Two courses cost €55.) And do try the wine. The local cannonau red grape is supposedly what makes Sardinia a “blue zone” – a region where the inhabitants remain sprightly well into old age and live for an especially long time. At least, that's what the locals say, anyway.

In the warmer months, Sa Mesa is another restaurant option, focused on Sardinian dishes. And not far away is the Conrad Spa in case the cannonau doesn't do the trick. The Conrad also has its own outdoor swimming pool (and pool bar) and padel courts. During the peak season, the resort has nine restaurants, eight bars and five swimming pools in total.

The triumph over mass tourism

The rooms and suites at the Conrad Chia Laguna are either garden-facing or look out onto the sea. Our “king suite” is comfortable, with a tub in the bathroom. As is often the case in the Mediterranean, the large balcony terrace is the standout feature and it's where we while away the hours. There is a small table and a couple of armchairs under cover and, forward, a pair of sun loungers. Below is the lagoon, framed by the hills and occasionally visited by pink flamingos. And beyond it, the Torre di Chia and ancient Bithia.

With the passing of centuries, the Phoenicians who founded Bithia became the Carthaginians, who were conquered by the Romans and the Romans themselves later succumbed – each wave leaving its mark on Sardinia. In the seventh century AD, Bithia was abandoned for the same reason the Nuragic peoples had moved inland and the Spanish built their tower centuries later – the persistent threat of coastal raids. It seems incongruous that such a naturally beautiful place could have ever witnessed destruction. Happily, the area has held out better against the onslaught of mass tourism and the vicinity has retained much of its wild ruggedness. And so the passage of time continues.

Chris was a guest of Conrad Chia Laguna Sardinia. From €270 a night, including breakfast. Visit hilton.com

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Matthew Jukes, MoneyWeek’s wine columnist for 20 years, has died at the age of 58. Readers of the magazine and indeed its staff will sorely miss his amusing and ebullient reviews and unique voice, not to mention his expertise in seeking out delicious and affordable wines.

He was always exceptionally busy elsewhere, too – he was, as The Telegraph says, “one of Britain’s busiest and most respected wine experts”, writing columns for the Daily Mail and becoming a star of TV and radio.

Matthew Jukes's legacy

Matthew also developed a popular series of annual wine reports, covering the likes of Bordeaux en primeur, Burgundy and Piemonte, as well as his “100 Best Australian Wines”, which won him an Honorary Australian of the Year award in 2012. At its launch in 2004, this was a simple list, but over the years it grew into a major tasting event in the UK that also toured China and Australia.

In 2019, he “caused a stir in the world of oenophiles” by launching his own zero-alcohol range of drinks known as Cordialities. The aim was to give those with a “wine-savvy palate” an alternative to the “cheap, sugary, fake creations” that were the only alternative for those avoiding alcohol. He experimented in his kitchen with recipes old and new, and his creations won orders from Michelin-starred restaurants all over the world. He was “very proud of the success of his business”, says David Gleave of Liberty Wines.

Above all, Matthew Jukes was a gentleman and “one of the very best human beings I have met in my life”, says Libby Brodie for City AM. He was a “gregarious and generous” host – “clever, funny and honourable”.

But there was a different energy once he was at work, says Jancis Robinson on her website. Then there would be a “laser-like focus” and no chatting. He also had a “strict moral code”, says Brodie, and would always pay his way, donating what it would have cost to charity if he found the bill had been picked up. He was simply “superb at his job” and “leaves the world in a better state than he found it”.

Istanbul has existed in its various guises for millennia, straddling Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus. It is a cosmopolitan city. Here, you will find former Byzantine churches, many today serving as mosques, standing beside bazaars and rooftop restaurants frequented by tourists from all over the world. That centuries-old charm is still evident in the ruby-red çay (tea) that arrives without asking, baklava glistening behind bakery windows, the aroma of kebabs, and cats lounging beneath cafe tables, waiting patiently for scraps.

The Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus provides the perfect vantage point from which to see all this. Since opening in 1955, the hotel has welcomed royalty, presidents and Hollywood stars, including Queen Elizabeth II, George W. Bush and actors Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.

It was Hilton's first footprint outside the Americas, arriving at a pivotal moment in the city's modern history. And the hotel's greatest asset is arguably its location. Boasting landscaped gardens dotted with palm trees, it feels surprisingly tranquil despite being only a short walk from the bustling Taksim Square.

Restoring the iconic Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus

Originally designed by Chicago-based architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, alongside celebrated Turkish architect Sedad Hakkı Eldem, the hotel building remains one of Istanbul's most recognisable examples of mid-century modernism. A recent refurbishment by local outfit Autoban has carefully retained its Turkish identity while embracing an element of the ever-changing nature of the city. Vintage details have been retained as they remain emblematic of the hotel's history, from the original Hilton logo in the lobby and the striking flying carpet installation suspended overhead at the entrance to the outdoor swimming pool, which is the largest hotel pool in Istanbul.

Throughout the property, there are further nods to the Hilton's past, including a lobby inspired by a sapphire necklace that Sophia Loren wore during a visit. Merve Seckin, the hotel's head of marketing, pointed out to me the restored handcrafted çintemani tiles that had remained hidden for years and, thanks to the renovation, are once more on display.

The Hilton's 475 rooms and suites have views of either the Bosphorus or the hotel's gardens. I stayed in the Bosphorus Suite, which had panoramic views over the city. From my balcony after dark, I could see the glow of the Beşiktaş Stadium, which I later discovered was for the Europa League football final. Coincidentally, Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus was also where the soon-to-be champions, Aston Villa, were staying.

Another famous face, albeit from further back in time, was jazz musician Louis Armstrong, who performed here in 1958. The hotel’s Sazzou jazz bar pays homage to Armstrong through its cocktail menu and intimate live music sessions.

Turkish delights with a twist

Breakfast at restaurant Arlo is an elaborate affair, with an abundant spread of regional cheeses, honey, olives, freshly baked simit (a type of bread) and countless local specialities, which are best enjoyed with several glasses of Turkish tea.

Dinner at Malva, the hotel's signature restaurant, led by chef Sefa Birinci, took a contemporary approach to cooking with fresh Anatolian ingredients. Each course built playfully upon the last, beginning with warm potato bread, accompanied by a lit edible candle made from kefir-fermented homemade butter. Standout dishes included braised artichoke with pea sorbet, balancing sweetness with earthiness; delicate manti (dumplings) filled with richly flavoured ribeye and topped with caramelised onions; and a herbaceous sorbet of coriander, parsley and mint to refresh your palate.

What to see in Istanbul

As comfortable as the Hilton is, Istanbul is a vibrant, fascinating city to explore. Depending on the length of your stay, you may want to dedicate a whole day to exploring a different corner. On my first day, I took a guided tour through Sultanahmet, exploring the Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and the Blue Mosque. Afterwards, you can wander through the 15th-century Grand Bazaar, where spices perfume the air, and lanterns light the market's passages in vibrant shades of blue.

In Beyoglu, you can ride the nostalgic red tram along Istiklal Avenue before climbing Galata Tower for sweeping views over the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus that separates old Istanbul from new. Don't forget to sample Turkish delight in many flavours, and if you're an avid coffee drinker, do try a traditional Turkish coffee, brewed slowly in hot sand.

You will also want to take a ferry across the Bosphorus to Kadıköy, which offers a more relaxed take on the city. There, you'll find waterfront tea gardens and it's best to arrive hungry. You are bound to discover mouth-watering kebabs for sale here or one of Istanbul's famous “wet burgers”, which are burgers drenched in tomato sauce.

No matter how many days you spend in Istanbul, the chances are that you'll find it's not enough to see everything the city has to offer. Conrad Hilton, the founder of the hotel chain, famously remarked, “London or Chicago… neither of these can ever hope to match the magic of this famed city of antiquity”. More than 70 years after he opened the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus in the city, it's hard to disagree.

Oojal was a guest at Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus. From £232 per night. Visit hilton.com for more information.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Maynards, Little Sampford, Essex

A 1670s, Grade II-listed former farmhouse with a moat that runs around three quarters of the grounds. It has exposed wall and ceiling timbers, oak floors, open fireplaces with wood-burning stoves and a bespoke kitchen. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 receptions, 2-bed annexe, 5 acres.

Price: £1.5m Cheffins 01799 -23656

Pond Cottage, Wilton, Marlborough

This 17th-century thatched cottage is situated in an idyllic position overlooking the village pond. It is accessed by a private bridge and surrounded by gardens that include well-stocked borders and a vegetable garden. The cottage has beamed ceilings, inglenook fireplaces and a large dining kitchen. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, office/bedroom 5, 2 receptions, utility, garage.

Price: £995,000. Hamptons 01672-837178

The Mill, Arnesby, Leicester, Leicestershire

A converted, Grade II-listed 19th-century windmill with a two-bedroom cottage and a range of outbuildings set in grounds that include a wildlife pond and a paddock. The mill has a double-height entrance hall, a bespoke staircase and a glass walkway on the first floor that connects the main accommodation with the former windmill. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 receptions, 2 studies, balcony, motor house, 4.44 acres.

Price: £2.75m Fisher German 01858-410200

Bulkeley Grange, Malpas, Cheshire

A restored, Grade II-listed Victorian country house with a terrace with stone steps leading down to a sunken garden, wildflower meadow and a pond. It has oak floors and period fireplaces. 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 receptions, kitchen, library, stables, 9.7 acres.

Price: £2.25m Savills 01244-323232

Tinley Lodge, Shipbourne, Tonbridge, Kent

A country house surrounded by gardens that include a large pond with a pontoon, a Japanese garden with a wildlife pond, decking, multiple seating areas and an outdoor kitchen. It has an open-plan dining kitchen and living area with an Aga and French doors leading onto a courtyard garden. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 receptions, study, 1-bed annexe, 2 studios, stables, paddocks, 8.01 acres.

Price: £4.95m Knight Frank 020-3967 7176

Barley Hill Farm, Combe St. Nicholas, Chard, Somerset

A Victorian former farmhouse with earlier origins set in large gardens that include two walled gardens, a wildlife garden with ponds, a wooden footbridge and wooded area adjoining a paddock and an orchard. 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 receptions, kitchen, 2-bed annexe, conservatory, office, dairy, 2-bed cottage, 1-bed coach house.

Price: £1.65m Knight Frank 01935-812236

Loughbrow House, Hexham, Northumberland

This late Victorian house is now in need of some renovation. The house is surrounded by landscaped gardens and set on a small estate that includes two cottages, a gate lodge, a pond, a sequence of small streams crossed by stone bridges, a walled garden with a greenhouse, woodland and a former quarry. 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 receptions, kitchen, reception hall, library, stables, grazing land, 31.4 acres.

Price: £2.1m+ Galbraith Group 01434-693693

Puddledock, Norden, Corfe, Dorset

Puddledock comprises a 200-year-old building incorporated into a contemporary state-of-the-art house with a deck running the length of the property that overlooks the wildlife ponds. It has vaulted, beamed ceilings and a modern wood-burning stove. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, reception, 7.06 acres.

Price: £2.25m Savills 01202-856873

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

The writer Bret Easton Ellis once said that his advice to young artists was simple – marry someone rich. The line holds true because, well, it's true. Ellis may be biased towards seeing the uglier logic of money – the way it quietly shapes outcomes while pretending not to – but in this case, the bleak diagnosis is backed up by the numbers.

The art market does not reliably sort by talent. It sorts by who can keep going, stay visible, absorb unpaid years, access the right rooms, and remain legible to collectors and institutions long enough for momentum to build. A striking statistic from the most recent Frieze London art fair is that just 7% of exhibiting artists came from working-class families.

This statistic is not saying “talented working-class artists are being excluded” (which would be bad enough). It is saying something harder – the conditions for becoming an artist are already filtered by class before the market even gets to pretend it is judging talent. Talent is not the organising force. Survival is.

Making the market see emerging art

I founded New Blood Art, a gallery, in 2004, because I could see a gap the market had not built a mechanism for – the gap between serious artists leaving art school and buyers who wanted thoughtful original work by credible emerging artists, but who had no reliable way of finding it and needed a trusted filter.

New Blood Art did not simply spot artists before the market noticed them. Rather, it created visibility, credibility and access for collectors at the point when a market around them did not yet exist.

Take artist Georgia Dymock. We introduced her at New Blood Art in 2020, just after her graduate diploma in fine art at University of the Arts London. We listed her painting Purple Pinch at £1,700. In April 2022, it sold on the secondary market at Phillips' “New Now” auction for £23,940 – a fourteen-fold increase in under two years. The fourteen-fold increase is exceptional. The pattern is not.

Across 22 years, New Blood Art has had many examples of artists first shown or supported early on, who later gained serious market traction. Without that initial platform, credibility, access for collectors and market context, would the later traction have happened in the same way, or at the same speed?

We can't say for certain that those artists wouldn't have garnered attention without New Blood Art. But the pattern across 22 years makes the question legitimate, and it becomes reasonable to argue that early visibility, credibility and access for collectors materially affected the speed or likelihood of later traction, alongside my ability to identify serious artists early.

What 22 years at New Blood Art taught me

The artists who survive long enough to build meaningful careers are usually those with some form of material protection – financial stability, housing security, helpful geography and, above all, the capacity to absorb years of low or unpaid work. Most art students leave college with debt, need to earn, and cannot afford the years that an art career takes to build. And when only a small group can afford to keep going, only a small group get to tell the story of the world. Whose stories have we lost from the history of art?

The economics of early-stage work

The second realisation is commercial, and perhaps it has taken me this long to see it clearly because New Blood Art arose out of idealism as much as being a business interest. Consider where Dymock's £22,000 uplift went. A modest resale royalty may have returned to the artist under Artist's Resale Right, but the larger gain went to the auction house and the early seller. Nothing returned to the platform that showcased and launched her.

That is the economics of early-stage work – the identification, advocacy and development that actually forms careers carries sustained cost, while the rewards concentrate later, elsewhere in the market. Yet if nobody does this work of launching serious artists, then these artists don't gain visibility. The work is essential, while structurally unpaid. My gallery has, in effect, carried a public-interest function that the economics of the sector never reflected.

Splitting New Blood Art in two

There have been personal costs, too. Sustaining an independent gallery for 22 years without venture capital, while also carrying early-stage artists' development work the emerging art market does not properly pay for, had become unsustainable. Professionally and personally, I needed to step back. I downsized, spent time in a Cornish fishing village, and began asking myself a stark question: was it possible to operate profitably in the emerging art market, while holding on to the values that made the business worth building in the first place?

What has come back from this reflective 18-month period is clarity. New Blood Art had been carrying too much inside one structure and I decided to separate the two kinds of work so both can function properly. The gallery has now become smaller, sharper and more commercially focused, with a tighter roster of contemporary artists, many of whom we first came across years ago at their degree shows. The New Blood Art Foundation is now in formation and it will carry the public-interest and outreach work, including the Emerging Art Prize in collaboration with Fine Art departments across the UK, artists' development, mentoring and, I hope, studios and residencies.

The cost of independence

The route to charitable status has been thought-provoking and demanding. It has forced me to separate mission, governance, money and power. A foundation growing out of New Blood Art cannot simply be a more worthy arm of the gallery; it has to be able to protect its own public-interest purpose, especially where the commercial gallery and the Foundation sit close together. That raises an uncomfortable question. The Foundation is being created to support artists without financial cushioning, inherited networks, or easy access to the art world. But serious governance also requires time, confidence, independence and security. An unpaid independent chair is not just structurally complicated, it is also difficult to find.

The chair needs to be competent in a specialist field, independent, available, committed, financially secure enough to work unpaid, and not personally or financially entangled with me or with New Blood Art. That is a very narrow pool.

A foundation built to address the fact that only the financially cushioned can sustain an art career finds that only the financially cushioned can afford to govern it. Unpaid governance, like unpaid studio years, is a filter.

Artists as infrastructure

The Foundation's long-term vision of permanent bases across the UK rests on a pattern MoneyWeek readers will recognise from the property sector. Developers have long used artists to warm up cold districts – King's Cross, Peckham, Hackney Wick, Deptford. Artists arrive. Creative presence generates cultural heat, footfall, interest from buyers and rising values. Then the studios close and the artists are priced out of the value they helped create.

That cycle is not only unfair; it is economically short-sighted. Artists are not decorative add-ons to regeneration. They are often the source of the atmosphere, identity and desirability that later becomes financial value – value which can dissipate once they are removed. Anchoring artists permanently, as cultural infrastructure, is the enlightened version of that trade – it holds the value where it was made. Housing artists is not philanthropy. It is investment.

This is the opportunity I want the Foundation to build towards – a structure where artists are held as part of the long-term cultural and economic life of a place. For philanthropists, developers, institutions and collectors, this is a chance to support practising emerging artists and bring live cultural energy into buildings and districts.

Artists shouldn't just be used to revive the discarded edges of cities. They should be embedded in places of existing power and value – Knightsbridge, the Square Mile, major corporate buildings, prime developments – because their presence is not remedial, but is inspiring and generative.

In an AI-shaped world, original human creation will become more valuable, not less. This is an invitation to philanthropists, developers and corporations to build with us the conditions where cultural life is visibly happening inside your buildings.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

It's 5.30pm and almost dusk as I sit by a lotus lake, sipping green tea and scribbling down some thoughts in a notebook. I'm writing a “Love letter to the Earth” – a few words of thanks and hope while a lady plays three large crystal singing bowls behind me. I fold the piece of paper carefully in four, place it into a lantern with a tea light, then gently lower it into the water. With a gentle push, I send it across the lake to float away into the night.

It's a simple, yet powerful, ritual. This small act of gratitude and acceptance is designed to connect guests with the “Interbeing” philosophy and Zen teachings of Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Part of the “Goodnight Kiss to the Earth” ceremony, it's a chance to pause, reflect and let go.

The Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai – on the outskirts of the Unesco town of Hoi An – has long championed wellness and finding a sense of calm. The award-winning Heart of the Earth Spa has become central to the guests' experience, drawing on local traditions and ritual-based practices. Its programme of alternative therapies, ceremonies and expert-led workshops is underpinned by Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings, and takes place in the main spa building or in independent lakeside pavilions overlooking the water, where each treatment begins with a salt foot scrub and a cup of herbal tea. It's a real sanctuary and, for me, a welcome retreat from the noise and crowds of Hoi An.

The tranquillity extends into the villas. Each night after dinner, I return to a candle flickering by my front door, and two more on either side of my bathtub. With no traffic noise around to disturb the peace, this is a rare luxury in a country that is seldom quiet. There's even a small singing bowl sitting on my desk.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the resort's Four Seasons rebrand. The resort was originally created according to the principles of phong thuy (Vietnamese feng shui). Entrances sit to the side rather than the front, huge vases containing water represent the feminine, and sit on square bases that represent the masculine. A series of stepping platforms – tiered swimming pools, stairs and pavilions – cascade down toward the beach. Nothing follows a straight line, everything is flowing.

Sixty suites and 45 standalone villas are spaced across 67 ares, arranged in U-shape clusters to catch the sea breeze. The style references the country's vernacular architecture – dark wood interiors, plenty of stone and local handicrafts. My one-bedroom villa has a back garden with outdoor shower, an open-plan living area, marble bathroom, and bedroom with handcrafted furniture and colourful textiles. The bed – a four-poster in the centre of the room on a raised platform – is surrounded by silk curtains.

Eat well at Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai

The resort's wellness-led approach is found in the dining options, too. Lunch at Lá Sen is a relaxed, open-air affair, where dishes span Vietnamese and French cuisines. I enjoy the “Buddha bowls”, which come with either salmon or tuna, and make for a refreshingly light lunch on a hot day, especially with a chilled glass of local kombucha. I try all the flavours – turmeric, spirulina, ginger and beetroot. I take a tour of the orchid house and the vast vegetable and herb gardens. Much of the produce makes its way to the resort's kitchens (a surplus of mangoes goes to the staff).

Afternoons pass in a rhythm of sea-swims and cycling – each villa comes with its own bikes and the resort's car-free paths make for unhurried pedalling between pool, spa and beach. Come dinner time, lanterns are glowing, candles are lit and the resort takes on a romantic atmosphere. I dine at Cafe Nam Hai, which is piloting a set menu of Indian dishes inspired by the royal Mughlai cuisine – aromatic pickles and sambals, delicately spiced salmon tikka, Cham Island prawn komar with coconut rice and a cooling buttermilk lassi. The tandoori pineapple for dessert is unmissable. It's one of the most memorable meals of the trip.

Another night, I sample the Japanese omakase counter at NAYUU, where chef Alex Moranda and his team prepare exquisite dishes according to the principles of gomi – the five elemental tastes of Japanese cuisine. Sushi and sashimi are prepared with fish and seafood from Tokyo's Toyosu Market, and paired with tea that balances the flavours perfectly.

A new addition to the dining scene is Sol & Sao, which houses the largest collection of sherries in Vietnam. As I sip a dry fino, I chat to Maryia Kryshko, the resort's assistant director of food and beverage. Our conversation drifts from sherry production to wine-tasting in Santorini and the rigours of the industry's exams.

A regular shuttle runs from the resort into the old town of Hoi An, famous for its centuries-old architecture, tailoring shops and the Japanese Bridge. It's particularly atmospheric in the evenings when traffic is limited and the town is more pedestrian-friendly. After a few hours of wandering the night market, eating gelati and soaking up the thrum of pottering tourists and puttering lantern boats on the river, the calm and stillness of the resort feels even more pronounced when I return. I run a candlelit bath and soak in the silence. My love letter is still out there somewhere, floating on the lotus lake. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that the present moment is the only one available to us. Here, at least, that feels true.

Katie was a guest of Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai. From around £500 a night, visit fourseasons.com/hoian for details.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Indigo Point, Great Camanoe, British Virgin Islands

A modern estate with three properties surrounded by landscaped gardens. There are no corporate or personal income taxes, or capital gains or inheritance taxes to pay. 2-bedroom main villa, 1-bedroom owner’s cottage, 1-bedroom guest cottage, pool, 2 boat slips, 4.4 acres.

Price: $5.5m Hamptons 020-8618 4551

Bolivia Mount, The Dhoor, Lezayre, Isle of Man

A distinctive property built in 1820 and surrounded by formal gardens and woodland. The Isle of Man operates a low-tax regime with low fixed income-tax rates and no capital gains, inheritance or wealth taxes. 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 receptions, 42.3 acres.

Price: £6.95m Knight Frank 020-7861 1065

Seaside Drive, Guana Cay, Abaco, Bahamas

An ocean-side residence featuring bright interiors with vaulted beamed ceilings, wood floors, floor-to -ceiling windows and an open-plan living area. The Bahamas operates a zero-tax jurisdiction with no personal or corporate income taxes, capital gains, wealth or inheritance taxes. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, gardens, tennis court, 2.1 acres.

Price: $4.8m Bahamas Sotheby’s International Realty +1 242 367 5046

Courtil Brock, St Peter Port, Guernsey

A fine Regency villa built in 1810, surrounded by landscaped gardens that include an English oak planted by the first owner in 1812. It has 12-foot high ceilings, grand fireplaces, shuttered sash windows, panelled walls and French doors leading onto the south-facing terrace. Guernsey levies a flat 20% personal income tax, and there are no corporate, capital gains, inheritance or wealth taxes to pay. 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 3 receptions, library, cinema.

Price: £4.9m Savills 01481-713463

Ordino, Andorra

A mountain home in Ordino in the Pyrenees. Although not strictly a tax haven, there are no wealth, inheritance or capital gains taxes to pay. The house has beamed ceilings and a partly covered terrace for outdoor dining. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, wine cellar.

Price: €3.15m Lucas Fox +376 775 077

Derry Farm, La Route Du Francfief, St Brelade, Jersey

A restored country house with modern bright interiors that retain original features, including marble fireplaces. The gardens include a stream and a swimming pool. Jersey imposes no capital gains, inheritance or corporate taxes, and has a fixed income-tax rate of 20%. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 receptions, library, 2-bedroom self-contained cottage, 1-bedroom flat.

Price: £7.75m Knight Frank 01534-877977

Shoreview Point, West Bay, Cayman Islands

A renovated home in a gated community, with its own dock on a canal leading out to the ocean. The interiors have marble floors, large picture windows and French doors leading onto the garden and pool. The Cayman Islands has a “tax neutral” status and levies no corporate, income, capital gains or property taxes. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, reception.

Price: $3.75m Savills 020-7016 3740

Lorne House, Castletown, Isle of Man

A grand Georgian estate, which was originally the official residence of the island’s lieutenant governor. The property has landscaped gardens, orchards and paddocks and a restored walled garden overlooking Castle Rushen, a medieval coastal castle. The Isle of Man operates a low-tax regime with low fixed income-tax rates and no capital gains, inheritance or wealth taxes. 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 4 receptions, 6.5 acres.

Price: £6.85m The London Broker 020-7193 9969

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Three years ago, Chanel chose Manchester over London for its Métiers D'Art fashion show. Soho House opened its doors in November on the site of the former Granada Studios. And for the first time, the Brit Awards ventured beyond the capital for their star-studded ceremony earlier this year. For a city with industry at its heart, Manchester is certainly holding its own in the glamour and style stakes.

As you approach 100 King Street – the address of The Rex, Edwin Lutyens's white Portland stone Art-Deco masterpiece, opposite a Vivienne Westwood boutique – you know you're in for a treat.

The Grade II*-listed building that once housed Midland Bank's Manchester headquarters isn't nicknamed “The King of King Street” for nothing. Once among the city's tallest buildings, it still stands proud and majestic. The Rex is now a five-star luxury hotel and private members' club, formerly known as Hotel Gotham, having opened in April after a refurbishment.

No feature feels accidental, from period details to quirky eclectic touches that nod to the building's history. There is, for example, a ceiling of umbrellas hanging upside down in the foyer, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Manchester weather. You're greeted on the fifth-floor reception by “Albert”, a life-size cardboard sculpture created by artist James Lake (and now the hotel's mascot). Elsewhere, vintage typewriters adorn a wall in one of the dining areas, having been discovered in the building's bank vaults during the renovation.

We sat down to afternoon tea (£35 per person), while a piano played in the background. The pretty wildflower and butterfly-patterned tea service was a bright and uplifting diversion from the overcast Sunday outside. From a 12-strong Ceylon tea menu, I chose a refreshing yet subtly distinctive white tea called “Silver Tips”, tempted as I was by “Planters' Mistress”, “a scandalous take on a much-cherished aristocratic classic”.

Walking down the hotel's iconic stairwell (which is as popular with bridal photographers as TV and film location scouts), you'll spot the initials “MB” for “Midland Bank” in the original ironwork – a stylish reminder of the building's origins.

As a lifelong Smiths fan, I couldn't help but smile on seeing that my room was called “The Morrissey”. Other rooms were called “The Burgess” and “The Sumner” – all named for iconic Mancunians who shaped the city's cultural scene. These rooms have toiletries by Urban Apothecary, retro-inspired Roberts radios and handmade biscuits, chocolate-covered strawberries and truffles from Slattery, a local, family-run chocolatier.

Deep in the foundations of the building are two rather special event spaces. “Treasury” is a sophisticated area, hidden in the former bank vaults, complete with a stage, a bar and its original tiling. It lends an air of exclusivity and character to any occasion. You can hire the former counting room for a private screening or cabaret performance, party or conference with a twist. The “Strongroom” is the other gem, secreted away behind the bank's original vault doors. The centrepiece of this playfully stylish interior is a dining table that seats 20 people and converts into a full-size snooker table.

Sample gin from the Western Isles

A highlight of my stay was the gin tasting, showcasing the sustainable practices and focus on craft that defines North Uist Distillery, a three-time Scottish Gin Distillery of the Year winner, based in the Outer Hebrides. Sara, our “ambassador”, explained the founders Jonny Ingledew and Kate Macdonald's philosophy as she talked us through their Downpour range of gins.

We sampled the Scottish Dry, featuring wild Hebridean heather that islanders forage and exchange for gin via the team's barter system. We tried the more citrus Coast & Croft, which relies on hand-gathered pepper-dulse seaweed to give it an umami flavour (great in a dirty martini). We also tasted a pink-grapefruit option and a delicious sloe gin, ideal for Christmas, or a negroni – or a drizzly Sunday evening.

Our evening feast still awaited us – a five-course tasting menu at Reign, The Rex's two-AA Rosette fine-dining restaurant (£65 per person, food only). Standout dishes included the Argentinian prawn with white crab and spicy Kewpie (Japanese mayonnaise), served with a delicious La Marimorena albariño wine from Galicia in northwest Spain; and a gorgeous lamb cannon on spinach, with barbecued grapes. Never really “a dessert person”, I was converted by the Fabergé yoghurt mousse, covered in finely sliced kumquat, with a delicate crushed almond crumb and red-berry coulis.

Upon waking up to a brighter morning, I took some fresh air on one of the three heated roof terraces. Each extends out from Reserve, a sixth-floor private members' club, and offers a different vantage point over the city. Ours looked out to the rolling hills of the Peak District.

The Rex is conveniently located, irrespective of your reason for visiting Manchester. Many high-end boutiques and jewellers are on the doorstep, with the high street a few blocks away. If business draws you here, the financial district in Spinningfields is just around the corner. If you want to visit the boutiques of the Northern Quarter, or the trendy coffee shops and bars of Ancoats, or the various cultural must-sees, you can easily take a short walk to get there – 15 minutes or so – and you will arrive at one of the city centre's distinctive neighbourhoods.

Sam was a guest of The Rex. Private club membership starts from £900 a year. Nightly rates start from £179 on a B&B basis, visit rexhotel.co.uk.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

The market in Old Masters paintings has been given a new lease of life. In the first half of this year, Christie's made $183 million from the sale of paintings created before 1850 – a 232% year-on-year increase after a long period of declining sales.

That's partly thanks to a new, younger cohort of collectors. Of the new clients of Christie's attending all sales in the first six months of 2026, the auction house described 47% as “millennial/Gen Z”, up from 45% a year earlier. At rivals Phillips, “nearly one-third” of new buyers were “millennial and Gen Z collectors”.

Earlier this month, Old Master artworks sold for a combined £51.3 million at Sotheby's in London, including £8 million for a rare, early Rembrandt. The “results represent a resounding endorsement of the power of Old Masters to captivate collectors across generations”, said Elisabeth Lobkowicz, head of Old Masters at Sotheby's.

Until recently, Old Masters paintings had been a “backwater for scholarly private collectors and institutions seeking to fill gaps”, says Emma Crichton-Miller in the Financial Times. Most of the “best pictures by all the best artists” had already been snapped up by museums and the market entered a lull due to the dearth of exciting, big-name artworks. Younger buyers are helping to solve that problem, because they are, as Crichton-Miller puts it, “untrammelled by tradition”. They are often seeking works by lesser-known or overlooked Old Masters, such as the 17th-century female painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Why are Old Masters so popular?

Another attraction is that many of these artworks are relatively more affordable compared with modern and contemporary art. “For $250,000, you can buy a painting that could hang in the Louvre, but $10 million gets you a bad Picasso,” Patrick Williams, a gallerist in New York, tells The Economist. “Portraits and figurative art [in particular] are in vogue, because they are Instagrammable,” notes the paper. “People spend so much time looking at pictures of other people on social media that they are primed to connect to painted ones.” These younger buyers are attracted to the authenticity and simplicity of a bygone age – notwithstanding the “revolutions, plagues and awful dentistry”.

As for desired themes, religious and, as the FT puts it, examples of “Dutch Protestant domesticity” are out; the weird and wonderful are in – “‘difficult subjects' such as beheadings or martyrdoms,” for instance. On 30 June, a 17th-century Dutch painting by an unknown artist of two skulls sold for £431,000 with Christie's in London – 440% more than the low pre-sale estimate. Many wealthy younger collectors made their money in the ever-changing world of technology, and they have shown a propensity to mix and match eras and styles. As art advisor Evan Beard tells Margaret Carrigan on Artnet, “I can see the skull painting very at home in a collection with some [modern skull paintings by Gerhard Richter]”.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Barton Olivers, Burton Bradstock, Bridport, Dorset

A Victorian villa with uninterrupted views over the sea and a garden with a gate opening onto the coastal path. It has open fireplaces and a kitchen with French doors leading onto a terrace. 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 receptions, indoor swimming pool, 2.96 acres.

Price: £3m Knight Frank 01935-810064

Harbour Island, Crinan, Lochgilphead, Argyll & Bute

A renovated, contemporary house and cabin on a private island off the coast of Lochgilphead. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, an open-plan dining kitchen and a raised deck. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, office, 2 receptions, conservatory, 9.7 acres.

Price: £1.25m+ Savills 0141-222 5875

Mount Severn, Freshwater East, Pembrokeshire

A modernist house situated in the woods above Freshwater East Beach. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, wood-burning stoves, an open-plan dining kitchen and living area with bi-fold doors leading onto a terrace and a two-bedroomroom apartment. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, receptiontion, office, garden room, studio, heated swimming pool.

Price: £1.5m Country Living Group 01437-616101

Rosebank, Dartmouth, Devon

A renovated house in a commanding position on the banks of the River Dart. It comes with its own boat house. The house has vaulted, beamed ceilings, arched sash windows, wood floors, period fireplace and a sun room with far-reaching views over the Dart Estuary. The gardens include a terrace and a decked area. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining kitchen/living area, sun room, porch, balcony, boat house, terraces, gardens.

Price: £1.75m Savills 01548-800462

Malindi, Eastcliff, Cornwall

An energy-efficient house surrounded by gardens that include steps leading down to Porthtowan Beach. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, bi-fold doors, polished concrete floors and an open-plan kitchen. 2 bedrooms, bathroom, dressing room.

Price: £1.55m The Modern House 020-3795 5920

Aline Estate, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides

An 18th-century lodge on a sporting estate overlooking Loch Seaforth and the Isle of Skye. It comes with its own island, fishing rights and red-deer stalking. 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 receptions, study, staff bedroom, kitchen, sunroom, 3 cottages, cottage occupied by the estate gamekeeper, outbuildings, boathouse and slipway, industrial pier, woodland, 8,202 acres.

Price: £4m+ Strutt & Parker 0131-226 2500

King Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

A renovated, four-storey townhouse situated on the seafront overlooking the beach. It has exposed brickwork, arched windows, period fireplaces, modern wood-burning stoves, a plywood staircase, bespoke kitchen and a balcony on the top floor that commands wide-ranging views over the North Sea. 2 bedrooms, bathroom, receptiontion, dining kitchen, study.

Price: £775,000 The Modern House 020-3795 5920

Sea Road, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent

A four-storey, New England-style house situated on the seafront on the North Kent coast in the centre of West Bay, overlooking the sandy beach. The house has a central oak staircase, a large dining kitchen and a south-facing garden with a heated swimming pool and pool house with bi-fold doors and a kitchen area. 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 receptions, cinema room, laundry, gym, double garage, terraces, heated swimming pool.

Price: £1.75m Miles & Barr 01843-844899

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Travel firm Expedia has experienced the rough and the smooth of recent turbulence in the travel industry.

America’s war on Iran has raised the price of jet fuel, and higher prices at the pumps have compounded a cost-of-living crisis that has prompted many to wonder whether they can even afford to take a holiday.

More broadly, however, the industry continues to enjoy a post-pandemic boom, while a further tailwind is the increasing propensity (among younger people in particular) to prioritise experiences over possessions.

Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) has two main businesses. Around two-thirds of the group's revenues come from a range of consumer-facing websites that help customers book hotel rooms and car rentals, including Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Vrbo.com and CarRentals.com. However, in recent years, a growing proportion of its revenue has come from supplying the technical infrastructure that allows hotels, car-hire companies and other firms to manage their bookings.

Expedia isn't threatened by AI

After tripling in three years, Expedia's shares swooned at the start of this year. Markets were buffeted by the current conflict in the Gulf and concerned that AI could carry out much of Expedia's work automatically. In the worst-case scenario, developments in “agentic AI” would allow people to type a few prompts into a chatbot, which would then automatically book a holiday with the best prices, completely bypassing the need for comparison websites such as the one Expedia runs.

However, such fears seem overblown. While an increasing number of people seem willing to rely on chatbots to provide advice about what to see, few would trust it enough to allow it to book hotel rooms on their behalf, even if such software merged. Large companies are even less likely to trust a chatbot to oversee the distribution of hotel rooms and flights for their staff. At the same time, Expedia's exclusivity agreements with several hotel chains and airlines such as no-frills carrier Allegiant Travel provide a degree of security. Expedia is also examining how it can use AI to enhance its own operations.

The group has a strong record, with profits more than quadrupling since 2022. Expedia also has strong operating margins, with a return on capital employed of more than 30%, allowing it to raise dividends and buy back $5 billion of shares while growing sales at a double-digit pace. Despite this fast growth, Expedia appears relatively cheap, with the shares on only 12 times 2027 earnings.

Investors' confidence in Expedia seems to have recovered: the stock is up 33% from its low of early 2026, and is now close to its 52-week high. It is are also above both its 50-and 200-day moving averages. I would therefore go long on Expedia at the current price of $268 at £9 per $1. Put the stop-loss at $168, giving you a total downside of £900.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

“These mountains to the right are the northern tip of the Alps, and they are actually in Germany. And over there is the Eagle's Nest, a chalet perched on a mountaintop, which was Hitler's 50th birthday present.” We are getting a history and geography lesson from our taxi driver as we set off from Salzburg airport. Our children, aged seven and nine, have never seen the Alps before or visited Austria or Germany, so this is a triple whammy of excitement. The scenery and clean mountain air as our people carrier climbs ever higher is a welcome break from the London heatwave we have escaped.

Our destination is Moar Gut, a family resort an hour from Salzburg, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Hohe Tauern National Park. It's early summer, and my husband and I take in the big blue sky, lush green mountains, traditional chalets, the sound of cow bells as livestock wander around, and pretty wildflowers. Look closer and you'll spot ponies, tractors, rivers and waterfalls – a rural idyll if you will.

The hotel continues this theme with its swimming lake, riding stable and organic farm. Family-run by the Kendlbacher family since 1995, Moar Gut is a ten-hectare, car-free resort, blending luxury with nature. It offers activities all year round. In the warmer months, that means swimming, cycling, hiking, archery, horse riding and tennis.

We check into our stylish suite, which has a Scandinavian feel with wooden ceiling and floor, and a kids' bedroom with bunk beds. And then, we're off to explore. First, a swim. We jump into the lake. It's certainly refreshing. Our daughter spots tadpoles, and I take a moment to admire the yellow irises, woodland geraniums and sea thrifts growing nearby.

To warm up, there are two heated pools – one inside and one outside. Our son enjoys the family sauna and the steep, metal wasserrutsche – a pure adrenaline rush of a water slide. Later, we sign the kids up for archery, and my husband and I relax in the adults-only spa, switching between the whirlpool and steam room.

Family friendly fun at Moar Gut

There's plenty to do here, and the resort feels friendly and safe, meaning our children wander off to pet the rabbits, play basketball or hang out in the teenagers' den with video games. There's trampolining too, and a gym plus yoga and reformer pilates classes for the grown-ups.

Moar Gut aims to be perfect for intergenerational families and we meet one from southeast England with three generations ranging in age from five to 85. It is their third visit. It has got busier each time, they tell me, and now there are more British families (the secret is out, perhaps!), but they still love it.

It is our first time, and I think it feels exclusive with impeccable service. There are 46 family rooms and two double rooms and 110 staff. This means whether you want to ask someone about the best hiking routes, find out whether there's peanut in the dessert (our daughter has an allergy), or order an Austrian sparkling wine or even a cigar in the evening, you can always ask.

The resort is full-board with breakfast and lunch buffets, and a gourmet à la carte dinner for the adults (the kids get a buffet). Guests can order extras at a price, such as escargots, oysters and fondue.

At lunch we try traditional fare such as mushroom goulash and beef broth. Our son loved the beetroot dumplings with pesto and goat's cheese, while our daughter had second helpings of the farmhouse doughnuts with apricot jam. There's also fish fingers and pizza, which should suit the fussier kids, and a baby bar with freshly prepared purées.

The childcare is excellent. The kids' club is open from 9am to 9pm for those ranging from 30 days' old to teenagers. Our kids make some friends on an afternoon picnic for those aged seven and up, and meet up again the next evening for a mocktail-making session.

There's enough to do in Moar Gut, but we were keen to see more of the national park (Austria's oldest and biggest), so we headed out on a 1.5-hour guided waterfall hike. My smartphone quickly filled up as I took dozens of photos of the eye-popping scenery. If our holiday had been a film, it would surely be The Sound of Music with a dash of James Bond. The hills were, indeed, alive, and very beautiful. But inside Moar Gut there were 007 moments, such as the underground labyrinth connecting the buildings and some of the interior design. Think masculine luxury with sweeping curves, charcoal walls and expansive floor-to-ceiling glass. The car park full of black Audis added a certain Bond villain touch too.

Our stay was drawing to a close, and we all felt well-rested and well-fed, but also energised by the magic of Moar Gut and its extraordinary Alpine setting. If you're looking for somewhere a bit fresher this summer, a respite from hot, sticky cities and sweltering beaches, this is a first-class choice for a family holiday.

Ruth was a guest of Moar Gut. From €630 for a double room and €2,800 for a luxury suite, including full board and childcare. Visit moargut.com.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Chelvey Court, Backwell, Bristol

A Grade II-listed, 17th-century house currently arranged as two independent homes and a two-bedroom flat. It has a Jacobean staircase and carved stone fireplaces. 9 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, kitchen, 2 receptions, study, barn, summer house, landscaped gardens, orchard, 5.53 acres.

Price: £1.95m+ Knight Frank 01173-171996

Carestown Steadings, Deskford, Buckie, Banffshire, Scotland

A large property close to the Moray Firth. It has vaulted ceilings and a conservatory. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 4 receptions, kitchen, breakfast room, study, indoor swimming pool with sauna, 2-bed cottage, outbuilding with offices, 5.4 acres.

Price: £1.995m+ Strutt & Parker 01463-723595

North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex

A renovated, Grade II-listed 15th-century townhouse with an extension to the rear adding a bespoke kitchen and living area with sliding doors leading onto a courtyard garden. The house retains its beamed ceilings and panelled walls, and has open fireplaces with wood-burning stoves. 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, guest en-suite bed, 2 receptions, cinema room, roof terrace.

Price: £1.85m Fine & Country 01243-908077

The Grange, West Burton, Leyburn, North Yorkshire

A Grade II-listed, 18th-century house overlooking a river. It comes with three two-bedroom apartments in a converted Grade II-listed stable block, which are currently run as holiday lets. The house has open fireplaces and a large, bespoke dining kitchen with an Aga. 9 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 4 receptions, secondary kitchen, garages, mature gardens and pond bordering Walden Beck.

Price: £1.895m Savills 01904-617821

The Downs Barn & The Downs Barn Lodge, Frampton Mansell, Gloucestershire

A former barn with a 17th-century arched, panelled entrance. It has beamed ceilings, open fireplaces and comes with a detached, two-bedroom lodge. 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, reception, 2 kitchens, 1-bed annexe, swimming pool, paddocks, woodland, 5 acres.

Price: £1.95m Murrays Estate Agents 01453-755552

The Old Vicarage, Tintagel, Cornwall

A refurbished Grade II-listed, mid-17th-century former vicarage and attached cottage on the edge of Tintagel. It has wood-burning stoves and a bespoke kitchen and conservatory leading onto landscaped gardens that include a kitchen garden and a stream crossed by a slate bridge. 7 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 receptions, gym, 17th-century gate house, deconsecrated chapel, 3 acres.

Price: £1.85m Rohrs & Rowe 01872-306360

Griffin House, Swerford, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

This 15th-century, Grade II-listed William and Mary house was rebuilt in 1691. It has oak mullion leaded-light windows, window seats, exposed timbers, flagstone floors, oak panelling and open fireplaces. The gardens include a range of outbuildings and a natural swimming pool with a pontoon. 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 receptions, breakfast kitchen, cinema and games room, triple garage with studio flat above, 1.2 acres.

Price: £1.95m Savills 01295-228000

Constance Close, London SW15

This house has been redesigned to include a Western Red Cedar-clad extension with an open-plan kitchen and living area with French doors leading onto the garden. The turret includes a bedroom with panoramic views over Richmond Park, and it has an office at the end of the garden. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, study, garage, air-source heat pump, solar panels.

Price: £1.9m Knight Frank 0203-8239255

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

S antorini has a well-established sunset industry. Not in the sense of an industry in decline. Quite the opposite. The business of watching the sun melt into the sea is booming on the Greek island. Upwards of three million people visit Santorini every year and the majority head to the northern tip of this crescent-shaped island, to the pretty little village of Oia.

That Oia is pretty and little is both its blessing and its curse – the narrow streets get very congested in summer. Each day, as the sun starts its slow descent towards the waves, something very strange happens – women in wedding dresses appear in the church square and in front of clifftop vistas, ready to be photographed. Brides are everywhere.

It's all a con, of course. Most of these women aren't getting married any more than the sun is really dipping below the horizon. It just looks that way. They all crave the “perfect shot”, because whereas Oia would once have been described as “picturesque”, today it is “Instagrammable” for the TikTok generation.

Bridal veils fluttering in the breeze before the blue domes of those famous white churches – it's a well-worn cliché in the age of social media, an illusion that everybody wants to own and to say they've “done” the sunset in Santorini. If beauty can be commoditised, this is what it looks like.

Sea views everywhere at Icon Villa

The thing is, Oia – and the rest of Santorini for that matter – is beautiful. You just don't have to wilt in the baking heat, pretending to the camera you are having a good time, to see it. Instead, grab yourself the front-row VIP seats to nature's greatest spectacle by staying in Icon Villa, one of two new villas by the Santo Collection.

The main feature of the villa viewed from above (aside from the Icon Villa follows the pattern of clean lines and natural materials volcanic-stone “tower” housing the reception area and one of the four bedrooms at the top) is the expansive terrace off to the side. It offers panoramic sea views and an infinity pool (yes, sunset-facing), along with a hot tub, sun loungers, sofas, a covered dining table and an outdoor kitchen with a fridge.

From this terrace, make your way down via a curving flight of stairs to another, smaller terrace with seating, a fire pit and a second, larger hot tub. (For brevity, I shall stop stating whether a particular area has sea views on the understanding that it probably does.)

Through the first of two patio doors, you come to the sitting area of a large bedroom, where the white ceiling curves inwards. The grotto-feel is accentuated by a rough-stone wall, mimicking cave rock, while alcoves provide the nooks and crannies. Dotted about are glassware and pottery objects. It feels at once cosy and primitive – a cool sanctuary from the heat.

The other bedrooms are decorated in a similar way and all have en-suite bathrooms with showers, including this one. The top-floor “tower” bedroom has the benefit of a bath tub and a balcony.

Walking along the cavelike corridor, you come to Icon's impressively equipped gym, which has cutting-edge running and rowing machines, various weights and, outside in a private space, a multigym. Here, you will also find a massage table and a sauna.

One floor up from the gym/spa is the sitting room, with its huge TV, and behind this room is the main kitchen with an induction hob, oven and everything you might need. Coffee and teas (including

English breakfast – always a good sign) are provided, along with a few other essentials. For breakfast, you can enjoy the restaurant up at sister property Santo Pure’s ample buffet spread by following the rimidi (cobbled paths) up to the resort, where you can, if you wish, also have a wonderful dinner of traditional Greek dishes.

Savour the moment

But who would blame you for wanting to make use of the cooking facilities in your villa and eat al fresco on the terrace while admiring the you-know-what? The sunsets viewed from here, especially through the filter of your chilled glass of wine, really are spectacular – and with none of the crowds of tourists clinging to the cliffs of Oia like so many mountain goats in bridal attire. As you look out west, there is even a pretty little Greek chapel in the foreground to break-up the horizon. You might almost say it is “Instagrammable”.

Chris was a guest of Santo Collection. The Villas by Santo Collection start from £5,978 for three nights (three-night stay minimum) for a four-bedroom pool villa with sunset and sea views, including breakfast and transfers. Visit santocollection.gr for details.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Yeomans Drive, Aston, Stevenage, Hertfordshire

A Grade II-listed Georgian former coach house with a Flemish-brickwork façade, round-headed windows, and a wooden clock turret. The gardens include a swimming pool heated by an air-source heat pump. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, reception, garage with studio annexe above.

Price: £1.5m Hamptons 01992-874223

Redcastle Farmhouse, Great Barton, Suffolk

A Grade II-listed, 16th-century house set in landscaped gardens with a moat, swimming pool, tennis court and a Grade II-listed dovecote. It has beamed ceilings, an inglenook fireplace and a bespoke kitchen. 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 receptions, study, paddocks, 5.3 acres.

Price: £1.5m+ Bedfords 01284-769999

School Farm Barn, Maxstroke, Warwickshire

A converted grain store with landscaped gardens that include a natural swimming pool planted with water lilies. The house has a large open-plan area with a nine-metre high ceiling, a bespoke kitchen, oak floors and floor-to-ceiling sliding doors leading onto a terrace. 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, office, garage, workshop, 0.5 acres.

Price: £2m The Modern House 020-3795 5920

Lower House, Redditch, Worcestershire

A Grade II-listed, 1560s house surrounded by gardens that include a range of traditional outbuildings and a heated swimming pool with a built-in Hydrastar jet function. The house has exposed wall and ceiling timbers, some of which originally came from 13th-century ships, leaded-light windows and a kitchen with an Aga and French doors leading onto a terrace. 5 bedrooms, bathroom, 2 kitchens, 2 receptions.

Price: £1.4m Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

Viola Hill, Petersfield, Hampshire

A contemporary house completed in 2025 in the South Downs National Park with a deck running the length of the house, a swimming pool with an electric cover, a tennis court and an outdoor kitchen. The house has open-plan living areas, floor-to-ceiling windows and a living area with a soaring, vaulted ceiling and a wood-fired stove. 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, reception, cinema room, games room, 7.8 acres.

Price: £5.75m Strutt & Parker 01428-788670

Nant Isa, Rhyd-y-Foel, Conwy

A 17th-century rural property with a converted barn, formal gardens with a swimming pool and woodland and paddocks beyond. It has beamed ceilings, inglenook fireplaces with wood-burning stoves and a large kitchen with an Aga. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 receptions, study, 2 kitchens, 3-bedroom barn, conservatory, garage, outbuildings, orchard, woods, 27.2 acres.

Price: £1.25m Fisher German 01244-409660

Foster House, Romney Marsh, Kent

A New England-style house on the Kent/East Sussex border close to Rye and Camber Sands. It has landscaped gardens with wildflower areas, an outdoor swimming pool with two cabins, a pool house and a studio. The main house has a covered veranda, beamed ceilings, open fireplaces and French doors leading onto a terrace. 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, open-plan kitchen/living area, barn, 3 acres.

Price: £2.25m The Modern House 020-3795 5920

Howe House Farm, Beckwithshaw, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

A Grade II-listed house with terraces leading to a heated swimming pool and covered outdoor kitchen. It has beamed ceilings and a kitchen with an Aga. 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 2 receptions, leisure wing, equestrian buildings, floodlit manège, paddocks, 19 acres.

Price: £3.95m Knight Frank 01423-222077

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Flexjet, the private aviation operator, has teamed up with Formula 1 as an official supplier. To find out what that means in practice, Flexjet invited MoneyWeek to watch the sprint qualifying at Silverstone last Friday, before the British Grand Prix held on Sunday. Naturally, this being Flexjet, half the fun was in getting there – by helicopter.

Ensconced in the leather-trim cabin of Flexjet's own Sikorsky S-76 helicopter – whirring over the fields of Northamptonshire on the way to the famous racing circuit (55 miles from London as the chopper flies) – it set me to wondering while gazing out of the window… which is faster, a modern F1 car of the type driven by Lewis Hamilton or a Sikorsky S-76?

Inside Flexjet's Sikorsky S-76

An hour or so before vertical takeoff, I had arrived at London Heliport in Battersea to find the lounge busy with genuine fans of sport and those just out for the summer season, mixed in with odd clusters of business types. One of the first things you will notice about London Heliport is that it isn't very big. From the lounge, I watched a small helicopter with skids hover a few feet off the ground, then squeeze past a much larger helicopter to inch its way out over the Thames, whence it ascended to the heavens.

Nobody around me seemed to notice. I figured they were probably used to it. Passengers waited with cups of coffee and glasses of English fizz to be buzzed into Wimbledon and, as I would soon be, the British Grand Prix. It was a busy day in the British sporting calendar. But as much as I would have wanted it otherwise, the thing that struck me was how normal everyone looked. No audacious tiaras, top hats or high heels. No footballers, billionaires or Logan Roys barking orders to their cowed subordinates.

The choppers arrived like bees. One helicopter would descend over the River Thames, then creep into the hive, to be followed shortly by another. I was to be “hot-loaded”, I was told – that is, I would be boarding the helicopter while the rotor blades were still spinning. There is, I was told, no danger – it's just a bit loud. The heliport was simply too busy for the chopper to power down. I clambered in, conscious of the blades spinning a few feet above my head. But once inside, it was lovely.

This particular Sikorsky had been decked out in Flexjet's Phantom trim – dark-hued seats and a creamy white ceiling, all in leather. It had the look and feel of an executive car, which is very much the point. Thanks to the cabin's noise-cancelling design, there is no need for headphones and you can chat easily enough with your neighbour. It is only the whirr of the engine and the tips of the spinning blades visible out of the window – along with the tree tops and tiny houses – that remind you of where you are. In fact, this workhorse, the S-76, which first flew in 1977, has two engines and its safety record is excellent. But the hot weather that has “blessed” Britain this summer doesn't help – the engines have less oxygen and there are fewer air molecules for the rotor blades to “grip”. So, our party was slimmed down to six people. Usually a helicopter such as this can carry eight passengers, plus the two pilots.

The private aviation sector has taken off

The private aviation sector has soared since the pandemic began, with the number of flights taken anywhere in the world rising 4.6% in 2025 from a year earlier, according to data firm WingX. Flyers are also getting younger. “Our average age has dropped ten years. I can see right now a significant impact from… AI wealth,” Andrew Collins, Flexjet's global CEO, tells the Financial Times.

Another trend is the recent spate of collaboration between companies working in the luxury sector. In addition to F1, Flexjet has partnered with Ferretti Yachts and France's LVMH.

Luxurious, yes, but, to be sure, flying private isn't the most environmentally friendly way to travel. So, all of the helicopter flights Flexjet will undertake as part of its partnership with F1 will use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is made from vegetable oils and other materials. It is less polluting than conventional aviation fuel. This mirrors the way in which F1 has sought to reduce its own carbon footprint, aiming to achieve net zero by 2040. Flexjet also offsets the carbon emissions generated by its European fleet by 300%. New technology, such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which are just now taking to the skies, promises to minimise the effect on the environment even further.

A day at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone

Like a coiled snake in the grass, the circuit of Silverstone hoved into view 25 minutes after leaving Battersea. I could already make out the fans, dressed in all the colours of the teams, packed into the stands as the helicopter descended. The Sikorsky's undercarriage met the grass without so much as a bump. The door was flung open and we were out in the sunshine, being ushered into the terminal where more fizz awaited, along with a London black cab to take us to the track-side House 44 – the premium hospitality suite backed by Lewis Hamilton – that sits upstairs in the F1 Paddock Club at the end of the pit lane.

The sprint qualifying for the sprint race that would be held the next day was Friday's main event. The sprint race is a 100km dash and a truncated version of the full-fat British Grand Prix on Sunday. Drivers have a limited time to set the fastest lap and the fastest drivers of the sprint race earn themselves a few points towards their championship ambitions.

But Silverstone is almost as much about the festive atmosphere as it is about the cars. There was a DJ in the Paddock Club, racing simulators, places to buy “merch” as well as bars and snacks. I spent much of the day working my way through the cocktail menu and glimpsing the cars screaming past the observation deck.

British former racing driver David Coulthard popped in for a chat and we were lucky enough to be shown round the paddock (where the teams pitch up for the weekend) by Jamaican racing-car driver Sara Misir. There was also an opportunity to tour the pit lane – some of the activities that are available to “Owners” on Flexjet's Red Label programme.

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap in the sprint qualifying. He covered the 3.66 miles of a single lap in just one minute, 28 seconds and 593 milliseconds. To go back to my original question of which is faster – Hamilton's Ferrari SF-26 or my Sikorsky S-76, I'm afraid the Ferrari wins. If the track were stretched out in a straight line, it would take Hamilton, driving at the car's top speed of 217mph, one minute to cover the distance, outpacing the 178mph Sikorsky by almost 14 seconds (or so AI tells me). So, there you have it. Hitching a ride with Hamilton may be the fastest way to get around Silverstone. But for getting to the British Grand Prix, you can't beat a Flexjet helicopter for comfort and speed.

About Flexjet

Flexjet operates on the basis of fractional ownership. You buy a share of an aircraft – a Gulfstream G650 or a Praetor 600, say – and that translates into flying hours. (Other fees apply, such as to cover indirect expenses.) That also means the price per hour varies. For those who would like to try Flexjet's services before jumping in, there is the Jet Card, which acts as a prepaid card, with flights charged at an hourly rate. Red Label is Flexjet's top-tier offering and comes with perks such as behind-the-scenes “experiences” at Silverstone. And there is the Helicopter Access Programme, which begins at 25 hours of flying time a year, and the Helicopter Card – perfect for those who want to take the hassle out of commuting.

Visit Flexjet.com to find out more.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

It's become a cliché to describe a collectable that's hard to find as a “holy grail”. You don't often read about something being an “unholy grail”. But if there was ever such a collectable up for sale – at least in the eyes of England fans – it's the captain's armband Diego Maradona was wearing when he punched the ball into the England net during the World Cup on 22 June 1986. That infamous “Hand of God” goal put Argentina 1-0 up early in the second half, and England went home at the end of the match – while Argentina went on to win the tournament. “A little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God,” was how Maradona cheekily put it after the whistle. The armband appears as part of “The Beautiful Game” sale, held by Sotheby's in New York, which runs until 16 July. The highest bid as of late last week was $100,000, with days to go.

A less controversial lot in the sale is the remarkably small number-ten shirt that a 17-year-old Pelé wore while scoring two goals against Sweden in the World Cup final in 1958, which Brazil won 5-2. Almost 70 years after that match, Pelé remains the youngest-ever player to appear in a World Cup final, and Sotheby's expects that shirt to sell for at least $6 million, according to The Guardian. That would make it the most expensive single item of football memorabilia sold at auction.

The current record holder? The Argentina shirt that Maradona was wearing while scoring with “divine assistance”. It sold for an eye-watering $9.3 million in 2022. And recently, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions revealed it will be selling the actual ball in August. That one defies valuation. As Heritage says, the sports collectables market has been booming.

Japan's World Cup jersey sales soar

Football fever is apparent in other sales rooms, too. Sotheby's archrival Christie's is taking a decidedly left-field approach to celebrating the World Cup by selling five giant metallic football art installations, on 17 July, in New York. The works are currently on display across New York and New Jersey and a portion of the proceeds will go towards good causes.

Northamptonshire-based Budds (formerly Graham Budd Auctions) sold dozens of match-worn shirts from past tournaments this week, while more vintage tops can be found online with Dutch online auctioneer MatchWornShirt.

It might be worth keeping an eye out for one from Japan, as Eru Ishikawa notes on Bloomberg. Sales of this year's Japan away shirt have risen 29-fold compared with sales from the 2022 Qatar World Cup – and they have doubled for the home shirt – according to the manufacturer, Adidas. But good luck finding one. The adult replica shirts on the Adidas website in Japan, priced at ¥13,200 (£60) each, have sold out. Japan may already have been knocked out of this year's World Cup, but at least its fans will be left holding on to something longer lasting.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Three luxury summer destinations

Sail on Lake St. Moritz

St. Moritz in the Swiss Alps was originally known as a summer destination before the skiers arrived, thanks to its fresh air, cooler altitude and outdoor activities. In a bid to reclaim that heritage, Badrutt's Palace Hotel in the resort town is giving guests the chance to sail on Lake St. Moritz in July and August in the hotel's own private sailboat.

Explore the crystalline waters of the beautiful Upper Engadin Valley with a skipper or on your own and gain an alternative perspective on the Swiss Alps that is not defined by winter sports. Thanks to the Maloja wind that sweeps through the valley every afternoon, Engadin has long been considered ideal for sailing.

Badrutt's Palace Hotel also offers paddleboarding and windsurfing on the lake, along with guided hikes on the glacier, helicopter trips over the valley and scenic railway journeys.

Rates from £730 a night, visit badruttspalace.com/en/summer/ for more information.

Design a superyacht in Arev St. Tropez

This summer, Arev St. Tropez has teamed up with Feadship, one of the world’s most prestigious builders of superyachts. The luxury hotel on the French Riviera is hosting a pop-up exhibition and film showing exploring superyacht design at its chic Place des Oliviers courtyard.

Lucky guests receiving a “Carte Blanche” invitation from the Feadship team will be invited to enjoy “The Ultimate Bespoke Design Experience,” where a Feadship designer will map out their own dream superyacht. Following a consultation to decide the purpose and aesthetics of the vessel, the designer will then create a custom handprinted design sketch to be presented in a leather roll and delivered to the guest’s suite along with a Feadship gift.

Until 15 August 2026. Rates from €1,500 in summer. Visit arevcollection.com.

Sail through the Indonesian islands

If you can't bear the thought of summer ending, head to the southern hemisphere. From 29 September to 5 October, Silolona Sojourns will be sailing a traditional Indonesian yacht through the Komodo Archipelago, where guests are invited to combine world-class snorkelling and diving with treks across wild island terrain – travellers may even encounter the famous Komodo dragons while on a guided walk through Rinca Island.

Alternatively, from 23-30 November, Silolona Sojourns will be exploring Raja Ampat, which is celebrated as being one of the most biodiverse marine regions in the world. Guests can go on a diving expedition to explore the vibrant coral gardens, possibly meeting dugongs and turtles along the way.

From £2,300 per person for each seven-day journey, based on two people sharing a cabin. Visit silolona.com for the full list of what's included.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

If you’re a frequent flyer, having an airport lounge membership like Priority Pass or Dragonpass can make travelling significantly more comfortable.

Rather than waiting at a crowded terminal, airport lounge access can mean complimentary food and drinks, Wi-Fi, quiet workspaces and even shower facilities.

You can get lounge passes with certain packaged bank accounts or credit cards with airport lounge access, but that’s not the only way. You could book one-off visits to some airport lounges, for instance, or access global lounge networks by buying a membership – such as with Priority Pass or Dragonpass.

What is Priority Pass?

Priority Pass is an airport lounge programme that gives members access to more than 1,900 lounges across 856 airports in 142 countries.

Your membership may also include benefits such as complimentary Wi-Fi, meals and drinks, shower facilities and dining credits at select restaurants.

The lowest membership tier doesn’t give you free access to lounges – instead, you pay an annual fee and discounted rate on visits. However, no matter what membership you have, you will need to pre-book your slot for an extra £6 to guarantee a space when it gets busy.

Here’s a complete breakdown of membership fees.

What is Dragonpass?

Dragonpass is an airport lounge programme that offers access to more than 1,400 lounges, over 200 fast-track security lanes and around 2,500 travel experiences worldwide.

While Priority Pass gives you access to more airport lounges, Dragonpass is more focused on offering a premium experience, whether it’s meet-and-greet services, dining discounts, spa treatments or fast-track security.

The lower membership tier only gives you one free visit, after which you have to pay for entry. However, you will need to pre-book your slot for around £6 per visit to guarantee a space during busy periods, no matter which membership tier you’re on.

Here’s a complete breakdown of membership fees.

Should you buy a Priority Pass or Dragonpass membership?

For many travellers, Priority Pass offers better overall value thanks to a significantly larger lounge network globally. If your priority is finding a lounge wherever you fly, it’s generally a better option.

However, when it comes to costs, Dragonpass is cheaper and a better choice if you regularly travel through airports where you can take advantage of its fast-track security and premium services like spa and wellness centres.

Before buying either membership, it’s worth checking which lounges are available at the airports you typically go to. It might be that some airports support Priority Pass or Dragonpass but not both.

Is an airport lounge membership worth it?

Whether an airport lounge membership is worth paying for depends on your travel habits. If you only take a handful of flights a year, paying for individual lounge access can be more cost-effective than buying an annual membership.

However, if you fly several times a year, particularly on long-haul or international trips, and want to access an airport lounge, you could save with a membership. Lounge entry usually costs between £35 and £50 per visit, so frequent travellers could save money while enjoying a quieter and more comfortable airport experience.

It’s worth considering whether you already have access through another financial product. Many premium credit cards, travel reward cards and packaged current accounts include Priority Pass or Dragonpass membership as a benefit, meaning you may not need to buy a separate membership.

On 13 January, 1913, when King Rama VI sent Thailand's first wireless message from the Saladaeng Radiotelegraph Station in Bangkok, he could never have foreseen that more than a century later, in the same spot, guests would be sipping cocktails by the pool, scrolling on smartphones and communicating in real time. Back then, this whole area was little more than rice paddy – open, flat and far enough from the city's sprawl to minimise any interference with the radio waves. The radiotelegraph station that stood here marked Thailand's connection to, and arrival in, the modern world. Soon a road was built to link it to the city centre, named after this new technology: Witthayu (meaning wireless). Bangkok has never looked back.

Fast forward to 2016, and a group of property developers working on site discovered the radiotelegraph station's foundations beneath their feet. Working closely with conservationists, archaeologists and the Fine Arts Department, they unearthed hundreds of artefacts – fragments of delicate bone china, faded floral tiffin tins, perfume bottles and grainy photographs. As the site's construction began, so did a plan to create a museum dedicated to the history of the area and its former inhabitants – mostly merchants and traders from southern China, followed by the cadets from the military academy and, later, the stallholders from the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. The Wireless House Museum now bridges this past and present, and I can just about make it out from where I’m standing, 20 floors up at 189 Wireless Road – The Ritz-Carlton hotel – with the green canopy of Lumphini Park stretching out before me.

The Ritz-Carlton opened in December 2024 and is part of the new $3.9 billion One Bangkok development, another marker of the city’s current iteration. The skyscrapers glisten above the busy artery of Wireless Road as it is today – full of tuk-tuks, motorbikes and SUVs – the Wireless House Museum sitting to one side, complete with a partial former radio mast. The Ritz-Carlton’s 260 rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows that maximise the views of the park and the ever-changing cityscape beyond.

My suite – an Amaranth Corner Suite – has balconies on both sides, so I can catch the sunset without leaving my room.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill together with Thai firm A49, the building sits next to One Bangkok’s shopping centres, where people flit between air-conditioned stores or pause to take in the outdoor sculptures dotting the pedestrianised courtyard, including a mirrored S-Curve sculpture by Anish Kapoor. It’s a contemporary space that roots Bangkok firmly in 2026 – a far cry from when I first came here 29 years ago to visit the night market that stood on this very spot.

The Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok has world-class cuisine

The hotel's interiors are sleek and confident. Thai design studio PIA created a space that plays on the concept of “two civilisations”, marrying Bangkok's heritage with a classic elegance – polished tiles, contemporary artworks, water features and plenty of marble and gold. I particularly liked all the black-and-white photographs depicting old Bangkok.

On the seventh floor, the outdoor pool is a godsend from the city's heat. Cabanas are coveted on sunnier days, but there are always enough loungers to go around. The spa downstairs offers traditional Thai massage – and after a full day of sightseeing in Bangkok, you will need one. But it's in the food and drink where The Ritz-Carlton really shines. The hotel has four bars and restaurants, and each one is excellent.

Duet by David Toutain is the main event. The 32-seat fine-dining restaurant sits within a glasshouse on the seventh floor overlooking Lumphini Park. Toutain – whose Paris restaurant holds two Michelin stars – and chef de cuisine Valentin Fouache present a modern French eight-course tasting menu made with seasonal ingredients, with wines or zero-proof pairings to match. The dishes range from Brittany brown crab with vanilla and kaffir lime, to gamba roja prawns with morels, to Hokkaido scallop with XO sauce and Jura yellow wine, each arriving with its own provenance card.

The finale – 80% Chiang Mai chocolate with buckwheat, passion fruit and cocoa nibs, and a rum-soaked sponge – is every bit as good as it sounds. This is cuisine that’s worth travelling for. Book a table, even if you’re not staying at the hotel (9,000 baht (£205) per person, with wine pairing).

Then, there's Lily's, the all-day dining room, also on the seventh floor. Breakfast here is an epic affair spanning multiple rooms and stations – possibly one of the most ambitious and well-presented spreads I encountered in Southeast Asia. By night it's more relaxed, and the banquettes and tables take on a low-lit brasserie vibe. My bowl of mussels with green-curry pesto, alongside buttered asparagus, truffle fries and chilled glass of Chablis, was a highlight of my trip. This is the kind of bistro cooking that Bangkok does brilliantly.

On the lobby floor, which sits high above street level, is Caleo bar. I was working my way through a Moroccan gimlet when the staff appeared with a box of postcards and an offer to send one anywhere in the world. It's a small gesture, but it's the sort of gesture you remember.

If you're staying in one of the suites, you also have access to the 23rd-floor Club Lounge, which is a cool and calm place to enjoy breakfast away from the bustle, or a light lunch or afternoon tea for that matter. Sundowners are served in chilled glasses. Service is faultless. When I mentioned my fondness for Thai herbal inhalers, which are a local staple, the staff set up a tray of ingredients so I could make my own to take home, then gave me two more as a gift. I also took a Thai cookery class and a guided walking tour of the flower market and Song Wat Road, an up-and-coming neighbourhood with trendy coffee shops, vintage clothes stores and more new galleries and bars I've bookmarked for my next visit.

Experience everything under one roof at The Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok

The Ritz-Carlton combines all the things this city does well – great food, hospitality, a relaxing lounge and a peaceful wellness space – packaged into a single address. The restaurant credentials are serious, the design is assured without being showy, and the location, right on the edge of Lumphini Park, gives it space to breathe and makes it central enough to reach most places easily.

Bangkok has always moved fast and been one of the most exciting cities in the region. The signals it's sending now are worth tuning into.

Katie was a guest of The Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok. From 17,500 baht (£400) a night, excluding fees and taxes, but including breakfast based on two people sharing. Visit ritzcarlton.com for details.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

David Hockney, who died on 11 June, aged 88, was never shy about experimenting with technology. In April 2020, then almost 83, he was interviewed by The Spectator's art critic, Martin Gayford, saying about his iPad that “I was just drawing on this thing I'm talking to you on.”

In his “provocative” book Secret Knowledge, published in 2006, Hockney suggested that old masters, such as Vermeer, had used optical aids in their paintings, says Michael Prodger in The New Statesman. So, Hockney saw no reason why he shouldn't use “fax machines, Polaroids, photocopies [and] high-resolution cameras” to create his works.

It was from a photograph that somebody else had taken that Hockney created what is arguably his most famous painting, A Bigger Splash, in 1967. The pink modernist building that forms the backdrop to the sun-drenched Californian swimming-pool scene came together fairly quickly, but Hockney laboured on the split-second splash in the pool for two weeks to get every drop right – an irony that wasn't lost on him.

In 1972, he painted Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), which in 2018 set a new record for a painting by a living artist sold at auction. It fetched $90.3 million with Christie's in New York. And the comparisons with earlier artists didn't end with the use of technology. In leaving his native Yorkshire and “gloomy” London for California, Hockney has been compared with the painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Van Gogh and Gauguin – and later Matisse and Dufy, says The Times.

David Hockney is a national treasure

And while Portrait of an Artist represents the intersection of the two periods with which Hockney is most often associated – the “swimming pool period”, beginning in the 1960s, and the “double portraits” of the 1970s, these represent “a relatively small slice of his overall production”, notes the paper in its obituary. Hockney's more recent landscapes of northern France, including a 90-metre frieze called A Year in Normandie, are a case in point. That series of paintings can be viewed at the Serpentine Galleries in London until 23 August.

“I can't think of an artist so loved by millions today,” writes Andrew Marr in The New Statesman. “The man is gone, but the pictures live on. ‘Spring cannot be cancelled' was one of his more recent slogans. Nor can David Hockney.”

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

You cannot help but be struck by a sense of grandeur the moment you arrive at Mallory Court in Warwickshire. This elegant and welcoming country house hotel sits in the grounds of a former stately home, just outside Leamington Spa. The pristine lawn of the main courtyard ushers you towards the entrance, past a neat square of bright tulips. The main building was built during World War I, but, festooned as it is with vibrant ivy and plush wisteria, it gives the impression of being older.

This central, surprisingly modern building is situated amid a swathe of quiet, pretty gardens – some for growing herbs and produce for the restaurant, some mowed short for playing croquet, most of the rest with patches left to grow wild for the benefit of local insects. Thanks to this, there are bees aplenty, as well as a clutch of hives that the hotel keeps – you can, given notice, arrange an “immersive” beekeeping experience. The hives are kept on the edge of the gardens, meaning the rest of the estate remains a perfect spot for an uninterrupted wander.

Inside the hotel, the suites are generously spacious, handsomely and individually decorated to give each a distinct sense of character and fitted with plush, super king-sized beds. Most of these rooms are in an extension built in the 1990s that overlooks the picturesque herb garden, although if you are checking in for a spa weekend, then those above the spa building may be more convenient.

The spa's facilities include indoor and outdoor saunas and pools, a steam room and a gym. There's a fantastic selection of treatments on offer too. The Revive & Rebalance Ritual is a body scrub followed by a back massage that leaves you feeling cleansed and refreshed, and I also heard great things about the My Kinda Skin facial.

Timeless classics with a swish of elegance at Mallory Court

Besides the spa, Mallory Court's flagship restaurant, the Warwick (under the stewardship of Stu Deeley, who won Masterchef: The Professionals) is the other standout reason to visit. The restaurant takes timeless classics and adds a swish of elegance to turn out true excellence in its dishes.

The menu is quintessentially British, with some European and Asian influences. Vegetarian options are clearly no afterthought, and despite the allure of meat dishes, such as Ibérico presa (pork shoulder) and Lake District lamb, I went almost entirely veggie.

Burrata with beetroot makes an excellent starter, especially when the beetroot is grown in the hotel grounds, and the pine nut and furikake (a Japanese seasoning) garnish gives it a modern, umami twist. Cacklebean egg with coco bean and nduja cassoulet is as intriguing as it sounds – the egg topped with a nest of string pastry and swimming in what amounts to a rich bean soup that hums with the meaty tang of nduja.

For mains, that local beetroot once again stands out – in the form of a sumptuous beetroot wellington. Sweet and sour chicory and crispy hen-of-the-woods mushroom are worthy accompaniments, but the star is the smoked beetroot sauce, which delivers a meaty punch to this vegetarian dish. Black Bomber cheddar gnocchi with wild-garlic sauce is another hit – the gnocchi served like little fondant potato cylinders, pleasantly but not overpoweringly cheesy, adorned with peas, a verdant garlic sauce, and another little clutch of hen of the woods.

If, like me, you enjoy a Snickers, then you have to order the Dulcey Blond chocolate delice for dessert. It's basically a snazzy Asian take on the classic chocolate bar. Caramelised miso and peanut brittle combine to bring the sweet, indulgent nutty flavours we know and love together with decadent levels of salt and umami. It's addictive if you're into that kind of thing. If you're not, the baked Alaska might be more up your street – a sharp, fruity number singing with rhubarb (again, much of which is grown on the estate). On Sundays and bank holidays, you can also enjoy a superb afternoon tea, highlights of which include a fine rhubarb-and-custard macaroon and excellent home-made scones.

Connect with nature at Mallory Court

While you're in the area, Leamington Spa is just a short drive away – or, if the hotel's grounds have whetted your appetite for nature and wild flowers, Oakley Wood (around a seven-minute drive from the hotel) is a wonderful spot for a walk.

Between the spa, the restaurant and the charming gardens, Mallory Court is an excellent place to unwind for a leisurely weekend, connect with nature, and feel thoroughly well taken care of in the process.

Dan was a guest of Mallory Court. Double rooms start from £157 a night. À la Carte dinner at the Warwick costs £95 per person for three courses, plus canapes. Afternoon tea from £42.50 per person. Visit mallory.co.uk.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

We've all stayed in hotels with noisy neighbours. But perhaps not the kind of neighbours who have fluffy tails or fly. Still, when you stay in one of the new and rather luxurious Treehouse Suites at Fairmont Windsor Park in Surrey, you are choosing to inhabit their world, if only for a short time – the world of the scampering squirrel, the rustling deer, the flitting bat, the warbling song thrush, the rattling magpie, the hooting owl… and, of course, being so close to London, the incessant squeak of the antisocial parakeet, no matter how well dressed. One must always make allowances for the locals.

On the lake behind the copse that is your immediate neighbourhood while staying in a Treehouse Suite, you will hear the ducks quacking and the seagulls laughing, although I don't believe I heard a peep out of the swans and herons. Your fellow guests have also come from far and wide – the geese from Canada and Egypt, and the Mandarin ducks from China (at least originally). All the while, a kite hovers high in the sky, keeping a beady eye on the busy natural world unfolding below.

Treehouse Suite at Fairmont Windsor Park

Magpie is the name of the Treehouse Suite I was staying in during an unseasonably warm and sunny weekend in April. These are wooden structures (four in all), which helps them to blend in with their woodland surroundings. And before you complain about false advertising, the suites are not actually in the trees as per the arboreal clubhouse of your childhood. Think of the size of the mighty oak that would be needed to support such an edifice! Rest assured, the trees of Fairmont Windsor Park remain unburdened. Rather, the four raised Treehouse Suites have been strategically built among the beeches and silver birches, with new saplings planted that will, in time, make the Treehouse Suites feel even more secluded. That said, privacy isn't a problem even now. You can wallow all you like in your elevated, outdoor Jacuzzi, up on the deck and away from the prying eyes of people. To be sure, the squirrels will get a good look at you.

My Magpie suite, in fact, had two hot tubs on the wraparound deck. This two-bedroom suite is really two apartments, which makes it ideal for families with older children or perhaps two couples travelling together, who will inevitably come to value some time apart. The other three suites have one Jacuzzi. But dry yourself off and come inside, through the French doors and into the living room of the Magpie suite.

A cosy winter paradise

Those doors form part of a curved wall of glass that can be folded back to let the outside in during the warmer months.

For the winter, there is a log fire that transforms this space into a cosy nest. Facing the fireplace is a modern and fully equipped kitchen, with an induction hob, a fridge for food and another for wine. We arrived to a basket of goodies on the countertop – cake, biscuits, crisps; all the sinful things to nibble on while you're sipping your wine out on the deck.

The first spacious bedroom is accessed from the living room and it, too, opens onto the wraparound deck. At the far end of the room, on the other side of the bed, you will find the white and black-tile bathroom with his and hers sinks, a standalone bathtub and a separate shower.

This set-up is more or less mirrored in the other mini-apartment accessed from the area reserved for coats, brollies and muddy boots when you come in through the suite's front door – although that en-suite bedroom doesn't have direct access to the kitchen, which isn't always a bad thing. But, like the first bedroom, this also opens onto its own hot tub.

So you could, if you so wanted, nestle down with your furry and feathered friends for the duration of your stay. But that would almost be a shame, because Fairmont thoughtfully provides the denizens of its Treehouse Suites with their own golf buggy and mountain bikes. You can use these to explore the grounds of the hotel. You will certainly want to stop at the spa with its quaint courtyard heated outdoor spa pool with various massage jets. Inside, you will find a second, bigger spa pool and there is also a salt room.

A variety of dining options to choose from

And you will most definitely want to stop at restaurant Il Giardino 1215 (although, if you are anything like me with the wine list, you may want to walk, which you can do easily). The à la carte is Mediterranean – I started with a handful of sweet, nutty scallops (and a rather sensational house-take on a negroni) and progressed to the pan-fried veal chop.

As of this month, you now have another dining option in The Windsor Brasserie. It is, according to the press release, a “lively, design-led brasserie”, focused on modern European cuisine “with a sense of theatre”. It has an open kitchen with a charcoal robata grill, and some dishes, such as the tartare, are finished at the table. I might just have to come back to try it.

After the lovely meal at Il Giardino, it was time to stroll back to the Treehouse Suite, via the atmospheric Art Deco-style bar. Waking early the next morning, I peered over the deck railing to spy one of my neighbours already at the breakfast buffet – a fat, fluffy rabbit, munching on the grass at the foot of the treehouse. The neighbourhood was waking up to another fine day.

Chris was a guest of Fairmont Windsor Park. Treehouse Suites cost from £2,300 a night, visit fairmont-windsorpark.com

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

There is no shortage of popular places to visit in the UK — whether you’re after a coastal holiday or an idyllic countryside retreat.

And thanks to warmer temperatures, the case for a staycation is stronger than ever.

According to Expedia, interest in holidays within the UK has risen by 77% year-on-year globally, while more than half of Britons are now more interested in taking a UK break than they were last summer.

We round up the best UK hotspots to visit this summer, whether you’re travelling solo, planning a family getaway or organising a trip with friends.

Planning a trip further afield? We look at where to travel around the world and when to visit them in a separate guide.

10 most popular places to visit in the UK

Britain is home to many memorable destinations with many of the most popular places outside of the bigger cities.

Quaint villages in England and islands in Wales are gaining popularity among those seeking a staycation, data from Sykes Holiday Cottages shows.

The data is taken from internal booking insights over the last three years, and the top destinations are selected from towns with the most bookings.

Source: Sykes Holiday Cottages

1. Anglesey

Anglesey in North Wales is the most popular region to visit in the UK, thanks to sweeping coastal views, ancient historic sites and impressive beaches. You can walk around the 140 miles of the Anglesey Coastal Path, visit Llanddwyn Island, home to rare red squirrels and associated with the Welsh patron saint of lovers, visit the Beaumaris Castle or have a fun-filled family day out at the Anglesey Sea Zoo or Pili Palas Nature World.

2. Weymouth

Weymouth is a classic English seaside town ideal for a relaxing retreat. Head to Weymouth Beach, take a stroll along Weymouth Stone Pier or opt for a laid-back picnic at Nothe Gardens. There’s plenty to do for history buffs, whether you visit the ruins of Sandsfoot Castle, explore the underground tunnels at Nothe Fort or walk around the town to see historic objects and the town’s role in the D-Day landings.

3. Bowness-on-Windermere

The Lake District is a haven for literature lovers — both Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth drew inspiration from this rugged, charming landscape. Get out on the water at Bowness Bay in Bowness-on-Windermere, where you can drive a motorboat or hop on a lake cruise, or visit The World of Beatrix Potter attraction to see different literary characters come to life. You can also go for hikes, visit historic museums or try your hand at archery at Brockhole-on-Windermere.

4. Beadnell

Beadnell is the perfect spot for a quiet beach retreat for those who want to simply relax on the golden sand while enjoying spectacular views. At the same time, it’s a watersports paradise. Take advantage of the Beadnell Bay, where you can try kitesurfing or wakeboarding — you can even give dune sledging a go if you’re feeling adventurous. Other than that, you can take a boat trip to the Farne Islands to spot puffins, visit the Longstone Lighthouse or see the iconic Bamburgh Castle, which was originally the location of a Celtic Brittonic fort dating back thousands of years.

5. Tenby

The most popular place to see puffins is Skomer Island, which you can visit by taking a boat trip from Tenby. Steeped in history, the Welsh harbour town is known for its 13th-century medieval town walls, the Five Arches barbican gatehouse and a 15th-century church. You can even take boat trips to Caldey Island, which is one of Britain’s holy islands, and St Catherine’s Island, which you can access during a low tide.

6. Buxton

This historic spa town in Derbyshire sits on the fringe of the Peak District and is famous for its ‘healing’ thermal waters and 18th-century Georgian and Victorian architecture. Some top places to visit are the Devonshire Dome, the Buxton Opera House and the two-million-year-old natural limestone cave, Poole’s Cavern, which has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

7. Skipton

Skipton is a charming market town in North Yorkshire packed with history, scenic walks and family-friendly attractions. At the heart of the town is Skipton Castle, a Grade I-listed medieval castle built in 1090, which withstood a three-year siege during the English Civil War. You can also take canal boat trips, and use Skipton as a base for exploring the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

8. Bourton-on-the-Water

Bourton-on-the-Water is a popular village in the heart of the Cotswolds, straddling the River Windrush. You can wander through quaint streets lined with honey-stone cottages and charming low bridges, enjoy browsing independent shops and try a traditional cream tea. Some iconic landmarks include the Model Village, which is a one-ninth scale replica of the Cotswold village, or visit Britain’s only breeding colony of King Penguins in the nine acres of Birdland Park and Gardens.

9. Burnham-on-Sea

Situated on the Somerset coast, Burnham-on-Sea is a traditional seaside town known for its sandy beaches and relaxed atmosphere. It used to be a tiny fishing village until the late 18th century, and is home to the famous Low Lighthouse. An ideal location for seaside activities, you can enjoy amusement park rides and fish and chips by the sea, or choose to explore the Apex Leisure and Wildlife Park, where you can spot a wide range of plants and birds.

10. Inverness

The only Scottish city on the list will certainly not disappoint. The de facto capital of the Scottish Highlands sits on the banks of the River Ness, where you can enjoy lochside views and the nearby Inverness Castle. It’s famous for its rich history combined with spectacular natural scenery — you can visit the prehistoric Clava Cairns or Culloden Battlefield, the historic site of the final Jacobite Rising. The surrounding Highlands are ideal for hikes, wildlife spotting and scenic road trips, and you can even go island hopping without leaving the city.

The Caprons, Lewes, East Sussex

This Grade II-listed Georgian house in the centre of Lewes was once home to historian Asa Briggs, who was also a Bletchley Park code breaker. The garden includes a Grade-II listed, octagonal summer house. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, kitchen, cellars, roof terrace, walled garden.

Price: £2.1m Jackson-Stops 01444-484400

Broomshields Hall, Satley, Bishop Auckland, County Durham

A Grade II-listed Georgian house with gardens that include a one-bedroom cottage, two summer houses and a lake. The house has a carved oak staircase and a large kitchen with an Aga. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, library, 18 acres.

Price: £1.75m Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

The Manor House, Great Harrowden, Northamptonshire

A Grade II-listed manor house in a popular village, set in south-facing gardens with a kitchen garden with a greenhouse and a circular summer house with sofas and a fridge for wine. The house has beamed ceilings, panelled walls and period fireplaces. 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, breakfast kitchen, attic, pond, 0.8 acres.

Price: £1.15m Fine & Country 01604-309030

The Court, Axbridge, Somerset

A Grade II-listed Georgian house in Axbridge with views towards Glastonbury Tor. The house is set in gardens that include a summer house and an area dedicated to archery. It has flagstone and oak floors, period fireplaces and an indoor swimming pool with a gym. 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, breakfast kitchen, garden room, cinema, courtyard, parking, walled gardens, kitchen garden, 1.15 acres.

Price: £2.395m House & Heritage 01257-441990

Orchard Cottage, Wood End, Ardeley, Hertfordshire

A Grade II-listed, 17th-century house comprising three original cottages, with a summer house with a wood-burning stove and Wi-Fi. The house has exposed wall and ceiling timbers and inglenook fireplaces. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, reception room, gardens, 0.75 acres.

Price: £1.15m Fine & Country 01920-443898

Polwarth Terrace, Merchiston, Edinburgh

A duplex apartment on the first floor of a period property in the sought-after area of Merchiston. The flat retains its period fireplaces and has a dining room with French doors opening onto a balcony and a spiral staircase leading to a garden with a summer house. 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, reception room, office/bedroom 7, dining kitchen, garage, summer house, parking.

Price: £985,000+ Savills 0131-247 3770

Moreves Manor, Great Waldingfield, Sudbury, Suffolk

A Grade II-listed, 17th-century house set in large gardens that include a wildlife pond and a summer house complete with a shower, sauna and wood-burning stove. The house has exposed wall and ceiling timbers and a breakfast kitchen with an Aga. 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 reception rooms, office, garden room, outdoor swimming pool, 1.58 acres.

Price: £950,000+ Strutt & Parker 01473-220444

Heamoor, Penzance, Cornwall

A renovated, Grade II-listed Cornish long house set in landscaped gardens with a tree house, an orangery overlooking the kitchen garden and a summer house that is used as a pottery studio. The house has Georgian sash windows, open fireplaces and a newly fitted kitchen with French doors leading onto the gardens. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, study, utility with en-suite shower, workshop, paddock, stable block, 2.5acres.

Price: £1.2m Savills 01872-243 200

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Ramshaw Mill, Wark, Hexham, Northumberland

A Grade II-listed, 12th-century former watermill with gardens arranged in a series of “rooms” that include an orchard. It has exposed beams and wood-burning stoves. 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4 reception rooms, 2 kitchens, outbuildings, courtyard, barn, 1 acre.

Price: £1.2m Finest Properties 0330-111 2266

The Old Vicarage, Castle Hedingham, Halstead, Essex

A Grade II-listed, early 18th-century house overlooking a castle and a church, with gardens that include a heated swimming pool and an orchard. It has grand fireplaces and vaulted cellars. 9 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, gym, 1-bedroom cottage, 1 acre.

Price: £1.75m Knight Frank 01394-334570

Bretforton Hall, Bretforton, Evesham, Worcestershire

A Grade II-listed late 18th-century house with a crenellated tower and two acres of gardens that include a swimming pool and an orchard. The house has a drawing room with Gothic arched windows, a vaulted ceiling and period fireplaces. 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 4 reception rooms, study, studio, breakfast kitchen, garage, 2 acres.

Price: £2.3m Morgan Aps 01905-384848

Hawksfield, Clifford, Herefordshire

A modern Passivhaus situated close to Hay-on-Wye. It has an A-grade energy performance certificate, gardens that include a dining terrace on the edge of an ornamental pond and a small orchard. The house is largely open-plan with an open-tread oak staircase and French doors leading onto a balcony. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, reception room, open-plan kitchen/dining/living room, en-suite studio outbuilding, 0.5 acres.

Price: £895,000 The Modern House 020-3795 5920

Copplestone House, Tiverton, Devon

A house set in mature gardens with outdoor entertaining areas, a covered outdoor kitchen, a walled kitchen garden and an orchard. It has exposed beams, open fireplaces, and a drawing room with French doors opening onto a terrace. 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 reception rooms, 1-bedroom annexe, barn, 2.5 acres.

Price: £1.65m Strutt & Parker 01392-215631

Woolgarston, Corfe Castle, Wareham, Dorset

A period cottage in a sought-after village within the Isle of Purbeck, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The large gardens include stone terraces and an orchard enclosed by a mature beech hedge. The house has exposed beams, a large inglenook fireplace and a kitchen with an Aga. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, reception room, outbuilding with utility and store, 0.62 acres.

Price: £1.13m Savills 01202-856800.

The Green, Nun Monkton, York, North Yorkshire

A Grade II-listed Georgian house overlooking the village green. It is set in large gardens with terraces and an orchard. It has exposed beams, panelled walls, open fireplaces and a dining kitchen leading onto a courtyard. 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, study, outbuilding with garage and games room, greenhouse, summerhouse, 0.7 acres.

Price: £1.695m Savills 01904-617820.

The Orchards, Bedham, Fittleworth, West Sussex

A picturesque Grade II-listed cottage dating back to the 1600s with landscaped cottage gardens that include topiary, winding paved paths, a swimming pool, two ponds, a stream and a wildflower meadow, along with an established orchard planted with apple, quince, cherry and plum trees. The house has exposed wall and ceiling timbers and inglenook fireplaces. 3 bedrooms, bathroom, reception room, barn, 1.56 acres.

Price: £1.43m Knight Frank 01428-770562.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Rome is known as the Eternal City for a good reason – it feels as if it has existed forever. You can visit an ancient amphitheatre in the morning, have lunch near a medieval castle and tour one of the jewels of the Renaissance in the afternoon – all the while passing buildings built in the 1920s. The luxurious Romeo Roma is testament to the eclecticism and exuberance of Rome.

A 16th-century palazzo that once belonged to the illustrious Capponi family was combined with two other buildings to create Romeo Roma. The whole was renovated under the direction of the late British architect Zaha Hadid and her team in a decade-long project that was only completed last year. The result is a mixture of modern and Renaissance styles. From the moment you walk through the door, you are invited into a world of gilded decoration and Art Deco ceilings. The central lobby, with its waterfall, feels like a 1920s film set.

The bedrooms have huge television screens and whirlpool baths right next to the beds – as well as multi-sensory “emotional showers”. I felt as though I was on a superyacht, which was partly down to the Krion panelling – this high-end material is found on some of the world's most expensive private vessels.

While my room was certainly luxurious, I couldn't help but feel a pang of envy after visiting other rooms that were even more sumptuous – one of the largest suites contains a roof garden. The staff allowed me to peek inside another; one they rightly consider to be the pièce de résistance – the two-level Fresco suite, where you can sleep surrounded by wall paintings created centuries ago.

Romeo Roma's millennia-old foundations

Romeo Roma's connection with the past isn't just limited to the last 500 years. During the renovation, a large number of historic artefacts were uncovered, some over 2,000 years old. A selection of these is on display around the hotel. They include a marble sculpture of Livia Drusilla, whom fans of Claudius will remember as the wife of the Emperor Augustus – and perhaps the most influential (and notorious) woman in Rome. There are also some mosaics, which can be viewed directly or through the glass floor of the swimming pool.

Dive into luxury – or experience the cigar lounge

The swimming pool is also a good example of the way in which the hotel has been designed to give guests options – it straddles both the hotel itself and the courtyard, making it ideal whatever the weather. Guests may also use the first-rate fitness centre and spa – the latter signed by Sisley Paris. Here, the spa menu is centred around Sisley's signature “phyto-aromatic treatments”, which combine natural plant extracts and essential oils with a range of massage techniques from around the world to relax and gently invigorate the body.

I cooled off after hitting the gym by lounging in a deckchair in the “Sicilian salt chamber”, which is said to be good for your breathing, immune system, skin and stress levels. I certainly found the experience extremely relaxing and it took a lot of willpower to peel myself away from it. But peel yourself away you must because the other facilities at the Romeo Roma include a cigar lounge, and for younger guests a state-of-the-art games room with everything they could want, from table football to a billiard table designed by Porsche.

Part food science, part wizardry

Naturally, fine dining has become an expected part of the hotel experience. But even by the standards of other five-star hotels, Romeo Roma is something special. On the night I ate at the hotel's Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse Roma, I was guided through an extravaganza that was spread over multiple courses, including caviar. Part food science, part wizardry, the meal culminated with a dish that arrived billowing “smoke” from a bed of dry ice. Blue lobster cooked over embers and roasted deboned saddle of lamb, served with asparagus and wild garlic zabaione, are two of the other dishes that make up the seven-course Drusilla Primavera “experience” (€305 per person).

Finally, a word on the Romeo Roma's ideal location in the heart of Rome. The Palazzo Borghese, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon are all nearby and the hotel is situated around a half-hour's walk from most of Rome's other major attractions, from St. Peter's Square to the Colosseum. What more could you ask for?

Matthew was a guest of Hotel Romeo Roma. From €1,600 a night for a deluxe room. Visit theromeocollection.com/it/romeo-roma for further information.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

Toronto is known for its vibrant and rich culture, elite food scene, not to mention impressive and spectacular sights – and what better way to enjoy the city than to stay at one of the finest hotels, the Shangri-La.

This luxury hotel is the perfect base, where everything you want to see is within walking distance or easy reach.

And when you are done exploring, there’s nothing quite like the welcome of the Shangri-La to help you relax at the end of each day in luxury.

Toronto is becoming a popular destination and there are many reasons it should be on the top of your travel list. It’s a foodie’s sanctuary (and it's not just about the delicious maple syrup), a shopper’s delight, not to mention spectacular sights that will leave you in awe.

Staying at the Shangri-La, Toronto

The comfort and service at the Shangri-La, Toronto, is world class. The spacious rooms and suites, which come with unparalleled views, means you may not want to leave.

The rooms are bright and comfortable, floor to ceiling windows, high tech controls and marble furnishing.

My suite was an impressive 820 sq ft with views of iconic landmarks such as the CN Tower, a walk-in wardrobe, a separate living room and the most beautiful marble bathroom which included a walk-in shower and a deep-soaking bath, where you can relax and soak in spectacular views day and night.

The rooms include luxurious John Masters Organic toiletries which are simply divine.

Shangri-La truly takes care of all your needs as you surround yourself around pure luxury.

And should you need it, there’s also a coat concierge by the brand Nobis, which you can request in advance.

Located on 188 University Avenue, downtown Toronto, it is the perfect location to explore everything the city has to offer.

Relax with a spa

And just as you may expect, Shangri-La Toronto offers the perfect spa experience for you to unwind and relax after a busy day of shopping and sightseeing.

The Miraj Hammam Spa blends Middle Eastern wellness rituals with modern needs – you’ll want to try out more than one treatment.

I opted for a deep tissue massage which was certainly one of the best I have had, but you may well be tempted by the Turkish bath or a Sodashi plant-based facial.

You can also spend time relaxing in your room; ask for the ‘bath butler experience’ (book in advance) and your bath will be set up with petals, a candle and a truly divine bath bomb, alongside optional in-room dining.

Dining

Breakfast at the Shangri-La is worth waking up for. It’s not your typical buffet, but an experience in itself with dishes that include a wellness frittata, a duck congee, or homemade granola for example.

It is served at the hotel’s signature Bosk Restaurant, where dinner is just as scrumptious. The restaurant sources produce from Canadian farmers and businesses.

One of the markets the hotel sources its produce from is St Lawrence Market, where I took a tour of the markets with Bosk Restaurant’s chef Troy Cabarios. The market has food from around the world which truly reflects Canada’s diverse population.

Eating out in Toronto: Peller Estates

Venturing out of the hotel, there are plenty of cafes and restaurants to try out. I tried Takja BBQ House, a Korean BBQ restaurant where food is grilled in the middle of your table.

A must do is a visit to Peller Estates, where some of the best wine in Canada is produced and sold.

You can do a tour of the winery, too. Don’t miss the 10below Icewine lounge, fully made of ice, including the furniture. The temperature there is set at -10 all year round, which is the temperature Peller uses to harvest icewine grapes.

Niagara Falls

No visit to Toronto is complete without a tour of the Niagara Falls. Get the full experience with the Niagara Helicopters, where you will have the opportunity to capture the most amazing views of the Falls. I also tried out the recently opened virtual experience at Niagara Parks, where the virtual flight ride will take you through time, experiencing the rich history and culture that Canada and the Falls come with.

While the falls is often one of the main attractions, don’t miss the CN Tower for amazing views of the city, Little Canada, the Aquarium, plus the historic Distillery District is a must-see. You can book via destinationtoronto.com.

Getting to Toronto

Getting to Canada is fairly simple, with Air Canada. If you are flying business class, you can take advantage of the recently refurbished Maple Leaf Lounge at Heathrow terminal 2, where you can kick back and relax with food and refreshment before you fly. The comfort of business class is like no other with its roll back seats, large personal screens and a Acqua Di Parma amenities kit.

I was lucky to experience Air Canada’s business class cabin, allowing me to arrive fully relaxed.

Kalpana was a guest at the Shangri-La, Toronto (shangri-la.com/toronto/shangrila). The deluxe one bedroom suite costs $1,269.01 (CAD) and the deluxe king room is $827.62 (CAD).

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.

British billionaire Joe Lewis's art collection could fetch millions disproves the notion that establishing a world-class art collection and amassing a fortune as a financial trader have little in common. The former Tottenham Hotspur owner's art collection is heading for sale with Sotheby's in London next month, where it is expected to make at least £150 million in total. That would make it, in some way, the most valuable single-owner collection ever sold in London, surpassing the £101 million record set last September by that of Pauline Karpidas, the widow of a Greek shipping magnate. “The range and quality [of the artworks for sale] show the incomparable ambition and sophistication of Joe as a collector, and also the assertiveness and boldness that he has always displayed as a currency dealer,” Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, tells The Times.

Highlights of the Joe Lewis sale

Highlights of the Joe Lewis sale include a full-length portrait of Gertrud Loew, who was a young woman of fin-de-siècle Viennese society, painted by Gustav Klimt in 1902. Loew, later known as Gertha Felsovanyi, left Austria for the US in 1939 on account of her Jewish ancestry. During her absence, the painting was sold under duress and acquired by Gustav Klimt's son Gustav Ucicky, eventually ending up in the collection of the Klimt Foundation. It was later sold as part of a settlement between the Foundation and Loew's heirs. Sotheby's expects it to sell for around £30 million.

Another highlight is the sculpture Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, created in wax by Edgar Degas in about 1880 and cast in bronze in the 1920s, after the artist's death. That one is expected to fetch £25 million. Amedeo Modigliani's 1918 portrait Homme à la pipe is valued at up to £18 million, as is Egon Schiele's Danaë from 1909. Among the more recent works, Two Studies for Self-Portrait, painted by Francis Bacon in 1977, is valued at £12 million, and Woman in a Grey Sweater, painted by Lucien Freud in the late 1980s, is valued at £4 million.

Joe Lewis, who was born above a pub in Bow in 1937, has made and lost fortunes during his long career as a restaurateur-turned-currency trader. He cashed in when his bet that the pound would be forced out of the European exchange rate mechanism came good in 1992. Then, years later in 2008, he lost around $1.2 billion buying shares in Bear Stearns, right up until the moment the Wall Street investment bank collapsed. It was, according to a MoneyWeek article from the time, “one of the most misguided gambles Wall Street has ever seen”. That perhaps explains why this time Lewis tested the waters in March, when he offered through Sotheby's four paintings from the School of London – two by Freud, one by Bacon and another by Leon Kossoff. Together, they doubled their combined low estimate to realise a total of £35.8 million. That is as clear a sign as any that, with the upcoming sale, he might just be on to a winner.

This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.