Londoners pay highest UK house price premium to live closer to a station August 30, 2019 London home buyers are willing to pay almost 10 per cent more on a house in order to live closer to a station, according to Nationwide. The building society found Londoners are willing to pay a whopping 9.4 per cent premium for a house located 500 metres away from a station. Read more: UK house [...]
The Spa at South Lodge review: How a £15m spa transformed this traditional country-house into a cutting-edge hotel August 9, 2019 When you arrive at South Lodge, on the edge of the South Downs, it is exactly what you’d expect from a country house hotel: pretty grounds, a honey-coloured stone exterior and a crunchy gravel drive give you a warm welcome. While you can certainly decamp here for an enjoyable weekend away, with some stellar food [...]
The last resort: With travel operators running into trouble, here’s how to protect your holiday August 7, 2019 When you’ve spent hundreds or even thousands of pounds to escape to somewhere sunny for the summer holidays, you may have to stifle a scream when you find out that your travel operator has gone bust days before you were set to fly. This scenario will sound all too familiar to many families, after news [...]
The 13 best festival, camping and outdoor gadgets: from cameras and speakers to stoves and tents July 31, 2019 Festival season is upon us, like a large and pale dancing man silhouetted against a set of dazzling floodlights, whose sweat-sodden skin shines and catches the light like a salmon flashing in the brook. Make sure you’re ready for it by stacking your backpack high with the latest gadgets and technology. If you’re heading to [...]
Hotel Romeo review: Naples has gone from Italy’s junkyard to a jewel in its crown July 29, 2019 Leave all your preconceptions about southern Italy at the departure gate – Naples is a hidden gem of culture, history and, of course, food. Nestled in the shadow of an active volcano and infamous as a mafia hot-spot, it’s safe to say that this is a city with an edge. For decades considered little more [...]
The secret of Monkey Island: A hidden retreat in the Berkshire countryside July 26, 2019 You would be hard pressed to find a foodie who hasn’t heard of Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck at Bray. But where to stay on your foray into the Berkshire countryside? Thankfully the bucolic Monkey Island in the Thames has just reopened as a picturesque retreat, comprising a 30-room hotel, brasserie, floating spa on a [...]
Mauritius: Paradise, but not as you know it July 24, 2019 This tropical island offers the cliched white sands and blue seas, but there’s more to discover at this most unusual of holiday destinations Pop quiz: What is the only tropical island to host its own classic car rally? This November, Mauritius will be the unlikely home to some of the rarest and most expensive classic [...]
Trisara hotel review: Foraging needn’t be at the expense of luxury July 24, 2019 Foraging is all the rage but, despite its fashionable foodie status, it does rather bring to mind getting grubby at the bottom of the garden, thrashing around with a set of secateurs, or simply pretending to be a badger. Surely there’s a more glamorous way to liven up lunch? So, off to Trisara in Thailand [...]
Could magic mushrooms fix your brain? We try Europe’s first legal psychedelic therapy retreat July 24, 2019 Ten of us sit in a semicircle around a makeshift altar. In front of us lies a small statue of Buddha, various rocks and crystals, some pine cones, a carved mushroom, a small chemists’ weighing scale, and a wooden bowl filled with psychedelic ‘truffles’. We’re in a lodge on the outskirts of Amsterdam overlooking woodland [...]
Phantom islands thought to exist for hundreds of years are being “undiscovered” July 24, 2019 On a voyage from Manila to Mexico in 1528, the Spanish captain Alavaro de Saaverda reported stopping off at a pair of islands a few thousand kilometres north of Papua New Guinea in the Philippine Sea. He named the islands Los Buenos Jardines, and wrote in his diary about the friendly natives he’d met there. [...]