Inside the Batcave: City A.M. tours London’s secret supercar bunker April 28, 2019 They call it the bat cave, and it’s the most exclusive car park in Britain. Inside a secret west London underground bunker there are rows of Aston Martins, Ferraris and Rolls Royces hibernating under blue blankets while their millionaire owners are away. It is easy to see the appeal of the high security vault: safe [...]
Holiday Homes in Porto, Portugal: We scout out the bargains October 20, 2017 The snaking queues of tourists outside Porto’s 19th century Livraria Lello bookstore are not people seeking a good read. They’re tourists wanting to glimpse the second floor café where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone while raising her daughter and teaching English in the City. Potter fans believe the shop’s spiral art [...]
Record-breaking Chinese tourists in the UK inspires schemes to continue the momentum March 13, 2018 The UK is trying to build on its momentum of record-breaking Chinese visitors — and money — into the country. Nearly 532,000 visitor visas for the UK were issued to Chinese residents last year, and Global Blue, a tourism tax refund company, found that Chinese visitors accounted for 25 per cent of all the tax-free [...]
Bored of Bora Bora? Set sail to the islands of Rangiroa, Moorea, and Tahiti to discover the real French Polynesia September 28, 2018 French Polynesia is the archetypal island paradise. A place of such astounding natural beauty that superlatives fail from overuse. This French overseas territory sits in the heart of the South Pacific, at the centre of the Polynesian-triangle; roughly equidistant between Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. It consists of five culturally and geographically diverse island [...]
The Kenyan island of Rusinga is considered to be the cradle of humanity. Today it’s an archaeologist’s playground October 22, 2018 "Whose baby is this?" I asked a crowd of fifty children, one of whom had just handed me a baby younger than some of the food in my fridge. They all laughed and pointed, and I began to worry that I’d somehow been tricked into becoming an adoptive father. But before I could start making [...]
Lustica Bay, Montenegro’s €1.1bn regeneration project, is set to transform property values in the area April 30, 2018 In Montenegro, legend has it, the island of Our Lady of the Rocks was built up from nothing over centuries by fishermen laying a boulder at the site after every successful catch. Lustica Bay, Montenegro, from €297,000 For sheer force of will, the huge development taking place at nearby Lustica Bay must surely be the [...]
Why Paris is on the up: tourism, transport and Brexit September 21, 2017 As Global Cities bloggers and property investors, we track a whole range of factors when compiling the Schroders Global Cities index. Strong tourism and improving transport links are among the essential ingredients for improving a city’s prospects and therefore its attraction to commercial real estate investors. Paris, ranked 16th in the index, is worthy of [...]
The digital nomads: How to pack a suitcase and start a new life working from abroad January 25, 2018 Who among us hasn’t dreamed of jacking in their day job to trade forex from a laptop in Malibu or open a beach bar in Thailand? You might have read The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and asked why you haven’t yet “escaped the nine-to-five to live anywhere and join the new rich”. I [...]
EU considers new taxes as it scratches its head over the budget funding shortfall from Brexit June 28, 2017 The European Commission is considering new taxes for EU members to fill the funding gap that will emerge when the UK exits the bloc. The UK was the second largest net contributor to the EU budget in 2015, providing £12bn. Read more: Carney: Tighter policy needed if businesses look through Brexit uncertainty When the UK [...]
Exploring the lost coastlines of Mozambique, one of Africa’s fastest growing tourist destinations July 14, 2017 The southern African nation of Mozambique boasts one of the continent’s longest coastlines. It stretches for two and a half thousand kilometres along the Indian Ocean and is dotted with some of the best beaches on the planet, like the spectacular manta ray meeting point of Tofo and the coral reef enclosed bay of Pemba. [...]