In the historic market town of Amboise on the banks of the Loire, you’ll find Château du Clos Lucé, the large brick mansion where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life working for the French court. The legendary artist-scientist-inventor had been enticed to France at the age of 64 by François I, who lent him the royal family’s summer house as a base, and da Vinci lived there for the next three years until his death on 2 May 1519. The château, which was originally named Manoir du Cloux, was built by Hugues d’Amboise in the 15th…

Thanks to its quaint medieval streets, charming château and lovely views of the River Indrois, it’s hardly surprising that Montrésor has been named one of les plus beaux villages de France (most beautiful villages in France). It’s one of only three villages to have been given the distinction in the Loire Valley. We started our visit to Montrésor at the privately owned château, which is perched high on a rock in the centre of the village overlooking the River Indrois. The château was built in the Renaissance style by Imbert de Bastarnay (a counsellor to kings Louis XI, Charles VIII,…

Thanks to its arched bridges spanning the River Cher, Chenonceau is possibly the prettiest, most distinctive and most fairytale-like of all the chateaux of the Loire. I’d been wanting to visit Chenonceau since I was a child after my parents bought me a 3D jigsaw of it (it took forever to build!). So when my parents invited me to spend a week with them in the Loire Valley in June 2019, it was at the top of my list of places to visit. There’s been a chateau on the spot since the 12th or 13th centuries. But the current incarnation…

Tucked away in a valley in the Chiltern Hills you’ll find Hughenden, the country pile of former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Queen Victoria’s favourite PM bought the 1,500-acre estate in the Buckinghamshire countryside in 1848 as a country retreat and lived there with his wife Mary Anne when he wasn’t in London. The estate dates back to at least Norman times, when it was owned by William the Conqueror’s brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. The current red-brick house was built in the late 18th century and was redesigned by the architect Edward Buckton Lamb for the Disraelis in 1862.…

I’ve been to many a stately home in my time, but the Holkham estate on the north Norfolk coast is one of my all time favourites – and I didn’t even step foot in the hall! Made up of a grand Palladian mansion surrounded by 3,000 acres of parkland, Holkham also boasts a boating lake (above), 700 acres of woodland, a walled garden, various historic buildings, a village, a nature reserve and a sandy beach. Plus it’s home to around 400 fallow deer (below). In short, there’s plenty to see and do, and you need a full day to see…

Philip II had 21 years and the resources of the wealthiest empire on Earth to build exactly one thing. The result is a 300,000 square-meter granite complex that functions simultaneously as a royal palace, an active monastery, a Renaissance library, a seminary, and a royal tomb. El Escorial sits 50km northwest of Madrid in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama — close enough for a day trip, substantial enough to deserve a full day. Most tourists spend three hours there and leave saying it was interesting. Four hours is what the place actually requires. Here’s what to see, how…

Of all the many places I visited in Madrid, the Museo Cerralbo was by far my favourite. Situated in an unassuming 19th century mansion, the museum showcases the former home and collection of Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, an archaeologist, politician and the 17th Marquis of Cerralbo. When he died in 1922, the Marquis left his collection to the Spanish nation on condition that the state keep the house as he left it. And I can’t say I blame him for that. Madrid has many lavish, ornate museums and palaces, but the Museo Cerralbo tops the lot with its jaw-dropping…

Some 45 minutes to the south of Madrid, you’ll find the city of Aranjuez, home to the Royal Summer Palace and Gardens. The city is where the Spanish royal family used to decamp after Easter, taking up residence in its leafy surroundings until June. The palace was originally built by the Order of Santiago after the conquest of the Moors and passed to Isabella I at the end of the 15th century. Emperor Charles V had long dreamed of turning Aranjuez into an Italianate palace, and in 1560 his son Felipe II set about making this dream a reality by…

Consider this scenario: you’ve allocated four days for Porto, printed a list of must-see attractions from the top travel sites, and arrived to find the main viewpoints packed by 10am, the famous bookshop requiring tickets booked weeks in advance, and your hotel in Ribeira charging €35 per night more than the same quality room two neighborhoods over. This is the most common Porto experience — not because the city disappoints, but because most guides describe it in its best-case version rather than as it typically unfolds. This guide presents Porto as it generally operates: realistic costs, which neighborhoods actually deliver…

Imagine you’re planning a week in western France and a colleague mentions Nantes as the “not-too-touristy alternative” to Paris. You look it up, find photos of a 12-meter mechanical elephant and a Gothic castle, and wonder whether that’s actually enough for three days. That skepticism is reasonable — and, as most travel accounts suggest, largely misplaced. Nantes has generally been regarded as one of France’s most livable and creatively ambitious cities. It sits at the western end of the Loire Valley, within reach of Atlantic beaches, close to Muscadet wine country, and home to a contemporary art infrastructure that coexists…