There are also five-year standard and index-linked certificates. If Ms Winter used all these, she could set aside £60,000 for the school fees.Mr Pitcher says Ms Winter should aim to have an emergency fund of between £20,000 and £40,000 in a high-interest, instant access savings account, such as her existing account with ING.MORTGAGE & [...]

The two-bedroom property costs from £237 for a three-night winter break, or from £347 for a week.The views are even more staggering from the Jacuzzi of an architect-designed house in the hamlet of Kilfinan in Argyll. Standing in large private grounds, the property looks directly over Loch Fyne towards Arran – and the Jacuzzi, [...]

They might not be cash wealthy, but they own their own land.”I asked Eudoxie about the Anguillan sense of humour “They exaggerate, like the Irish. Now, if you go to St Maarten, any French or Dutch businessman can turn up and take over. We all descend from shipwrecks, hence the Irish brogue in the [...]

The Arctic winds have spun sugar fronds of ice and snow on to every delicate finger of the fir trees through which we glide The effect is dazzling. We get to the top quickly and find a chocolate-box winter wonderland. So when the Finns find a mound higher than a house, they cover it [...]

With its intricate trompe l’oeil paintings and floor-to-ceiling mural of Central Park, the Rotunda is the magical focal point of the hotel at any time of the year. The day after Thanksgiving the staff at The Pierre decorate the giant Christmas tree in the Rotunda. Small companies report a boom inprivate “champagne and caviar” [...]

The gardens feature a free-flight aviary with over 300 different species of birds and a miniature railway that runs on the first and third Sunday of each month from 10.30am-4.30pm. The name Wagga Wagga translates from the Wiradjuri aboriginal as “place of many crows”. It’s the largest inland city in New South Wales and [...]