Expect Canada to become especially hip with the international jet set, now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have decided to move there part-time. Of course, they’re not the first Royals to have a soft spot for somewhere outside the Britannia homeland, whether for holidays or residing on a more permanent basis!

Mustique, Caribbean
Princess Margaret’s regular trips to privately-owned Mustique, an exclusive island with old world charm in the St Vincent and the Grenadines archipelago, are well documented. The Queen’s younger sister was gifted a plot on the three-by-one-and-a-half-mile island by its eccentric owner Colin Tennant, where she had her villa ‘Les Jolies Eaux’ built.

Margaret, a regular at the landmark Basil’s Bar, adored everything about the island, not least her time spent with its quirky and exclusive set of fellow homeowners, who today include Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams and Tommy Hilfiger. Mustique was, she claimed, the only place where she could relax.

She gifted Les Jolies Eaux to her son Linley, who has since sold up. There are only around 100 properties on Mustique, but the real estate value still runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars! Following in the footsteps of his great-aunt, Prince William has taken Kate and the children there for their summer holiday, renting a luxury villa by the beach.

Malta
Let’s not forget that before being crowned our present-day Queen, the Princess Elizabeth had a home on the sunny island of Malta for two years. She moved there with Prince Philip, whose job in the Navy took the recently wed couple to the island, which back then was still a crown colony.

Home for Lizzie and Philip was ‘Villa Guardamangia’, a Grade Two listed Palazzo-style home in an exclusive residential area of Valletta called Guardamangia. The property was the rented home of Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten. “Visiting Malta is always very special for me,” said the Queen when visiting the island in 2015. “I remember happy days here with Prince Phillip when we were first married.”

And now property-hunters in Malta with a large budget have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the royal couple – Villa Guardamangia is currently on the market, although in need of some major updating!

The Swiss Alps
The winter season is well underway, so it won’t be long before various members of the Royal Family head out to the Alps for their annual fix of skiing and fondues. Over the years, a handful of resorts in Switzerland have become favourites with various Royals, none more so than Prince Charles who has held the resort of Klosters close to his heart for more than 40 years. He enjoyed trips there with Princess Diana, when they used to take William and Harry as boys, and even now he continues to hit the slopes there, despite Camilla reportedly not being a fan of the slopes. There are even cable cars named after him.

Across the way, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson prefer the equally exclusive resort of Verbier, where they own a multi-million-pound chalet. Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice have been regulars since they were girls. Meanwhile, Zara Tindall and rugby star hubby Mike favour the quieter but no less chic resort of Villars. In a break with tradition, in 2016 the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge picked French resort Courchevel for their first family ski holiday!

Paris, France
At the end of the Second World War and more than a decade after abdicating from the British throne, Edward VIII, better known as the Duke of Windsor, settled permanently with his Duchess, the American Wallis Simpson, in Paris. Before then they had enjoyed stints at a palatial villa in exclusive Cap d’Antibes in the French Riviera, a property now owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

In keeping with his royal roots, the Duke needed not only a swish city pad but also a rural retreat, where he and his wife could entertain their high-society friends at weekends. For the former, they chose a grand 14-room villa in the Bois du Boulogne area of Paris, let to them for a nominal rent by the Parisian council. The property was later leased by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, who renamed it ‘Villa Windsor’.

Their country home became a converted mill in the village of Gif-sur-Yvette, on the south-western edge of Paris. Called Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, the couple rented the property for just a year before deciding they loved it enough to buy it in 1952.