So if you happen to have a spare few million burning a hole in your pocket, why not check in to the ultimate ski chalet or rent your own private Caribbean island?
Of course you can rest assured that every whim you can think of, and many you can’t, will be well and truly catered for.
The gin palace on steroids – £441,000
There are gin palaces and then there’s a 242ft yacht called RV Pegaso, which comes with a submarine that can accommodate five people.
You can explore the bottom of the ocean around the Caribbean while someone tops up your glass of Dom Perignon.
Closer to the surface, a flunkie will film you swimming with manta rays and introducing yourself to friendly sharks.
Back on board there’s a recompression chamber and toys galore (a 32ft waterslide, trampoline, outdoor gym, Jacuzzi) and, of course, a heliport at the stern.
You might want to ask for a Flyboard — a 30ft power hose, pictured right, that lets you fly through the air.
With practice, you can do aerobatic spins and twists.
The yacht sleeps 12 and there’s a lift up to the oak and walnut-panelled penthouse suite.
RV stands for ‘research vessel’ but you don’t need to be a marine scientist to appreciate this sort of life on the ocean wave — just very rich.
Charter Pegaso from £441,000
The ultimate safari – £52,000
Africa’s impressive wildlife is all very well but those early morning starts on safari need to be offset by a little spoiling.
At Singita Serengeti House — which opened in January on Sasakwa Hill in north Tanzania — you may feel so special you expect the animals to seek you out rather than you having to look for them.
Rented on an exclusive-use-only basis, it sleeps eight in four suites and is right on the migratory route of the wildebeest.
Singita means ‘place of miracles’ and when you’ve got 350,000 acres to yourself but can still watch a family of elephants bathing from your bedroom window, you might agree.
And as you swim in the infinity pool and a rhino comes to call, you may imagine miracles are two-a-penny.
Seven nights cost £52,000 all-inclusive, spa treatments extra. Singita.com.sfzx
Private paradise island - £300,000
The
Cohens, a French family of estimable means, bought 50-acre Calivigny
Island, off the south coast of Grenada in 2000 and spent more than
£100 million developing it. Only in the past couple of years has the
private island been available for rent.It can accommodate 50 people, but if you want just the main house, it sleeps 20 and costs £300,000 a week, so double that for the whole confection.
You’ll find marble bathrooms, Persian rugs, Egyptian cotton, and furniture by the classy Dominican designer Oscar de la Renta.
There are Italian, French and Granadian menus each night, six sandy beaches — one for each day of your stay — and a plethora of water sports. For New Year, a band will come over from the mainland and the fireworks should be good, too.
A week’s stay on Calivigny will set you back around £300,000, calivigny-island.com.
The bullet-proof chalet – £230,000
Chalet
N is the world’s most expensive rental chalet at £231,088 per week. It
overlooks the slopes of Oberlech just down the valley from Lech in the
Austrian Alps.This is its second season (singers Tina Turner and Rihanna were debut visitors last year) and although not even the white-hot price can guarantee snow, everything else is taken care of.
The cutlery is titanium and pillows are embroidered with your initials. A spa bigger than a tennis court takes up the basement; the pool has underwater music and the water changes colour according to your mood; there’s a private wine cellar where tastings take place as and when you wish and your skis are made by Porsche. The windows are, of course, bullet-proof.
It sleeps up to 24 in 11 bedrooms — that’s two fewer guests than staff.
Seven nights cost from £231,088 (chalet-n.com, 0043 5583 37900).
The world’s poshest B&B – £2.2million
Called
the King of the Castle holiday, this tour of Maharaja palaces in
India’s Rajasthan includes three nights in three different hotels.You can either have them all to yourself or invite 120 or so friends. Whatever you choose, the price is the same: £2,160,000.
Breakfast is included but everything else, including private jet travel between locations, is extra.
You start at the Lake Palace in Udaipur (built in 1743 by a philandering prince in defiance of his father and where the James Bond film Octopussy was shot) then move to Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, where Liz Hurley married the Indian textile heir Arun Nayar in 2007.
Last stop is Rambagh Palace, once home to the Maharaja of Jaipur and set in nearly 50 acres of gardens.
The model Kate Moss and her chums checked in two years ago for the birthday bash of Naomi Campbell’s then boyfriend Vladimir Doronin — but don’t let that put you off.
Ampersand Travel (020 7819 9770, ampersandtravel.com) from £2,160,000 B&B from October-April.
The jet just for you – £590,000
Why queue at the airport when you can fly to Australia by private jet and invite 30 friends along?
This 20-day trip begins at the nearest airstrip to your house and ends in Sydney, with stops wherever you like.
How about the temples of Abu Simbel in Egypt, the Taj Mahal, India, and Luang Prebang (the World Heritage Site best known for Buddhist temples and monasteries) in Laos?
The 20-day Ancient Worlds Explorer costs £589,878 (excluding your return flights from Australia), billpeachjourneys.com.au
The eco-millionaire’s retreat – £1.1million
Laucala Island in Fiji will do nicely if you want privacy — although there’s room for 60 of your nearest and dearest if you use all 25 villas. This six-square-mile South Pacific island is owned by Red Bull drinks magnate Dietrich Mateschitz (it formerly belonged to big bucks American Malcolm Forbes) and is hot on self-sustainability.
Accessed only by private plane (no, not exactly the greenest of options!), Laucala rears its own livestock, grows tons of fruit and veg, makes its own honey and even bottles its own mineral water. It makes Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island look unsophisticated.
Villas have thatched roofs made from sago palms and coconut husk (all come with their own pools of course).
If you find your guests tiresome, there are five restaurants and enough space to get in touch with your inner ‘I want to be alone’ Greta Garbo. Take the whole island for a week and you’re looking at spending more than £1 million — but it is all-inclusive.
Scott Dunn (020 8682 5099, scottdunn.com) from £1,092,000, including flights from the UK.
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