Found a fun article online today about Expensive Vacations for Billionaires, a list meant to encompass some of the most lavish, luxurious travel experiences available only for the richest of the rich. From private island rentals to luxury cruises to simply ridiculous hotels, it’s all there for a price tag of… numbers I cannot even begin to conceptualize.
I am blessed to not have expensive taste, which I am sure will be something I continually am thankful for throughout my attempts to see the world while not going completely broke. These vacations amaze me, although I think for $264,000 I could see much more of the world—AND have a lot more fun doing it—than those in the Grand Suite on a luxury cruise ship.
Which made me wonder… these luxury vacations are all about traveling in ultimate style and comfort. Which for me begs the question… why do we travel? If I am going to go to India, I am going for the sights, the sounds, the experience of a new culture… not to sit in a hotel room and soak up the spa services for which I am paying more per night than many people make in a year. I want to be out roaming the streets, seeing the sights, immersing myself in the flavors of a new culture. Not everyone wants these experiences, I recognize, but to me that is what travel IS—not leaving your home to go somewhere to sit inside a hotel (no matter how nice it is). I guess if you have that much money it really doesn’t mean so much, but spending a couple months on a boat (which no matter how luxurious it may be, it is still a boat) and hopping out for a few hours in a few exotic locales hardly qualifies as “seeing” the world. More like working on the most expensive tan you’ll ever get.
Renting an island is cool and all but… it’s a beautiful island with a beautiful beach, won’t a private villa somewhere do? Who needs the WHOLE island? I get this experience every day and I make $2000 a year! I guess the whole Peace Corps thing is cheating, but still.
And some of the other included luxuries: a spa treatment in which you have a stream of oil dripped onto your head for 20 minutes straight? And I think a private Santana concert would be awkward, personally. Although I do confess that the “pillow menu” at the hotel in Dubai did intrigue me a bit. Sign me up. But not for $14,974 per night.
The two that did intrigue me were the World Cup—which I am already going to, and spending much less money (duh) and having just as much fun—and the private jet tour. Seeing the sights without spending hours of my life crammed in an airplane seat… I could deal with that. I guess. But if in my life I am able to see the world, even without ever stepping into a private jet, I will consider myself rich beyond measure.
Someday. And by someday I mean, probably never.
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