Adrien Glover September 18, 2006

 

The most unbelievable custom tours

If you have only a week to spend in India, you can still fit in a helicopter ride over the Himalayas, cocktails at the world's oldest private polo club and a stay in the summer palace of the Maharaja of Burdwan. You just need a good travel agent, and an appropriately valued net worth. More and more of the world's most discerning travelers are taking luxury into their own hands, and crafting their own dream vacations -- every five-star step of the way.

You won't find these kinds of itineraries on Orbitz. While there are no hard numbers for the global luxury travel market, Virtuoso, the country's largest network of top-rated travel agents, generates $3.8 billion a year. A good portion of that sizable sum is generated from extravagant custom tours, some of which cost as much as $150,000 for just two people.

"Luxury rests in getting under the skin of a place in a way that appeals to the interests of the individual client. Bespoke travel is the most luxurious kind of travel you can have," says Lisa Lindblad, whose New York City-based boutique travel agency, Lisa Lindblad Travel Design, caters to some of the top names in banking, entertainment and technology. She specializes in creating custom trips of a lifetime, such as the $80,000 three-month "walkabout" in Asia she recently curated for a mother and daughter that included highlights like a guided tour through the terraced Punakha Valley in Bhutan, and an elephant ride through Laotian rice paddies. "Having a private and unique experience is the true meaning of luxury."

See our list of incredible custom tours.

Unity Marketing, a Pennsylvania-based research company that tracks the spending habits of the wealthy, and the incredibly wealthy, predicts that the typical luxury consumer will spend more than $28,000 this year on travel alone, up from $25,972 in 2005. But even $28,000 is chump change when you're talking about private jets, nannies, translators and 24/7 white glove treatment.

"Prepackaged tours take you to the same old predictable sites," says Dr. Barbara Paldus, who's traveling to Thailand this winter on a trip designed exclusively for her by Remote Lands, a bespoke luxury tour company in New York City that specializes in "elite indigenous experiences" in Asia. "We want an immersive and enlightening travel experience, and we're willing to pay for the privilege."

In its most recent Luxury Tracking study, Unity Marketing surveyed 1,200 affluent consumers, 56 percent of whom reported that the ultimate travel reward is "having special experiences that make memories."

And the seriously rich are making memories on the grandest possible scale, deferring to travel professionals to produce unique itineraries that even the most expensive package tours can't deliver -- vacations that might include flying fighter jets over Cape Town's Table Mountain, horseback riding with a former member of the New Zealand Olympic Equestrian Team, and savoring a lavish picnic spread while floating over the Burgundy countryside in a balloon. These exclusive travel agents claim vast networks of expert guides and society insiders, in addition to tight relationships with restaurant reservationists, concierges and general managers of the world's most opulent five-star hotels. They make the impossible happen for a special occasion, even if the special occasion is a month-long round-the-world tour.

"I'm seeing more and more celebration-oriented trips, says Pallavi Shah, the owner of Our Personal Guest, and who planned a 25th anniversary adventure for a client who wanted to surprise his wife with a trip she'd never forget. Every day of the $85,000 Thailand-New Zealand journey had to outdo the last.

CEOs e-mail Shah directly because she, like many other exclusive agents, works hands-on with clients to make sure every aspect of a trip is perfect, right down to the things they couldn't possibly anticipate. On one family's vacation in India, she even arranged for ice-cold towels to be waiting for them every time they stepped outside air-conditioning into the sweltering heat.

"True luxury," says Shah, "is in the little details."

See our list of incredible custom tours.

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