A recent Kuoni travel report predicts that luxury customers will be more cautious with travel spending in 2009. Demanding better value for their money, they will seek options that combine expense with exclusivity. This quest has already sparked a trend called experiential travel, which aims to sate your senses like never before. This niche option shuns conventional five-star products and aims for the oncein-a-lifetime appeal. That’s not to say pampering and opulence are not pre-requisites. It’s just that now, increasingly, “what” you do during a holiday is far more important than “where” you are holidaying. Yes, you can afford a luxury vacation, but why go to the same places that everyone visits? Here are five unique vacation options that are bound to spice up your social banter while scaling up your savvy quotient.
WRECKED WONDER
Why take this trip: It costs nearly Rs 17,300 per person a day, but given that you’ll gain priceless bragging rights as one of the first non-scientists to view the shipwreck, the price tag is justified.
How would you like to check out the Titanic at its final resting place, 12,460 ft beneath the waves? Over the course of the 11-day journey, you sail aboard a Russian ship to a point above the wreck, then dive down in MIR I and II submersibles. These are two of the five deep-dive vessels typically used by the world’s scientific community. Each MIR’s habitat compartment is 7 ft in diameter, accommodating just three people at a time. Talk about an exclusive peek at history.
Cost: Rs 1.9 lakh per person
Includes: Flights to St. Pierre et Miguelon island, the ship’s embarkation point, from St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, accommodation (two nights at a hotel in St. John’s while the remaining nights are spent aboard the support ship), all meals, dives and a personal video of your adventure.
Spoilsport: There is only one trip a year (July-August), accommodating no more than 16 people. The next available trip is in 2010 and filling fast.
Booking: www.adventures.ca/gasnet/1250-4.htm
AQUATIC ADVENTURE
Why take this trip: The introductory offer of Rs 2.06 lakh per couple, per night for bookings in September 2009 will save you a whopping Rs 79,000 a night.
When this resort opens, it could put your childhood dreams of Little Mermaid’s world to shame. The Poseidon Undersea Resort in Fiji, scheduled for a late 2009 launch, offers a comfortable stay beneath the sea in a room surrounded by acrylic glass. The sixnight package includes two nights in an underwater suite, 40 ft below sea level, and the remaining nights on a beach or in an off-shore villa. The Poseidon Mystery Island, a mile-long private island in Fiji, is surrounded by a 5,000-acre pristine lagoon replete with marine life. Finding Nemo should be a piece of cake. Cost: Rs 2.85 lakh (approximately) per couple, per night.
Includes: Transportation to and from a Fiji airport to the resort, stay, a luxury minisubmarine dive, scuba diving, snorkelling, some spa treatments and all meals.
Spoilsport: The opening of this resort could well be pushed to 2010.
Booking: http://www.poseidonresorts.com
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
Why take this trip: In 2010, the tariff is expected to increase by up to Rs 33,000 per person depending on the room category, so there is no time like the present for this holiday.
Think about the Amazon and the last things that come to mind are gourmet meals with champagne, leisurely baths while soaking in the passing riverscapes and 280-threadcount sheets. But that’s what Aqua Expeditions is offering on board its luxury river cruiser. The MV Aqua, more a sailing boutique lodge than a boat, has eight suites and four master suites, each offering a 180-degree view. Voyages are typically planned from June-November and December-May. These tours are for three, four and seven nights and begin in Iquitos, Peru. Cost: Rs 2.5 lakh per person.
Includes: All meals with matched wines, excursions mentioned in the itinerary, airport transfers between Iquitos and the vessel, and all entrance fees.
Spoilsport: You have to pay your own way till Iquitos, a nearly two-hour flight from Lima, the capital of Peru.
Booking: http://www.aquaexpeditions.com
FIRE IN THE SKY
Why take this trip: You stand to save almost Rs 81,000 if you book before 1 March 2009. The lodge is currently offering 25% off on its regular package rate.
The Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is widely touted to be the most spectacular phenomenon on earth. While the magic can be experienced at many places in the Arctic area, for a truly private viewing, you ought to travel to the Blachford Lake Lodge, the last frontier of western Canada. Accessible only through a charter flight from Yellowstone, the capital of the Northwest Territories, the lodge has five bedrooms, five cabins, a hot tub, bar and three decks for an exclusive, front-row seat for the show.
Cost: Rs 3.23 lakh per person
Includes: The seven-night package has all meals, a night in a heated tent pitched on the banks of the nearby Grace lake while you photograph the Aurora, plus a cross-country ski or hike, an Aurora education presentation and a ‘tire sur la neige’ feast, which translates to maple sugar on snow.
Spoilsport: The lodge is only open from 20 February to 19 April.
Booking: http://www.blachfordlakelodge.com
VERTICAL LIMIT
Why take this trip: For Rs 71,400 per day, you get a private playground with a 7,000-ft vertical. Yes, that’s twice the height of Vail and at a 20% lesser cost.
Few things are more exclusive than heli-skiing vacations. For the best powder snow, untrampled and fluffy instead of icy or slushy, let Bella Coola Heli-Sports fly you to the remotest slopes in North America. The sevenday trip, accommodating no more than eight guests, or four if you want privacy, mixes skiing with spa treatments and more at the 80-year-old Tweedsmuir Park Lodge in British Columbia, Canada. Every morning, a helicopter will pick you up from the lodge’s front lawn and take you to a new slope. How many other heli-skiing vacations let you enjoy some 100,000 vertical feet of skiing in a private playground?
Cost: Rs 5 lakh per person
Includes: All meals, helicopter rides, skiing equipment, photographic souvenirs of your holiday and stay.
Spoilsport: Beginners are not welcome. You don’t need to be a pro, but nobody wants a complete novice slowing down the quest for newer slopes.
Booking: http://www.bellacoolahelisports.com
