Imagine if money was completely off the table when planning your next holiday. If, rather than fretting over Ryanair baggage fees, you channelled your energy instead into the couture you’re taking to Cannes. Or the supercar you might drive in Switzerland.
For a fraction of the population, such decadent whims are a reality – so welcome to the jet-set world of super-rich travel.
Hannah Westaway, who is based in London and Scotland, has more insight than most into this rarefied sphere of opulence. As managing director of the exclusive concierge club Knightsbridge Circle, she helps Hollywood A-listers, crypto entrepreneurs and old money aristos, among others.
According to Forbes, the number of global billionaires is on the up (there were 2,781 of them in 2024) – so just how well-heeled might an average Knightsbridge Circle client be?
‘The majority of our members have a net worth of £100 million and upwards,’ Westaway surmises coolly. ‘We recently organised a private concert with Andrea Bocelli for a client and 15 family members in Tuscany. They then drove classic Italian cars to Rome and had a private view in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace with Pope Francis.’
What’s topping the 2025 travel lust list, then? ‘It’s all about Japan, for both skiing and general holidays,’ says Westaway.
Five-star resort Joali in the Maldives
A room overlooking the ocean on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island
The Gstaad Palace
‘It’s a destination that blows people’s minds. When they visit once, clients always want to go back and experience it in more depth.’
Here, the concierge opens up her little black book on the restaurants, hotels and experiences the world’s most discerning travellers love…
Chasing the sun
Privacy and heritage are potent bedfellows, and if a resort can ace both of them, they’ll win lucrative loyalty, says our expert.
The blueprint? Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, in sultry Antibes on the Cote D’Azur, is a perennial hit.
‘Members base themselves there because of the supreme service, then lunch at Club 55 in St Tropez, or La Guerite in Cannes.’
The Maldives’ far-flung location makes discretion easy, too.
Five-star resort Joali, which boasts a vast art collection, has become the pick for those looking for paradise with a side portion of culture.
Thailand, too, is often more popular than the Caribbean ‘because it’s less crowded’. Westaway adds: ‘We send clients to Kamalaya in Koh Samui, or any of the Four Seasons hotels.’
Book like a billionaire: Doubles at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc from £928 (oetkercollection.com).
Private islands
One way to guarantee that you won’t be mingling with the masses on your tenth holiday of the year? Leave them on the mainland.
‘Private island stays have always been popular with our membership, but we’ve seen a big upturn in demand recently,’ says our guru. ‘It’s really about privacy.’
Top of the list is the most famous private island for hire on the planet – Sir Richard Branson’s 74-acre Necker in the British Virgin Islands.
And hot on its heels is Tagomago. Just off Ibiza’s east coast, this 148-acre enclave of exclusivity features a five-bedroom villa, its own yacht and a full catering team.
Another hit is bijou Thanda Island, in turquoise waters off Tanzania’s coast, where guests can relax in a five-suite beachside villa.
Book like a billionaire: One night’s hire of Necker Island costs about £130,000 (virginlimitededition.com).
Millionaire mountains
Traditionally, Knightsbridge Circle members will whoosh down pistes in classic European resorts such as Verbier, St Moritz or Gstaad – staying in the vast penthouse suite at the fairytale-esque Gstaad Palace in the latter. Across the Atlantic, Montana resorts with private members’ clubs are highly sought-after, but Aspen, in Colorado’s soaring Elk Mountains, is still the winter destination that captivates most, because it’s drenched in exclusive residences and restaurants.
Luxe retreat The Little Nell is the place to (get someone else to) park your skis. Japanese chalet resorts such as Niseko also pull in big spenders.
Book like a billionaire: Doubles at Gstaad Palace from £1,300 (palace.ch).
Jolly good sport
Many magnates plot their global wanderings not around business but sporting passions. Given half the chance, who wouldn’t flit between the Australian Open in Melbourne, the Champions League final – this year in Munich – and the Masters in Georgia?
Boys’ weekends teeing off at Scotland’s Gleneagles or The Old Course Hotel – or at Finca Cortesin on the Costa del Sol – are very popular, says Westaway, but there’s one date that’s in pole position every time: Monaco’s Grand Prix.
The jewel in F1’s crown, thanks to its hairpin circuit and glamorous backdrop, is always in the plan come May’s end, says our concierge.
‘Members travel to lots of events, but Monaco is the absolute must-do.’ Where do they eat in the glitzy principality? ‘We book tables at Gaia, MayaBay and Le Louis XV – Alain Ducasse’s restaurant at l’Hotel de Paris’.
Book like a billionaire: B&B doubles at Gleneagles from £495 (gleneagles.com).
City breaking (the bank)
‘London, New York, Rome, Paris – always Paris! The classics essentially’, is how Westaway sums up the cities beloved by those with money to burn.
Athens is also popular, she adds, because the rich have a hunger for knowledge (and a decent souvlaki, one assumes). ‘Curiosity is one of the main veins that runs through our members.’
New hotels titillate high-rollers too, but one of the team always goes first, to ensure they are not disappointed.
‘Now, everyone is excited for the opening of Corinthia with chef Carlo Cracco’, she says, referencing Rome’s latest five-star, housed in the Bank of Italy’s one-time HQ.
In our own capital? The fab five reign: Claridge’s, The Connaught, Raffles at The OWO, The Berkeley and Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.
Book like a billionaire: Doubles at Claridges from £744 (claridges.co.uk).
…And this is what they avoid
CRUISES: While boarding a cruise ship is now one of the favourite holidays among most Britons, the uber-wealthy are yet to be convinced. ‘They might go on some cruises,’ says Hannah Westaway. Private yachts? Now you’re talking. ‘We charter the best yachts in the world for our members,’ she says.
Italy’s Positano
ITALY IN HIGH SEASON: Italy is forever popular, of course it is, but not at high-season, according to Hannah. ‘There’s a definite move towards booking off-season. It’s simply not going to be fun if there are too many people.’
MAURITIUS: Accommodation standards are so high in both the Maldives and Seychelles that Hannah suggests her clients avoid the mass appeal of this Indian island hotspot, unless they’re golf fanatics.
JOHANNESBURG: Due to safety, Hannah doesn’t recommend her clients travel to the South African city. But the team can provide the best security money can buy.
