If you have the money you can have it all: the best vacation experiences in the world!
Black Tomato is a new breed of travel agent that caters to the very wealthy or those having a midlife crisis of banality. Tell them your wildest vacation dreams and they’ll set about arranging the details.
PR mastermind Brendan Drewniany jumps at every chance to extol the dreams Black Tomato brings to life for their exclusive clientele, such as one roughly $700,000 vacation they created. “If money were not an object,” he purrs, “you would want to go on a 30-day tour of India, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives.” No details of comfort are missed, and every rich detail that could be highlighted for the enlightened traveler is tastefully arranged. “By private jet.” Of course. Anything less would be pedestrian. “Behind the scenes at the Taj Mahal to check out the different colors that come with the morning and come with the evening.” They’ll arrange the photographer for you, and the Maldives, he smiles, are especially exquisite.
Having money used to be about conspicuous consumption that was flaunted in search of jealousy or admiration, but today is a means of providing experiences that enrich life and give meaning to the complexities of a mostly fluid planet that waits to be discovered, its cultural nuances better understood and topography more deeply appreciated. But you have to have money to get the real bang for the buck.
Interesting choices include Norway, because when was the last time you vacationed in Norway? “We have this really incredible skiing and sailing itinerary by an antique schooner in the Lofoten Islands of Norway,” extols Drewniany. “It includes heli-hiking and trips to private springs.” Of course it does.
Or an Egyptian tour that takes you to the pyramids the common people don’t get to visit sounds equally inviting. Snap your fingers and you can ride a camel.
When “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” become common, the uncommon have to dream higher.