HONEYMOONS Over-the-moon
When money is no object, as it certainly is not for newlyweds Pippa (Middleton) and James Matthews, the world’s ultra-rich demand more than just exotic surroundings to ease into married life. They want an experience only a fortune can buy . . .
AFTER their wedding last week, newlyweds Pippa Middleton and James Matthews went on honeymoon in the French Polynesian private-island resort The Brando.
Costing £3 000 (about R50 000) a night, the retreat is clearly aimed at the world’s wealthiest travellers, but the way members of this demographic spend their first weeks of married life is changing.
George Morgan-Grenville, CEO of a tour-operating company, has found that while his clients desire “intense rejuvenation” after concluding the wedding rigmarole, they now request a “hands-on, authentic experience” as part of their honeymoon, alongside the traditional beach element.
In practice that might mean exploring the depths of the tropical waters surrounding Fiji’s Laucala Island resort in its £1million DeepFlight Falcon submersible, or traversing Botswana’s Makgadikgadi pans by quadbike to reach the Lost Island of Baobabs.
Strenuous and sweltering though the journey can be, it provides honeymooners, says Morgan-Grenville, with the “bragging rights that will have their dinner-party guests on the edge of their seats as opposed to yawning into their soup”.
Ostensibly at least, it was a desire to meet local people rather than bragging rights that saw one duo enlist another tour operator to organise a personalised honeymoon to South Africa and beyond. Over one month, the European couple enjoyed a private audience with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and lunch with Olympic gold-medal swimmer Ryk Neethling, alongside private safari drives and a night under the stars at Tswalu Kalahari lodge. Their trip concluded with a 10-night stay at North Island in the Seychelles. The bill was £550 000.
Prices can rise steeply when customising every component of the trip — even down to having the seat and headrest covers on their privately chartered aircraft embroidered with the couple’s names — but it’s often the guarantee of privacy that commands the highest premium.
For luxury-travel specialist THE COLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Some couples break the ice in their own igloo in the Arctic, lined with sheepskin rugs and with a private chef on standby Alex Malcolm, that desire for exclusivity is the biggest trend for honeymooners with an unlimited budget.
For amorous couples who want to be entirely alone (save for the attention of a battalion of discreet, intuitive staff expected to anticipate their every whim), his company can arrange a private-dining experience for two in the ruins of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples, for £12 000. One couple eager to see the Northern Lights chartered a private jet to chase the phenomenon around Iceland. With their own photographer in tow, they paid £34 000 for the experience (though there’s no word on whether the lights themselves deigned to make an appearance).
Catering primarily to a US clientele, tour operator Sienna Charles has gone to similar efforts to ensure her honeymooning guests are entirely undisturbed. On one recent $800 000 (about R10-million) Italian honeymoon, the couple undertook private tours in palaces usually closed to the public; enjoyed the services of a private chef; and had a private water taxi reserved for their exclusive use throughout their time in Venice. (Other journeys were conducted by hot-air balloon and Ferrari.)
While other tour operators are offering increasingly niche honeymoon options — costing from £174 000 and so far booked by just one couple — a specialised health and fitness travel HONEY, YOU’RE SO DEEP: Some honeymooners find a ‘hands-on authentic experience’ by exploring the tropical depths around Fiji’s Laucala Island resort in its R16.7-million DeepFlight Falcon submersible COVERT ATTRACTION: Two newlyweds booked the first-class carriage of the Tokyo-to-Kyoto bullet train — and enjoyed special surprises, such as ninjas, at every stop BON APPETIT: About R200 000 will buy a couple a private candle-lit dinner in the ruins of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples operator’s six-month-long wellness honeymoon sees couples undertake Ayurvedic treatments at India’s Ananda in the Himalayas and go paragliding in Oman. Hotels too are providing increasingly extravagant services in their efforts to lure lucrative honeymooners direct to their properties.
Keen to stand out among the innumerable romantic resorts that populate Bali, one resort’s ominous-sounding “96 Hours Blackout” sees couples willingly sequester themselves in a fivebedroom property with ample space for the two butlers and two housekeepers constantly on call.
There they’ll spend a demanding 96 hours undergoing 16 decadent spa treatments, eventually emerging from their chrysalis buffed, preened and looking presumably even more beautiful than they did in their wedding photos. The experience will cost them just shy of £30 000.
Four Seasons Landaa Giravaru in the Maldives offers a night spa experience: one couple can book the resort’s spa exclusively each night.
Every reputable concierge, meanwhile, can offer tales about the significant efforts they made to ensure honeymooners’ stays were memorable. One Russian guest of the Peninsula Paris hotel wanted to buy the wroughtiron entrance to Kléber metro station as a holiday souvenir for his bride.
An impossible request even with his unlimited budget, but instead their concierge was able to source a replica after a tireless trawl through the city’s auction houses.
But when it comes to creating spectacular, unprecedented honeymoon experiences, there is perhaps no tour operator that tops the efforts of Based on a True Story. Though the company organises just 10 or so a year, each honeymoon is an exceptionally elaborate, multifaceted affair that might incorporate intricately synchronised CLASS CONSCIOUS: Bridal pair Pippa Middleton and James Matthews booked into a R50 000-a-night honeymoon getaway in French Polynesia AFRICAN DREAM: One couple spent R9.2-million on a honeymoon that included chats with Desmond Tutu and Ryk Neethling, and a night at Tswalu Kalahari, above MAKING A MEAL OF IT: In the Maldives couples can charter a yacht to a private sandbank for a candelit dinner under the stars
We’re adding a layer of magic to honeymoons, and that is more important to me than the obvious blueprint of luxury
private performances (in one case with literally thousands of participants), continents-spanning itineraries undertaken by private jet and superyacht, and custom-made components and habitations that will never again be on offer to another couple. Honeymoons are £500 000 at minimum and can cost up to £5million.
For company founder Niel Fox, the stereotypical luxurytravel tropes — stays in hotels’ best suites, transfers by helicopter or yacht — are in this case entirely unremarkable elements already completely familiar to his ultra-high-networth clientele: “We’re adding a layer of magic to honeymoons, and that is more important to me than the obvious blueprint of luxury — the jets, the yachts, it’s all arbitrary. We provide a level of creativity above all of that — one that is often a complete surprise. That’s where we stand alone in this industry.”
Invariably already extremely well-travelled, his honeymooners often don’t even stipulate where they want to go and instead indicate the types of experiences they value. That might mean they’re whisked to the Arctic, where they’ll be led to their own remote, purposebuilt igloo lined with sheepskin rugs, with a private chef on standby and a Sami choir singing under the stars and Aurora Borealis.
One tour of Japan saw the couple travel between Tokyo and Kyoto by bullet train — every seat in the first-class carriage was booked so it was kept entirely for their exclusive use. They were entertained by unexpected performances — perhaps a flash of ninjas appearing unexpectedly — at every stop. The night before a sumo match, they were joined at dinner by the two most esteemed fighters; another day saw actors from Kill Bill make a cameo.
It accumulates into a luxurytravel experience that for once is indisputably worthy of the industry’s oft-repeated “once in a lifetime” mantra. The itinerary will never be repeated for anyone; the couple can commence their hopefully life-long marriage assured their honeymoon memories will last forever. — © The Daily Telegraph, London