The 10 most expensive travel experiences in the world – including £13k cocktails and £108k hotel rooms
FINDING a bargain holiday is one of the most satisfying feelings, when you nab cheap flights and a hotel.
However, if you are looking to splash the cash, here are some of the most expensive travel experiences in the world to add to your bucket list – from £76 sandwiches to £39m holidays.
1. World’s most expensive hotel room – £108,000
You’ve heard of the mile-high club right? Well you can join the mile low club at the Lover’s Deep Luxury Submarine in St Lucia.
As the name implies it’s a fully submerged getaway that is all yours for £108,000 per night.
2. World’s most expensive flight – £40,000
Etihad’s Residence – a virtual apartment in Airbus A380 – sleeps two and getting from New York to Abu Dhabi in it will set you back £40,000.
Celebs like Holly Willoughby have been a passenger in the past.
The good news is the Residence accommodates two. The bad news is that this is a one-way fare.
3. World’s most expensive burger – £549
Check into Burger Brasserie at the Paris Las Vegas Resort, make sure you have a lazy £549 to spare on the old Amex and order the Kobe beef and Maine Lobster Burger.
Basically a surf and turf, this burger is served with pancetta, goat cheese, seared foie gras, arugula, Maine Lobster and 100-year aged balsamic paired with a BLT salad.
The meal also comes with a bottle of Rose Dom Perignon Champagne.
4. World’s most expensive cocktail – £13,000
At the already pricey Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo, the Diamonds Are Forever Martini cocktail will set you back around £13,000.
It’s made with with chilled Absolut Elyx vodka and a hint of fresh lime juice, which is then stirred or shaken.
We forgot to mention that a one-carat diamond is dropped into the glass as a finishing touch.
This cocktail even comes with a live band singing “Diamonds Are Forever”.
5. World’s most expensive sandwich – £76
These come and go – mainly for publicity purposes – but right here, right now, the Hush restaurant in Dublin will sell you a Wagyu sandwich for, gulp, £76.
It’s breadcrumbed and fried, and served with an Asian dressing on crispy white bread.
However the sandwich sold out within hours of launching it last month.
6. World’s most expensive dessert – £713
Setting aside desserts where they throw in a diamond or are flown to Kilimanjaro to eat it and the dish becomes secondary, we are going to focus on an item you can actually order from a menu – albeit in this case with 48 hours notice.
Your sweet tooth will literally be covered in precious metals when you pony up £713 for the Golden Opulence Sundae at New York’s Serendipity 3.
Ice cream made with Madagascan vanilla bean is covered in 24-karat gold leaf, specialty chocolates, Parisian candied fruits, truffles and – wait for it – caviar.
It’s all served in a Baccarat crystal bowl that you can take home as a souvenir.
7. World’s most expensive meal – £1,372
For a lick under £1,372 (with tip) Sublimotion in Ibiza will bloat you no end with 15-20 courses along with live music, art, costumed waitstaff and a room that actually changes to enhance each dish.
All curated by Chef Paco Roncero, you can find it Hard Rock Hotel.
8. World’s most expensive guided tour – £106,000
Last year, TCS World Travel retrofitted a private Boeing 757 jet so that it comprised 50 business class seats and flew punters around the globe on a 24-day tour.
It included stop-offs in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, the Galápagos islands and mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
In total, we’re talking 10 flights, 23 nights in five-star hotels or lodges, meals in some of the world’s most famous restaurants, champagne and “every single tip”.
Thrown in are tour guides, an engineer, seven cabin crew, a chef and an “expedition physician”. Lucky you could save on that tip money as couples paid £106,000 per person.
9. World’s most expensive train ride – £2,400 a night
At around £2,400 per night in the Presidential Suite, India’s Maharaja’s Express makes the Orient Express look like a red rattler in a non marginal seat.
For this kind of money you score a living/dining room and two bedrooms with attached baths.
The beautiful dining car has white linen, gold crockery and five-star service.
There’s also an TV in case you get bored of what’s right outside your window.
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10. Most expensive holiday – £39.5m
Axiom Space is selling tickets on a SpaceX capsule for a £39.5m, 10-day stay on an actual space station.
The £2bn Axiom station will orbit 250 miles above earth, and while it expects to mainly welcome scientists and researchers, “space tourists” will also visit.
Best hurry though, there are only two seats left.
To stay at the hotel, guests also must have 15 weeks of training, then ten days of living in space conditions on the ground.
A version of this was originally published by escape.com.au and has been reproduced with permission.