Where do “the elite” vacation?
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Anonymous
| Per the elite hobbies thread. Curious where the rich and connected spend their leisure time. Locations, resorts, hotels etc |
Anonymous
| They certainly don’t want to advertise it. |
Anonymous
| The amount of wealth on Nantucket and MV in the summer is astounding. |
Anonymous
| Anywhere they can avoid the riff raff and find others like them. It varies based upon where the “elite” live. I know the answers for old money Richmond but I’m sure the answers are different for every city. |
Anonymous
| The truly wealthy people I know charter private yachts. |
Anonymous
| We don't tell the upper middle class because vacations are our time to get away from them. |
Anonymous
| Really depends on the definition of “elite.” The old money (but not crazy wealthy) people I know go understated places like Kiawah and St. John. |
Anonymous
| The ones I know go to the same places UMC people do but have better accommodations. |
Anonymous
| Private islands, so you're not invited |
Anonymous
| Yellowstone Club in Montana and that place in Mexico where Sheryl Sandberg's husband died. |
Anonymous
| If you have to ask … |
Anonymous
|
So I think this question is somewhat silly, but does remind me of something:
My college roommate married a finance guy who made it big and is now insanely rich. Chartered PJs, for instance, but probably going to upgrade to his own jet soon. I don't see her often but we are still friends and have stayed in touch. Their vacations are generally ultra exclusive island vacations. They don't do resorts, it's more like fully staffed villa on a private island off the coast of already uber exclusive rich person location, like Macau or something. That kind of thing. But the last time I saw them, which was shortly before Covid, it was interesting because they were talking a bit about their travels. His job takes him all over the world and they go with him a lot, plus will do things like jet to Tokyo for a shopping trip or something. They are London based but also have homes in NY, Paris, and Hong Kong. And then they do these vacations, and the reason they are generally at these super exclusive tropical locations is that they already have access to so much of the stuff other people do on vacation in their day to day. Like to me, going to Paris, eating at a few fancy restaurants, doing a little shopping, and then heading to the Loire Valley for a couple days would be a big vacation -- something I might do every few years and save for and really look forward to and remember fondly. But for them, they could do any of that next week, on a whim, and because of PJs and drivers and such, they could also do it very efficiently, so it wouldn't even take as much time. They seemed bored. I know it sounds like I'm rationalizing out of jealousy, but I'm not. I'm genuinely not jealous of my friend. She has two great kids and I know loves her husband, but so do I. I think having the entire world at their fingertips has really sucked the joy out of a lot of their life. I don't think my friends looks forward to vacations the way I do, nor does she seem to remember them with the same kind of detail. Their kids seem over... everything. Good, well-behaved kids who get great grades and behave like mini adults -- good conversationalists, well read, etc. But yeah, just bored. It was a weird thing to realize. All these years as her life just kind of took off I thought "wow, that is really the life." And now I'm not so sure. I'm not one of those people whose going to say that rich people are miserable or have bad family lives or anything, because these people really don't -- they are nice people, do tons of charity, seem to be faithful partners and good parents. I'm just not convinced that they are any happier than I am and maybe less? Anyway, thought this was worth sharing. |
Anonymous
| Poster 17:23 ~ thank you for posting. It was very interesting. |
Anonymous
|
The more privacy available, the more exclusive it is, the more the elite will be attracted to it.
Private jets, chartered yachts, fully catered villas/chalets/beach houses in secluded locations with chef/staff, private islands, etc. They don’t go to places frequented by the summer crowds. That’s too much scrutiny. |
Anonymous
|
Pacific, not Hawaii. Hawaii is like an average trip.
Sail Mediterranean on their own chartered yacht with another family they are friends with. |