Where do “the elite” vacation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where do old money Richmond vacation?

Pre-COVID days: they seem to enjoy Jade Mountain. They like flying first-class out of RIC, getting a connecting flight, then on to Europe as well. They are surprisingly more eco-conscious than others, IME, many have no interest in private jets or fractionals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

They have run marathons on the hedonic treadmill, but as always, still in the same place.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill

This is also the basic premise of the second to last episode of The Good Place. You get to heaven, get everything you could ever desire, and then get bored of it. "Happiness zombies" is what they are called by Lisa Kudrow's guest star character.

https://thegoodplace.fandom.com/wiki/Chapter_51:_Patty

Well this conversation turned fascinating.

Thanks for sharing your story, PP.

+1. Thanks for providing me my Wikipedia rabbit hole for the day.

[Anonymous]

Our living room window looks out over the East River, and we watch the “yacht parade” all summer between NY harbor and Long Island sound.

Based on publicly available information (from looking up the yacht’s name), there’s a whole of rich people in the Hamptons and MV/Nantucket in the summer. And the seaplane traffic from NYC to to Hamptons/MV/Nantucket is very brisk, as well.

[Anonymous]

Most of the wealthy people I know have their own homes in places like Telluride, Cabo, MV even the Eastern Shore. They prefer spending time at their own home than resorts or even high end rental homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They have run marathons on the hedonic treadmill, but as always, still in the same place.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill

This is also the basic premise of the second to last episode of The Good Place. You get to heaven, get everything you could ever desire, and then get bored of it. "Happiness zombies" is what they are called by Lisa Kudrow's guest star character.

https://thegoodplace.fandom.com/wiki/Chapter_51:_Patty

Well this conversation turned fascinating.

Thanks for sharing your story, PP.

+1. Thanks for providing me my Wikipedia rabbit hole for the day.

Sure thing. I have found this area of psychology/behavioral economics interesting, both for personal life and thinking about the world. This is a very rough summary, but this research has shown a few interesting things, some of which you have probably heard before:

In general, activities and relationships help make you happier. Possessions and things do not.

Stressful things that you can't control and are unpredictable have an ongoing negative effect. Traffic is the ultimate example of this.

As an activity/experience, travel can be beneficial for happiness, but interestingly, it's the planning/anticipation of travel which most boosts happiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My godfather is super rich and I've gone with him to many places around the world in a private jet and stayed at places that cost 10,000/night and trust me it is not cracked up to be. My godfather has issues just like everyone else, even more so because you don't know whether people around you like you because they actually like you or because of your $$$. After three years of flying around the world with him in PJ, staying at expensive places and meeting other wealthy people, I learned that they are no different than middle class folks. YMMV.

I'll partially agree with you, having been in a similar situtation. It depends a bit (in my experience) on how they made their money, and as a result, who they are in contact with and the circle of friends. Some very wealthy people are very interesting (smart, charismatic, very well informed) and some are just very good at the thing they made their money with, but are still basically the same type that you run into at your local coffee shop. No more interesting, just way richer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Kiawah is for people who think they are wealthy but are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Kiawah is for people who think they are wealthy but are not.

Then where can I go? If I fly the private jet would you approve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Kiawah is for people who think they are wealthy but are not.

There’s absolutely real money on Kiawah and traveling to it.

[Anonymous]

Private islands

[Anonymous]

Really depends on whether or not we are discussing class or just money spent. The Kardashians come to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the wealthy people I know have their own homes in places like Telluride, Cabo, MV even the Eastern Shore. They prefer spending time at their own home than resorts or even high end rental homes.

Probably if they are well known, what they seek is privacy. I get that for free. Although the Royals for example grew up in palaces, I imagine they are jealous of the lives that many of us ordinary people live. Same with celebrities and the ultra rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the wealthy people I know have their own homes in places like Telluride, Cabo, MV even the Eastern Shore. They prefer spending time at their own home than resorts or even high end rental homes.

Probably if they are well known, what they seek is privacy. I get that for free. Although the Royals for example grew up in palaces, I imagine they are jealous of the lives that many of us ordinary people live. Same with celebrities and the ultra rich.

Keep dreaming and telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where do old money Richmond vacation?

Pre-COVID days: they seem to enjoy Jade Mountain. They like flying first-class out of RIC, getting a connecting flight, then on to Europe as well. They are surprisingly more eco-conscious than others, IME, many have no interest in private jets or fractionals.

This totally depends on the people. I have some very wealthy people in my family, and you would absolutely never know it. If they vacation at all, it's to places that lots of wealthy people go to or live--like Naples, Florida. Most of the FFVs I know just have big houses in North Carolina like everybody else. So I don't know who these "old money" Richmonders are. They're generally not very showy.

I know lots of NEW money Richmonders who do those kinds of things. But that's a different breed.

[Anonymous]

My sister's FIL is extremely wealthy. I don't know how wealthy, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn it's 9 figures. I went on a vacation with her once to the Bahamas, which is where he winters his yacht. I don't remember the name of the island, but it's one that's only accessible by private jet (we flew in his from Florida). I was in my early 20s, and it was the craziest thing I've ever experienced. There were these insane yachts, and all the people I met in their 20s were just unbelievably rich and talking about these other exclusive rich people areas they summered.

I'm not describing it well, but I got the distinct impression that these people live in a completely different world. So talking about where these people vacation doesn't really begin to explain it. This place was just a couple islands over from where all the cruise ships land in Nassau, but it may as well have been on another planet.

DH and I went to Corsica a couple of years ago and stayed in a hotel that was near the marina in Bonifacio. There was a similar vibe to the yachts there. It's not like we were exactly slumming it (I think our hotel was like $1K/night), but it was obvious there was a different world right next to us.