If you’ve ever watched a soap opera on television or read a flashy romance novel, you’ve most likely dreamed what it would be like to live as part of the “jet-set”. The ones who travel for fun and spend in excess — the glamorous and wealthy. What if I told you that you could have a glamorous vacation even within your own budget? Read on and let me tempt you with stories of the playgrounds of the rich and famous. Then, if you’re suitably allured, you can book your very own jet-set getaway with Tripmasters, all within your price range!
Europe is the top destination for jet-setters. They’ve kept the lights on in places across the Mediterranean and farther afield. London was the original jet-setting destination, as it was the first air route worldwide to fly with a jet. Monte Carlo (pictured) has been a playground of the rich and famous even before actress Grace Kelly’s 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. The French coast, with such beautiful cities and towns as Nice, Antibes, Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Toulon, Marseille, and Montpellier, were and are very popular with the jet-set crowd. This crowd also loves to ski in Grenoble and Chamonix, and then they take in the City of Lights for a glamorous shopping weekend. Speaking of skiing, Switzerland is the most popular European ski destination with the jet set, with Zermatt and St Moritz being the two towns most frequented by wealthy vacationers.
Spain is home to two popular jet-set regions, the Costa del Sol and the Balearic Islands. The rich love to play in Marbella and stay in Puerto Banús, situated just next to Marbella (pictured). If you love yachting, as many of the jet-set do, Puerto Banús is the place to be. Other popular destinations along the coast include Nerja, Torre del Mar, Torremolinos, Benalmádena, Fuengirola, and Estepona. Turning south to the Balearics, Ibiza is where you want to be if you want to party, shop, relax, rinse and repeat. Mallorca is also popular with the jet-set and it is very easy to be “jet-set on any budget” on this beautiful island, whether you’re staying in Palma or Port d’Alcudia. The best-kept secret, however, is Menorca, with a bustling food and drink scene. If you are looking for a glitzy vacation even farther away, head to the Canary Islands, then return to the mainland and check out beautiful Barcelona; it is the original jet-set Spanish travel destination, after all!
Shifting eastward to Italy, the jet-set loves the major cities, like Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice, but many head on down to the south of the country. The Amalfi Coast is very popular with this crowd, in particular the picture-perfect town of Positano. The Isle of Capri has been en vogue for generations, and so has Ischia. Finally, your Italian jet-set vacation should include stops in such gorgeous locales as Lake Como, Portofino, and Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda. Across the Adriatic, Opatija, Hvar Island, the Makarska Riviera and the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia are destinations the jet-set absolutely loves. Farther south, places like Neum in Bosnia & Herzegovina and the coastline of Montenegro are up-and-coming jet-set destinations. The Greek Islands are also a favorite with the rich and famous, with Jackie Onassis being the first to popularize Mykonos (pictured) with the American jet-set crowd over 50 years ago. Santorini, Paros, and Naxos are a few other islands with beautiful views and wealthy visitors.
Next to Europe, the Caribbean is probably the most popular jet-setting destination in the world. There are dozens of islands that the upper-crust flock to, with St. Barts (pictured) being the enduring favorite. Especially in the last generation or two, Grand Cayman and the Turks and Caicos Islands have been giving St. Barts a run for their money. One of the richest islands of the Caribbean is the paradise of Anguilla, where you can have the most luxurious and opulent vacation you can afford. The dual nation of St. Martin/St. Maarten is another playground for the rich, as is Tortola in the beautiful British Virgin Islands. Farther south, St. Vincent and St. Lucia are renowned for their five-star resorts, and the water doesn’t get any more sparkling and shimmering than in the “ABC” islands off South America’s northern coast. (Those are Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, for reference!)
The U.S. and Canada are known for places to “see and be seen”, and that is true whether it’s summertime or wintertime. The jet-set love to ski, and in the U.S. the top place for the rich and famous to spend the winter is Aspen, Colorado (pictured). In the Rocky Mountains there are a number of exciting and popular ski destinations perfect for a jet-set getaway, such as Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, and Vail, also in Colorado, as well as Park City, Utah, east of Salt Lake City. If you want to gamble at night after skiing in the daytime, you can’t go wrong with a winter sojourn to Lake Tahoe, on the border between California and Nevada. In the Canadian Rockies, you will find the gorgeous winter vacation destinations of Banff and Lake Louise in the province of Alberta. Looking to the west, Whistler in British Columbia is one of Canada’s top ski resort towns. If you must stay back east for the winter, there is nothing like visiting such ski resort towns as Stowe and Ludlow, both in Vermont.
Now that we’ve discussed winter getaways in North America, let’s talk about the great places the jet-set travel to during the summer. As many of them live in the Northeast in cities such as New York City and Boston, they prefer to stay closer to home. Places such as The Hamptons on Long Island in New York; New Haven, Connecticut; the Berkshires in western Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; and the Massachusetts towns of Nantucket (pictured), Martha’s Vineyard, and Provincetown all welcome the jet-set by the…well, by the jet load! Out west, the L.A.-based jet-set love destinations like Hawaii, and closer to home, beautiful cities and regions like Catalina Island near L.A.; San Juan Capistrano; Santa Barbara (and nearby Montecito); the Napa Valley; the Mendocino Coast; and of course Sin City itself: Las Vegas, Nevada. Canadian jet-setters who stay close to home during the summer love to visit Victoria and Nanaimo in British Columbia, as well as Toronto, Ontario and Montréal, Québec.
Let’s head south to Central and South America. The playgrounds of the wealthy in Mexico have existed for generations, with Acapulco and Los Cabos being the first areas to welcome the rich and famous. Today, the jet-set have converged on the Riviera Nayarita, with such towns as Sayulita and Punta Mita becoming glittering and opulent hotspots for the jet-set. The Riviera Maya offers luxurious experiences at various price points as well. In Central America, the up-and-coming jet-set spot to experience is Costa Rica‘s magnificent Nicoya Peninsula. In South America, Rio de Janeiro was the first jet-set destination, popularized in particular by its heady nightlife and beautiful beaches (pictured: Ipanema Beach). A couple of hours east of Rio, Armação dos Búzios is the place where the jet-set flock today. Other popular and luxurious jet-set destinations in South America include Cartagena, Colombia, on the gorgeous Caribbean Sea; Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina; and the beautiful seaside resort of Punta del Este in Uruguay.
In Africa and the Middle East, there are so many beautiful jet-set destinations for you to explore. The jet-set in north Africa love to experience Casablanca and Marrakech in Morocco and the Nile River Cruise from Cairo to Luxor in Egypt. In sub-Saharan Africa, popular luxury travel destinations include Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, as well as the cosmopolitan cities of South Africa, like Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban. The most pleasantly surprising turn of events for the jet-set in the past few generations is the elevation of the Middle East to must-see, must-shop and must-frolic. Tel Aviv, Israel, is one of the richest cities in the world, as are the areas on the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, such as Doha, Qatar; Manama, Bahrain; Kuwait City; and the gorgeous United Arab Emirates with such glistening metropolises as Dubai (pictured), Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. Another up-and-coming spot for the jet-set is beautiful Salalah, Oman.
The Indian Ocean is known for a few jet-setting destinations, such as the beautiful Maldives and Seychelles islands, which take opulence to a completely new level. India itself is home to one of the most vibrant cities on Earth, Mumbai, where the upper-class of the subcontinent go to “see and be seen”. In Southeast Asia, perhaps the ritziest destination is Singapore (pictured), a city-state filled with many rich and famous businessmen, actors, and other noteworthy people in the local community. The jet-set also love to take off for the islands, such as Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand; Penang in Malaysia; and Bali in Indonesia. For the Chinese, Shanghai is the top place to spend and party, followed by Hong Kong (pictured below), Macau, and the beachside resort of Sanya on Hainan Island. A trip to this part of the world is not complete without visiting glittering Bangkok, one of Asia’s shopping and culture hubs.
Looking toward East Asia and the Pacific, the jet-set of Japan love to travel to places where they can buy the most luxurious of clothing and other goods at better prices than Tokyo, which is a world fashion capital in its own right. Guam, just three hours from the Japanese mainland, is a jet-set and duty-free haven for them. It is an American territory, so no need for you to exchange money! The Japanese, like the Koreans and Chinese, also love picturesque Jeju Island situated between the Korean Peninsula and the mainland of Japan. All kinds of jet-setters love the South Pacific, from such bustling Oceania metropolises as Melbourne and Auckland to the smaller, more intimate, and more exclusive island paradises. These paradises include the islands of French Polynesia, such as Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Moorea. The jet-set also love Fiji, from the largest island, Viti Levu, to the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands. Finally, one of the more exclusive jet-set destinations is the Cook Islands, featuring beautiful beaches on Rarotonga and Aitutaki.
A lot of research goes into finding destinations that are tailored to your needs and letting you know what you can see and do when you get there. Head over to Tripmasters.com and you can look at our custom-built itineraries for thousands of exciting vacation destinations in over 120 countries and territories throughout the world.
