The Affluent Travelers

The Palms Las Vegas

The "Hardwood Suite" is the only suite in the world with an indoor basketball court.  Located on the third floor of the  Palms Place tower is the two level, 10,000 square foot party room complete with  basketball court, locker room, scoreboard, pool table, poker table and dance floor. 

The suite also include three NBA player sized Murphy beds, dining area, living/media room, jacuzzi tub and 42"plasmas. Customize your stay in the "Hardwood Suite" with your own team jerseys and cheerleaders  on the sidelines.  $50,000 - cheerleaders are extra.

Most Expensive Meal 9/06

                                                                                                                                      Restaurant Guy Savoy  is on the second floor of the Augustus Tower, affording an enviable view of the classically inspired architecture and statuary of the Roman Plaza in Caesars Palace.

Guy's canvas is your plate, and he bares his soul with culinary creations that are festive, fresh and delicious - even poetic. Given his charisma and penchant for theatrics, Savoy seems well suited to the site of his first U.S. venture.

"My meal there was the most  expensive I've eaten.  Ever." says the LATimes S. Irene Virbila.  "How expensive? Obscenely expensive. A dinner for two will average just under $1,000.  If you can bring yourself to forget about the cost, the experience is transcendent."

In order to meet his high standards, Savoy sent his son Franck, who managed his Parisian restaurants, (Le Chiberta, La Butte Chaillot, L'Atelier Maître Albert and Les Bouquinistes), to Las Vegas one year prior to the opening to find the best workers and products available locally.  The wine list is mostly French, very good and yes, very expensive.

New York's Most Expensive Omelet

Culinary craziness has reached new heights in New York with the debut of the $1,000 omelet! Le Parker Meridien hotel on W. 57th St. added the bank breaking breakfast dish to its menu, charging patrons what it costs to buy about 200 omelets at your local greasy spoon.

This massive offering of an omelet features a whole lobster, six eggs and 10 ounces of Sevruga caviar and it is all served on a bed of roasted potatoes. Much like this dish, Norma’s is known for its quality of ingredients and attention to detail. Fans of both succulent lobster and the finest of caviar will surely enjoy the Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata.

For penny pinchers, Norma's, the restaurant in Le Parker Meridien, offers an economy version of the frittata, a crustless quiche that contains 1 ounce of sevruga caviar.  It costs $100. 

   When Pipes and Norma's executive chef, Emile Castillo, decided to incorporate caviar into a frittata, they knew it would be a costly proposition. They pay $65 an ounce for sevruga.

The Most Expensive Home For Sale

Forget Trump's place in Palm Beach, Florida ($125 million), the most expensive property
for sale-ever- in the United States is now (Aug.06)  the Aspen, Colorado compound of Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Now that he's taken a new job in Saudi Arabia he will have less time to spend in Aspen. His 95-acre Starwood Ranch property is listed at $135 million. Larger than the White House, the mansion is 56,000-square-feet. Included are  several smaller homes and buildings.

The main home has 15 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms. The property features stables, a tennis court, an indoor swimming pool, outdoor water features and a snowmelt driveway- all on a mere 95 sprawling acres. Bandar will keep a new 15,000-square-foot guesthouse he has been building and some  acreage.  The sale is being handled by the regional affiliate of Christie's.  Here's your chance to live like a Prince and make real estate history.

Deep Water Flight

Be among the first in the world to experience a totally new dimension of flight…underwater. Hundreds have traveled to space. No one has yet experienced the incredible thrill of a Deep Flight Adventure. The  Aviator is a new class of hydrobatic submersible craft, built to fully explore underwater flight.  It can even barrel roll with dolphins!

The Aviator is unlike anything in existence, and the underwater experience is unparalleled. In conventional subs, you perch on a seat; in the Aviator, you strap tightly into the same five-point harness restraints used by Indy car racers.

Traditional submersibles are noisy and lit up like Christmas trees. Any organism that can flee, does. The Deep Flight Aviator combines the freedom of scuba and the depth capability and underwater viewing of a submersible with the low intrusiveness of a stealth submarine. The deep ocean is a truly alien world. It has the infinite vastness of outer space, but unlike space, it is heavily populated with alien creatures, geologic features, and ancient shipwrecks awaiting discovery. Sound like an out of this world adventure? You bet it is! 

Hay-Adams Hotel Washington, DC

Located on Lafayette Square, across from the White House, the Hay-Adams offers guests Washington's most prestigious address with views overlooking the White House, Lafayette Square and St.John's Church, the "Church of the Presidents." The hotel is just minutes from the Smithsonian, the Washington Monument & the Mall.

A member of the  Gold List - World's Best 700+ Places to Stay by  Condé Nast Traveler, January 2006
This Italian Renaissance property is "across from the White House- how can you beat that?" Rooms have ornamental fireplaces, carved plaster ceilings, and in some cases private balconies. "Staff are discreet, with no attitude." Breakfast is served in the Lafayette Room "amid the tinkle of crystal and the whispers of Capitol VIPs."

It offers 20 suites, including the coveted Federal Suite. Each one-bedroom or junior suite features a distinctive view of the White House, Lafayette Park, or St. John’s Church, and can be connected to a second bedroom if desired.

Most suites have maintained their original history with decorative ceilings and ornamental fireplaces, and now have been updated with modern amenities and designed with a level of quality and attention to detail you would expect to see only in the finest of residences.

The Presidential on the 8th floor is 1100 sqft, and the rate is $4200.00, plus 14.5% tax; the Federal on the 7th floor is 1400 sqft, and is $5000.00, plus tax.
info: theAffluentTravelers@mindspring.com

Frank Sinatra's Twin Palms

Twin Palms, the four-bedroom, 4,500-square-foot mini-mansion where Sinatra lived from 1947 until about 1954, sits plainly and unassumingly a mile from busy downtown Palm Springs.  Back when Palm Springs was a drowsy desert village, Sinatra commissioned the house  as the primary residence for his family. But not long after moving day, Sinatra had a change of heart.  He met Ava Gardner, the love of his life, and promptly left his wife Nancy, who begrudgingly granted him a divorce

Twin Palms soon became the setting for one of the 20th century's great romances, the amphitheater in which Sinatra and Gardner conducted their operatic affair. "Maybe it's the air, maybe it's the altitude, maybe it's just the place's goddamn karma," Gardner wrote in her 1990 autobiography, "but Frank's establishment in Palm Springs, the only house we really could ever call our own, has seen some pretty amazing occurrences."

Amazing was Gardner's catchall word for the intense violence and passion that defined her off-and-on saga with Sinatra. After half a dozen tumultuous years, the two finally  concluded  that they couldn't live together. Sinatra sold Twin Palms and bought a bigger place on the other side of town, which came to be known as The Compound.

Twin Palms changed hands several times in the next 50 years, and eventually fell into disrepair, its roof caving in. Recently, the house underwent a full and careful restoration, and today Twin Palms belongs to three New Yorkers who gladly rent it to the curious and the Sinatra-besotted for $2,150 a night, with a three night minimum. info: theAffluentTravelers@mindspring.com

The Most Lavish Suites Afloat

Jutting out at each side of the Queen Mary 2 at the stern are the Balmoral and Sandringham Grand Deluxe Apartments. Each is often combined with  the neighboring Penthouse to make  well suited  accomodations for the family. 

If you are in a particularly expansive mood, you can reserve both Grand Duplexes with the 3 Deluxe Apartment in between to create a  8,288 sq palazzo

Here your concierge and a personal butler anticipate your needs and comply with the utmost speed and efficiency. Lavish amenities include marble baths with whirlpool tubs, towel warmers, walk-in closets, en-suite bars stocked with selected spirits or wine and soft drinks, fresh flowers and pre-dinner canapés.

The enormous Grand Duplexes include sweeping living quarters - an expansive balcony downstairs, a luxurious master bedroom upstairs, and two marble bathrooms (one with a whirlpool tub and one with a separate shower). There is also an additional guest bathroom with a shower located downstairs.
info: theAffluentTravelers@mindspring.com

Rent A German Castle

Bavaria Neuschwanstein Castle is Germany’s most famous castle and is best known for being the model used by Walt Disney for the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Initiated by King Ludwig in 1869, it took hundreds of craftsmen from around the world almost 16 years to build and only about a third of it was ever finished.

Neuschwanstein looms over the Hohenschwangau valley. From the outside it is a magnificent work of mock- medievalism, a true piece of fairy-tale fantasy. The interior style borrows from Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic styles and features spectacular woodcarvings and murals.  info: theAffluentTravelers@mindspring.com

The Crystal Cage -- The Ultimate Wildlife Adventure

The chance to observe and interact with a Great White shark -- a fish that has been described as "the perfect hunting machine" and "evolution's masterpiece" -- brings with it a sense of awe and wonder that few, if any other animal encounters can possibly match. And if getting close to a great white shark is one of life's magical experiences, it is doubly so when conducted from the interior of the  "Crystal Cage."

It is the brainchild of South African Kim "Shark Lady" Maclean, an oceanographic expert widely credited with introducing the practice of recreational cage-diving to South African waters in the early 1990s.

The cage is a 6 foot x 3.5 foot diameter tube made of Lexan, a transparent, high-resistance polycarbonate plastic with 250 times the impact strength of glass. Lowered into the water inside this protective sheath, the diver experiences a feeling of complete oneness with the shark's natural habitat, his view unhindered by bars or other obstructions.

More important, the transparent Lexan blends completely with the surrounding ocean, making the diver's presence in the water far less disruptive to the shark and its environment.

"For the diver it is an awesome experience," says Maclean. "You feel there is no barrier between you and the shark, that you are completely part of their world. It is the closest you can get to actually swimming free with them.

A day of diving in the crystal cage costs $1,800. Nowhere else will you get the chance to observe at close quarters, and with no visual obstruction, one of the most ancient, majestic and awe-inspiring creatures on the planet.