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Top 5 luxury holidays for a celebration
From big birthdays to wedding anniversaries and honeymoons, there’s no better way to celebrate a milestone than with an extra-special getaway. Here, we’ve put together our ultimate list of luxury holidays to help you celebrate that special occasion in style, from unforgettable wildlife experiences to truly iconic train journeys.
Journey on the Eastern & Oriental Express
From the people behind Europe’s iconic Venice Simplon-Orient-Express comes Asia’s just-as luxurious version in what is one of the world’s most impressive and lavish train journeys. Sweeping between Malaysian rice paddies and Thai jungles, you’ll start your journey in either cutting-edge Singapore or vibrant Bangkok, alongside open-bar drinks and fine dining served among glossy-wood cladding and traditional silk furnishings. That’s not forgetting the included excursions on offer throughout, from cycling tours through rural villages to traditional cooking classes.
Visit Machu Picchu & the Galapagos
Seeing a Wonder of the World makes for an unforgettable holiday experience – and when better than a special occasion to visit one? From watching sunrise over the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu to coming face-to-face with some of the world’s most iconic wildlife, these two Latin American icons are true travel highlights. After exploring the colonial treasures of Cusco, the Sacred Valley and, of course, the mighty Machu Picchu, swap to Ecuador to sail the famed Galapagos on a luxury yacht, where everything from giant tortoises and sea lions to marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies await as you head on snorkelling trips, hikes and boat rides.
Stay at the ICEHOTEL
A stay at the world’s first ice-carved hotel is a wonderfully unique way to celebrate a milestone. Shaped by artists from around the world, a bar moulded entirely from ice and 12-course ice menus await before you bunk down at -5°C among intricate sculptures and frozen suites, kept warm by reindeer hides and, come morning, a glass of hot lingonberry. And, hidden in the depths of Swedish Lapland, daytimes are jam-packed with winter adventures, from reindeer safaris to husky sledding through snow-silent forests. It’s all topped off by – with luck – the dazzling Northern Lights that sweep above the region for eight months of the year.
Enjoy a luxury Big Five safari
For luxury and wilderness combined, look no further than Tanzania. Setting off from tented lodges – all-inclusive drinks and gourmet meals fuelling you for the thrilling days ahead – you’ll track wildebeest across the Serengeti, ride in safari trucks to spot leopard crouching in trees and watch in awe as elephants stride across the remote bushland. Come back to champagne toasts by the fire in your luxury camp – before perhaps culminating it all on the island idyll of palm-fringed Zanzibar.
Cruise Antarctica on a luxury ship
A trip to Antarctica is the very definition of bucket-list – and where better to toast a big celebration than at one of the world’s final frontiers on a luxury cruise? As you explore its ice-covered reaches from Zodiacs and on shore, you’ll spot everything from penguins and breaching whales to giant calving glaciers that break off into the ocean with an almighty crash. It’s all delightfully complemented by fine dining, champagne-paired menus, indulgent afternoon teas and pianist-accompanied sundowners.
Dave Warne is Product Director at The Luxury Holiday Company. The Luxury Holiday Company offers completely bespoke holidays designed to deliver unrivalled luxury, arranged by specialists who have more than 200 years of collective travel experience.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
Visit Machu Picchu & the Galapagos
Seeing a Wonder of the World makes for an unforgettable holiday experience – and when better than a special occasion to visit one? From watching sunrise over the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu to coming face-to-face with some of the world’s most iconic wildlife, these two Latin American icons are true travel highlights. After exploring the colonial treasures of Cusco, the Sacred Valley and, of course, the mighty Machu Picchu, swap to Ecuador to sail the famed Galapagos on a luxury yacht, where everything from giant tortoises and sea lions to marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies await as you head on snorkelling trips, hikes and boat rides.
Stay at the ICEHOTEL
A stay at the world’s first ice-carved hotel is a wonderfully unique way to celebrate a milestone. Shaped by artists from around the world, a bar moulded entirely from ice and 12-course ice menus await before you bunk down at -5°C among intricate sculptures and frozen suites, kept warm by reindeer hides and, come morning, a glass of hot lingonberry. And, hidden in the depths of Swedish Lapland, daytimes are jam-packed with winter adventures, from reindeer safaris to husky sledding through snow-silent forests. It’s all topped off by – with luck – the dazzling Northern Lights that sweep above the region for eight months of the year.
Enjoy a luxury Big Five safari
For luxury and wilderness combined, look no further than Tanzania. Setting off from tented lodges – all-inclusive drinks and gourmet meals fuelling you for the thrilling days ahead – you’ll track wildebeest across the Serengeti, ride in safari trucks to spot leopard crouching in trees and watch in awe as elephants stride across the remote bushland. Come back to champagne toasts by the fire in your luxury camp – before perhaps culminating it all on the island idyll of palm-fringed Zanzibar.
Cruise Antarctica on a luxury ship
A trip to Antarctica is the very definition of bucket-list – and where better to toast a big celebration than at one of the world’s final frontiers on a luxury cruise? As you explore its ice-covered reaches from Zodiacs and on shore, you’ll spot everything from penguins and breaching whales to giant calving glaciers that break off into the ocean with an almighty crash. It’s all delightfully complemented by fine dining, champagne-paired menus, indulgent afternoon teas and pianist-accompanied sundowners.
Dave Warne is Product Director at The Luxury Holiday Company. The Luxury Holiday Company offers completely bespoke holidays designed to deliver unrivalled luxury, arranged by specialists who have more than 200 years of collective travel experience.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
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More and more people are opting for holidays of a lifetime to celebrate the big milestones in lifetime. I’m even thinking of doing it myself, well celebrating a big birthday and big wedding anniversary coming close together with a spectacular holiday. I had always dreamed of a safari but reading this makes me think that maybe I should start my planning again. There are just so many great trips to consider.
It certainly makes for an unforgettable celebration! Where would you pick for a special occasion?!
Staying at the Icehotel is definitely going to be a memorable experience. I love it in theory, because it’s so novel, but in reality I think I just want somewhere warm and cosy to sleep because I’m boring. Going to Machu Picchu would be incredible! I know someone that went a couple of years ago, but I’m not sure where else he visited as he went travelling for about 6 weeks. I do have to ask, what on earth are ‘blue-footed boobies’?
The great thing is you can also sleep in a warm room at the ICEHOTEL as well as an ice room for the best of both worlds. And as for blue-footed boobies – they’re marine birds with bright blue feet found in the Galapagos and some other areas around Latin America!
I have been fortunate to have travelled a lot and stayed in some remarkable hotels but The Ice Hotel would be a completely different experience. There’s something a bit Game of Thrones about being warmed by Reindeer Skins. I’m some ways I’m tempted by the experience but what happens with the bathroom? Surely you can’t take a hot shower in an ice bathroom?
Thanks for your comment Chris. You’re certainly right there – there is even an ice hotel in Finland that was carved into Game of Thrones characters! For the ICEHOTEL there are shared bathrooms outside the ice rooms, or the ice suites have their own bathroom and sauna powered by very clever technology…!
When I was little I thought the Oriental Express was a made up thing, it wasn’t until my early teens that embarrassingly enough I found out it was real! Machu Picchu, that’s one I’d quite like to do as a solo journey, one of those ‘finding yourself’ kind of trips. The Ice Hotel is one I’d definitely like to do one day just to say I’ve done it. And a cruise isn’t one I had been interested in until recent years, knowing others who take them most years and love it because there’s a lot more you can do on them than I ever thought. You don’t need an excuse to celebrate but I think you could find one easily enough to do any of these holidays.
I’m sure the Oriental Express is the same for many of us, Kate! Agreed, any one of these is a great excuse for a celebration.