What to Look for in a Luxury Trip: Comfort, Convenience, and Costly Experiences

When it comes to luxury travel, a Business Insider story nailed it: “Many people with disposable income are traveling in style. They're spending money and travel points on comfort, convenience, and memorable experiences.”

Luxury travel is no longer for the people who find it tediously normal to stay in five-star hotels on the Amalfi Coast and drop five figures at the baccarat tables in Monte Carlo.

More and more people are getting in on the luxury travel game, and if you’re one of the many who see spending $25,000 on vacation as a reasonable investment in experiential living, here’s what to look for – nay, demand – from your luxury vacation.

Dont forget: Premium Travel Insurance for Your Luxury Trip

Comfort

You want towels spun by angels out of the most absorbent cirrocumulus clouds in the stratosphere.. You want a walk-in shower with more heads than B-Dubs has big screens. Above all, you want bed pillows that aren’t decorative wisps stuffed with reclaimed Amazon shipping envelopes.

You want comfort because your day-to-day is downright uncomfortable, and you deserve these things for putting up with it.

It’s funny, though, that the comforts we crave most are the simplest – hot water, a comfortable bed, and supportive furniture that feels great to the touch.

That makes finding a place that has mastered the art of simple comfort both easy (because there are a lot of such places out there) and difficult (because how can you settle on just one?).

In general, if you pay a lot for a resort that goes far out of its way to stress the comfort of its accommodations, you’ll be more comfortable than you would be at home.

That might not necessarily mean bathrooms where everything is carved from a single chunk of granite or beds stacked to the ceiling with pillows the size and shape of chest freezers, but it’s going to mean something approaching that. We’re talking about your comfort here; it’s okay to be persnickety.

Holding comfort above everything else may mean you pass on the self-reflection spa with the straw mats and bamboo pillows. That’s alright; you’ll have more to reflect on after a couple of days immersed in eiderdown and steam showers.

Also read: Top 5 Tips for Taking a Relaxing Vacation

Convenience

It's straightforward: You want everything taken care of and every destination within reach with just a simple gesture.

Actually, though, convenience can be more than that. It can be a hotel in the heart of the theater district, a lanai right on the beach, a swim up bar, a vehicle at your disposal, or even your own butler.

Actually, while a good pillow is a good one no matter where you happen to be, convenience differs greatly depending on the kind of trip you take.

One of the big selling points of a cruise is that everything’s convenient, in the sense that it’s right there on the ship. You pay extra for not having to wait in line for these conveniences – or better yet, having them brought right to you. The same largely applies to luxury train travel.

In a stationary hotel, convenience is more about how easily you can connect with things around you – museums, restaurants, the theatre.

Obviously, convenience costs, but you should only pay for the conveniences that are meaningful to you. If you don’t mind taking the train into the city, stay in the ‘burbs. If you don’t like to drink and swim, nix the swim up bar – but keep the beachfront lanai by all means.

Costly experiences

While more Americans are dipping into their savings for travel experiences, the well of cash is not bottomless. You need to pick your costly experiences carefully.

An African safari is a perfect example. There are multiple places you can go on safari and a multitude of safari types – eco-safaris, voluntourism safaris, glamping safaris, and so on.

When you’re spending this much money, you need to pick the adventure that is dead-on perfect for you – no compromises, no half-hearted yeah-I-supposes. That will likely require the services of a travel professional skilled in organizing and booking safaris, and they may not be the travel professional right downtown.

Costly experiences not only require more planning, but they may require a different kind of planning, and if you’re used to planning your own trips, it may be hard to cede control to an outside entity, especially one that may be on the other side of the country.

Also read: Tips for Luxury Travel on a Budget

The other thing is that costly experiences cost. You’re spending a lot of money for the chance to see wapiti in the wild. If you have to bail on these activities, you’re waving farewell to your hard-earned money.

As a result, it pays – literally – to help protect your investment in prepaid experiences with travel insurance, because as we’ve mentioned, a good night’s sleep and a hotel near the museum may occasionally come cheaply, but costly experiences always cost.

For that reason, the Premium Plan of travel insurance with assistance services offered by Generali Global Assistance is highly recommended. Getting covered is fast and simple, and the coverage is designed to accommodate your luxury travel dreams.

Get a quote today.