OLD-SCHOOL DETAILS

There are holidays planned according to your specifications, be it a specific table at Osteria Francescana, or hotels with washrooms fitted with double-sink marble vanity counters. Then, there are Black Tomato Blink Camps (www.blacktomato.com). As if exclusive access to untouched destinations, spanning private banks of the Mekong and the ethereally beautiful Bolivian Altiplano, was not enough to make a dream holiday, they make it one that is truly, uniquely yours. This means that your luxury accommodation on the campsite, be it a romantic set-up for two or a cluster designed to accommodate three generations of your family, is also tailored to your specifications. And, when it is time to head home, every single structure will be taken down, leaving absolutely no trace of your stay – so that your holiday remains only in your memories, an experience to be savoured by you and you only.

 

Why rent a ski cabin when you can take up a whole mountain? In America, private ski clubs such as The Yellowstone Club (left, yellowstoneclub.com) in Montana offer renters of their properties – priced from US$2 million to US$25 million – exclusive access to 890ha of play space, ranging from bunny slopes to 2,700-vertical-feet drops. Those who have bought into the scheme include Bill and Melinda Gates, and Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. And at Cimarron Mountain Club in Colorado (www.cimarronmountainclub.com), just 15 families get to enjoy the 708ha of private wilderness – when they pay US$3.2 million for a 14ha land parcel to build their cabin. Silverton Mountain (http://silvertonmountain.com) in south-eastern Colorado keeps things simpler. For US$14,900 a day, VIP members have the slopes all to themselves.