The couple at the corner table in Oia has watched this sunset before, from the same terrace, with the same wine.
The view is the same as on their first visit, and so is the crowd along the wall below them.
For a couple in that position, the next trip has to offer something scarce, such as a remote location, a small number of places, or a fixed date.
Antarctica’s Interior With White Desert
White Desert flies guests from Cape Town to the interior of the continent in about 5 to 6 hours, landing on a runway cut into blue ice.
Its Echo camp has 6 bedroom pods with floor-to-ceiling windows, set among rock formations about 62 miles from the coast.
The company’s published per-person prices range from $16,500 to $115,500, depending on the itinerary. Some of its trips go to the South Pole, which fewer than 500 people visit in a year.
Compared with the coast seen from a ship, the interior has no sea views and no ports, and in the southern summer the sun does not set.
Italy by La Dolce Vita Orient Express
The first Italian-built luxury train of the Orient Express brand left Roma Ostiense station on April 4, 2025.
It runs 8 itineraries from Rome to regions that include Tuscany, Piedmont, Matera, and Sicily. Together the routes cover more than 9,941 miles of track across 14 regions and 131 cities.
The train has 12 carriages and 31 cabins, 18 of them suites, and the menus are overseen by the Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck.
A 1-night trip started at about €3,500 per person in a deluxe cabin and about €4,700 in a suite at launch.
The inaugural journey was a 2-day trip to Montalcino in the Tuscan wine country, a town that a couple who knows Florence and Venice well may never have visited.
Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda
A permit to see mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park costs $1,500 per person.
It covers park entry, a guided trek through the forest, and a maximum of 1 hour with a gorilla family. The number of permits issued each day is fixed.
The Rwanda Development Board doubled the permit price from $750 in May 2017, and at the same time it introduced a $15,000 option that books an entire gorilla family for a single party, with a private guide.
A couple who takes that option spends the hour with the gorillas and no other trekkers.
A 2018 census put the world population of mountain gorillas at 1,063, of which 604 lived in the Virunga Massif, the volcanic range that includes Volcanoes National Park.
The Four Seasons I Yacht in the Mediterranean
Four Seasons I began sailing in March 2026. The yacht is 679 feet long, cost $434 million to build, and has 95 suites, each with a private terrace.
On one June 2026 sailing between Greece and Croatia, its 210 crew members looked after 204 passengers, close to 1 crew member per guest.
The couples on a sailing like that can range from spouses marking 30 years together to a younger partner traveling with a sugar daddy, and each of them has a suite with its own terrace.
Prices start at about $28,000 per suite for a 1-week Mediterranean sailing, and the Funnel Suite at the top of the ship can reach $330,000, depending on the itinerary. Dining is charged separately, which is unusual for a luxury ship.
Four Seasons suggests budgeting about $250 per person per day for food and drink, and the omakase dinner costs $195 per person.
The 66-foot pool on deck is shaped like a canoe, a design taken from the Christina O, the yacht once owned by Aristotle Onassis.
A second yacht, Four Seasons II, with 79 suites, is planned for 2028.
Kyushu Aboard the Seven Stars
Japan’s Seven Stars in Kyushu is sold by lottery.
Couples apply for a travel period, and only those drawn get a place on the train. It has 7 cars, 1 for each prefecture of the island of Kyushu, and carries a maximum of 20 overnight guests in 10 rooms, 8 of them suites and 2 of them deluxe suites.
The train runs a 2-day trip and a 4-day trip in each of its 2 seasons.
For the season from September 2024 to February 2025, a 2-day trip in a regular suite cost ¥650,000 and a 4-day trip cost ¥1,150,000, based on double occupancy.
The interiors use woodwork by local craftspeople and ceramics made for daily use on board.
A Round-the-World Private Jet Itinerary
Four Seasons runs itineraries on its own jet that link several of its hotels in a single trip.
Its 2026 private jet itineraries ranged from $159,000 to $229,000 per person.
The most expensive, Ancient Explorer, ran for 23 days from Miami to Madrid, with stops that included Easter Island, Bora Bora, the Great Barrier Reef, and Petra.
The 13-day African Wonders itinerary, at $159,000 per person, included Rwanda, the Serengeti, Mauritius, and Victoria Falls.
For a couple who has already seen most of these places separately, a single team handles the flights and hotel check-ins from start to finish.
Bhutan Under Its Visitor Fee
Bhutan limits tourism through price.
Most international visitors pay a Sustainable Development Fee of $100 per person per night, a rate set from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2027, and cut from the earlier $200.
The fee funds free healthcare and education and conservation programs, and it is part of a policy the country describes as high value and low volume.
A 7-night trip for 2 people costs $1,400 in fees before any hotel or guide costs.
The 16-day Asia Unveiled itinerary on the Four Seasons jet in 2026 included Bhutan among its stops, alongside Tokyo, Angkor Wat, and the Maldives.
The Luxor Eclipse of August 2027
On August 2, 2027, the shadow of the moon will cross southern Spain and North Africa, and it will pass almost directly over Luxor.
Observers there will have over 6 minutes of totality.
The average high temperature in Luxor on August 2 over the past 17 years was 42°C, and eclipse weather specialists name the Siwa and Bahariya oases in the Western Desert as the sites with almost no chance of cloud.
A couple who stands among the temple columns at midday to watch the sky go dark will do it in the full heat of an Egyptian summer, and the next eclipse of that length over easily reached land will not come until 2114.
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