My Fantasy Vacation(s)

I seem to have vacations on the brain these days. Probably because I'd like to go on one. And maybe because my mom is heading off to a Caribbean cruise next week with my grandma and a few cousins (where they hopefully will avoid catching swine flu). In any case, as we have already ascertained, unless K and I win the lotto...it's highly unlikely we'll be going anywhere this year (and no, the trip to Ireland in February does not qualify as a vacation. That was a family visit and while lots of fun, most definitely not relaxing).

But because I just can't seem to let it go, I decided to torture myself a bit and take a look at my very favorite luxury travel website: Abercrombie & Kent (not to be confused with the teen clothing store known for its risque pics of semi-nude adolescents). If I were to win the lottery and then decide to take a celebratory trip, I'd contact this company post haste.

One gets a distinct sense of the types of vacations A&K dabbles in when one pops over to their homepage. This is the first photo that greeted me:


Feeling a bit nostalgic for the heyday of the British Raj (minus the famines and epidemics, of course)? Well look no further!

But lest you think A&K trips are only for those who prefer not to rub elbows with the natives, think again. A quick survey of their 2009 web catalog reveals a huge variety of trips for very, very, very wealthy people of all tastes. Here were a few that struck my fancy:

Fighting Climate Change in Antartica
Uganda: Gorilla Encounter
Elegance in Motion: Southeast Asia by Train and Ship
Kingdoms of the Sky: Sikkam and Bhutan
In the Wake of the Bounty: Clipper Odyssey
Israel: Women of the Bible
A Wine Connoisseur's Trip through Burgundy

Sadly, I think any vacation we take this year will have a much more mundane title...something along the lines of: Finding Yourself in Fresno, In the Bowels of Bakersfield, Modesto: Where George Lucas's First Big Movie was Filmed (But Not Really).