You’ve won the lottery or sold your business for millions of dollars and you decide you need a holiday. Where should you go? Well with a substantial budget the world really is your oyster, in fact if you really wanted to you could book a trip to leave the Earth altogether by reserving a seat with Virgin Galactic to go into space.

A mere snip at US$200,000 (only $195,000 Australian dollars right now),  a seat on the spacecraft will take you up into space – that’s over 100kms above the Earth’s surface – where you will be weightless for around 6 minutes before heading back down to earth.

The whole trip takes around two and half hours including the sub orbital phase, which equals a cost of US$1,333 a minute, or if you’re only interested in the ‘space’ bit, a trifling US$33,333 a minute. But you do become a member of a pretty exclusive club, with the likes of Stephen Hawking, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie already booked in.

What if spaceflight isn’t for you? Well there are a couple of interesting (and pricey) alternatives for you to consider on earth.

Just recently the specialist luxury website veryfirstto.com listed what it claimed would be the world’s most expensive holiday – a tour of the 962 UNESCO world heritage sites. Cost? A mere $1.5 million. The tour will include Petra in Jordan, the Angkor temple in Cambodia and Machu Picchu in Peru. Organised by Hurlingham travel, the website did not expect anyone to book, but they were proved wrong when a Chinese man paid his deposit.

As well as visiting all 962 sites, quite a heavy schedule at more than one site per day, holidaymakers will fly first and business class and stay at some of the world’s top hotels, including the Georges V in Paris and The Plaza in New York. In Venice an evening gondola trip is on the agenda, with a musician serenading while the guest/s drink Kristal champagne from Murano glass champagne flutes. We say guest/s, as the fee allows a guest to accompany the main holidaymaker. 

The organisers say that fifteen people have expressed interest in the trip, with one – an Italian businessman – expected to sign up soon.

But maybe the whirlwind of this trip would be a bit much, maybe something a little more sedate? In which case, for the same price you could stay in the Royal Penthouse Suite at the President Wilson Hotel in Geneva. For 23 nights. At US$65,000 a night, the suite occupies the entire top floor of the hotel and has views of Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva. It’s really a luxury apartment all of its own with a 26 seat dining room, four bedrooms and six bathrooms and a grand piano and billiard table. With its own rooftop terrace, it also boasts impressive security, including bulletproof windows, armoured doors and panic buttons.

Or maybe, for about half the price, you could stay in the Villa La Cupola suite at the Westin Excelsior in Rome, for just $31,000 a night. This suite, over two floors and with many terraces and balconies, offers a 24 hour butler service and a private eight screen cinema, but only two bedrooms. They’ve both got four poster beds in them, though.

If you have a little left over for the flights, a first class ticket around the world with Qantas, which lasts for a year and includes 6 ‘zones’ will set you back just $22,111. See you at the President Wilson!

Whichever option you go for in the end, remember that Aussie Personal Loans can help you with a holiday loan or holiday finance. And if you’re doing any of these, can we come with you?