The 50 little luxuries of travel
Silk travel pyjamas, perfect sandcastles and hotel pet menus – plus 47 more indulgent extras to give your holiday a boost
1. Poolside disco
Turn the latest iPod Nano into a waterproof jukebox with the Atlantic EGO iceBar2 speaker system. The gadget encases your Pod in a clear plastic housing and attaches a small pair of small speakers designed to withstand up to three metres of water at a cost of £38.
2. Safe house
MindMyHouse is a new website that finds free house sitters. You want your home/pets looked after while you’re away; they want a free place to stay. The site lists around 1,600 house sitters across the globe and offers a contract, which deals with issues like damage to the property and utility bills.
3. Personalise your postcard
ppme.co.uk is one of a number of sites offering holidaymakers the chance to create and send postcards using their holiday snaps. Customers upload a photograph then fill in the text and a real postcard is sent anywhere in the UK for 99pence.
4. Keep it together
The Classic travel wallet from Kiki James is hand-stitched leather, lined with suede and has four sections for tickets, passport, insurance and other documents. Buyers can personalise by colour and add embossed initials or text. Prices start at £59.
5. Sleep in silk
Travellers Tree Silk Travel Pyjamas are made of a light and comfortable silk, dry quickly and can be folded into a palm-sized mesh bag. Short pairs for men and women cost £29.99.
6. Hire a welly washer
Boutique Cotswolds hotel Lords of the Manor offers guests the services of an outdoor butler for an extra fee. Duties include dog brushing, welly washing and even map ironing, with prices from £95 per day.
7. Personal paps
Forget cut-off heads and blurred vistas – Eye Photographic Workshops will provide a professional photographer, anywhere in the world, from £1,175 a day. They offer tuition, will bring whatever kit you need, and even a stylist if you want one – they’ll also help with the printing and framing.
8. Back rub in your bag
Turn your five-hour road trip into a massage session, with one of these portable gadgets. First up is the HoMedics Shiatsu Plus Massager which makes up for in functions what it lacks in compactness. It costs from around £60 if you shop around, and dispenses heated massages and can be plugged into a cigarette lighter slot. Or for less money – and a little more hand luggage-friendly, there’s the HoMedics Hydragel Lightweight Hand Held Back Massager that’s rechargeable and costs around £20.
9. Get someone else to do the lugging
The fiasco at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 earlier this year saw bookings with First Luggage more than double – but it’s not just Heathrow, you don’t have to ask around many friends to find someone whose luggage has gone amiss on holiday. The UK-based firm transports luggage door-to-door by FedEx from £49 per suitcase.
10. Arrive by chopper
Forget sitting in traffic. Guests of Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab hotel can arrive on the roof by Augusta 109 Executive helicopter. Transfers from Dubai International Airport take 10 minutes and cost around £1,500. Arrivals in Hong Kong staying at the Peninsula hotel also have the same option, with a one-way flight taking 20 minutes and costing £842. New York Helicopter offers the same service in New York City, serving Manhattan airports from £750 per four-person journey.
11. A first-class sleep in economy
Frequent fliers tired of sleepless journeys can seek refuge in the 1st Class Sleeper, an inflatable travel pillow that claims to provide back and shoulder support, available for £28.95. There’s also the Jetsleeper, which is a self-expanding pillow that hooks on to the aircraft headrest and armrest and can be adjusted to suit the size of the user. The gadget was rejected by the judges of the TV show, Dragon’s Den, but found funding elsewhere. It comes in a pocket-sized bag and costs £20.
12. Home, James
The next best thing to your own James? Global chauffeur agency Tristar provides chauffeurs in smart cars in over 40 countries, or they can drive your vehicle if you’d prefer. The Premium service offers Mercedes S-Class and E-Class. Rates vary, but you can get a quick quote online.
13. A baby butler
Young guests of Keswick Hall in Monticello, Virginia, will receive just as much pampering as their parents, courtesy of the hotel’s Baby Butler, a glorified nanny. Services include warming bottles, changing crib linen and gourmet meals. Rooms start at around £150 per evening.
14. A private jet for less
ElJet specialises in what are known in the industry as “empty leg charters” – the discounted return legs of one-way flights chartered by other people. Destinations range from Hong Kong to Paris, with a flight from London to Los Angeles costing £42,000 for around eight people.
15. Telly addict
US firm Sling Media offers Slingbox, a set-top box that plugs into your television at home and lets you watch programmes from any device that will connect to the internet. It’s a one-off fee of £104.99, then you can watch television shows and anything you’ve recorded on a laptop, PDA or mobile phone. Read Mark Frary’s Slingbox review here.
16. Fine airport dining
Just outside Salzburg Airport, in Hangar 7, is the Michelin-Star-winning Ikarus. serves up food as extravagant as its décor. Regularly hosts visits from the world’s greatest chefs, with a business lunch costing £27.
17. Talk is cheap
Forget hefty hotel phone bills – international calls can be made from 1 pence per minute using Skype – you just need a laptop or mobile device with a microphone and speaker. The SkypeOut subscription service allows unlimited calls to European landlines for £3.60 per month or pay as you go.
18. Take pictures underwater
Cameras tend to fare badly at the beach, let alone under the sea. Ikelite’s range of underwater housings will render even digital SLR models like the Canon EOS 40D ship-shape, at a cost of £1,089.99.
19. Up to speed
If you book a holiday with Black Tomato, the company offers a couple of added extras to ease you back into normal life after your holiday. The Back to Reality kit is delivered to your chosen adddress and includes a DVD of your choice (or a voucher for a takeaway meal if you live in London) and a copy of The Week. They’ll also supply you with an Arts of Travel kit before you leave, which is a selection of music and books to match your tastes.
20. Peace at last
Caye Chapel Island Resort, 12 miles off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean, is a 265-acre paradise. The island offers a full 18-hole golf course and over two miles of beaches – which you can have all to yourself for around £60,000 per week. Also check out the Sunday Times list of the ten best private island hotel hideaways .
21. Choose your own in-flight movie
Decent portable media players have traditionally been somewhat bulky, but the Archos 5 is 5 inches wide. You can store and watch movies on it, as well as music and photos, and if you can connect to wireless broadband, you can surf the internet and send emails. It will also record televisions programmes if you buy the DVR station for £79.99. The 60GB model costs £279.
22. Pamper your pet
The Pet Room Service Menu at the Lowell Hotel in New York ensures canine guests enjoy all the luxurious trappings of their surrounds, with “dishes” such as Filet Mignon and services including dog walking and grooming on offer. Rooms start at around £300 per night.
23. Single-application sun cream
Historically, sun creams have protected skin but diminished its chances of tanning. Riemann P20 has a once-a-day cream that blocks harmful UVB rays while letting some UVA rays through, allowing skin to tan. A 200ml bottle costs £19.95. Or there’s Piz Buin’s One Day Long sun cream that is sweat and water resistant and costs around £12.
24. Fancy pants
Plush’s range of travel bags include satin lingerie bags, suede shoe pouches and silk, suede or denim suit carriers. They start at £63 for the latter and £14 for a shoe bag. Monogramming costs extra.
25. Meals on wheels
Picky eater? Private Chefs, Inc represents over 2,000 chefs worldwide and caters for virtually all dietary or special requirements. Past clients have included Sir Mick Jagger and the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia. There’s an agency fee of £65, plus chef’s fee from £25 per hour, plus transport and ingredient costs. In one London hotel, Paul Croughton of The Sunday Times, scrapped room service for a personal chef, from £55 per person.
26. Smell of roses
Its ubiquity in the world’s smartest hotels hasn’t taken the edge off Molton Brown, which has a range of travel toiletries in case your hotel doesn’t oblige. Toiletries come in bottles smaller than 100ml to comply with current airport security regulations. There are eight kits. The Indulgent Traveller kit includes hair mask and shower gel and costs £39.
27. Time on your side
The IWC Spitfire UTC is a smart man’s watch that has a small window displaying the time at home, so you know when to call friends and family. It comes with a metal or leather strap and costs around £2,000.
28. Home brew
The self-titled “only hotel in the world where you can make your own spirit using 200 year-old methods”, is Drumchork Lodge Hotel in Aultbea, Scotland. A five-night stay, including whisky tasting and five litres of your own distilled whisky to take home, is £1,000. If cosmopolitans are more your style, you can create a bespoke concoction at any Conrad hotel through its Conradtini programme. Mixers and spirits are selected to reflect the local specialities, but you can choose what goes into the mix, from £12.
29. Hot wheels
Hire cars are rarely more than perfunctory, but Dream Car Hire offers holidaymakers the chance to drive in style. Choose from Ferraris to Maseratis, with vehicles costing from £87 per day.
30. Shadey deal
Avoid the sunglasses crunch with a pair of folding Ray-Ban Wayfarers. The limited edition sunglasses are available in either black or tortoiseshell and come with a durable miniature carry case. Expect to pay around £81.
31. It’s a wind-up
For those times when you’re off grid, or you’re out of batteries, a bit of renewable energy is what you need. One Earth sells lanterns (£29.99), head torches (£12.99) and mobile phone chargers (£14.99). Or for soem jungle entertainment, a PowerPlus Rhino wind-up radio costs around £25.
32. Books without the bulk
Voracious readers will be pleased to learn that Sony’s Reader Digital Book allows them to take up to 160 so-called eBooks on their journeys. The gadget has a six-inch screen and reading light and costs from £199.
33. Trash the trailer
Caravans are typically associated with a less-than-glamorous holiday, but Airstream’s range of iconic aluminium travel trailers offer a different experience. Inside there’s an option to have air conditioning, oven, grill, MP3 player and blackout blinds, and outside, it’s got a retro style that will make you the envy of the campsite. The International 532 model costs from £36,000.
34. Sock it
Socks from 1000 Mile have two layers, an inner wicking fabric and a wool/nylon outer that moves with the shoe to reduce the likliehood of blisters – worth a million dollars for walkers, but yours for just £10.
35. Know where you are
If your compass skills are a little rusty, the Satmap Active 10 GPS could help. It plots your position on to a device that looks like a PDA, but the map view is still the good old-fashioned Ordinance Survey. It costs from £272.
36. Camp out
The Glastonbury-based White Canvas Tent Company has clearly seen one too many camping disasters on its doorstep. Forget zips and nylon – these canvas tents are custom-made in gorgeous Indian and Bedouin styles. Their 4m-wide Cupola model, which can accommodate up to ten guests around a table, costs around £4,000.
37. Amuse the kids
Forget eye spy, if you want to entertain kids on long journeys, the Nintendo DS is indispensible. There’s even a Brain Training game, which wil stop you feeling guilty about forgetting to pack Scrabble. Priced from £96.98.
38. Heavenly scent
Guests at the Pool House Hotel in Wester Ross, Scotland, can arrange to blend their own scent at the Perfume Studio laboratory nearby, using hundreds of natural oils, including local herbs and flowers if you want an aromatic reminder of your holiday. It costs £60 per person in a group of four and takes up to three hours. You can take your own champagne if you want a party atmosphere.
39. The ultimate picnic
Picnic at Ascot’s coolers are among the most luxurious on the market. The Hamptons collection, for example, includes a hamper on four wheels that costs £87 and includes four acrylic wine glasses, crockery, cutlery and even a miniature cheese board. They also sell picnic blankets, or a foldable picnic table, if you want to splash out.
40. King of the castle
Take sand castles to the next level with the Super Deluxe Sand Sculpting Kit from Can You Dig It Sand Tools. Each set includes hoes, shapers and scoops to craft the perfect castle, and an instructional video. Around £19.
41. Barbie time
The Parker Grill is not much bigger than a suitcase but rustles up a great barbeque on the go from around £229. Or you could try the Coleman RoadTrip Pro Barbecue, which Ginny McGrath reviewed at a music festival this summer. It costs £199.99, from www.coleman.eu.
42. Be Big Brother
GoToMyPC affords travellers access to their home PCs from anywhere in the world. Users download a piece of software and create an account, then they can access their personal own files and folders securely. It costs £11.99 per month. Or for free, save the documents as Google Docs and access them from anywhere that has internet access, using a username and password.
43. Fill the fridge
Home shopping service Ocado offers food, drink and household goods from Waitrose. You can order up to three weeks ahead and book a one-hour delivery slot between 6am and 11:30pm. The minimum order value is £40 and delivery charges are £3-£6.
44. In-flight facial
Arrive looking like you haven’t spent 10 hours on a plane with a bit of pampering en route. The Dermalogica multi-vitamin power recovery masque (from £22) can be left on for the duration of a long-haul flight. It’s barely noticeable while it’s on, and will give you moisturised glowing skin when you disembark. For an all-natural DIY version, try Spa Dee Dah’s masque, which includes a list of airline-approved ingredients, from teabags to rosemary sprigs. There’s also the Bliss 20-in-one wonder balm (£14), which claims to help with beuaty dilemmas from sunburn to flyaway hair.
45. Berry nice
The new BlackBerry Bold has got crackberries everywhere drooling over its stylish design and functions – it sends and receives emails, surfs the net, has GPS and maps, camera and video, and allows you to compose documents in one sleek package. Available free on Orange or £79.99 at Carphone Warehouse.
46. A bike into your bag
Save money on taxis and avoid the rush-hour crush with your own wheels. The Strida 5.0 weighs 22lb, measures 114 x 23 x 51 cm when folded and costs £379.
47. Turn left for foie gras
Banish the motorway service station soggy sandwich by finding good grub on the road. Roadtour has teamed up with Harden’s UK Restaurant Guide and Sawday’s UK Pubs and Inns to offer directions to the country’s best eateries, plus amateur and professional reviews direct to your car’s satellite navigation system – for £7-£10 each.
48. Case in point
Matias has developed Laptop Armor, a range of stylish laptop cases designed to withstand a lot of punishment. Most of the cases are built from aluminium and lined with padded foam. Computers protected by the range have been known to withstand drops of over 10 feet. The Black Aluminium model costs £92.
49. Be warned
If your accommodation is less bathrobes and minibars, and more bunkbeds and bugs, you may get peace of mind from the £40 FlareSafe, a smoke-detector, LED torch and 110dB personal alarm, wrapped up in military-grade plastic.
50. Dine in style
If you want a sneak preview of your in-flight meal, try going to the airline website, or if not www.airlinemeals.net could help. If you don’t like what you see, take your own grub onboard. If you’re going the tupperware route, make sure you’re home-cooked meal doesn’t include any liquids in containers larger than 100ml. Or buy it airside. At Heathrow’s Terminal 5 both Eat and Itsu have a range of salads, sandwiches and sushi to take onboard. You also might want to read our guide to healthy in-flight eating from nutritionist Amanda Ursell.
