The Bare Bones of Luxury

Luxury, even the word is silken, like rich chocolate on the tongue. Roll it around in your mouth, savour it, Luxury. It feels indulgent, as if saying it too much is a guilty pleasure and one only to be done, all alone in a candlelit room. If words had colour this one would be a deep eggplant purple. Luxury, something we all crave, and something that means different things to different people. Something that we can all taste at least once in our lives.

To those of us not born into it, luxury can have a very broad meaning. It can extend from the extreme –- four poster bed, feather pillows, breakfast in bed every morning, someone running your bath for you or checking that your shower temperature is right before you step in, having a massage every day, weekly manicures and pedicures, someone to do your grocery shopping for your, someone to pick up the dog poop when you take your beloved walkies and that’s just the tip of the extreme luxury iceberg. The list goes on. Then there is simple luxury –- The luxury of a candlelit bubble bath after a hard day, the luxury of a holiday alone with your spouse as your parents take care of the kids, breakfast in bed on mothers day and not having to do the dishes when you get up, an unexpected, unasked for foot rub. Those of us not born into luxury probably have it better than those born into it, although many won’t see it that way. The reason being because we can value the smaller gestures as luxuries, we haven’t got to the stage where we need more and more to make us feel special or pampered. We are able to be more fulfilled and content. In theory.

The thing is while we don’t need more, we would all like more luxury in our lives. And advertising everywhere panders to that desire. Buy this, live like that. Eat this, look that. Wear this, be like that. And people believe it, or hope in it, so they buy the products and their lives are for the most part not miraculously changed. But they will probably buy the next product anyway, hope, it can be a killer as well as a lifesaver.

Luxury is not to be blamed for this, however. Luxury is still a very good thing. Luxury holidays are the best. Because what are holidays for if not for spoiling yourself? A luxury holiday merely takes that concept one step further. The type of accommodation is entirely up to you. Luxury comes in all shapes and sizes. You get luxury hotels, apartments, villas, just about anything you can imagine. If it can be lived in, it can be turned into luxury quarters fit for a spoilt heiress.

There are a few things that all places that offer luxury accommodation should have in common; the rest is up to them.

All bedrooms must be en suite. This is not negotiable. It is not luxury to share a bathroom with another guest. Your own bathroom is luxury. All bathrooms must have cute little shampoo and conditioner bottles (not the cheap stuff, and we can tell if its cheap stuff) and complimentary soaps. All bedrooms must have tea and coffee making facilities; this includes complimentary tea, coffee, sugar and milk/powdered milk stuff. There must be a hair dryer. There must be a TV with the full range of that country’s version of satellite or cable TV. It is luxury after all. Chocolates on pillows or something similar, but there has to be something on the pillows at night. Staff must be attentive and friendly and meet special requirements if there are any. They must also be knowledgeable about the city and region so as to give tourist advice and guidance and just to be able to chat.

Additional requirements that are optional but would be very nice include, the hosts providing a bed and breakfast service, private cars being made available for shopping or touring excursions, the arrangement of special tours, a computer terminal available to guests to enable them to check their emails and maybe search tourist hot spots. The host’s first-born child for ritualistic cult sacrifice …

The best time to go on a luxury holiday is out of season or off peak. It is moderately less expensive and you won’t have to deal with masses of other tourists. Prices of touristy goods should also be down a bit form their peak season highs. The best part is that if you have children, they will probably have to stay in school so you will have to leave them behind with the grandparents or some trusted friends. And that is the true definition of a luxury holiday.