UK’s ‘super rich’ splurge up to £600,000 on Scottish staycations

Luxury travel firm Abercrombie & Kent offers a tour of Scotland on board the privately chartered luxury train the Belmond Royal Scotsman, comprising nine en-suite carriages and a spa. Excursions include seats in the royal box at the Edinburgh Tattoo in August (if it’s on); the chance to “brush shoulders with the Queen” at the Braemar Gathering (again, if it’s on) and VIP access to golf venues including Carnoustie and St Andrews Old Course.

The bespoke tour is followed by a week on the Glamis Castle estate, accompanied by a programme of country pursuits, a tennis game with Andy Murray and mini-versions of West End shows, performed by original cast members.

The cost for such a staycastion is “from £600,000” for a family of four.

Meanwhile, the Oetker Collection markets a range of “the most fabulous private homes and castles” with “a young aristo who acts as your man on the ground”, The Times reports.

In one case, the “aristo” is James Middleton, brother of the Duchess of Cambridge, who works as a host at Glen Affric in the Highlands.

Oetker can host a party of up to 20 in all-inclusive luxury at Glen Affric for £35,000 a week. Activities include kayaking, shooting and a ceilidh. Mr Middleton is described as “a charming host who will delight in helping guests make the most of these magical destinations”.

Jonathan Townsend-Rose, from Loyd and Townsend Rose, an “organiser of bespoke, luxury travel”, has warned that those who wish to book such a travel programme must act fact to secure a place. He said that thanks to deferments from 2020 availability is very tight for this year.

However, it is not just the super-rich who are paying for such staycations this summer. A four-bedroom “exclusive lodge” with an outdoor spa at the mid-market Centerparcs in Woburn, Bedfordshire, costs £7,200 for a week in August this year.

Nicola Butler of NoteWorthy, another luxury operator, can arrange a Greta-style green tour of Britain. It features train travel to Pembrokeshire for sea-kayaking, foraging and cooking pot-caught lobster on the beach; a voyage aboard a racing yacht to Fort William, and a journey by rail and electric car to a secret address next to Norfolk’s Sandringham estate to take part in rewilding. The cost is £150,000.

To put that in context, that’s what you’d pay easyJet holidays to take 276 people for a week’s all-inclusive in July at Turkey’s five-star Side Crown Sunshine hotel.