Most Expensive Coffee in the World

The most expensive coffee in the world does not hail from Jamaica or Hawaii, but instead from Indonesia.

Kopi Luwak the most expensive coffee in the world does exist, and those who drink the expensive coffee insist that it is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the Common palm civet, a weasel-like animal.

“Kopi” the Indonesian word for coffee along with “luwak” is local name of this animal which eats the raw red coffee beans. The civet digests the soft outer part of the coffee cherry, but does not digest the inner beans and excretes them.

Apparently the internal digestion ends up adds a unique flavor to the beans, removing the bitter flavor, and then beans are then picked up by locals and sold. The most expensive coffee beans can cost up to $600 a pound, and up to $50 per cup, if you can get over the fact that you are drinking such a strange brew.

You would know if you drank the most expensive coffee in the world, because the quantities of it are tiny amounts.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Hotel Suites

The most important element of a vacation, aside from the destination, is the hotel where you spend your downtime. If you’re going to take a true luxury vacation, of course, it won’t do to have anything less than one of the most expensive hotel suites in the world.

Grand Resort Lagonissi in Athens, Greece – The Royal Villa
$32,000/night

Another three-bedroom suite, the Royal Villa has two pools—an indoor pool and a heated outdoor pool. The nearby marina and beach cement the fact that this suite is a swimmer’s paradise. Visitors will also have access to a private chef to accompany the fully equipped kitchen, a butler and even a pianist.

Hotel Cala di Volpe in Costa Smeralda, Italy – Presidential Suite
$34,000/night

Costa Smeralda—the “Emerald Coast”—in northern Sardinia, is home to many draws for the obscenely wealthy, not the least of which is this fabulous suite. The duplex suite has three bedrooms and as many bathrooms, an outdoor saltwater pool and a private gazebo and solarium.

Four Seasons Hotel in New York, USA – Ty Warner Penthouse suite
$35,000/night

With a carpet that’s so expensive that anyone who walks across it must wear special booties provided by the hotel, ample views of the nation’s largest city, a 700 square foot library and even a waterfall in its Zen room, this suite—which covers the hotel’s entire 52nd floor—is truly a luxury location. It’s named after the founder of Ty Inc., manufacturer of the popular Beanie Babies stuffed toys.

 

The Hotel Martinez in Cannes, France – Penthouse Suite
$35,000/night

This luxurious suite is located on the seventh floor of the Hotel Martinez, already a ritzy location with its Michelin-starred restaurant and prime location on the Croisette in Cannes. The suite itself consists of four bedrooms and an impressive terrace—complete with Jacuzzi—which commands an equally impressive view of the Mediterranean Sea.

Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada – Hugh Hefner Sky Villa
$40,000/night

The City of Sin’s most expensive suite is appropriately named after the Playboy Mansion’s famed resident, and it shows in the 250-person capacity and the extravagant amenities. This suite houses a poker table, wet bar, full size gym with sauna and spa, and a balcony with a spectacular view of the Vegas strip as well as an equally spectacular infinity edge jacuzzi. All of this is centered around an 8-foot rotating round bed.

Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland – Royal Penthouse suite
$65,000/night

If you’d prefer a secure suite to an extravagant one, look no further than Switzerland. The Royal Penthouse suite, renamed and repriced from the $35,000 Imperial Suite, boasts a private elevator, bulletproof windows, armored doors, surveillance cameras and even bedside panic buttons. Of course, it’s not all about security; the suite also features a number of period pieces and stunning views of Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva.

Taj Boston $6 million Hotel Suite in Boston, USA
$6 million/two nights

Less than 5 miles from Logan Airport and overlooking Boston’s majestic Public Gardens, Taj Boston will be king of the crop for a very limited time. On the weekend of October 15-17, 2010, the hotel’s presidential suite became the most expensive hotel suite in the world to comemmorate the new theatre complex at the Boston Conservatory.

Along with two nights in the 1,540 square foot presidential suite, the $6 million price tag included transportation to Boston on a private jet, limo service, a Jaguar XJ, an engraved Chistofle sterling silver platter, etched Tiffany Champagne flutes and a magnum of Cristal Rose Champagne. The guest also received two lifetime services–valet parking at the hotel and tickets to performances at the Boston Conservatory.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this expensive package is that the guest’s name will be engraved on the Conservatory’s new theatre.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Club Membership

Being filthy rich probably isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Imagine how much trouble it is planning which beach to lounge at, which ultra-luxury vehicle you’re going to drive that day and any other ways you may need to display your wealth that day, lest those around you forget their place. Enter consultant-turned-“Lifestyle Designer” Richard Nilsson, whose Résidence Supérieur may just be the most expensive club membership in the world.

The Résidence Supérieur Black Card allows its holder to access to a host of services—including private jets, butlers, fleets of luxury cars, Michelin-class chefs and more—based in the Résidence Supérieur resorts. Each of their properties are owned or designed by Résidence Supérieur to ensure that members get only the best of the best.

Villa Oxygene, the original Résidence Supérieur property in Super Cannes, was designed by one of France’s most distinguished architects and includes four luxury bedrooms, a garden house and, of course, a decently large swimming pool. Other Résidence Supérieur properties include Necker Island—one of the British Virgin Islands—and The Lodge in the Verbier ski resort in the Swiss Alps.

Best of all, cardholders need only give six hours notice to access any of these properties.

The Résidence Supérieur Black Card costs €200,000 (US $266,000) annually. It may be the world’s most expensive club membership but, hey, can you really put a price on “Extreme Luxury?”

[Source: Most Expensive Journal]

The world's most expensive hotel-casino in Las Vegas

Designed and built over a period of five years, cost US$2.7 billion to construct.

The casino, which was designed and built over a period of five years, cost US$2.7 billion to construct. The hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the Las Vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.

Numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.

"I think it's going to start a shift of power. It's been the south for a long time. Things will start moving to the north because of Wynn Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson with the expansion of the Venetian, the New Frontier -- that whole area will become the new hot area of Las Vegas for the next decade or so," gaming expert Anthony Curtis told Las Vegas KLAS TV.

As the property opened to the public, developer Steve Wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.

"It's always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors," Wynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the Wynn development. Wynn paid off the cost of The Mirage hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.

"If you remember the opening of The Mirage in 1989, Wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. Everyone thought he was nuts; 'couldn't be done,' they all said," Las Vegas history department Chairman Hal Rothman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Wynn sold his interest in Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand (which became MGM Mirage and is now run by Kirk Kerkorian) for US$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the Wynn hotel-casino for US$275 million. The property was previously the home of the Desert Inn.

The hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and "parlors" for high rollers. The casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. A Ferrari-Maserati dealership and the Le Reve stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.

A round of golf will go for US$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.

All of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million US dollars per room. Other expensive Las Vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the Bellagio, which cost half the price at US$533,000 per room. The most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, which cost US$775,000 per room.

"Yes, (Wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before," Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"There is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos," British billionaire Richard Branson told Associated Press from the casino floor. "I would say every other casino must be nervous. He's lifted the bar dramatically," Branson said.