5 Expensive Places To Travel

As the word "staycation" mercifully leaves the lexicon as quickly as it arrived, let us remember that there's no substitute for getting out and actually seeing, smelling, hearing, touching and tasting the rest of the world. From the next neighborhood over, to an adjacent state, to the other side of the country, everything differs at least a little. For the intrepid and the deep-pocketed, traversing the world can open up a richness of experiences. Here are five of the most expensive places to travel to.

Generation after generation, the city at the top of this list remains unchanged. Take the largest urban agglomeration on Earth, pack it densely with millions of residents, place it on an island at the edge of the continent and you have Tokyo. By many a measure it's the most expensive city on the planet. For an American looking to travel to the nearest part of the Far East, go to to San Francisco first. Flights from there to Nagoya, Japan start at about $1,900. Four-star hotels in Tokyo are remarkably consistent, both in their quality of service and their uncompromising prices - $300 a night is commonplace. The famous Harajuku, Shibuya and Ginza districts play host to a dizzying array of merchandise and food. Sensitive Parisians and New Yorkers might faint upon discovering that Tokyo has more Michelin starred restaurants than any other city.

Any short list of the world's most eclectic cities would have to include Singapore. The curious metropolitan nation at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula is another marvel of recent derivation, an erstwhile British colony that entered the 21^st century entrenched among the world's most prosperous places. With 5 million residents crammed into a mere 275 square miles, the scarcity of real estate is as endemic to Singapore as is the endlessly tropical climate. Getting there from the United States is time-consuming, the Pacific being as enormous as it is. Singapore Air once offered direct flights from Los Angeles and Newark, N.J., the longest regularly scheduled commercial flights in the world by both time and distance.
You can expect to pay about $1,800 to get there, and stop in Tokyo along the way. A stay in Singapore isn't complete without bedding down at the legendary Raffles Hotel, perhaps the most famous building in Southeast Asia this side of Angkor Wat. "Basic" accommodations at the Raffles start at $618 a night, excluding the 17% in taxes and fees you'll pay. Singapore's international culture lends itself to an excessively diverse set of cuisines, with the Keystone Restaurant regarded as the island's finest stand-alone establishment. An ocean of flavors offer delicacies ranging from Chilean sea bass to Danish turbot. You'll pay around $40 for the median-priced entrées on the menu.

In the last couple of decades, it's become synonymous with "extravagant." The United Arab Emirates city of Dubai went from backwater trading post to futuristic wonderland in barely more than a generation. Even though the city and its environs took a hit during the recent global financial crisis, Dubai remains one of the most spectacular and expensive destinations in any hemisphere.
Flights from New York come in two varieties - costly and indirect. Expect to pay $1,200 roundtrip, unless you don't fancy a stopover in Moscow, in which case you can add another $1,000. Once in Dubai, you can expect to pay some of the highest hotel rates anywhere. The Burj al-Arab starts at $1,350 a night and bills itself as "the world's most luxurious hotel." The Burj al-Arab offers "reception desks on every floor, rain showers and Jacuzzis in every suite, a Rolls-Royce fleet, and butlers on call around the clock."

Just because you've never heard of a place, doesn't mean it isn't worth visiting. Luanda, Angola is a teeming metropolis of over 8 million people, making it bigger than all but three American cities. It sits on the Atlantic coast of the formerly war-torn republic. After 436 years of existence, Luanda, Angola is finally enjoying a renaissance. The brutal civil war generally spared the capital, and in the ensuing decade of peace the city has seen a resurgence – mostly thanks to unprecedented oil and diamond revenues.
There are no direct flights from the United States. Taking the most direct route from New York will cost you about $2,400 and requires a stop in Johannesburg, South Africa. The city's foremost 4-star hotel, the exotically named Hotel Presidente, costs $303 a night for two guests. Prices are quoted in the international currency of choice, American dollars. Expect to pay about $34 a plate at Manjara, a Portuguese restaurant regarded as one of the nation's finest.

One European nation that's done its best to stay out of the recent negative financial headlines that have plagued the rest of the continent is Sweden. A burgeoning economy and, not coincidentally, a refusal to embrace the euro have combined to leave Sweden sitting comfortably atop Europe, both literally and figuratively. Which means that prices here are large relative to much of the rest of the world. Getting to Stockholm is the easy part. Flights from JFK International can cost barely $1,000. Four-star hotels are less plentiful than they are in some of the Asian members of this list, but the standard-bearer for Scandinavian luxury is unquestioned: the Hotel Sven Vintappare, a 17^th century icon that recently underwent a mammoth renovation that finished in 2004. The new Sven Vintappare starts at $226 nightly, a rate that includes breakfast. For lunch and dinner, the exclusive Edsbacka Krog is regarded as one of Stockholm's finest restaurants. Swedish cuisine has yet to take the world by its taste buds, but in the meantime traditional favorites such as the Edsbacka's grilled rib steak with Béarnaise sauce will run a famished diner about $42.

Are these cities truly expensive? It's all relative. One hundred years ago, even 50 years ago, the idea of the average person even entertaining the notion of travel to any of these locales was beyond comprehension. For all the hand-wringing over the state of the economy, both domestic and worldwide, we remain a rich generation in a world with endless possibilities.