This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.
16.12.2023 - 16:51 / forbes.com / Jeff Bezos / Bernard Arnault
The port of Gustavia in St. Barths is getting crowded this holiday season as the legendary superyacht showdown begins. The season started early, with the wealthiest men in the world and their celebrity friends anchored outside of Gustavia and neighboring St. Maarten and Antigua. Many will stay throughout Christmas, taking glamorous day trips to nearby islands, and then party with the traditional fireworks show above St. Barths Fort Oscar on New Year's Eve.
Jonny Dodge, CEO and Founder of My Ocean, handling superyacht sales, charters and management, says, "More billionaires congregate on this tiny rock in the Caribbean than anywhere else in the world at once. Last year, we went to the UNICEF Gala with clients at a $300k table, followed by an after-party on the billionaire owner of superyacht VAVA II. There are more celebrities than you can count in St. Barths, and it's really like they picked up St Tropez and transported to the Caribbean."
New this year, Bagatelle Group opened their second St. Barts location, iTA, a disco-jungle themed restaurant and bar located in Gustavia overlooking the harbor, and the famed Le Ti cabaret club, open since 1995, was recently purchased and reopened under new ownership.
Superyachts in the area for the holidays will send their guests in via tender to numerous exclusive parties and host their own private celebrations on board. Among the high-profile New Year's Eve events this year, Gala One from AAB Productions will have one of the most exclusive parties on the island on December 29, with an intimate 200-person dinner at the famed Eden Rock. With performances by Bebe Rexha and Saweetie, as well as a thrilling live auction, the evening will benefit several charities dedicated to protecting children, biodiversity and the waters and lands of the Caribbean.
Here is a selection of some of the largest yachts that are in and around St. Barths for the holidays. It is important to note that yachts are often privately chartered during the holidays, so you may never see their wealthy owners. Detailed positions and owner information were sourced by my friends at Marine Traffic and Superyachtfan (yacht positions updated daily through January 1, 2024).
Owned by billionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen
*With 16 guests and 42 crew members, this 82-room megayacht holds a gym, basketball court, a wine cellar and a two-story movie theater.
Owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. This three-mast sailing schooner has a swimming pool on the aft deck and can accommodate up to 18 guests with crew of 40.
Owned by Harbor Freight Tools billionaire Eric Smidt
Owned by billionaire film icon Steven Spielberg
Owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton billionaire Bernard Arnault
Owned by
This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.
With a rate of $1190 for the cheapest room, New Orleans emerged top of the rankings.
These trips underscore FlyMeOut’s commitment to redefining travel – combining the thrill of discovering new destinations with the joy of making new connections. The platform’s emphasis on safety, exclusivity, and a shared sense of adventure sets it apart in the travel industry.
Flights will operate up to five times a week throughout the busy summer season from 30th May 2024 until 26th October.
Daily flights to Kozhikode (CCJ) and Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) began on New Year’s Day
Haifa is honoured and humbled to receive this esteemed recognition of His Majesty King Charles III and the FCDO, and she remains a resolute and compelling champion for women’s voices and inclusion in the UK and the Arab world ensuring that their economic contributions are recognised and their social equality prioritised in the leadup to the 2030 watershed for the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In the U.S. state of California, the northern valley named Napa includes a wine scene under constant transformation. Establishments change ownership, new talent arrives and well known names depart. During 2023, for example, Rombauer Vineyards sold their brand (as well as many of their facilities and more than a square mile of vineyards—located not only in Napa Valley but at other northern California regions) to E&J Gallo’s Luxury Wine Group; Miljenko (Mike) Grgich, who crafted the iconic Chardonnay that brought fame to Chateau Montelena in the 1970’s, passed away; the Napa Valley Wine Train celebrated its 30th anniversary, while the Napa Valley Wine Trolley (a replica of a tram car from San Francisco) reopened at Castello di Amorosa after years of Covid-19 related closure. Also in 2023, the county approved the first ever proposed ‘micro-winery’ (Goel Estate Vineyards) with criteria that include that it not produce more than 5,000 gallons of wine per year and that the owners grow 75% of grapes used for fermentation onsite.
As midnight approaches, dark groups huddle on the freezing slope of one of the seven hills overlooking the soft yellow lights of the city of Edinburgh.
It may not the DeLorean, but some United Airlines passengers are going to have their own «Back to the Future» moment when they travel back in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve twice — and where they’re going, they don’t need roads.
Junkanoo, a polychromatic burst of music, dance, storytelling, and parades practiced in the Bahamas, was recently inscribed on the 2023 UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It’s the first intangible—a practice, skill, tradition, or craft—in the island nation recognized by the international cultural organization.
Times Square in New York City and Sydney Harbour are justly famous for their New Years Eve celebrations. But for those who don’t cherish the prospect of being elbow-to-elbow with a million other revelers, here are eight alternative (and very cool) places to ring in the new year.
New Year’s Eve can be an expensive affair if you plan on traveling—even, as it turns out, if you plan on doing a staycation stateside. In a recent study conducted by TravelMag.com, New Orleans was found to be the priciest city in the world to book a hotel room on New Year’s Eve.