Inside the billionaire itinerary: 10 of the world’s most expensive adventures for the 1%

For $5.5 billion (approximately R89b), billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson can take a high-risk flight around the Earth. If you thought a last-minute business class ticket toPariswas a splurge, think again. For the world’s billionaire elite, adventure means more than just aluxury safarior a private villa.

It means leaving the atmosphere entirely or sinking to the crushing depths of the ocean floor. A recent report by Foresight Sports has pulled back the curtain on the playground of the super-rich, analysing the top 10 high-end adventures to find the priciest thrills money can buy. From the edge of space to the heart of the Antarctic, here is how the world’s 1% are spending their fortunes, and their weekends.

At the absolute top of the list is a flight around the Earth. This isn’t your standard commercial orbit; we’re talking about the development of custom, one-of-a-kind spacecraft. With a price tag of $5.5 billion (approximately R101 billion), it is officially the most expensive and riskiest extreme activity on the planet.

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Because you can’t exactly book this on a travel app, it remains exclusive to titans like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk. If you don’t have millions, you will need to settle for a “budget” alternative, as a trip to theInternational Space Stationcosts $55 million (approximately R900 million). Reserved for the likes of William Shatner and entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, this trip is significantly cheaper than a global flight but carries a very high risk rating due to the dangers of rocket launches. At $28 million (approximately R450m) per seat, stars like Katy Perry and Gayle King have hopped on a Blue Origin flight to see the Earth from the edge of space.

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