There was a time when going on safari went hand in hand with roughing it in harsh heat, putting one's life in danger and rationing food and water.
Today, that's no longer the case. Sure, you can still safari like Dr. Livingstone. But with bespoke vacations, it's possible to marvel at African wildlife during the day and enjoy all the comforts of home at night - including your favourite wine served in priceless crystal.
Bespoke is another word for customized travel, and for the privileged set it's quickly becoming the preferred way to see the world. For a minimum of $300 a person a day, or as much as $900,000 over two weeks, you can customize a vacation down to every last detail.
"Bespoke is about 30 per cent of our business and growing with great speed," says Benson Cowan, managing director at Butterfield & Robinson, a Toronto-based luxury travel agency.
Cowan says bespoke is the travel industry's way of keeping up with changing times.
"Car companies allow you to make choices on a website about what your car looks like. Bike companies are great at doing that, too. A lot of businesses have revolutionized the way they interact with customers, and as a result, people expect this kind of customized service," he explains.
In the world of bespoke travel, no expectations are too high, no demands unreasonable. Usually months in advance of the trip itself, a personal vacation planner will sit down with clients and design an itinerary, book accommodations and, of course, deal with any special requests.
Need a private yacht to sail down the Balkan coast? No problem. Want to smoke Cuban cigars on your trek through the Northwest Territories? Bespoke agencies will ensure there's a stocked humidor at the local lodge.
Pamela Lassers, a trip planner with Abercrombie & Kent, a U.S.-based agency, says she has seen all kinds of custom requests. One client, a doctor touring Africa, wanted to see the hospital where the world's first heart transplant took place. Lassers helped arrange a guided visit to Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital, where Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the operation on Dec. 3, 1967.
Abercrombie & Kent is well known for its African trips and safaris, Lassers says. In addition to providing luxury tents complete with lavish Persian rugs and cushy throw pillows, the agency provides an entire support staff. That includes guides, chefs and labourers to set up and take down camp every day.
In one case, a client even arranged for a group of Maasai tribesmen to climb down an escarpment to serve his favourite dessert - flaming baked Alaska.
"The staff will have cold drinks and appetizers waiting for you when you get back to camp and serve an elaborate dinner," Lassers says. "We even provide an in-camp laundry service. The bedding is 100 per cent Egyptian cotton, with a 200 thread count."
Lassers calls the experience "glamping" - shorthand in the bespoke industry for glamorous camping.
Beth Leon, a Butterfield & Robinson client who just returned to Canada from a family trip in Morocco, says that for touring developing countries, bespoke can't be beat.
"We've done travelling on our own, but it's been travelling in Italy and France, places that a lot of people go to, where it's safe and you can get by speaking a bit of the language," she says. "But when we were in Turkey, just my husband and I, we hired a guide for three days and it was great. We wanted to do that on a bigger scale."
Leon says that on her bespoke trip, she was most impressed by the way Butterfield's local guides were able to take the family off the beaten path. "We wouldn't have had a lot of the experiences we had [if we had planned the trip ourselves]," she says. "In some places, we were the only tourists there."
