One trip. Twelve bucket list destinations. Let’s do the math

Most of my clients carry a mental list. Machu Picchu is usually on it. So is a safari. The Taj Mahal. The pyramids at Giza. Easter Island, for the adventurous ones who’ve seen the photos and wondered what it actually feels like to stand in front of those stone faces. The problem isn’t ambition — it’s time. Life keeps moving, and the list keeps growing faster than anyone is crossing things off.

What if you didn’t have to choose?

I have a few preferred travel partners who specialize in private jet journeys.  I’ve always been intrigued by this mode of travel.  One of these companies, TCS World Travel, has been operating around-the-world private jet expeditions for 30 years, and their signature itinerary — 25 days, 11 destinations, one privately chartered Airbus A321 — is genuinely one of the most efficient ways I know to make a serious dent in a bucket list. If your budget can stretch to it, this trip changes the math entirely.

What you’re actually booking

This isn’t a commercial flight hop between tourist hubs. You depart Miami with 51 other travelers aboard a custom-configured A321 — 52 flatbed Italian leather seats, a private chef, an onboard physician, a staff photographer, and subject matter experts flying with you for context and depth at each destination. Luggage moves from plane to hotel room while you’re en route. Customs forms are pre-filled. Your private transfers are waiting. The logistics that usually eat half a trip’s energy are simply handled.

The itinerary circles the globe westward: from Miami to Cusco and Machu Picchu (arriving by private train), then Easter Island, Tahiti, the Great Barrier Reef, Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal, the Serengeti, Luxor, Cairo, and Marrakech before returning to Miami. Twenty-five days. Every continent except Antarctica. Every experience designed to feel like private access — because in most cases, it is.

The destinations, briefly

In Peru, you ride a private train into the Sacred Valley before standing on the terraces of Machu Picchu. Two nights in Cusco give you time to understand the Inca and Spanish layers of the city, not just photograph them.

Easter Island is two nights in one of the most remote places on Earth. You explore the moai with expert archaeologists — Ahu Tongariki’s 15 figures lined up at the ocean’s edge, the unfinished statues still embedded in the volcanic quarry at Rano Raraku. Most people leave having completely underestimated how far out in the Pacific they actually were, and how staggering it is that any civilization built anything here at all.

Tahiti is a one-night respite: catamaran, market, Polynesian dance performance, dinner. Then Port Douglas, Australia, and two nights on the Great Barrier Reef before Cambodia, where three nights around Angkor Wat includes arriving before sunrise to watch the temple’s towers materialize out of the morning mist while the complex is still yours alone.

India is where this itinerary earns its keep in a way that most around-the-world trips don’t. Two nights in Agra means you’re not just driving past and checking it off a list. You actually have time to sit with it, go back to it at different times of day, and let it sink in in a way no photo ever could. I visited the Taj Mahal recently, and I’ll be honest — it left me completely speechless. I’ve traveled a lot, and very little stops me in my tracks. This did in the most profound way.

You’ll also visit Agra Fort, where the emperor who built the Taj spent his final years locked up, staring at it from a distance. And Fatehpur Sikri — an entire royal city that was built, used for a few years, then abandoned — is one of those places most people skip and shouldn’t. Two nights give you time to see it all without feeling rushed.

Africa is where many of my clients would say the trip peaks. Three nights in the Serengeti — private game drives, a hot-air balloon at sunrise, a bush dinner under stars with Maasai warriors standing guard. Then Luxor for the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Karnak, Cairo for the pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and Marrakech to close it out in the medina, the souks, and the Atlas Mountains.

So what does this bucket list-checking trip cost?

This trip is all-inclusive — flights, first-class accommodations, meals, activities, gratuities, the whole enchilada. Pricing starts at $155,000 per person (double occupancy) for 2026 departures.

I know what you’re thinking. But let’s look at what that number actually includes, because the sticker price doesn’t tell the whole story.

Start with the flights. Business class fares alone for a self-planned itinerary hitting Peru, Easter Island, Tahiti, Australia, Cambodia, India, Tanzania, Egypt, and Morocco — booked separately, routed through connecting hubs — would easily run $40,000 -50,000 per person, and that’s before you factor in the hours lost to layovers and connections. With 10 destination changes on a DIY trip, you could spend 50 or more hours sitting in airports over the course of 25 days. On this itinerary, every flight is point-to-point. No airport chaos, no connection stress – you board, you land, your car is waiting.

There’s also a jet lag argument worth making. The route runs westward, which means you’re largely flying with the sun rather than chasing it backward. Most of the flights happen during daylight hours, and you sleep in a first-class hotel bed every night — not a middle seat somewhere over the Pacific. For clients who have done long-haul eastward travel and spent the first three days of a trip fighting their own body clock, this distinction is important.

When you account for flights, hotels, meals, guides, gratuities, activities, and the private access that comes with every stop, the gap between this and a self-planned version of the same trip narrows considerably. You’re not paying for luxury on top of travel. You’re paying for travel done at a different level entirely.

Who is this for?

Not every client is the right fit for a group jet expedition — I’ll say that plainly. If you need complete flexibility, your own schedule, and solo access to every destination, this isn’t structured that way. Groups stay relatively together, the pace is set, and you’re sharing the jet with 51 other people.

But for clients who have been accumulating a list for decades and want to finally move through it with intention — for a milestone birthday, a retirement, an anniversary that deserves more than another European vacation — this is the trip. It was designed for people who want the experiences, not the logistics. Who want to stand on Easter Island and in front of the Taj Mahal and on the floor of the Serengeti in the same month, and come home without having spent the entire time managing the moving parts.

If this sounds like it belongs on your list — or on someone else’s, as the gift of a lifetime — reach out and let’s talk through whether it’s the right fit for you. The 2026, 2027, and 2028 departures are currently available and limited to just 52 passengers per expedition.

Some bucket lists deserve a plan, not just a wish. Let’s make it happen!