Luxury travel: Murder mystery and spy coaching

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Exciting and engaging the most seasoned of travellers can be near impossible, especially among those for whom money is no obstacle. With bespoke travel experiences to surprising locations, however, luxury travel companies are curating opportunities for even the most jaded adventurer, and immersive experiences appear to be the way of the future. In this series, Canadian Family Offices explores exclusive, uniquely crafted travel experiences.

If the novels of Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express) or John le Carré (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold) are among your favourites, a bespoke, luxury travel experience will allow you to immerse yourself within those worlds on your next vacation.

These modern takes on murder and espionage might make the originals seem tame by comparison, however, as the spy’s the limit when it comes to thrills, chills, and endless decadence.

“Murder mysteries are immense fun, with the correct setting and great actors you are participating in a ‘whodunit?’” said Andrew Newman, founder and CEO of Black Tie Travel, a bespoke, luxury travel company that curates unique, immersive holiday experiences.

“We all love following the clues, working alone or as a team, it’s about participating in your own mystery set in a favorite period from history.”

The puzzling fun of a suspenseful and thrilling novel is all part of both the murder mystery and VIP spy holidays curated by Newman and Black Tie.

For the all-day, 1920s immersive experience “A Mystery on the Blue Train,” participants are invited to travel from Paris to Nice as they solve the mystery of the Blue Train, inspired by Christie’s classic novel. Cited by Forbes as “the world’s most luxurious murder mystery vacation”, the journey begins at Le Train Bleu restaurant in Paris, built for the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

Participants are treated to a Parisian breakfast while the rules of the mystery game are mapped out. Aboard the train, opulence abounds, with upholstery, fixtures and wood all restored to 1920s maximum glamour. Celebrated chefs Jean Pierre Biffi and Marie Soria treat guests to Burgundian lunch and dinner, and renowned pastry chef Marc Rivière oversees sensual desserts and teatime treats. Ksenia Karpenko is the award-winning sommelier who will pair wines inspired by the roaring 1920s with the gastronomic delicacies.

Guests are instructed to dress in style of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but if you’re uncertain about what to wear, Black Tie will dress you for the occasion with a VIP ticket to Paris for a bespoke costume fitting the day before the train departs. A designer, 1920s suit or cocktail dress will be tailor made for the event. In addition to all the luxe touches, a reward valued at over $60,5000 will be gifted to the participant who wins the game.

If murder on a train feels too steady for your immersive holiday, a brush with espionage might be more your style, and both Black Tie and Xanadu Luxury Group offer wild and thrilling experiences.

An immersive espionage travel experience

“Luxury is no longer solely focused on consumption of goods and services, it’s evolved into participation and immersion,” said Newman. “It’s no longer sufficient simply to eat in an excellent restaurant; people want to learn how to cook that dish. The same principles apply to the spy experience – a client is learning from the experts how to do certain things, how to adapt agent skills into their realities.

“Cyber security and phone security have fairly self-explanatory applications, however the skills applied by professionals to encourage an agent to risk their lives not so much. Perhaps this is the ultimate sales skill?”

Over a seven-day itinerary, clients can be coached and led by former intelligence officers throughout a completely immersive espionage experience, learning about surveillance, counter-surveillance, reaction under fire, escape and evasion, use of firearms, hand-to-hand combat, conduct under captivity, evasive driving, quick battle assessments, and resistance to interrogation.

Clients are immersed in staged scenarios, and then are given a training session on how the professionals work and assess their way through threatening environments.

A fun session of “poker and hustling” with leading croupiers and world competitors is also on offer, and participants are treated to no end of luxurious accommodations and catering, including stays at a top-secret country estate, and at the Lanesborough, London, and the Flemings, Mayfair.

Newman says it’s the commitment to the mystery, as well as the touch of fun that makes the spy experience so unique for clients.

“People love puzzles, they love to think and work things out and a shared experience such as this is always memorable. We only do these types of experiences for small groups of up to 20 people. They are all bespoke.”

James Bond-inspired chase across Europe

For a spectacularly opulent holiday, Xanadu Luxury Group presents their ultimate spy and espionage immersive experience for couples, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Throughout the two-week “operation,” guests travel to seven different countries, chasing James Bond, becoming Spectre Agents.

“For us, when we began the idea of an espionage adventure, we wanted to build a story, a sense of purpose around the trip, rather than a checklist of things guests would be doing,” said Khawer Carr, chief executive at Xanadu Luxury Group.

“This is why our guests become agents of a villainous organization called The Court of Blue Rings. We provide enough detail to the trip to get them excited, however, we leave certain parts out. For example, when our guests return to England for the closing of the event, we have redacted the majority of the itinerary and they will not be told what is happening until they arrive at the final location.

They will only be told how to dress for the activity and venue that we are going to. Rather than taking them from one country to another, there is a purpose to them being in a city, from intelligence gathering in Istanbul, to shooting and tactical training in Las Vegas. For our clients it is the unexpected things that happened during the adventure that make it special.”

As part of the fun, guests will be issued a custom Spectre ring, crafted by British jeweller, Kate Baxter, founder of The Cut London, and will be given their own designer Spectre watch. On the simulated hunt for Bond, guests will travel by private, Boeing Business Jet to Scotland, Las Vegas, Nassau, Istanbul, Egypt, Vienna and London. Participants will spend up to two days in each location developing their espionage skills with licensed professionals.

A closing ball will be held in London, and men will be treated to a custom-tailored, designer tuxedo, and women will be provided a bespoke Spectre ballgown. Xanadu has arranged for a private charity auction of authentic James Bond Franchise memorabilia for those wishing to purchase a truly special souvenir of their holiday.

Extra luxurious touches include a personal chauffeur for each couple, a private viewing of a Bond film in London, an Opera performance at Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna, train charters, skiing, scuba diving, jet skiing, and more.

“For ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, we have designed this trip to be as immersive as possible,” said Carr.

“To get our guests from one country to another, we have our own Boeing business jet, fully branded in the name of our ‘evil’ organisation for the game. Each seat is like the VVIP seating on a first-class flight.

“We have custom rings that are made bespoke for each guest, from titanium with blue gems for the men, and for the ladies using rose gold with blue gems, too. The rings themselves are valued at [more than $9,000]. Each couple gets a bespoke his-her watch and clothing, too.

“At each restaurant, the menus bear the evil organization’s octopus, and, in addition, each couple are given their own chauffeur and car. For ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ in every city we have a fleet of 15 cars for each couple, a typical ‘evil’ organization convoy. To add that extra level of excitement, we have celebrities who have played spies on the big screen to attend the closing ball, like Rosamund Pike and Denise Richards. When clients are spending [about $340,000] per ticket, it is the little details that make the overall experience memorable.”

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