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Skip the line at the Vatican museum: Privileged travel in sacred places

From skipping lines at the Vatican to a private audience with a spiritual leader, bespoke trips to religious places offer travellers more than simple tourism

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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.

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Walking through the innermost sanctums of religious sites is often off limits to tourists, but bespoke travel companies are combining access to sacred ground for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and adding all the bespoke, luxury touches that the most cultured traveller could demand.

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“Curating a spiritually uplifting and rare encounter creates an indelible memory for clients,” said Arjun Sekri, founder and CEO of The Luxe Voyager, a bespoke travel designer based in Hong Kong that has been designing tailor-made luxury holidays for UHNW clients since 2018.

“Combining this with luxury accommodations, especially if the area is remote, is all the more special. You can talk about your encounter and how you can imbibe some of the spiritual lessons of giving and universal love from your audience with the Pope or the Dalai Lama over a 30-year-old scotch when you get back to your luxury abode.”

Bespoke Tibet experience included private audience with Head Lama of Potala Palace

Among the most unique experiences Sekri has arranged is a one-week custom tour of Tibet for a small group of VIP clients. The itinerary included consultations with local experts on the capital of Lhasa, with a focus on the sacred lakes and several monasteries surrounding the capital. These holy landmarks are normally off limits to tourists, but Sekri provided luxury mobile accommodations and catered cuisine.

“The highlight of the tour was arranging a private audience and blessing from His Holiness The Head Lama of the Potala Palace,” said Sekri, referring to what was originally the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas and is now a World Heritage Site.

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“This is in the innermost sanctum of the Potala Palace that almost no one gets to see or visit, which houses some of the most rare antique manuscripts and artefacts related to [Buddhism].”

For locations like Tibet, where navigation can be challenging and where special security permits are necessary everywhere, from the main sights of Lhasa to the sacred lakes and monasteries outside the capital, a company like The Luxe Voyager is able to ensure its clients are taken care of.

In sacred lands where public tourists are guided and cordoned off from certain areas, bespoke travel staff may be able to arrange ultimate, private tours in the innermost sanctum of a monastery, temple, cathedral, or other religious structure.

“The guide told us that this was one of less than five times in the last 10 years that the Head Lama had agreed to personally meet tourists in his inner sanctum,” explained Sekri. “It had a lot to do with the respect and admiration we showed towards Buddhism and to our previous meeting with the original Dalai Lama who resides in India, which we conveyed through our emails to the guide.”

Artisans of Leisure is a New York-based luxury travel company specializing in exclusive, customized private tours that can also explore religious heritage, family history and cultural traditions. Clients can learn more about Jewish history and even trace their own family history throughout Poland or Hungary, or take a spiritual tour to the Buddhist pilgrimage sites of Japan.

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Custom tours can include spiritual development and religious and historic curiosity

“It means different things to each traveler,” said Ashley Ganz, Artisans of Leisure’s founder and CEO.

“Some people are interested in connecting with their family’s history and heritage. For others, religion is part of a lifelong journey, and they want a custom tour to enhance their personal development. Other travelers are curious about history, religious beliefs, and how life and spirituality have been explained and given meaning by different cultures throughout human history – they are motivated by curiosity and a more scholarly approach.”

Sample activities include private tours of iconic religious landmarks, discovering family history with local genealogy experts at national archives, and Jewish site tours of historic ghettoes, synagogues, cemeteries, yeshivas (Jewish academies of scriptural learning), and mikvehs (Jewish places of ritual bathing).

Travellers will also learn about religious traditions through sacred and traditional foods, such as Shabbat (Jewish day of rest) meals, and Buddhist vegetarian temple cuisine.

Artisans of Leisure can arrange meetings with local rabbis, priests and other religious leaders and historians, depending on a client’s spiritual wishes. Other luxe touches can include personal guides and drivers, a choice of rooms in luxury hotels, and skipping lines.

Another place where skipping the line creates an intimate experience of a spiritual place is the Vatican. Italy’s Best Rome can offer private tours of the Vatican, not only allowing clients to skip the line on a tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, but also providing access to special rooms and after-hour visits. For a more transcendent setting, the company also offers an early-morning, sunrise private tour of the Vatican Museum.

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“The spiritual upliftment one gets from even a brief meeting with a spiritually very evolved human is tremendous, and that moment stays with you forever,” said The Luxe Voyager’s Sekri.

“You can feel the radiance and sense of calm, peace and love that radiates from an evolved person. I have now witnessed this twice in my life, in my meeting with the original Dalai Lama who resides in India, and the Head Lama of Tibet, who resides in Lhasa. […] Every single one in our group left the meeting walking on a cloud for a few hours after the encounter.”

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