Celebrity Travel

Gossip

Point Piper Holds Australia's Three Most Expensive House Sales, All on One Small Peninsula

A single harbourside peninsula east of Sydney's centre, Point Piper holds the country's record for its three most expensive residential sales and a street regularly ranked Australia's costliest.

Gossip

Sag Harbor Was Once America's Fourth-Busiest Port, Built Entirely on Whale Oil

A former whaling port that once rivalled New Bedford, Sag Harbor has spent the last few decades quietly filling with writers, artists and, increasingly, the same wealthy weekenders who colonised the rest of the Hamptons, without losing its working-village look.

Gossip

Highlands, North Carolina Was Founded on a Hunch About Where Two Lines Would Cross

A 4,000-foot-high plateau town founded in 1875 on a speculative hunch, Highlands has spent over a century as a low-profile summer retreat for old Southern money and, later, Tom Fazio-designed golf estates.

Gossip

Kiawah Island Went From a Kuwaiti Land Holding to One of Golf's Most Exclusive Old-Money Retreats

A barrier island south of Charleston that was briefly owned by Kuwait's sovereign investment arm before becoming a resort, Kiawah Island now pairs a major-championship golf course with a residential side that stays deliberately out of the spotlight.

Gossip

Carmel-by-the-Sea Has No Street Addresses, No Streetlights and No Shortage of Quiet Money

An artists' colony turned oceanfront village on California's Monterey Peninsula, Carmel-by-the-Sea has spent a century enforcing its own eccentric rules to keep the postcard version of itself intact.

Gossip

Forte dei Marmi Turned a Marble-Loading Pier Into Italy's Quietest Rich Beach Town

Built to ship Carrara marble to the sea, Forte dei Marmi on Tuscany's Versilia coast has spent the past century becoming one of Italy's most understated resort towns for old industrial and fashion money.

Gossip

Woodside, California Has Kept Silicon Valley's Fortunes on Horseback for Decades

Minutes from the venture capital offices of Sand Hill Road, Woodside has used large-lot zoning and a genuine equestrian culture to stay rural, keeping some of Silicon Valley's largest fortunes on wooded estates rather than in view.

Gossip

Paraty Is Where Rio's Old Families Go When Búzios Gets Too Crowded

A car-free colonial port between Rio and São Paulo, Paraty has built its low-key following on UNESCO-listed streets, a bay of private islands and FLIP, its long-running literary festival, rather than any beach-club scene.

Gossip

Île de Ré Is Where Parisian Money Goes to Look Like It Isn't Trying

Off La Rochelle on France's Atlantic coast, Île de Ré has built its reputation on whitewashed villages and salt marshes rather than glamour, which is exactly why it has become a discreet summer fixture for well-off Parisians.

Gossip

Millbrook, New York Is Hudson Valley Horse Country, and It Still Won't Compete With the Hamptons on Purpose

Ninety minutes north of Manhattan in Dutchess County, Millbrook has stayed a hunt-and-horse-farm village rather than a beach-house one, its old-money reputation built on privacy rather than visibility.

Gossip

Sea Island, Georgia Has Hosted a G8 Summit and Never Stopped Being a Private Club at Heart

A barrier island off the Georgia coast built almost entirely around The Cloister resort, Sea Island has stayed low-profile enough to host a G8 summit and still be described as a well-kept secret.

Gossip

Lech am Arlberg Kept Princess Diana's Ski Holidays Quiet for Years, and It's Still Built to Do That

Princess Diana skied Lech am Arlberg through the 1990s largely away from the cameras, and the village's building rules still keep it smaller and quieter than its lift network would suggest.