• As the holidays approach, the ultrawealthy will decamp to some of the world's most expensive destinations.
• Whether aboard yachts or ski lifts, the 0.01% tend to travel to familiar locales.
• Here's a look at some of the most popular places for the rich during the holidays.

Deck the gangways with boughs of holly.

Billionaires are deploying their private jets and superyachts in preparation for the holiday season, with many headed to familiar hot spots.

Each December, the richest among us depart for expensive destinations to enjoy time with their families — and often other billionaires.

This year will be nothing different.

"It's going to places that are exclusively pretty much high net worth," Winston Chesterfield, the founder of Barton, a consulting firm focused on luxury and the wealthy, told Business Insider. "They want these private resorts away from everyone else because they don't want to be around everyone else."

Many of the world's largest yachts have already sailed to warmer waters.

Jeff Bezos' yacht Koru and Barry Diller's Eos are both floating in the Caribbean Sea, according to ship tracker Marine Traffic. Eric Schmidt's Whisper is headed to Barbados, and Len Blavatnik's Odessa II was most recently docked in Antigua.

Once their billionaire owners are aboard, several of these ships will likely make their way to St. Barths.

"I always say if you want to have your toes in the sand and eat a croissant that feels like you're in Paris, St. Barths is the place for you," Elisabeth Brown, the membership director at luxury concierge service Knightsbridge Circle, told BI.

Known for its exclusivity, fine hotels and restaurants, and natural beauty, the island has been a favorite among the uberwealthy for decades. Rockefellers and Rothschilds built estates there in the mid-1900s.

Last year, Bezos, his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, and Michael Jordan were spotted on St. Barths, and David Geffen's superyacht, the Rising Sun, was seen nearby.

For those who don't stay on yachts, popular luxury hotels like Eden Rock and Cheval Blanc, owned by billionaire Bernard Arnault's LVMH, cost upward of $5,000 per night for a room at this time of year.

The less expensive hotels aren't exactly cheap — which is part of the appeal. A room in the least expensive hotel available for the week between Christmas and New Year's costs more than $3,000 per night.

"There is nothing mass-market about it. It's impossible to be there unless you are really wealthy," Chesterfield said.

Other superrich travelers opt for colder destinations, choosing to embrace the winter weather.

"The holidays in the mountains are more of an escape than any other holidays, even escapes to their own remote private islands and things," Chesterfield said.

In Europe, that means the Alps. Gstaad, St. Moritz, Courchevel — which was a favorite of Russian oligarchs — and Val-d'Isère are classic choices for the ultra-high net worth set, Chesterfield and Brown said.

Recently, Chesterfield said he's seen some choose quieter destinations, like Crans-Montana in Switzerland, where billionaire Vicky Safra has a home, or Kitzbühel, Austria.

"You're less likely to bump into people that you know there," he added.

Some of the very wealthy own eight-figure chalets that they rent out for as much as $40,000 a week during peak season. Real estate prices continue to rise in these locations, with homes in Gstaad, the most expensive locale, costing 41,500 euros per square meter (about $43,350), according to property consultancy Knight Frank's 2024 Alpine Index.

Buying luxury condos within resorts, like the Six Senses in Courcheval, is becoming more common, too, in large part due to the amenities, which include spas, saunas, ski valets, and concierges.

Stateside, Aspen remains the most elite ski resort.

The town has the highest density of residents worth more than $30 million in the US, according to a 2023 study by data firm Altrata. Billionaires like Steve Wynn, Daniel Och, and Terry Taylor own homes there, and in recent years, wealthy celebrities like Rihanna and Kylie Jenner have been photographed downtown during the holidays.

"It is the closest you'll get to a European après situation," Brown said. "Great mountains, great skiing, the hotels are top-notch, the restaurants are awesome."

There's a restaurant by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, designer shops like Prada and Gucci, and private clubs to make the uber-rich feel at home. Plus, there are plenty of top resorts like the St. Regis and Little Nell, where rooms cost four figures a night.

Of course, sometimes billionaires are just like us — at least kind of. One of Brown's clients is gifting their family a trip to Disney World, though it will cost more than the typical American family's vacation to Cinderella's Castle.

"It's a few days, for about seven or eight people. It'll probably end up being $75,000, give or take," Brown said.

• Lauren Sánchez, 54, says she never expected to have so much to look forward to in life after turning 50.
• "When I was 20, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, life is over at 50,'" she said on the "Today" show.
• Apart from her wedding to Jeff Bezos, Sánchez also has a space flight to look forward to.

These days, Lauren Sánchez, 54, thinks that growing older is a gift.

During a "Today" show interview on Wednesday, Sánchez told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie that she never thought she would have so much to look forward to at this point in her life.

"I never thought at 54 — I'm going to be 55 — that I'd be an author, that I'd be getting married. I mean, life is just beginning," Sánchez said. "When I was 20, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, life is over at 50.' Let me tell you: It is not, ladies. It is not over."

Sánchez also said that life "just gets better and better" as she grows older.

"When women are like, 'Oh, What is it like turning 50?' I was like, 'It's just the beginning,'" she added.

In May last year, news broke that Sánchez had gotten engaged to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple first went public with their relationship in 2019, shortly after Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, divorced.

Although Sanchez did not share any details about when their wedding would be, she said she was "very excited" and had already started thinking about her dress.

"I do have a Pinterest, I'm just like every other bride. So I do have a Pinterest board," she said.

In addition to her wedding, Sánchez also has a flight to space to look forward to, although it is unclear when the trip will happen. She first announced her plans to go to space in 2022.

While she didn't divulge any details about the all-female crew who will be accompanying her to space, she referred to them during the "Today" interview as a group of "explorers."

"When we think of women, a lot of times we don't think of them as explorers," she said. "We think of Magellan and Jacques Cousteau, but we're explorers."

The mother-of-three shared that it was Bezos who first used the word "explorer" to describe her, and it changed the way she perceived herself and other women.

"He goes, 'You know, you're an explorer.' I was like, what? He goes, 'Yes. You're a pilot. You like to see the world,'" Sánchez said, recalling Bezo's words. "And I never thought of myself as an explorer. And when he said, 'Okay, why don't you take an incredible group of women up?' I was like, I'm picking all explorers so that they could come back and tell their story about how going to space changes them."

This isn't the first time that a high-profile individual has spoken about embracing aging.

In March, Anne Hathaway, 42, chose to do "The Idea of You" because she wanted to "tell the story of a woman blooming."

"I don't know why we don't have more stories about human beings blooming at any age. We're always coming of age, all the time," she said.

In August, Oprah Winfrey, 70, shared on the "Today" show that she wasn't worried about getting older because she wants to live in the present.

"I'm excited to make every number. I remember many, many years ago as a young girl, I had always thought that I would never make it to the 60s or 70s," Winfrey said.

A representative for Sánchez did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.