GuGong, China

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - $1,497; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $1,356; from London (LHR) - $1,071
• Nearest Hotel: Shangri-la China World Hotel; Cost per night (avg.) - $314
  

Imperial Palace or GuGong (Forbidden City, Zijincheng) in China was a Royal Administrative site for royal use and public access during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Chinese history. It was recorded that the third emperor of dynasty Ming built this palace before he successfully took over the politic and crowned himself emperor. There have been a total of 24 emperors of Ming and Qing who dwelt in this palace. The palace has 9,000 rooms to accommodate imperial families, administrators, eunuchs, maids and soldiers. It has also served as a major location for discussing internal administrative affairs. Now, this palace has been turned into a national museum for tourists to visit and preserves many classical Chinese architectural structures of imperial splendor.

Located in the heart of Beijing, it has easy access to Tiananmen Square while the city of Wangfujing is located to the east. In 1961, this ancient palace was approved by the State Council as the National Palace Museum displaying protected heritages. By 1987, the palace was listed by UNESCO as a “World Heritage”, reflecting the cultural dimension of historical value which has gained international recognition.

The White House, United States of America

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - $136; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $226; from London (LHR) - $684
• Nearest Hotel: The Captial Hilton; Cost per night (avg.) - $399

The White House is one of the more well known symbols of America and is obviously home to the president of the United States and his family. This "palace" is a two-story building and is located in Washington, DC. It was initially established in 1792 and officially became the US President’s official residence in 1800. President Roosevelt first used the phrase “White House” in 1902, referring the to white color of the Presidential residence.

Buckingham Palace, England

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - ; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $614
• Nearest Hotel: Crown Plaza London St. James; Cost per night (avg.) - $296

Buckingham Palace was a palace originally established for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703. In 1761, George III used this palace as his private residence and it was then known as “The Queen’s House”. It became the royal palace of Queen Victoria in 1837 and includes 19 state rooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms and 52 principal bedrooms as reported in a 1999 book published by the Royal Collection Department. There is a well known statue of Queen Victoria created by the sculptor Sir Thomas Brock in 1911 in front of the main gate.

Grand Kremlin Palace, Russia

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - $972; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $1207; from London (LHR) - $520
• Nearest Hotel: Swissotel Krasnye Holmy; Cost per night (avg.) - $438

Grand Kremlin Palace or Great Kremlin Palace was built between 1837 to 1851 on Borovitsky Hill in Moscow, Russia. The exterior building portrays medieval Russian and Byzantine architecture and includes nine churches from the 14th, 16th and 17th centuries, and more than 700 rooms. It was reported that the former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and the former Soviet General Secretary Mikhael Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty at the Grand Kremlin Palace during the Moscow Summit on June 1, 1988.

Palace of Versailles, France

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - $629; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $759; from London (LHR) - $214
• Nearest Hotel: Pullman Versailles Château; Cost per night (avg.) - $237

Palace of Versailles or Versailles was built in the 16th century under Louis XVI. It is located in the city of Versailles, 16 km west-southwest of Paris, France. It includes a 70 meter long hall of mirrors, luxurious apartments built for the king and the queen and the famous Le Norte French park. Before the 1789 revolution, it served as the center of the French monarchy which housed 20,000 nobles and was finally turned into a museum by Louis-Philippe in 1837.

The Potala Palace, Tibet

Due to the present unrest in Tibet, travel anywhere near the palace is currently highly restricted.

The Potala Palace was established at an altitude of 3,700 meters on the side of the Marpo Ri in the center of Lhasa Valley in China. The palace was built by King Songtsen Gambo to greet his bride, Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty of China. This palace has been recently named one of the “New Seven Wonders” by the American television show “Good Morning America” and the newspaper “USA Today”. The palace occupies an area of 41 hectares, is 115 meters in height and has a 13-storey main residence. It is divided into the “red palace” for religious affairs and the "white palace" for political affairs. The palace is richly decorated with paintings, jewels and ornaments.

The Topkapi Palace, Turkey

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - $1,262; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $1,239; from London (LHR) - $375
• Nearest Hotel: 7 Hills Hotel; Cost per night (avg.) - $322

The Topkapi Palace is a glorious building located on the Seraglio Point overlooking the Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. Its initial construction commenced in 1459 and it was built under the orders of Sultan Mehmed II who was a conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. From the 15th to the 19th centuries, this palace was the official and primary residence of Ottoman Sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860). The palace portrays classic Ottoman architecture and also contains huge collections of Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts and murals, robes, porcelain, shields, armor, and a large display of Ottoman treasure and jewelry as well.

Blenheim Palace, England

• Airfare from New York (JFK) - ; from Los Angeles (LAX) - $614
• Nearest Hotel: Macdonald Bear Hotel; Lowest per night (avg.) - $183

Blenheim Palace is one of England’s largest houses and was constructed between 1705 and 1722 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. This palace was originally a gift to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, in the military triumph against the Bavarians and French. The palace is surrounded by a magnificent lake, sweeping lawns and formal gardens. Inside the palace, the highlights of particular interest are the beautiful carvings and paintings, as well as the monumental Great Hall with its painted ceiling depicting the battle of Blenheim. The state rooms are decorated with numerous hanging tapestries and includes a room commemorating Sir Winston Churchill with elegant pieces of furniture and large collections of portraits by Van Dyck, Laguerre, Reynolds and Kneller. In 1987, this palace claimed its place on a list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Note: All prices are in US Dollars and are approximate/average prices from a general search. Airfares given are round-trip fares and do not necessarily include all taxes.

In the mid to late thirties the pinnacle of gracious travel was to take a trip in one of the brand new luxury flying-boats. Air travel was only just beginning to grow up, and with the lack of proper airfields and tarmac surfaces to land on, the flying-boat was a very popular form of air transport, able to land almost anywhere and allowing large, heavily-laden aircraft to use as much take-off space as they needed.

The popularity of the newships in the sky, and the resultant shrinking of the world gave birth to a variety of new airlines with such diverse names as Servico Aereo Condor, Pacific Marine Airways, Kohler Aviation's Milwaukee Detroit Airline, and of course Pan American Airways.

In England Imperial Airways launched their fleet of Empire Line Flying-boats boasting the very last word in elegant and modern travel. These innovative aircraft from Short Brothers of Rochester, the world's first ever aircraft manufacturing company and builders of the Wright Flyer in England, were the first aircraft built with two decks. They offered spacious accommodation for their twenty-four passengers, and a gross five ton payload of passengers, freight and mail, although their eighteen ton fully loaded un-braced monoplane hulls would need all the space of an open sea-way to operate from. Passenger comfort was so important on board the big boats that Imperial Airways even researched and patented their own passenger seat which they named the Imperial Airways Adjustable Chair, manufactured by Accles and Pollock and weighing in at only 18 lbs (just over 8 kilos).

The whole trip with Imperial Airways had the air of the de-luxe, with the passengers being taken in comfort from Waterloo station in a special pullman parlour car right to the docks at Southampton, where they were conveyed by motor launch to the Empire Line Flying-boat gently riding the waves in Southampton Water. The ground-breaking design of the Short Brothers' Empire Boat was born out of plans to launch a flat-rate air mail service throughout the Empire, and the new plane was so good that twenty-eight were ordered straight from the drawing-board.

By the end of 1937 all twenty-eight of the big Boats with their 800 mile range, powered by four Bristol Pegasus 920hp engines, were in service and several of them regularly ran on the England-Australia route in a series of easy stages, flying by day and covering the journey in a little over a week. This was fast travel indeed in those days, with the planes sometimes achieving 200mph, but the air of luxurious relaxation was still maintained, with passenger comfort, quality of cuisine and level of steward service still of paramount importance; Imperial Airways regularly served six and seven course dinners in the air!

There was a midships cabin for six passengers behind the kitchen, and a promenade cabin housed a further eight passengers below a loft for bedding stowage. Cocktails were always available and the well-heeled passengers could expect personal service from their cabin stewards. No detail was overlooked in providing the very best for the new air travellers, whether on board the aircraft in the form of food and comfort, or in the special support services used to ensure the smooth running of the whole experience. Imperial Airways even provided a fleet of 60 sea-going motor launches powered by twin 100 hp engines with a respectable 35 knots top speed as mobile control vessels.

In America Pan American Airways launched their famous Clipper service using the huge Boeing 314 flying boats, but to the American speed of travel was of prime importance, and Pan American never quite matched Imperial Airways for luxury and opulence. There was no telling how far the Empire service might have gone or how big the Flying-boats would become, there were already plans for bigger and faster Flying-boats projected for 1940, when the Second World War intervened.

Suddenly the world was a different place. Imperial Airways' demise in 1940 and its replacement by BOAC saw the end of the special Empire Style of luxury air travel. Seventeen of the S23 Empire flying-boats were used by BOAC on the East Africa - Australia route with all their luxury fittings removed for extra seating, while the rest of the Empire flying-boats were used as troop carriers and formed the nucleus of the Royal Australian Air Force. A mere thirteen of the entire Imperial fleet of S.23, S.30 & S.33 flying-boats survived the war, only to be sent straight to the breakers yard, although when BOAC later replaced their remaining converted military Sunderlands they sold them to Aquila Airways for regular services to the Mediterranean.

The last ever flying-boat operated out of Britain in 1958, for the rapid advances in facilities for land-based aircraft necessitated by the war; the building of proper long tarmac runways for the heavy bombers, coupled with the high running costs of operating a sea-based service which had a relatively low return per operating mile, meant that the days of the big flying-boats were numbered. The necessary speed of evolution of technology demanded by the war, and the changed world in which Britons found themselves in those post war years - the years of austerity and the continuation of rationing - all meant that the rich leisured sky traveller had become a thing of the past and the big luxury flying-boat had become redundant.

Whether you enjoyed flying Clipper Cruises as advertised by Pan American Airways or flew in perfect comfort as an Imperial Airways brochure of the period promised, you were certainly experiencing a very special type of travel, very much of its own time. A world encapsulated in that particular between-the-wars era that would never be seen again, where the romance of travelling by luxury flying-boat would be looked back on with nostalgia even by those too young to have known them. The world of Jeeves and Wooster, bright young things and the Orient Express.