UK NEWS

CORNISH HOLIDAY THAT COSTS £14,000

Visitors can dine at Jamie’s restaurant

Sunday June 29,2008

By Stuart Winter

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A sumptuous mansion with your own private chef awaits you as part of the ultimate luxurious long weekend. But it will cost you £14,000 and you won’t even be leaving Britain.

As the storm clouds gather over the economy, tourist chiefs say holidaymakers want to spoil themselves with VIP breaks in Britain to “lift the spirits”.

And businessman Ben Ridding’s firm – Surfing is Therapy – offers a mouth-watering break fit for Hollywood A-listers.

The trips to Cornwall offer dinner at one of the area’s swankiest celebrity-chef restaurants, lobster and champagne picnics and surfing lessons with some of the country’s leading wave-riders.

The three-day break will cater for up to six people and begins with a chauffeur-driven limousine ride from the guests’ home anywhere in Britain to the nearest airport where a private jet will speed them to Newquay. Then a top-of-the-range Mercedes people carrier will escort them to their luxurious accommodation for their two-night stay.

Among the properties available is Sea Captain’s Manor, a glorious Tudor-beamed mansion that was moved brick-by-brick by its owner from East Sussex when she fell in love with a Cornish mariner.

If there is availability, guests can be booked into Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow or Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay.

Sea fishing on luxury yachts, moonlit canapes at secret coves and wine tasting at a Cornish vineyard add to the intoxicating mix. If clients tire of eating and surfing, the company can lay on the “mother of all shopping trips” to boutiques with a personal assistant in tow.

As Surfing is Therapy was launching its Cornish three-day extravaganza last week, Mr Ridding said: “For all the gloom with the economy, people who work hard still want to play hard and also enjoy the finer things in life. We can create an experience where people can escape from the pressures of daily life and indulge themselves as if they were kings, presidents or Hollywood stars.

“You do not have to travel halfway around the world to find breathtaking scenery or savour the finer things of life. Cornwall has it all.”

Mr Ridding runs the company with partner Gemma Harris, who surfs for the UK and Wales and who will be part of the team of top coaches on hand to put the more adventurous through their paces.

Visit Britain, the national tourist agency, says the credit crunch has not stopped people splashing out on holidays.

Some of the other luxuries on offer include seaplane trips to Scottish islands and the new Stella Artois airship cruise over London costing £360.

A GOOD PLUG. NOT SURE WHO THE HELL CAN AFFORD THIS TYPE OF EXCESS OR EVEN IF IT IS ACCEPTABLE

29.06.08, 12:12pm

£14,000. That sure is a lot of money. That represents 113 WEEKS of income for a pensioner in the UK.

Anyone who takes up this obscene capitalist offer obviously has more money than sense.

• Posted by: ReubenMohawali • Report Comment

WELLS

29.06.08, 10:10am

I hope the people who can blow 14,000 on something like this can sleep at night, blissfully ignorant of what a difference they could make to a lot of lives with that kind of money e.g. pay for several Iraqi refugee children's' education for life, build 200 wells in African villages, equip a clinic in Bangladesh etc., etc, etc,... On second thought I hope they toss and turn all night in their silk sheets and and wake up wasted...

• Posted by: endre • Report Comment