Spiegel Stuff: The Delights and Dilemmas of a Jet-Set Summer; Hollywood’s Transcendent Little Paradise; Where “Celebrity” Doesn’t Matter

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When it comes to luxurious getaways and escaping the real world, the rich do it best. From private villas on exclusive islands to places of refuge in the Adirondacks, these spots are familiar upper-crust havens.

Palm Beach Exclusive

Palm Beach may be the last place in America where celebrity per se doesn't count. Ever since Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Carnegies colonized the island in the late 1800s—and on through the grande dame, charity-ball era; the Kennedy winter–White House years; the Lilly Pulitzer shift; and a series of scandals that rocked the social order—it's been about money, money, and more money.

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Saint-Tropez Babylon

Going from a sleepy Mediterranean fishing village to the most decadent stop on the jet-set circuit, Saint-Tropez has attracted scene makers like Sean Combs, Ivana Trump, and Donatella Versace, Saudi royals, Hollywood stars, supermodels, moguls, and more.

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Kay's Kind of Summer

As publisher of The Washington Post—and a Watergate legend—the late Katharine Graham drew the highest and mightiest to Mohu, her 218-acre Martha's Vineyard summer estate. In an adaptation from her memoir, an island neighbor recalls the delights and dilemmas (how to compete with Princess Diana's hostess gift or match the culinary skills of a private French chef?) of her annual rendezvous with Graham.

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Camp Life

In the late 19th century, architect William West Durant spearheaded the conquest of New York's Adirondacks, building vast, rustic lakeside estates for plutocrats such as J.P. Morgan and Alfred Vanderbilt. About 35 "great camps," tucked away in the woods, are still inhabited by descendants of the original families or by the new extremely wealthy.

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La Dolce Capri

What draws aristocrats, fashion royals, and one-name Americans such as Puffy, Mariah, and Julia to the four square miles of Mediterranean paradise that is Capri? The spirit of the island's sirens lives on in a free-spirited ambience that has captivated Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Greta Garbo, and Jackie Onassis.

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Make Mine Ibiza!

Ibiza's devotees—who include Kate Moss, Sean Combs, and the King of Spain—worship its crystalline beaches, 300 days of sunshine, and "anything goes" (we mean anything) attitude toward sex, drugs, and all-night revelry. But many fear the tiny Spanish island is being ruined by weekend-trippers, development, and the construction of a multilane motorway through its interior.

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