Krug, a French winemaker known for their oaky champagne and sister company to Louis Vuitton, began offering the world’s most expensive balloon ride in 2007 when they unveiled Krug Is in the Air, a “bespoke experience.”

The balloon, designed by Camerons of Bristol, has room for up to eight guests, a flight commander and a waiter. The basket has been been customized by Bruno Domeau and Philippe Pérès, who have upholstered it in their luxuriously soft “Togo” leather.

The meals, designed by master chefs, are created to complement both the lavish experience and the accompanying Krug Grande Cuvée, Krug’s grand crus.

The Krug Is in the Air balloon was first launched in Paris. It then embarked on a world tour, offering the ultimate ballooning experience in the US, England, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong. The world’s most expensive balloon ride cost €50,000—around US $70,000.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, stretching across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok, was originally approved by Czar Alexander II in the late 19th Century. Nowadays, it’s used for 30% of all Russian exports and a trip across the country can be made in as little as seven days. It’s also the route for the most expensive train ride in the world.

The Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express was unveiled by Britain’s Prince Michael of Kent in April 2007. The train’s Gold Class cabins are equipped with LCD screens, power showers, underfloor heating and individual air conditioning while chefs in the restaurant cars prepare the finest local cuisine. The Golden Eagle takes wealthy tourists and other travelers almost 6,000 miles in 15 days, with frequent stops for day trips.

The world’s most expensive train ride costs $22,195 for a single room or $15,795 per person for a twin cabin.

Russian billionaire Telman Ismailov opened a hotel this month that is being widely proclaimed as the most expensive hotel in Europe. As it’s situated along the Mediterranean Sea in transcontinental state of Turkey, there seems to be some confusion surrounding the hotel’s continental status.

That didn’t stop a gaggle of A-list celebrities—including Sharon Stone, Mariah Carey and Richard Gere—from attending Mardan Palace in Antalya’s grand opening. The £1billion-plus (over US $1.6 billion) hotel was inaugurated with a bang as Tom Jones opened for Carey, Paris Hilton made an obligatory appearance and one prominent actress stumbled over the name of neighboring country Azerbaijan.

Housed in this veritable temple of decadence, you’ll find a spa with real snow in one of its rooms, gold-plated mirrors on the floors of the bathrooms, 23,000 square meters of Italian marble, remote controlled toilets and the centerpiece—a pool and sunken aquarium that must be crossed by gondola.

As to the question of geography, the coastal province of Antalya is actually located on the Asian side of the Turkish Straits, the conventional border between Europe and Asia.

Suites at this most luxurious hotel can cost over $18,000 per night—certainly enough to keep the riff-raff out.

Twenty-one million dollars for a piece of art or $2.72 million for a camel may seem like a lot of money, but the wealth of individuals pales in comparison to that commanded by nations. When nations decide to build, the cost can become astronomical. What follows are the most expensive objects ever built.

The Channel Tunnel. (By Mortadelo2005. Distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.)

The Channel Tunnel, an undersea tunnel reaching from the United Kingdom to France, is the second longest undersea tunnel in the world. Construction on the project, organized by Eurotunnel, began in 1988 and it was first put into service in 1994. The tunnel has seen a few setbacks in the years since its completion, including a fire in 1996 and a crisis involving illegal immigrants seeking refuge on British soil, but it continues to serve to this day and has even been identified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. It cost around £4.65 billion to build—80% more than its projected cost.

The Three Gorges Dam. (Photo by Christoph Filnkößl. Distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0 Unported license.)

In China, the Three Gorges Dam is expected to be completed in 2011. This hydroelectric river dam spans the Yangtze River in Yiching, Hubei. It is the largest project the nation has undertaken since the construction of the Great Wall during the time of the Ming Dynasty. The dam will be able to generate 22,500 megawatts, more than any other hydroelectric dam in the world. The dam has had its own problems, including over 1.5 million people being displaced by rising waters, adverse effects on the environment and the loss of various historical sites. Upon its completion, the project will have cost fewer than 180 billion yuan (over $25 billion USD).

The International Space Station.

The most expensive object ever built puts these architectural and technological marvels to shame, though. The International Space Station, being assembled in space, is a joint effort between the United States, Japan, Russia, Canada and the European Space Agency. The project was first announced in 1993 and is expected to be completed in 2010. It has had a crew in residence since late 2000. While it currently only holds a crew of three, it will be able to house a crew of at least six members when it is completed. Its size and the fact that it’s in a low Earth orbit allow it to be seen with the naked eye if one is in the right place while it’s visible. The project is expected to have cost around $157 billion by its completion.

Luxury resort Atlantis, The Palm was the first resort to open on one of Dubai’s infamous artificial islands, The Palm Jumeirah. Of course, no grand opening would be complete without a party and, since it’s in Dubai, it just had to be the most expensive party in the world.
The luxurious beach party was set to [...]

The Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi may or may not be a profitable enterprise, but it’s certainly an impressive one. Costing over three billion dollars to build, the Emirates Palace is the most expensive hotel ever built. The hotel is, reportedly, intended to raise Abu Dhabi’s profile among international travelers.
And what a profile it [...]

How much does public transit in your town cost? According to a recent survey by Citizens Taking Action, a transit watchdog group, most Americans pay a basic fare around $1.53. According to the group, Chicago’s public transportation system is the most expensive in the US at $1.50 for bus fare and $2 to ride the [...]

Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi
The competition is fierce as two giants in the hotel industry vie for the right to call their package the most expensive vacation in the world. The two competitors, Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and The Leading Hotels of the World, both offer $1 million vacation packages.
Lead Hotels’ package, “Around the [...]

An expensive diamond necklace is more than a simple accessory. It’s a statement of opulence that will set members of your family apart for generations. Check out some of the world’s most expensive diamond necklaces.

H. Stern’s Venus Necklace – $3.17 million
This 110-carat diamond necklace features a number of cushion, square and pear-cut diamonds set in [...]

In 2006, Royal Caribbean International embarked on an ambitious project called Project Genesis. Their mission was to build the world’s largest cruise ship. Scheduled to sail in fall of 2009, Project Genesis isn’t just the largest ship. It’s also the most expensive cruise ship in the world.

(via True Cruise)
Project Genesis isn’t Royal Caribbean International’s first [...]

Looking at the above image, you might think that this is another one of Dubai’s expensive projects. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s the world’s most expensive swimming pool and it’s located at the San Alfonso Del Mar resort in Chile.
The twenty acre pool is as long as three football fields and holds [...]

If you’re like me, you’ve often wondered how to catch the world’s greediest fish.
Okay, so I’ve never actually wondered that. Even so, MacDaddy’s—a company claiming to “put the bling on your string”—has answered that question by creating the world’s most expensive fishing lure.

The imaginatively named Million-Dollar Lure has been capturing the hearts and minds of [...]

Calling them airports is an understatement. With over fifteen miles of aviation-related commercial properties surrounding some of the largest airfields, these massive urban sprawls are more properly known as aerotropolises. For simplicity’s sake, though, we’ll just call them the world’s most expensive airports.
Currently, the most expensive airport is Hong Kong International Airport, located on Chek [...]

Freezing wind, icebergs, penguins and a dearth of hotel rooms—these are the things you’ll find in the most expensive cruise destination in the world. Antarctica may not be the most hospitable region in the world, but it’s popular enough to guarantee that cruises destined for the southernmost continent will have passengers aplenty.
The tourist season in [...]

In 1991, ground was first broken for the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project. The project was meant to reroute the chronically congested Central Artery (I-93) in Boston, Massachusetts, through a 3.5 mile tunnel under the city for a projected cost of $2.8 billion. Over the course of the project’s duration, the project became colloquially known [...]

Outside of Japan, we often think of sushi as a dish consisting of some sort of raw sea creature. This is, in fact, sashimi, which is wholly distinct from sushi. The term “sushi” actually refers to any dish made with a vinegared rice, called shari, and a number of other ingredients which made include fish, [...]

Læsø, a large island off the coast of the Danish mainland, is part of the Danish “desert belt.” The island’s dryness during the summer months has resulted in ground water that can be up to fifteen percent salt. In the Middle Ages, the island was well known for its salt industry which, eventually, led to [...]

Can you imagine paying $50,000 for a tree house? If you’re like Victoria Beckham, the answer is “Yes!” The former Spice Girl recently purchased the world’s most expensive tree house from Neiman Marcus for her three children, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.

The Treetent, resembling an overgrown pear, was created by Dutch sculptor and designer Dré Wapenaar. [...]

California’s James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Bridge, more commonly known as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge or just the Bay Bridge, is a five-lane toll bridge spanning 8.4 miles from San Francisco to Oakland via Yerba Buena Island. The bridge opened six months before the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936. It didn’t become [...]

What do billionaires get each other for Christmas? If they’re anything like the rest of us the answer will, in most cases, be “gift cards”. The difference, of course, is in the amount of money attached to the card. Halcyon Jets, for instance, is offering a $5 million Dream Card. That may just be the [...]

The hamburger is undoubtedly the signature fast food item, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a nice, gourmet hamburger. Are you willing to part with $5,000 for one, though? Renowned chef Hubert Keller thinks you might be. His FleurBurger 5000, named no doubt for its price tag, is the most expensive hamburger in the [...]

If you think of a fishing trip as a father and son spending a relaxing day bonding at the lake, you may not be thinking big enough. For a nominal fare of $15-25,000 USD, Nomads of the Seas offer a trip to Chilean Patagonia on their Mothership, the Atmosphere. As the most expensive fishing trip [...]

Want to spend a day at the most expensive golf course in the world? You’ll have to go to Las Vegas to do so. Designed by Tom Fazio, one of only two such designers to win the Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Vegas’ Shadow Creek is open only [...]

While the world’s largest passenger plane is readied for its inaugural flight, Singapore Airlines are making a killing by selling tickets on eBay. Sold to an Australian man for over $100,000 USD, two tickets on the maiden commercial voyage of the Airbus A380 have become the most expensive airline tickets in the world.
The plane on [...]

The most important element of a vacation, aside from the destination, is the hotel where you spend your downtime. If you’re going to take a true luxury vacation, of course, it won’t do to have anything less than one of the most expensive hotel suites in the world.
Hotel Cala di Volpe in Costa Smeralda, [...]