Treat travel as an investment

Plus: The best party these CEOs ever attended

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Welcome back to Pursuits Weekly, our look at the world's biggest culture stories, as well as ideas and recommendations around travel, dining and art. Sign up here to get this newsletter every Saturday in your inbox. A different kind of dividend Hello, it's Brandon Presser. Felix Salmon, our culture maven and newsletter auteur, is abroad this week. With travel on the mind, I thought it fitting to take the wheel. Since joining the ranks of Bloomberg, I've become much smarter about my money — let's face it, choosing a career as a travel journalist wasn't fiscally savvy. I've grown particularly fond of our Where to Invest series, which polls relevant brokers and strategists about exchange-traded funds, continuous Magnificent 7 growth and the health of the S&P 500. What if we also thought about travel as an investment? Our panel of finance pros are already hip to the notion, providing stock market alternatives that recently included a luxury cruise to Antarctica and a house rental in Italy. And considering the staggering cost of a trip — at least double the pre-pandemic amount — reframing travel as a worthy way to park your hard-earned cash certainly takes some of the bite out of its eye-watering price tag. I'm one of the 120 million Americans who suffered protracted temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit as a snowy front blanketed a swath of the country — and I can think of a few other f-words the weather inspired. If you're like me, "last-minute holiday ideas" has probably been one of your recent Google searches. Sunil Metcalfe, sales director for luxury travel planning company Black Tomato, has seen a recent surge in last-minute requests with prices averaging $65,000 per family for a one-week jaunt. But a warm-weather getaway needn't cost the equivalent of a new BMW. Here are three smart trips to invest in right now that won't set you back more than $5,000 (sans flights). A view of Lake Atitlán from Casa Palopó's dining room. Source: Casa Palopó Invest in a new skill Always overlooked in favor of islands with peachy, Corona-commercial beaches, the Caribbean island of Saba—an eight-minute puddle-jumper flight from St. Martin's international airport—rises from the ocean in an almost perfect pyramidal form. Below the waves lies one of the most pristine underwater sanctuaries, home to healthy coral and legions of slippery sharks and fish. It's an ideal place to learn to dive, with dedicated operations on land that provide small-group care. $2,880 for a three-day Open Water dive certification course for four people, plus four nights in a private bungalow at Cottage Club Invest in genuine human connection  Community and companionship are just as important factors in predicting longevity, despite the recent obsession with peptides, stem cells and other antiaging boosters. Quality time at Casa Palopó with family and friends is just what the doctor ordered. The small hotel, along the fringes of Guatemala's Lake Atitlán, is family-owned and -operated, with a robust social sustainability program that enables guests to engage in crafts and cooking with the local community. $3,200 for four nights, including breakfast, in the Santa Catarina Master Suite  Invest in a place that's not as far as it seems  I'd opt for sea breezes, lousy cell service and freshly caught fish plus fruit from the vine instead of that overwrought spa holiday with unpronounceable procedures and ingredients. French Polynesia may sound too far, but an eight-hour flight (less than a grand in economy) from the US West Coast is perfectly reasonable if you can carve out a week away. Try one of the other Society Islands beyond busier Tahiti, such as Moorea or Raiatea.  $2,500 for a seven-night rental of Tahiti Homes' three-bedroom Villa Tea Tea on the island of Moorea I'll now pass the baton for the rest of this newsletter to my colleague Sarah Rappaport in London. By the numbers Emma Campbell performs at a murder-mystery getaway at Six Bells Inn in New York's Hudson Valley. Photographer: Gabriela Herman for Bloomberg Businessweek $32 billion: The amount the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is investing in entertainment with the new developments in Qiddiya City, including a Six Flags amusement park and a Formula One racetrack. $1 million: The top end of what luxury travel outfit Black Tomato says it charged customers for bespoke, White Lotus-inspired weekends at the request of private clients. This comes as more people are interested in interactive getaways built around Agatha Christie and Knives Out-style sleuthing play. $20,000: The cost to hire out the new Baz Luhrmann-designed private train carriage on Belmond's British Pullman. As I reported last year, train travel speaks to people's desire for simpler-seeming times, for slowing down and having all the details planned out. 190 ringgit: The price of a whole roast Peking duck (or about $49) at Lai Po Heen in Kuala Lumpur, one of our Five Top Tables in the Malaysian capital. The duck is wheeled to the table and dished out in a delightful ritual, an ideal way to celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse. 35: The number of spots for diners at New York's convivial clubhouse the Eighty Six, as more intimate restaurants and hotels become the trend over larger dining rooms and megahotels. Kate Krader and Chris Rozvar dive into the smaller-is-better trend in the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. £4.50: The starting price of a bunsik sandwich filled with fried chicken, bulgogi or egg at Angel Dabang, one of the Korean cafes taking over London. (That's about $6.) As K-pop reigns supreme and Korean beauty practices loom over global culture, food is also becoming more of a force. Now in London, Joel Hart reports that the hottest places for "a caffeine buzz are high-design Korean cafes with specialties like green tea lattes, salt bread and corn dogs." The secret weapon of top-rated movies James Raterman, who makes an impression in One Battle After Another, is a former Homeland Security agent. Photographer: Warner Bros./Alamy There's a very good joke in Schitt's Creek, when Alexis asks her mother, Moira (the late, great Catherine O'Hara), what her favorite season is. She replies, "Awards!" Relatable. Awards season is in full swing now, with just a few weeks until the Oscars on March 15. There's a new category this year — best casting. Directors have been looking beyond known actors for talent recently, in a trend that involves casting "real" people in films. This includes professional athletes and even New York celebrities, such as the owner of Gristedes, a grocery chain. But also a Department of Homeland Security agent and a seamstress. In this rare case, you're nobody unless you're a nobody. How CEOs Celebrate Bottoms up! Illustration by Zoé Maghamès Peters for Bloomberg What's the best party you've ever attended? I went to the after-party for the UK premiere of High-Rise, the stylish dystopian film set inside a 1970s London tower block. It was at the Royal Institute of British Architects — well done, whoever planned that — and, coincidentally, it was my birthday. So I could joke that the free-flowing Champagne was in honor of me and not the very good film. This question was fertile ground for our CEO Diet series, in which we ask executives from around the world to tell us how they manage their time in and out of the office. This month top bosses dished on their favorite memories, including a 50th birthday celebration, a poolside party in Jamaica and a charity event hosted by Ray Dalio. Books & Burnout The Lean In era is over, according to Alice Robb. Illustration by Oh Mu In the 2010s, girlboss feminism was everywhere. I remember an early (male) boss who doled out copies of Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In like candy to his young female employees. But the tides have shifted, according to Alice Robb. She writes that, in this decade, "a very different agenda has emerged: the pleasures of giving up." Women have been writing burnout memoirs as the race up the corporate ladder has proved debilitating for some. What Robb so insightfully points out is that taking the time and effort to actually write a burnout memoir displays the sort of ambition celebrated during the Lean In era. Maybe it wasn't millennial cringe and Sandberg was onto something. Photo of the Week Fred Again headlines the closing night of Leeds Festival. Photographer: Thomas Jackson/Alamy What do we lose when we're focused on capturing a moment instead of being in one? Tiffany Ap explores the existential threat to electronica club culture, as nights out turn into spectator events through the tiny lens of a smartphone. New for subscribers: Free article gifting. Bloomberg.com subscribers can now gift as many as five articles a month to anyone they want. Just look for the "Gift this article" button on stories. (Not a subscriber? Unlock limited access and sign up here.) We're improving your newsletter experience, and we'd love your feedback. If something looks off, help us fine-tune your experience by reporting it here. Follow us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Pursuits newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, sign up here to get it in your inbox. 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