Welcome to Robb Report’s 2025 Travel Issue. If there’s a common thread this year, it isn’t passport stamps, platinum status, or yacht-to-villa transfers—it’s authorship. As a journalist, I can appreciate the impulse. Today’s most discerning travelers aren’t interested in someone else’s itinerary; they want the byline. Whether it’s flying at the speed of sound, trading coasts for a new hemisphere, or filming your own Antarctic epic, the journeys in these pages are as original as the people behind them.
Our marine and aviation editor, Michael Verdon, discovered this firsthand. For his feature “High Fliers,” he joined a group of private pilots navigating their jets on a 42-day odyssey from North America to Nepal. For these travelers, charting their own course is the thrill. At sea, the tempo may be slower, but the ambition is the same: Verdon also explores a burgeoning class of residential vessels where owners aren’t just cruising—they’re moving in and turning the fantasy of life at sea into a luxuriant, full-time reality.
Elsewhere, travel becomes a passage to a next chapter. Writer Alison Boleyn examines why a growing number of affluent Americans now view New Zealand not as a simple getaway but as a long-term investment in lifestyle and stability and a retreat from mounting global uncertainty. The draw isn’t just pristine scenery but also the rare chance to rewrite one’s future—far from the turbulence and polarization of stateside politics. One couple even found themselves researching relocation independently, only to realize, mid-scroll, they were both plotting the same move.
And for those ready to step into their own documentary, The Vault by Robb Report offers an extraordinary opportunity exclusively to our readers. In “Lights, Camera, Antarctica,” you’ll find details of a private superyacht expedition to the southernmost continent—complete with helicopters, submersibles, and a professional film crew to capture every awestruck moment. It’s part adventure, part auteurship, and available to only a handful of travelers each year.
Of course, travel (like life) doesn’t always fit neatly into a theme. Nor is it ever uncomplicated. In Barbuda, editor at large Mark Ellwood traces the transformation of a once-discreet Caribbean hideaway—long favored by Princess Diana—into a flashpoint of development and dissent. Robert De Niro headlines a group of investors with bold ambitions, but not everyone is raising a glass. The post–Hurricane Irma building boom has sparked fierce debate over land rights, local sovereignty, and what kind of paradise Barbuda is meant to be.
As ever, there’s much more to discover in this issue—from road-testing Bentley’s fastest S.U.V. on a Montana cattle ranch to exploring Rotterdam’s bold cultural reinvention. Plus, a horological legend revives 252-year-old Urban Jürgensen, turbot emerges as the U.S.’s splashiest seafood obsession, and the Marina Bay Sands turns wine tasting into a globe-trotting experience. Wherever you’re headed next, may the story you write be your own.
Enjoy the issue.
Authors
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John Vorwald