You too can be the Dowager Countess….for $12K a day (lunch included!)

On: February 5, 2012, By: Bill Young

Yes, I know, the ‘another network’ has something on called the Super Bowl up against tonights new installment of Downton Abbey. Hopefully, they’ll learn not to counter program when series three comes around in 2013. If you can’t make it to the big game, we have a once-in-a-lifetime travel deal to satisfy your inner-Dowager Countess.

For a mere $12,085 you, too, can have the opportunity to say “…What is a weekend?” or. perhaps, “…I couldn’t have electricity in the house, I wouldn’t sleep a wink. All those vapors floating about” at Highclere Castle.

The visit, which is good for up to four people, begins with coffee in the Countess of Carnarvon’s private morning room, followed by a tour of the State Rooms with the countess or her husband, the Earl of Carnarvon. Lunch is served in the State Dining Room, including fine wines personally selected by the Earl. After lunch it’s off to explore the estate via 4×4 vehicle.

The tours are offered by NoteWorthy Events, specialists in the creation of custom travel itineraries throughout the UK to the ‘upstairs’ members of the household and a 7-year winner of the Top Travel Specialist Award as given by Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

In case of bad weather, visitors can tour the castle’s Egyptology exhibition, housed in the cellar. Interestingly, it was the fifth Earl of Carnarvon who funded Howard Carter’s excursions to Egypt, where he discovered King Tut’s tomb in 1922. The high-dollar afternoon concludes with high tea with the countess.

If you’d like to pack your own lunch and just tour the castle, gardens and the exhibition as you would if you were a member of the ‘downstairs’, you can put down about $73 for admission for a family of five. Hmmm….guess that makes lunch worth about $12,012.

All in all, I’d consider this a bargain. Some people pay this annually for Super Bowl tickets….and they still have to buy their own lunch.

In: Locations

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