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Welcome to The Travellers Club

The Travellers Club was founded in 1819 by a cohort led by Lord Castlereagh and in 1832 moved to its present purpose-built clubhouse designed by Charles Barry. The Club's founding ethos was to establish a meeting place for like-minded gentlemen who had travelled abroad, and where they could also entertain foreign visitors and diplomats posted to London.

Members of the Diplomatic Service, the Home Civil Service and the Armed Forces have traditionally formed the backbone of the Travellers Club and we continue to have many among our members.

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Enter the secret world of London’s private clubs

by Lew Toulmin; Contributing Editor

What do these disparate famous people — real and fictional — have in common: James Bond, Phileas Fogg, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and Gwyneth Paltrow? They all are or were members of private London clubs, many of which are just as fascinating, historic and beautiful as the standard London landmarks.

It used to be impossible for us “colonials” to enter, much less stay at, these rarified and highly secretive clubs, but that is changing. Let me give you a brief tour, describing a few of the clubs I have stayed at plus some of their quirks and how you can literally “join the club.”

The Carlton Club

The Carlton Club (69 St. James St.) is a temple to the Conservative Party. It is located in a deceptively standard-looking Georgian building, but, inside, a gorgeous interior space features a dramatic curving staircase topped by an amazing, large dome that is invisible from the street. The highlight of the club’s art collection is a portrait of the Queen Mother, with her signature on the nearby register.

The Carlton is just a few hundred yards from St. James’s Palace and close to the delightful shops of Jermyn Street. It was founded in 1832, and distinguished club members have included Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli and Margaret Thatcher. Oddly, Mrs. Thatcher had to be made an “honorary man” in order to enter the club’s men-only bar.

In September 2010 my wife and I stayed at the Carlton Club in a long, narrow bedroom that had not been refurbished for many years. Our room, with twin beds, air- conditioning and en suite facilities, cost £145 pounds ($237), including VAT and full breakfast. (This was the discounted weekend rate; during the week, the cost was £195.)

The Reform Club

The Reform Club (104 Pall Mall) is the opposite of the Carlton Club — a beautiful paean to political and social reform. Built in 1841, it was inspired by Michelangelo’s Palazzo Farnese. Originally, members had to support the Great Reform Act of 1832, hence the name.

Famous members have included Winston Churchill (yes, he switched back and forth), H.G. Wells and Prime Minister William Gladstone, whose well-known (and very small) “Gladstone bag” was on display when we stayed at the club in September 2010. And it was there that Phileas Fogg, a fictional member, made a wager that he could depart the club and go “Around the World in 80 Days.”

The magnificent public rooms include a library with more than 75,000 volumes; a 120-foot-long dining room; a card room; a billiard room, and a “silence only” study and writing room.

Our bedroom was quite large, about 16 feet by 16 feet, with facilities en suite. Though attractive and refurbished, it had no air-conditioning. Including VAT and a full breakfast, the rate was £195 ($318) during the week, with a 15% reduction on weekends.

A few more mentions

Other clubs we have stayed at or visited include the Caledonian Club in Belgravia, with good, refurbished rooms at a reasonable rate; the Lansdowne Club in Mayfair, with slick, modern bedrooms and a historic public room where Benjamin Franklin negotiated the treaty which ended the Revolution and gave the US independence; the Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall, perhaps the most magnificent club in London, and the Travellers Club , also on Pall Mall, its members including Talleyrand, Prince Phillip, the Prince of Wales and five British prime ministers.

There are about 60 active clubs in London (see Wikipedia’s “ list of London’s gentlemen’s clubs ”), so I have barely scratched the surface.

Some of the most amusing clubs are fictional. The Blades Club is the exclusive gambling and gourmet club frequented by James Bond, his boss, M, and his nemesis Goldfinger. It is modeled on the real Boodle’s , where Ian Fleming was a member.

One of the most famous fictional clubs is the Drones Club of Bertie Wooster and his man, Jeeves. This whimsical club created by P.G. Wodehouse was based loosely on the Bachelors’ Club and Buck’s Club and features members with delightful names like Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps and Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright.

Clubs, in general

Clubs are almost by definition a bit quirky. Dress codes usually include jacket and tie for men and, at least, pantsuits for women. Another oddity is that the bedrooms are often small and unrefurbished. This is because the clubs started out as gentlemen’s retreats where single men could collapse upstairs after a hard night of gambling and carousing. Always make careful enquires about the accommodations before booking.

Food quality can vary. It’s usually excellent for breakfast but often less good at lunch and dinner. The best bargain I found was at the Travellers Club, with dinner entrées at only £9-£10 ($15-$16) between 6 and 7 p.m.

Many clubs have admitted women as members in recent years, but some have no female members and a few of them bar women entirely. Quirky or plain silly? You decide!

The final quirk is that you need to have a club fax a “letter of introduction” to the London club in which you are interested in order to visit. To do this, you must be a member of a city, golf, university, alumni, faculty, country, yacht, military or other club that is part of a “reciprocal network” of clubs.

If you are not in such a network, you can join a local club that is. (See Wikipedia’s “ list of American gentlemen’s clubs ,” with more than 235 listings. Most of these admit women, and many have reciprocal networks with clubs not only in London but around the world.)

Join the club

If you would like to join, rather than just visit, your very own London club, consider the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL), a nonprofit organization with extensive involvement in the arts and charitable and welfare activities.

The League, whose patron is Queen Elizabeth II, has 18,000 members. It’s large clubhouse has 80 modern bedrooms that are available to members at rates lower than a comparable hotel in downtown London. For example, a double room with en suite facilities costs £165-£185, including VAT and Continental breakfast.

Benefits include access to the ROSL clubhouses in London and Edinburgh as well as to numerous events, including church services at Westminster Abbey attended by the Queen, tea in the House of Lords and a chance at tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show and Wimbledon.

Membership for non-UK residents is a modest £112 per year, with a one-time 59-pound joining fee. The ROSL (St. James’s St., London; fax +44 [0] 20 7499 6738) has 80 reciprocal clubs around the world, including nine in the US.

If you prefer, you may be able to join one of the more exclusive London clubs. Usually, these have rates for overseas members much lower than for London residents. The Lansdowne Club will likely welcome foreign inquiries, and it has a list of more than 250 reciprocal clubs. Its overseas rate for a retired couple is £465 for the entrance fee plus £235 for annual membership.

Enjoy the secret club life, and perhaps you, too, will become famous in fact and fiction! ITN

Lew Toulmin is a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, which has a reciprocal network of over 100 clubs around the world.

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Traditional Gentlemen's Clubs of London

• By londonclubs
• Published on : January 26, 2023
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3.2 out of 5.0 stars 3.2 The Travellers Club, located at 106 Pall Mall, is one of London’s oldest and most prestigious gentlemen’s clubs. Founded in 1819, the club was established for “gentlemen who have travelled out of the British Isles to a distance of at least five hundred miles from London in a direct line.” This requirement for membership, along with the club’s luxurious and refined atmosphere, has made it a favourite among diplomats, politicians, and other accomplished individuals. At one point so many members were linked to MI5 and MI6 that it was simply known as the Spooks Club.

The club’s building, designed by Charles Barry, is a stunning example of the Palladian style and has been a London landmark for over 200 years. Inside, members can enjoy the club’s various lounges, reading rooms, and dining rooms, as well as its extensive library and billiards room.

In addition to its impressive facilities, the Travellers Club is also known for its rich history and distinguished membership. Past members include explorers, statesmen, and literary figures such as David Livingstone, Winston Churchill, and Rudyard Kipling. The club has also played host to numerous important events, including the signing of the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale in 1904.

Despite its traditional and exclusive reputation, the Travellers Club is also committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive membership. Today, the club continues to attract a diverse range of accomplished individuals from various fields and backgrounds.

Overall, The Travellers Club is a true London institution, offering its members a luxurious and refined atmosphere, rich history and distinguished membership, and a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusivity. It is a perfect place for the distinguished traveller and for those who appreciate the best of British culture and tradition. Sadly, the clubhouse can be quite dead at times. In addition dining room service, like the Oxford & Cambridge Club, requires each table to fill in an order form. To members of other clubs, this can seem not only cumbersome but also rather strange and impersonal.

Hello I will be visiting London in October of this year. Being of curios temperament I wonder if i may visit your club perhaps enjoy a meal and or at least experience its historical significance. I’d be thrilled to hear back from you. Thankyou

Regretfully this is merely a blog about London Clubs. We’re not affiliated with the Travellers, and you would have to contact them directly. Generally speaking clubs will only allow visitors from reciprocal clubs.

I have been a member of the Travellers’ for 30 years, and in all that time I have never managed to find the billiards room. Perhaps you might let me know where it is?

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The story of The Travellers Club, the oldest club on Pall Mall and a home-from-home for globetrotters for 200 years

To mark the bicentenary of The Travellers Club – the oldest club in Pall Mall – John Martin Robinson tells the story of an institution and its home, a purpose-built Renaissance palace. Photographs by Paul Highnam.

The Travellers Club was founded in May 1819, brainchild of Viscount Castlereagh, Foreign Secretary and British Minister Plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. He spoke of establishing a club in which men could meet socially with other travellers, visiting ‘foreigners of distinction’ and diplomats.

Throughout its history, these elements have been a strong part of the club’s character. To qualify, members had to travel 500 miles in a straight line outside England. A member quipped it had to be on land, otherwise ‘convicts from Botany Bay might have qualified’.

Photograph by Paul Highnam/Country Life Picture Library

The club emerged after the Napoleonic Wars, when war and trade had carried mariners, soldiers and officials across the world. For cultural travellers, conflict had deflected visits from the usual Grand Tour destinations to Greece, the Levant and Egypt.

Early members included five future Prime Ministers – Aberdeen, Palmerston, Canning, Lord John Russell and the Earl of Derby – as well as several Greek Revival architects/designers: Smirke, Wilkins, Westmacott, Thomas Hope and C. R. Cockerell, the latter the club’s architectural conscience.

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There were diplomats, such as the Earl of Elgin, who gave a plaster cast of the Parthenon Marbles, and his associates Lt-Col William Leake, who brought the Marbles to London, and William Richard Hamilton, Elgin’s secretary, who prevented the French from removing the Rosetta Stone from Egypt.

They were all trustees of the British Museum and several founders of the National Gallery joined them, including Sir George Beaumont, George Vernon and the Rev Holwell Carr, who all gave their collections to the gallery.

The founder chairman was the 2nd Lord Auckland, later Governor General of India and responsible for the unsuccessful First Afghan War. Other committee members included John Sawrey Morritt, friend of Walter Scott, who had surveyed the scene of the Iliad and bought Velásquez’s ‘Rokeby Venus’, and Sir Gore Ouseley, the earliest British ambassador to Persia. Military figures in the early membership included the Duke of Wellington, the Marquess of Anglesey and Lords Raglan and Cardigan.

‘This house, in turn, proved inadequate as the membership grew’

The first foreign visitors were Russian: Count Simon Woronzow, ambassador to George III, and his son, Prince Michael Woronzow, commander of the Russian cavalry at Moscow in 1812 and governor of the Caucasus, who employed Edmund Blore to design a Moorish-Jacobethan palace at Alupka in the Crimea.

Most famous of the early diplomat members was Talleyrand during his four years as ambassador in London, playing whist most nights and for whom an extra handrail was added to the stair bannisters.

The early visitors also included writers, such as the American Nathaniel Parker Willis and the Frenchman Louis de Vignet. A less welcome guest, who caused trouble by taking books from the library and criticising the card accountant, was Prince Pückler-Muskau. He left a description of the club in his Tour of a German Prince in England (1832).

He was complimentary about the club as an institution, but less so about the members: ‘The English nobility haughty as it is, can scarcely measure itself against the French in antiquity and purity of blood.’ He described them as ‘new families, often of very mean and even discreditable extraction’ and commented that it was easy to muddle the servants for the masters, as the former had more ‘natural dignity’ and better manners.

In 1819, the club took temporary premises in Waterloo Place, which were adapted by Cockerell. These proved too small and rickety and it soon moved to a larger house at 49, Pall Mall. This was also converted for the club by Cockerell, who presented his plastercast of the Phigaleian Marbles from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios, which he had excavated at Bassae and secured for the British Museum. This was installed in the Coffee Room (now transferred to the library of the Barry building) and Lord Elgin’s plaster Parthenon Marbles in the Drawing Room. They gave the building a strongly Grecian character during its 10-year existence.

This house, in turn, proved inadequate as the membership grew. A perfect new site presented itself on the other side of Pall Mall when George IV moved to Buckingham Palace and Carlton House was redeveloped.

The Office of Woods and Forest (Crown Estate) were keen to spread the architectural grandeur of the Metropolitan Improvements along Pall Mall by encouraging new club buildings, which were more impressive than private houses. On either side of Waterloo Place were the United Service Club, designed by Nash, the Athenaeum by Decimus Burton and, opposite the former, the United University Club by William Wilkins.

In 1828, The Travellers secured the site of three houses immediately adjoining the Athenaeum for its permanent base. This was not without hitches, as George IV, with characteristic insouciance, kyboshed the original site deal by insisting on retaining a house on it for a member of his Household; the club accepted a slightly more constricted site, with a condition that the land behind was not built on, and so the setting of trees and grass in Carlton Gardens survives.

Under the chairmanship of Lord Granville Somerset, The Travellers chose its architect by competition. No other St James’s club has selected an architect by such a process.

In May 1828, it was resolved to ‘procure plans from no less than five eminent architects’ and to obtain cost estimates from an ‘experienced surveyor’. For the latter, they chose Joseph Henry Good, Surveyor to the Com-missioners for Building New Churches.

In fact, seven architects were approached initially and 11 in total. Many had already designed clubs. Two members of The Travellers were included: Robert Smirke and William Wilkins. John Peter Deering (a classical archaeologist and, with Wilkins, joint architect of the United University Club), William Atkinson (a pupil of James Wyatt), Decimus Burton, Benjamin Dean Wyatt (architect of Crockford’s and the Oriental, son of James) and Lewis Wyatt (James’s nephew).

The following week, four more architects were approached: Henry Harrison, Jeffry Wyatville, Charles Barry and Thomas Hopper (architect of Arthur’s Club). A couple more were subsequently asked: Ambrose Poynter and Edward Blore. Of these, Smirke, Burton, Lewis Wyatt and Jeffry Wyatville declined, but eight submitted designs.

As the drawings of unsuccessful entries were returned with thanks, all are now lost.

Cockerell was not on the sub-committee, but was on the general committee, and his fastidious criticism elsewhere of his colleagues’ work may explain why some were turned down; nearly everybody thought Blore uninspired and Poynter lacked distinction.

The palm was offered to the outsider, Charles Barry. At 33, he was the youngest to enter and had designed little except the Greek Revival Royal Institution of Fine Arts (now Art Gallery) in Manchester and some cheap Commissioners’ churches in Man-chester and London. The former may have been familiar to northern members, such as Edward Legh of Lyme or Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, but he cannot otherwise have been known to the committee.

His adventurous travels as a student to France, Italy, Greece and Turkey would have appealed to the club, but it was probably his track record with the Commissioners of New Churches that won him the job. Joseph Good was able to advise the club that Barry was experienced in keeping within approved building budgets and that advice may have been decisive. There was also the originality and excellence of the design, with its clever planning for the deep site and the novel deployment of Italian Renaissance palazzo architecture.

The competition design of 1828 was revised to meet the present, narrower site in March 1829 and then revised again to meet criticisms from the Crown and Athenaeum about the likely impact on the cornice of the latter.

Barry’s ingenious solution was to create recesses on both elevations adjoining the Athenaeum. This allowed slightly more interesting shapes for the main rooms and enabled the cornice of The Travellers to be returned at the sides rather than cut off, something that has always been admired.

Externally, Barry drew on Florentine and Venetian sources for the two elevations, Raphael’s Palazzo Pandolfini for Pall Mall and the Grand Canal for Carlton Gardens (where the lawns substituted for Venetian water).

Inside, the vocabulary stretched to include Grecian and English Palladian details, in the library chimneypieces or the carved-oak Grand Staircase. Enthusiasm for the latter may have come from the chairman of the building committee Gen the Hon Sir Edward Cust, with memories of his ancestral home at Belton in Lincolnshire.

Barry’s most novel stroke was the internal cortile in the centre of the plan, with the halls and landings arranged like arcades round it. This enabled light to reach the depths of the interior, including the kitchen, scullery and Still Room in the basement.

The building was constructed by Stokes (Paxton’s son-in-law); it was roofed in 1831 and first used to watch William IV’s Coronation procession. It was completed in 1832.

Barry’s architecture has always been cherished by The Travellers, which, over the decades, has allowed art and architecture students to visit and make measured drawings. There was only one blip in the record: Barry remained the club architect throughout his life, but after him, Hungerford Pollen advised. He was Cockerell’s nephew.

In order to allow in more light, Pollen removed Barry’s balconies from the library windows in 1867 and replaced them with ‘Baker Street’ iron balustrades. Following furious protests, not least from Barry’s younger son and biographer Edward, the club reinstated the balconies to the original design. Suitably chastened, it never attempted to alter the elevations again.

Over the years, several changes have been made to the interior. A fire in 1850 destroyed Barry’s billiard room and the Elgin plaster frieze. In 1910, the Coffee Room was moved up to the first-floor drawing room (Fig 3) to create a ground-floor Smoking Room.

The entrance hall was also tactfully extended, reusing Barry’s windows and chimneypiece into the cortile by the then club architect Macvicar Anderson. Few realise this not part of the original Barry design.

Anderson added upper storeys of bedrooms after the First World War. In the early 20th century, the club benefitted from the care and knowledge of a member, Hal Goodhart-Rendal, who, for a time, also acted as the club architect. He recommended Fred Rowntree as his successor and Rowntree designed the handsome First and Second World War Memorials and restored the club after it suffered bomb damage in 1940.

Goodhart-Rendal had restored and replicated the Colza chandeliers and other light fittings and produced a design for roofing over the main floor of the cortile to make a ‘saloon’. This was not proceeded with, nor was its revival in 1970 by Ian Grant, chairman of the Victorian Society, although he was responsible for re-graining the library in its original oak with a grant from the Greater London Council Historic Buildings Division.

This was one of several late-20th-century restorations of original decorative schemes, including the repainting of the Coffee Room in Barry’s yellows and greys in 1988. The library remains the heart of the club and, as well as being one of the most beautiful rooms in London, it contains the finest collection of travel books in private hands, donated by members over two centuries. Its present flourishing condition with lectures and exhibitions attests to the continuing vigour of The Travellers after 200 years.

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TRAVELLERS' CLUB (THE), next The Athenaeum in Pall Mall, originated, soon after the peace of 1814, in a suggestion of the late Lord Londonderry, then Lord Castlereagh, for the resort of gentlemen who had resided or travelled abroad, as well as with a view to the accommodation of foreigners, who, when properly recommended, receive an invitation for the period of their stay. Here Prince Talleyrand was fond of a game at whist. With all the advantage of his great imperturbability of face, he is said to have been an indifferent player. The present Club-house (Charles Barry, architect) was built in 1832, and is much and deservedly admired. The Carlton-terrace front is very fine. The Club is limited to 700 members. Each member, on his admission, pays 30 guineas, in which sum is included his subscription for the current year. The annual subscription is 10 guineas. Rule 6 directs, "That no person be considered eligible to the Travellers' Club, who shall not have travelled out of the British islands to a distance of at least 500 miles from London in a direct line. Rule 10 directs, "That no dice and no game of hazard be allowed in the rooms of the Club, nor any higher stake than guinea points, and that no cards be introduced before dinner."

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850

The TRAVELLERS', 106 Pall Mall, built in 1832, at a cost of nearly 30,000 l ., from Sir Charles Barry's designs. The number of members is limited to 725, each of whom must have travelled at least 500 miles from London. Entrance fee, 31 l . 10s.; annual subscription, 10 l . 10s.

Cruchley's London in 1865 : A Handbook for Strangers, 1865

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Travellers’ Club ,  106, Pall Mall. — The following is the form of recommendation of candidates for this club: “A. B. being desirous of becoming a member of the Travellers’ Club, we, the undersigned, do, from our personal knowledge, recommend him to that honour, subject to the qualification of Rule 15.” The provision of Rule 15 is “that no person be considered eligible who shall not have travelled out of the British Islands to a distance of at least 500 miles from London in a direct line.” The members elect by ballot. When 12 and under 18 members ballot, one black ball, if repeated, shall exclude; if 18 and upwards ballot, two black balls exclude, and the ballot cannot be repeated. The presence of 12 members is necessary for a ballot. Each member on admission is required to pay £42, which sum includes his subscription for the current year. Each subsequent annual subscription is £10 10s. 

Charles Dickens (Jr.) , Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879

34 of London's most exclusive private members' clubs, ranked by price

• London is home to some of the most exclusive private members' clubs in the world.
• We've rounded them up and ranked them by the price of a standard annual membership.
• They range from £150 ($195) to over £6,000 ($7,816) a year.

London's private members' circuit has come a long way since the days of the stuffy gentlemen's club.

The capital now boasts one of the most diverse selections of clubs in the world.

While areas such as Mayfair and Pall Mall are still synonymous with the members' club scene, an explosion of more accessible, affordable, and trendier clubs have shaken things up.

Whether you are looking for a wellbeing sanctuary, to indulge in the world of fine wine, art, and live performance, or just somewhere with cool rooms where cool-looking people hang out, each club has its very own niche, making it even trickier to pick the right one.

Read more: The 10 most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2019

We've rounded up a selection of London's most exclusive private members' clubs, which cost between £150 ($195) to over £6,000 ($7,816) for an annual membership.

Scroll down for a sneak peek inside some of London's best clubs, ranked in ascending order by the price of a standard annual membership and joining fee.

This is an updated version of an earlier story by Rosie Fitzmaurice.

Disrepute, Soho — £150 ($195) per year.

Disrepute, a "hidden gem" nestled within an opulent Soho basement, offers a carefully curated cocktail menu and an atmospheric space perfect for secret late-night sessions. It is one of the most reasonably priced members' bars in London.

Membership privileges include priority reservations, the ability to book in parties of up to 12 people, and free access to special events, talks, and masterclasses.

The club says it is a members' bar not in the conventional sense, and that applications are welcome from people of all backgrounds and persuasions. Non-members are also welcome to book a table, subject to availability.

You can apply for membership here.

The Court, Soho — £600 ($782) per year.

Soho newcomer The Court , situated on Kingly Street, is set to open in spring 2019 with a 24-hour license, making it one of the latest nights in the neighbourhood.

Founder Harry Mead says of the members' club: "We have a wide range of characters on the members' panel so that we can curate an interesting and diverse membership. We want it to be the place where you can have dinner with an artist and a tech entrepreneur while listening to great live music and sipping an incredible cocktail. It’s a bar and a restaurant and a place to listen to live music and see stunning art — it’s the whole experience that makes it what it is. There are great venues across the city that tick one or two of these boxes, but very few that bring all of these."

The club promises members can expect a restaurant with a menu developed by Michelin starred chef Tom Sellers, "show-stopping décor," and "an ultra-sleek Gatsby-esque basement bar with cocktails created by award-winning mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana (AKA Mr Lyan)."

Candidates can register their interest online.

Quo Vadis, Soho — £500 ($651) per year, plus £150 ($195) joining fee.

Quo Vadis, easily recognisable by its iconic neon street sign, is another of Soho's members' haunts. The club consists of a first-floor bar and lounge, and a dedicated members' restaurant, which serves quintessentially British cuisine. The second floor is home to the "Blue Room," an intimate, atmospheric lounge with an open plan bar and first-rate sound system.

It is popular among Soho's creatives, foodies, and more generally seekers of relaxed business and serious pleasures.

Under 30s benefit from a discounted yearly rate of £300 ($391). The club doesn't have a blanket policy for membership and says it instead looks at case by case applications, accepting people without airs and graces who are interesting and happy to be themselves.

Prospective members can apply online here.

L'Escargot, Soho — £450 ($586) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Set in a Georgian townhouse in the heart of Soho above London's oldest French restaurant L'escargot, the chic Upstairs Club is accessed via a psychedelic carpeted spiral staircase.

It's a secretive hideout away from the hustle and bustle of the capital. There is an air of eccentricity to the club which offers its members access to a series of private rooms, including the salon noir, salon bleu, and salon rouge, which regularly host performances and general debauchery.

Under 28s can obtain a reduced membership of £250 ($326). If you don't have a proposer, you may be asked to visit the club and meet with one of the membership team for a drink and a brief introduction.

To apply, hopefuls should submit a personal profile online here.

Black's Club, Soho — £525 ($684) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Nestled in the heart of Soho, Blacks Club is famed for the supper clubs that it now hosts at least once a month, with a focus on either wine, fashion, or art. Its website states: "The theme is always celebrated in style with special menus and plenty of wine! Always a popular night with members."

There is a one-off joining fee of £250 ($326) and an annual membership costs £525 ($684), while a dual or couple membership costs £750 ($977). Meanwhile, under 30s benefit from a discounted rate of £300 ($391), and those overseas can pay £350 ($456) annually.

The full membership costs can be found online here.

The Chelsea Arts Club, Chelsea — £598 ($779) per year, plus £295 ($384) joining fee.

The Chelsea Arts Club has a rustic and bohemian charm. The club centres around the billiard room, the dining room, and a secluded garden. There are also 12 bedrooms which members may book.

The club counts painters, sculptors, architects, poets, photographers, filmmakers, writers, actors, and musicians among its members, and their works are exhibited at the club year-round. Its parties are said to be "legendary."

In addition to offering a discounted rate of £21 ($284) for under 30s, the club distinguishes between "town" and "country" memberships, with the latter benefitting from a reduced rate of £435 ($567).

The Chelsea Arts Club says it has a waiting list for new applicants, who have to be sponsored by two existing members whom they have known for at least two years.

The proposal form can be downloaded here.

Albert's at Beaufort House, Chelsea — £650 ($847) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Albert's Private Members' Club recently re-opened in Beaufort House just off the Kings Road in Chelsea, having originally opened its doors to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 2016. The concept is a three-story townhouse featuring an all-day restaurant, two bars and a nightclub, plus a private dining room.

It claims to have an atmosphere of "quintessential English charm," with a "relaxed sophistication" in the day that becomes "electric" as dusk falls.

Lifetime membership can be obtained for a one-off payment of £2,500 ($3,257), or annual membership is £650 ($847) with a £250 ($326) joining fee (or £500 ($651) for under 30s). All members are required to be proposed by a current member, or to come in for a quick tour with the membership director.

More information on membership at Albert's at Beaufort House can be found here.

Eight Club, Bank or Moorgate — £900 ($1,172) per year, plus £75 ($98) joining fee.

Eight Club opened in Bank in 2006, and launched a second location in Moorgate two years later.

Eight Moorgate, situated on the top three floors, offers panoramic views of the city with a simple concept of creating "a professional yet relaxing atmosphere with a range of tailored services for the members, focusing on service, the highest quality food and drinks all delivered within a beautifully defined interior."

Members can take advantage of 12 meeting rooms, a private screening room, a library, members lounges or restaurant, and some Championship pool tables.

Those interested in applying can visit the website.

The Ministry, Southwark — £840 ($1,094) per year, plus £150 ($195) admin fee.

The brains behind Ministry of Sound launched this private members' club and co-working space for creatives in a former Victorian printworks in Southwark last year.

Home to London's longest copper bar, a restaurant, private dining rooms, a 38-seater cinema, private sound studios, and an outdoor heated terrace, The Ministry is a pretty cool place to be. Members have access to the Ministry of Sounds Does Fitness gym, a calendar of events, and even a tequila and mezcal bar in the toilets.

Applications are reviewed by the membership committee every month. Those interested can apply online.

Century Club, Soho — £750 ($977) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Launched in 2001, The Century Club sits behind a discrete front door on Shaftesbury Avenue. It boasts four floors of members' club fun, including Soho's largest roof terrace.

Given its proximity to the theatres of London's West End, it is frequented by people in the arts, media, and entertainment industries.

The club also offers an out-of-town reduced annual membership at £550 ($716), and an under 30s membership costs £400 ($521).

To apply for membership, prospective members need to   complete an application   and attend an informal meeting with the head of membership.

The AllBright Club, Bloomsbury or Mayfair — from £700 ($920) per year, plus £300 ($394) joining fee.

The AllBright club, which opened in March in Bloomsbury, was the first female-only members' club in the UK. It describes itself as "a space for working women to convene, collaborate and network in order to help change the current economic landscape for women."

The club boasts a cocktail bar, library and lounge, exhibition space, and bookable meeting rooms. The bar stocks wines from all-female vineyards and there is a unique cocktail list that pays homage to pioneering women from history. Members can visit a beauty bar in the basement's powder room and attend exercise classes in the wellness area, run by Elissa El Hadj, founder of London's Form Studios.

The AllBright Mayfair, a second female-only club, will open its doors on Maddox Street in Mayfair in May 2019. It will be home at a brasserie, restaurant and bar, wellness floor, co-working space, and two roof terraces with views over Mayfair.

Meanwhile, the first international club, The AllBright West Hollywood, will open in Los Angeles in summer 2019.

£1,150 ($1,512) plus a £300 ($394) admin fee (or £750/$986 and £250/$329 fee for under 30s) will get you access to all three clubs, while the Bloomsbury Club is £700 ($920) plus £300 fee, and Mayfair is £900 ($1,183) plus £300 fee.

You can start an online application form here.

The Hospital Club, Covent Garden — £865 ($1,127) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

The Hospital Club is a unique private members' club targeted at the world of creatives located in the heart of Covent Garden.

The seven-story building has an award-winning TV and music studio, a gallery, restaurant and bars, a screening room, 15 hotel rooms (open to non-members) and a live performance space, The Oak Room.

The club has a reputation for showcasing emerging and established creative talent via its gallery and member spaces.

Under 27s benefit from a discounted annual membership of £475 ($619), and a joining fee of £100 ($130).

Find out more here.

The Groucho Club, Soho — £950 ($1,238) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Founded in 1985, The Groucho Club is the original arts and media members' club in the heart of Soho. The club is home to London's creative elite, with a number of celebrity members, and is renowned for its contemporary art collection.

The walls of The Groucho Club are adorned with art from over 140 acclaimed artists, including Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and David Shrigley. The club also has 20 furnished bedrooms as well as a selection of private event spaces available for both members and guests.

There is a reduced membership price of £575 ($749) for under 35s and £350 ($456) for under 30s. Members based in the country over 100 miles from London can pay £750 ($977), and overseas £650 ($847). A lifetime membership is priced at £15,000 ($19,540).   Apply here . For under 30s, country members and those overseas the joining fee is reduced to £100 ($130).

The Curtain, Shoreditch — £1,000 ($1,303) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Shoreditch newcomer The Curtain , which is also home to a hotel, promises it's "not about wealth and status."

"We don't care who your parents are," its website reads. "We want members that have something in common: namely, a creative soul."

The majority of The Curtain's members work in creative industries — film, fashion, advertising, music, art, and media. They get access to three restaurants (including one on the roof which comes complete with a pool), three bars, a 24-hour gym, dedicated co-working space, and access to events including gigs and quiz nights.

Those interested can fill out an application form online.

Morton's Club, Mayfair — £1,000 ($1,303) per year, plus £500 ($651) joining fee.

Morton's private members' club has been at the forefront of Mayfair's elite social scene for the past 40 years. The Grade II-listed building overlooks the length of London's exclusive Berkeley Square.

The first-floor restaurant, with its lofty ceilings and panoramic balcony for summer al fresco dining, is the focal point of the house. Morton's head chef, Dario Avenca, has devised a Mediterranean-inspired menu and the club claims to boast the largest wine list above any of its competitors.

Potential new members must be referred by two existing members.   Applications are to be made to membership secretary Stephen Howard.

Soho House, Soho — from £1,300 ($1,693) per year, plus £400 ($521) registration fee.

Soho House at 76 Dean Street is a Grade II-listed mid-Georgian townhouse spread over four floors. It's popular with the neighbourhood's media crowd. Among its many features is the screening room, a fully air-conditioned 43-seat cinema (pictured above) offering a varied programme of advance screenings and new releases.

Soho dwellers now have a choice of Soho House establishments to hang out in as earlier this year the original house 40 Greek Street also reopened its doors following a major renovation.

Local membership to Soho House Dean Street and Greek Street   gives you access to the spaces and facilities at both houses: bars and restaurants, the screening room, and outdoor spaces.

White City House, White City – from £1,300 ($1,693) per year, plus £400 ($521) registration fee.

White City House, one of the newest additions to the Soho House group, opened in April 2018. It is located in the former BBC London headquarters in West London. It boasts two floors of member spaces, a 17-metre rooftop pool and bar, steam room, sauna, hammam, cinema, screening room, huge gym, and 45 bedrooms.

There's a large open kitchen, with an "East meets West" menu, dim sum, Peking duck, and bao buns served, as well as healthy plant-based dishes. HouseGym, the largest Soho House gym, has four class studios, as well as TRX equipment, and Olympic lifting platforms.

The membership application process is the same for all Soho Houses — you apply   online here   with some information about yourself and two current members as proposers.

Shoreditch House, Shoreditch — from £1,300 ($1,693) per year, plus £400 ($521) registration fee.

Shoreditch House is situated on the top three floors of the old Dickensian Tea Building in East London. It draws London's "it" crowd and members can enjoy stunning views of the City from the club's rooftop pool.

The club boasts plenty of other areas for members to chill out in — or freelance from — including the sitting room, the Square bar, the Snug, Cowshed Spa, the House Kitchen, which boasts a wood-fired oven, in addition to a gym, sauna, and steam room.

The Soho House group offers two kinds of yearly memberships — "local" and "every house." The first costs £1,300, and gives you access to the facilities at one house in particular, while an every house membership grants you access to all of the clubs, and costs £1,650 ($2,149).

These rates are reduced to £700 ($912) and £925 ($1,205) respectively for under 27s, for whom the registration fee is also lower at £200 ($261).

Start your application here.

Home Grown, Marylebone — £1,500 ($1,954) per year, plus £299 ($389) joining fee.

The team behind Home House will open Home Grown , a new club for "high-growth entrepreneurs," on April 3, 2019.

Situated on Great Cumberland Place in Marylebone, the club will be made up of "a carefully selected membership of entrepreneurs and investors" who will "join a star-studded group of business rock stars to create a unique new community, designed for individuals who not only work to live, but live to work."

Home Grown aims to "combine all the luxuries of a members’ club with unrivalled networking opportunities" through events and a brasserie-style restaurant, study café, bars, business lounges, meeting rooms, pitching suites, and 35 bedrooms.

There are a number of founding membership packages available, from a full founder to a "Homecoming" membership with just 30 visits a year for £1,000 ($1,303), or a "Unicorn" who also have access to 20 bedroom nights and two half days in the pitch room each year for £4,000 ($5,211).

Those interested in a founding membership can apply online , and those accepted before the opening will have their joining fee waived.

Home House, Marylebone — £1,940 ($2,527) per year, plus £299 ($389) joining fee.

Home House is an exclusive private members' club in London's Marylebone, which "fuses 18th-century splendour with 21st-century style."

The club's facilities include a boutique health spa, a garden for al fresco dining and drinking, two restaurants, numerous bars, The Vaults decadent party rooms, elegant bedrooms and suites, as well as a full calendar of social events throughout the year.

According to the club, "the best bit is that there are no stuffy rules, in fact there really aren't any rules at all. Well, just one: 'Nudity is discouraged.' Naughtiness, on the other hand, is de rigueur."

The club offers a number of different membership packages, including an under 35 annual rate of £1,275 ($1,661).   The application process involves submitting your membership enquiry online here,   before meeting with one of the team for a tour of the house.

12 Hay Hill, Mayfair — from £1,600 ($2,084) per year, plus £750 ($977) joining fee.

12 Hay Hill   describes itself as a business-focused members' club "where business can be conducted without restrictions." It says it also provides "atmospheric rooms in which to relax and to leave the world of business behind."

The club boasts private meeting and dining rooms and 23 luxury serviced offices, in addition to the main restaurant and brasserie.

Club membership begins at £1,600 ($2,084) (for 20 visits per year), while business membership costs £3,200 ($4,168) (for 60 visits per year), and premier membership (unlimited visits per year) is £3,800 ($4,950). Alongside annual costs, there's a £750 ($977) joining fee.

Information on membership can be found online here.

Devonshire Club, The City — £2,400 ($3,126) per year

The Devonshire Club, located in the heart of the City, opened its doors in 2016.

Housed on over 60,000 sq ft in a 19th century Regency warehouse, it boasts 68 bedrooms, a 110-seat brasserie, three bars, four private event rooms, a members gym, glazed garden room, outdoor terrace, and a private courtyard garden.

The club offers members an opulent space to relax and conduct business. It attracts the likes of financiers and city professionals, as well as creative execs based in Shoreditch and Hoxton.

Many of its members come through referrals, and   every potential applicant is put forward to the membership committee.

The Conduit — £1,800 ($2,345) per year, plus £850 ($1,107) sign-up fee.

The stylish Conduit is a sustainability-focused members' club which officially opened in Mayfair in September 2018.

A home for "a diverse community of people passionate about social change," the eight-floor, 40,000 square foot club aims to bring together "social entrepreneurs, creatives, business leaders, philanthropists and civil society."

It's made up of an events floor, rooftop lounge with terrace, restaurant with terrace, speakeasy, and areas for working and dining.

The calendar of events is impressive, and has even included a residency by Massimo Bottura, the best chef in the world.

There are discounted memberships for students or those under 33, anyone living overseas, or those joining as a not-for-profit or social enterprise.

Candidates can apply online , but must prove "tangible experience in social impact/social enterprise."

67 Pall Mall, St. James's — £1,500 ($1,954) per year, plus £1,500 joining fee.

67 Pall Mall says it is   London's first private members' club for wine lovers , born from "a passion for fine wine and a frustration at the egregious mark-ups on the capital's wine lists." It says that the club's mission is to make the world's finest wines accessible to its members at sensible prices.

The club offers over 500 wines by the glass using Coravin's revolutionary wine access system, as well as an extensive list by the bottle from all corners of the world. The club's wine list is curated by 67 Pall Mall's master sommelier, Ronan Sayburn MS.

The club also offers a reserve facility, which allows members to store up to two cases of their personal wine collection in the club's cellars to enjoy by the bottle in the members' lounge as and when they please. Membership discounts apply for under 35s, under 30s, and "wine professionals."

Candidates require a proposer and seconder from within the club's existing membership.

Mark's Club, Mayfair — £2,000 ($2,605) per year, plus first year fee of £1,000 ($1,303).

Opened in 1973 as "an alternative to the St James's gentlemen’s clubs," Mark's Club is an elegant and traditional retreat for work or play situated in a Mayfair townhouse.

This is a posh place, though — the website states: "Ladies should be elegantly dressed and gentlemen are required to wear a jacket at all times," and provides a list of banned clothing, including leggings and untucked or unbuttoned shirts.

According to Country & Town House , an annual subscription to Mark's Club is £2,000 ($2,605), and there's an entrance fee for the first year of £1,000 ($1,303).

To become a member , candidates must be proposed and seconded by two existing members. Application forms should be submitted along with a letter explaining why you want to join, and letters of support from the proposer and seconder.

Ten Trinity Square, the City of London — £3,000 ($3,908) per year.

Ten Trinity Square opened its doors in London in September 2017. It is a collaboration between French wine estate Château Latour and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Designed by Bruno Moinard and set within the former headquarters of the Port of London Authority in Tower Hill, it boasts a cigar sampling lounge, library and billiards room, and a members' bar and dining room, where you can enjoy an extensive wine list.

Perhaps the biggest members' perk has to be the access to the spa at Four Seasons, where guests can enjoy an indoor swimming pool, vitality pool, sauna, hammam, steam room, and gym.

You can make membership enquiries online here.

The Arts Club, Mayfair — £2,000 ($2,605), plus £2,000 joining fee.

As its name would suggest, The Arts Club attracts people connected to or passionate about art, architecture, fashion, film, literature, music, performance, photography, science, theatre, and TV/media.

The 18th-century townhouse at 40 Dover Street in Mayfair counts Charles Dickens among its former members. The club's art collection remains at its very core, highlighting international trends, as well as maintaining a focus on British-based artists.

Under 30s benefit from a reduced annual subscription of £1,000 ($1,303), plus a joining fee of £1,000. New members are accepted on January 1 each year.

The Ned, Bank — £3,150 ($4,103), plus £1,000 ($1,303) joining fee.

Soho House and New York's Sydell Group joined forces to create The Ned which opened in London in May 2017.

Set in the former Midland Bank building, it boasts 252 bedrooms channeling 1920s and 1930s design, nine restaurants, a range of grooming services, as well as "Ned's Club," a social and fitness club where members have access to a rooftop pool, gym, spa, hammam, and late-night lounge bar.

Ned's Club Upstairs has a heated pool overlooking the London skyline and two converted domes with outdoor terraces for eating and drinking. The Roof Bar features a retractable roof and heaters, and offers views of the City and St Paul's Cathedral, with an international menu prepared on the rotisserie grill and wood oven.

Behind a 20-tonne, two-metre wide vault door is The Vault bar & lounge, an all-hours cocktail bar lined with thousands of original safety deposit boxes, ideal for a nightcap.

Process for membership is to simply apply online here.   Applicants can have up to two referrals, but it's not compulsory.

South Kensington Club, South Kensington — £3,500 ($4,559) per year, plus £1,000 ($1,303) joining fee.

South Kensington Club is a health and fitness sanctuary inspired by the spirit of adventure.

It offers a unique "Voyager Programme" headed up by polar explorer Christina Franco. The programme comprises three elements: a monthly lecture series, the opportunity to join tailor-made expeditions inspired by the lectures, and preparation and training for these adventures carried out by specialist fitness instructors at the club.

Other membership privileges include a sky-lit gym, fitness classes and training programmes, a bathhouse (with a hammam, banya, and Watsu pool), spa and beauty treatments, a Mediterranean restaurant, club sitting rooms, and a concierge service.

Membership starts at £365 ($475) per month, plus a £1,000 ($1,303) joining fee, while an under 30s rate begins at £228 ($297) per month, with a £500 ($651) joining fee. However, the club offers a rate of £3,500 ($4,559) plus a £1,000 ($1,303) joining fee to members paying upfront.

Details on membership can be found online here.

Annabel's, Mayfair — £3,250 ($4,234) per year, plus £1,250 ($1,628) joining fee.

Annabel's is truly iconic. After more than 50 years in Soho, the club reopened last year two doors down in a Grade I listed Georgian mansion house. The eccentric English "Alice in Wonderland" style decor alone makes it worth a visit to its restaurant, bars, garden terrace, private dining rooms, spa, and cigar room — think bespoke chandeliers, pink ceilings, and a seriously Instagram-worthy bathroom.

The club's 26,000 square feet are open all day and night. Stick around for long enough and you're sure to spot a celebrity.

It encourages "individuality and fabulous party dressing," and claims its members are made up of "a hand-picked alchemy of like-minded people who share a passion for the best things in life. There is, however, a rule book for members.

There's a discount for those under 35 (£1,750 ($2,280) a year) or under 27 (£1,250, or $1,628) a year, and joint memberships are available, though joining fees still apply. 

Those interested in applying should get in touch with the club to be sent an application form.

Mortimer House — £6,000 ($7,816) per year, plus £250 ($326) joining fee.

Mortimer House , a majestic six-storey art deco building in Fitzrovia, claims to have been "born of a desire to fulfil the need for synergy in our personal and professional lives."

It's a place to "create, work, and unwind in equal measure."

While the "Resident" membership, which gives members unlimited access to communal floors, meeting rooms, the gym, and events programmes any day of the week, will set you back £500 ($651) a month (£6,000 or $7,816 a year), there are a few other options, including a "Club" membership for £80 ($104) a month where you can only visit on evenings and weekends for social events, "Traveller" for £250 ($326) a month which gives you access to all floors on evenings and weekends and five days a month, or a "Home" membership, which, from £1,000 ($1,3030) a month, gives you a dedicated workspace.

Prospective members can apply through a website form.

Hurlingham Club, Fulham — undisclosed.

Money can't buy you a membership at the prestigious Hurlingham Club in Fulham — at the moment at least —   according to its website which states "the waiting list for new members is now closed, subject to annual review."

It's not hard to see the draw of joining the Hurlingham Club to those who have the money and connections. As it's outside of central London, it's surrounded by luscious green manicured lawns, offering the perfect spot for an afternoon game of petanque, bowls, or croquet.

The Hurlingham's huge grounds feature outdoor and indoor pools, squash and tennis courts, a gym, bar, and conservatory, in addition to countless rooms and terraces. It resembles a country estate.

Expect to rub shoulders with London's elite and even royalty,   Princess Charlotte was reported   to have been taking tennis lessons there.

White's, St. James — undisclosed.

White's is considered one of London's oldest and most exclusive gentleman's clubs — it doesn't even have a website. Based in St James, it is one of a handful in the city that does not allow women to enter at all,   according to The Guardian .

Prince William, Charles, and the Duke of Wellington, as well as David Cameron, have all reportedly been members at some point.

When Business Insider contacted White's to inquire about membership costs, the club declined to comment on membership at all. However,   The Telegraph   suggested in 2013 that membership cost about £850 ($1,107) a year, so it is likely to be more than that now.

Meanwhile, the   Daily Mail   suggests that new members must be vouched for by some 35 signatories.

5 Hertford Street, Mayfair — undisclosed.

5 Hertford Street considers itself so exclusive that it wouldn't reveal its membership price to Business Insider. We did, however, manage to get the above glimpse of its insides.

Described   by Vogue   as the "loveliest club in London," it is frequented by Hollywood A-listers and home to the impossibly cool Loulou's nightclub for after dinner dancing.

Membership can be obtained only through application , but the word is some billionaires have been unable to score entry, so it's best not to get your hopes up.

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The Travellers Club – why gentleman members won't let the ladies in

Where else can a chap escape "normal life" but in a near 200-year-old men-only private club?

When Anthony Layden, chairman of The Travellers Club , consulted members on whether "ladies" should be allowed to join, there was, he confessed, "a degree of mutual incomprehension" between those for and against the idea.

While women are welcome as guests throughout its posh Pall Mall home – other than in the smoking room and the cocktail bar – Layden, a former UK ambassador to Morocco and Libya, decided last year it was time to canvas opinions of members, who include foreign visitors and diplomats, on allowing ladies in.

By 60% to 40%, the gentlemen at the club – founded in 1819 "for gentlemen who had travelled out of the British Isles to a distance of at least five hundred miles from London in a direct line" – decided they like things just the way they are.

Thanks to Layden's account, obtained by the Evening Standard , we know there were strong expressions in favour of change at the club, whose patron is Prince Philip.

One enthusiast suggested the male-only policy was half a century out of date. "Do we, a club for cosmopolitan internationalists, really wish to remain on a par with the Taliban?" asked one. Another suggested that if the club continued to bar travellers because they were women, it would be "out of key" with what people "accept and take for granted in their professional and personal lives".

But the naysayers generally expressed themselves more strongly. Male congeniality would be destroyed, said one, warning that "hen parties would appear and shrill voices be heard". Another, backing what he called the "spirit and conviviality" at the club, added: "Whilst to some, this may conjure up images of the Symposium, Roman baths, clandestine cults and rugby clubs, there are a few refuges a gentleman ought to have."

The written word cannot tell how firmly in a cheek a gentleman's tongue may have been while making such comments, but another opponent of change argued: "I see the club as a bastion and retreat from the rigours of normal life and despite being a young(ish) member, I would consider women to be in the normal-life category."

Layden's recommendation, accepted by the club's general committee last month, was that the idea of letting women in should be taken no further.

While he agreed "there are, as there have always been, many distinguished lady travellers and adventurers whose presence in the club would enhance our conversations", the future should remain "steady as she goes".

He hoped those wanting change would hold back from pressing for it for the time being.

More on this story

The Garrick expels member amid tensions over club’s men-only stance

Dara Ó Briain hits out at BBC ban on men-only panel shows

Garrick could admit women after barrister U-turns on club rules

Men-only clubs are bad, but banning them would be worse

Cherie Blair backs campaign for Garrick club to admit women

The Garrick Club’s vote to keep women out is sad rather than sexist

Open 2013: Muirfield sticks stubbornly to men-only policy as row rages

Cameron joins criticism of Muirfield for men-only stance

The Open 2013: R&A admits that men-only policy needs to be addressed

From the archive, 13 August 1966: Private clubs put women in their place

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Watch CBS News

Sam's Club has an April deal for new members: Get a yearly membership for less than half price

By Fox Van Allen

Updated on: April 5, 2024 / 11:07 AM EDT / Essentials

CBS Essentials is created independently of the CBS News editorial staff. We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms.

This content is sponsored by Sam's Club.

Spring expenses can kind of sneak up on you. With the weather improving this April, you might be more likely to eat out. Spring break travel can add up. There's spring cleaning , of course -- you may need to pick up a  new robot vacuum . And if you've been itching to spend time outside this spring, you might want to pick up some new patio furniture or a grill for your outdoor space. Before you know it, your bank account is looking a little... thin.

Here's the thing, though: There's a way to save on all those big spring purchases. Warehouse chain Sam's Club offers deep discounts on all of the above -- yes, travel and eating out included. Altogether, you can save  thousands of dollars a year.

If you're not a Sam's Club member, we have even better news: The warehouse giant is discounting new memberships in April 2024, all the way down to $20 for a yearly Club-level membership. That's a savings of 60% off the usual $50 yearly membership fee. (Note that you'll need to be a new Sam's Club member, and you'll need to agree to auto-renew.)

We also found a deal on Sam's Club Plus memberships , which offers 2% cash back on purchases, plus other sweet perks. Sam's Club Plus memberships are $40 off.

This is a limited-time offer. So tap the button below to sign up for Sam's Club now at the discounted $20 rate, or read on to learn more about why Sam's Club is one of our favorite places to shop.

Top 10 reasons why we like Sam's Club

There are a ton of benefits to a Sam's Club membership -- so many that even long-time Sam's Club customers may not know about them all. Here are our favorite reasons to sign up for Sam's Club. 

• Sam's Club offers bulk prices on grocery essentials. No one likes paying full price for toilet paper, garbage bags, laundry detergent and other home essentials. No one likes running out of those essentials, either. Sam's Club offers excellent prices on items from top brands that your family uses most, with bulk sizing that reduces the need for constant grocery store trips. Tip: Check out the Sam's Club Member's Mark brand for even more savings.)
• Sam's Club offers the most affordable warehouse membership.  While there are different benefits to every warehouse store, Sam's Club offers the lowest yearly membership fee. You won't be able to beat this $20-per-year offer at another major warehouse chain.
• Sam's Club members get access to gas discounts --  gas at prices lower than competing nearby stations. You can find your local Sam's Club Fuel Center  using the club finder tool on the Sam's Club website .
• Sam's Club offers a yearly rebate on purchases (with a Sam's Club Plus membership). If you're planning on doing a lot of shopping at Sam's Club, you can save even more with a Sam's Club Plus membership. It's more expensive (currently discounted to $70 per year for your first year), but you'll earn a 2% rebate on your Sam's Club purchases. As warehouse store aficionados, we can tell you that the rebate offer pays off, and fast.
• Sam's Club can save you money on a new car or truck.  The  Sam's Club Auto Buying Program  makes it easy to sell your used car and get a great price on a new one. Plus, you can take advantage of members-only incentives -- right now, you can save an additional $500 to $4,500 on select Mercedes-Benz models.
• Sam's Club offers everyday deals on home services and repairs.  You'll get a 10% discount on home improvement services -- great if you're planning a remodel in 2024. You can also get discounts on water delivery, home warranties, pest control,  home security plans  and more.
• Sam's Club has discounts on travel, including vacation packages, flights, car rentals and more.  Don't head to  Disney World  or a cruise this year without checking out  Sam's Club's travel and entertainment deals . Sam's Club members can get preferred pricing on hotel rooms and rental cars, plus discounts on theme parks, zoos, museums and show tickets. We've also seen discounts on airline gift cards at Sam's Club, so you can save no matter where you travel.
• Sam's Club can save you money on health care.  The Sam's Club pharmacy offers members-only discounts on prescriptions, with prices starting at just $4 for generics. Select prescriptions are even free for Sam's Club Plus members. Sam's Club also offers hearing and eye exams, with designer  glasses  starting at $59.
• Sam's Club is a great place to pick up lunch for the family. We love the in-store Sam's Club Cafe, which offers tasty treats to hungry shoppers at eye-popping prices. It's hard to beat the $1.38 Sam's Club hot dog and soda combo. Pizza, salad and brownie sundaes are available too. Or, for a more substantial meal, take home an under-$5, fully cooked Sam's Club rotisserie chicken -- it makes an excellent dinner centerpiece.
• Unlike other warehouse stores, you don't have to wait in a long checkout line. One of our favorite Sam's Club perks is Scan & Go, which lets you pay for your shopping trip right from your phone. When you add items to your shopping cart, you can scan their barcodes yourself with the Sam's Club app. You pay through the app when you're done, and simply show your digital receipt on the way out.

Convinced? Tap the button below to sign up for a year of Sam's Club at the discounted rate of $20. (See site for more details.)

Why you should upgrade to Sam's Club Plus

There are a lot of perks to a Sam's Club membership, but there are even more when you upgrade to Sam's Club Plus. You'll get free shipping for online orders, free curbside pickup, 2% back on qualifying purchases (up to $500 back per year), free select generic prescriptions and 20% off eyeglasses. Sam's Club Plus members can also shop sales before other Sam's Club members. Terms apply. (See the Sam's Club site for more details.)

The warehouse retailer also has a deal for customers who want to become Sam's Club Plus members. Right now, you can get $40 off a Sam's Club Plus membership. That brings the annual price down to $70.

Again, note that you'll need to be a new member and agree to auto-renew to score this deal.

Save money at other stores: Best Sam's Club gift card deals

Here's a Sam's Club secret you might not know: Your membership can save you money while shopping at other stores, too.

If you plan on eating out this spring, you can save a lot of money at Sam's Club by buying gift cards for your favorite chains. You can get  $60 in Wendy's gift cards for $48 ,  $50 in California Pizza Kitchen e-gift cards for $40  and a  $50 Krispy Kreme e-gift card for $37.50 . 

Sam's Club is a great place to get discount movie tickets to an  AMC Movie Theatres  or  Regal Cinemas  theater near you. And there are gift card deals for gamers, too -- get  $100 in Nintendo eShop gift cards for $90 . (Some great Nintendo games are coming this spring .)

There are so many gift card deals at Sam's Club that we don't have the space to list them all here. Tap the button below to see all of Sam's Club's discount gift card offerings and start saving no matter where you shop or eat.

Managing editor Fox Van Allen is an expert in tech, laptops and computers, toys and video games for CBS Essentials. When he's not writing about (or playing) the Nintendo Switch and PS5, Fox's hobbies include reality TV podcasting, designing board games and hanging out in his favorite warehouse stores.

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10 travel memberships that are worth the money

November 11, 2021 // By Leila Najafi

By Leila Najafi November 11, 2021

We live in a subscription-obsessed world and there’s a subscription for everything you can imagine, from razors to clothing and even hot sauces. Travel memberships are on the rise, providing new ways to ease some of the stress that comes with traveling these days and help make the journey more seamless.

Whether you’re willing to pay a premium for exclusive travel experiences that provide a little more privacy or you're more budget-conscious and want to find the best travel deals, there’s a membership for every type of traveler. Here are 10 travel memberships that are worth considering.

Wheels Up offers private jet charter memberships so travelers can access a fleet of aircrafts, including a King Air 350i, an 8-passenger Citation Excel/XLS, and one of the fastest aircrafts, the Citation X. Wheels Up uses a dynamic pricing model offering competitive rates, so members can book flights on-demand with the flexibility to pay as they go.

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Additional m embership benefits include invites to signature events, President’s Circle status with Hertz, a complimentary trial of Inspirato Club subscription for 12 months (Core members only), certain perks at select Waldorf Astoria hotels across North America, a partnership with Delta SkyMiles, dedicated partnership rates with Porsche and more.

Membership cost: Three membership options are available – Connect, Core and Business. The Connect membership requires a one-time initiation fee of $2,995 and annual dues of $2,495 which begin on year two. The Core membership has an initiation fee of $17,500 and annual dues of $8,500 which begin on year two. The Business membership requires an initiation fee of $29,500 and $14,500 for subsequent years and includes up to six lead passengers.

Getting through airport security lines can be a drag, especially during holiday weekends and a pandemic that has increased the demand for more seclusion when traveling. PS (formerly known as Private Suite) is designed for first and business class travelers who are seeking privacy and convenience, allowing them to bypass LAX altogether.

Travelers check into a private terminal where they can relax in a fully-stocked luxury private suite that includes complimentary in-suite meals catered by h.wood Group , as well as additional services upon request such as in-suite massages, manicures and detailing services for personal cars. PS also provides a designated on-site TSA and Customs agent for expedited screening.

Upon boarding, travelers are transported across the tarmac directly to their aircraft in a BMW 7 Series sedan. Earlier this year, the Salon at PS launched, which features a new full-service lounge at the terminal for travelers who want the same benefits of PS but seek a more social experience.

Membership cost: Annual membership costs $4,500, which gives members access to a preferred rate of $3,250 for a one-way Suite experience for up to four travelers. The Salon is available to members and non-members for $695 per use per person.

Inspirato is a subscription-based luxury travel service that gives members exclusive access to over 150,000 luxury vacation homes and resorts around the world that are staffed by Inspirato. There are two membership types: Inspirato Club and Inspirato Pass. The former gives you access to the luxury residences and hotels around the world, on-site concierge and daily housekeeping with additional benefits such as late check-in and check-out, room upgrades, spa credits and more. However, members also pay nightly room rates.

With the Inspirato Pass, you automatically get the benefits of Inspirato Club plus nightly rates are already factored into the price of membership, so you can book as many vacations as possible in one month with one active reservation at a time. There is also no long-term commitment, so you can cancel the membership at any time.

Membership cost: Inspirato Club membership is $600/month plus a $600 enrollment fee and you pay nightly rates as you go. Inspirato Pass is a flat rate of $2,500/month which includes all hotel stays.

Scott’s Cheap Flights

A membership to Scott’s Cheap Flights includes flight deals and “Mistake Fares” accidentally published by airlines sent straight to your inbox. The team scours the internet for the lowest published airfare rates to popular destinations and shares them with members.

Subscribers can also track deals from a specific airport close to home or destinations of interest. A membership to Scott’s Cheap Flights is best for travelers who have flexibility on the destination and dates and are willing to fly based on low airfare rates. Flight deals don’t last long so you’ll have to act fast.

Membership cost: There are three membership tiers including Limited which is free, Premium costs $49/year and Elite $199/year.

PRIOR was started by a former travel editor who saw a gap in the market for travelers wanting a more immersive experience during their vacation. A team of experienced travel editors and local tastemakers on the ground design itineraries for curious travelers.

A PRIOR WORLD membership includes access to curated destination guides, unique local experiences in cities around the world, pre-planned group trips led by experts and for an additional fee, the team can create a custom itinerary based on your interests.

If you're a frequent traveler, PRIOR BESPOKE might be the membership better suited for you. For a flat fee per year, members get unlimited trip planning by their expert team of travel editors and membership managers.

Membership cost: PRIOR WORLD membership costs $249 per annum. PRIOR BESPOKE is $5,000 per annum.

Priority Pass

Airport terminals may have come a long way in the last decade, but killing time for a three-hour layover in a crowded airport isn’t exactly on anyone’s list of things to do, especially on vacation. Trade the busy terminals for private lounge access with Priority Pass and enjoy guaranteed Wi-Fi and snacks.

Members of Priority Pass receive access to over 1,300 airport lounges globally, including several airline lounges such as Virgin Atlantic, Air France and Turkish Airlines. Several credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, American Express Platinum and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express offer free Priority Pass memberships as part of their member benefits.

Membership cost: Choose from three membership tiers which start at $99/year for the Standard membership plus $32 per visit and go up to $429/year for the Prestige membership which includes unlimited lounge visits.

TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry are services that allow travelers to expedite the security screening process upon departure and arrival. With CLEAR Plus, enrolled members get escorted to the front of the security line once they’ve been verified using facial recognition or fingerprint scans, so they no longer have to verify identification at security. However, for expedited clearance through security screenings, TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry are still required.

CLEAR uses biometric identifiers to create a unique ID assigned to each member that is used for verification at stations across airports, stadiums and other major venues nationwide.

Membership cost: A CLEAR Plus membership is $179 per year. American Express Platinum Card Members receive a $179 statement credit and United MileagePlus members receive a discounted membership rate.

Well Traveled

Well Traveled is a members-only social and booking platform that allows members to connect with friends to find and share travel recommendations. The community-driven platform is intended to make travel planning easier by allowing you to follow people in your network that you trust, in addition to other like-minded travelers who share similar budgets and travel preferences.

Members can also take advantage of the personalized booking service that includes perks like exclusive rates, room upgrades, food & beverage credits, complimentary breakfast and more. Currently, membership is invite-only but you can also apply to be considered.

Membership cost: $150 per year.

Travel + Leisure Club

Travel + Leisure Club is a new travel subscription service offered by Travel + Leisure Group. Members can pay a monthly fee for access to preferred pricing on curated itineraries and an average of 25% savings on hotels, resorts, car rentals and activities that are listed on Travel + Leisure GO, the online travel booking site. Plus, members get a subscription to the glossy print magazine.

Members also get access to a personal concierge that can assist with travel planning, scoring tickets to sold-out events, making dinner reservations and more.

Membership cost: Travel + Leisure Club is currently offering an introductory rate of $9.95/month.

Exclusive Resorts

Designed for families who value privacy, Exclusive Resorts is a small community of members (only 150 new members accepted each year) that get access to over 350 luxury residences around the world including the Amalfi Coast, Barcelona, Deer Valley, Kaua’i, Los Cabos, St. Barts and more.

Guests enjoy a more personalized experience with a dedicated on-site team who can assist with pre-trip planning details such as stocking the fridge with your favorite snacks, booking a massage or private chef, and housekeeping services.

Membership cost: There is a one-time, non-refundable initiation fee of $150,000 for a 10-year membership. Annual dues are $1,395/night and members travel 15-30 nights per year.

About Leila Najafi

Leila Najafi is a luxury travel writer based in LA who is a member of more subscription services than she'd like to admit.

Read more about Leila Najafi here.

Connect with Leila via: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok

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The perks offered to Costco, BJ's Wholesale and Sam's Club members

Costco, bj's wholesale and sam's club all have millions of members.

Costco offers members access to Ozempic, Wegovy

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Warehouse clubs like Costco, BJ’s Wholesale and Sam’s Club have become extremely popular over the years.

"This is really clubs’ time, right?" BJ’s Wholesale CEO Bob Eddy said recently. "You think about the shopping environment that’s out there where value is paramount, there’s no better value than the club business."

Costco, BJ’s Wholesale and Sam’s Club all grant entry into their warehouse locations with their memberships. Here are the perks that come with membership.

Customers wait in line to order at a food court outside a Costco Wholesale Corp. store on June 14, 2022, in Hawthorne, California. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via / Getty Images)

Not only does having a Costco Gold Star or Executive card provide access to the company’s food court and famous $1.50 hot dog-soda combo, it also makes its roughly 4,000-item in-store selection and its various services available to members.

Examples of services Costco members can obtain through their memberships include bottled water delivery, auto maintenance discounts and optical centers. Costco also has pharmacy services.

In September, it partnered with a startup to provide "special discount pricing" for various medical care through an online health care marketplace.

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The Executive membership grants "additional benefits and greater savings" on Costco Services and certain travel-related offerings, Costco’s customer service site explained. It also makes available a 2% annual reward that can amount to up to $1,000 a year.

Both memberships also allow Costco cardholders to fill up at the company’s gas stations.

BJ’s Wholesale

A BJ's Wholesale Club on May 23, 2023, in Falls Church, Virginia. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

BJ’s Wholesale, based in Massachusetts, has said its customers can "save up to 25% off grocery store prices " at its locations. 

It also touts itself as "the only club that accepts all manufacturers’ coupons."

Both of its membership options also have free curbside pickup. Cardholders can also have items delivered to their home "within as little as 2 hours" if they live in certain ZIP codes and pay $14.99, according to the BJ’s Wholesale website.  

BJ’s Wholesale said its Club+ Card membership "offers all the rights and privileges of The Club Card Membership, plus the ability to earn 2% back in rewards on eligible purchases and receive an instant discount of 5¢ off each gallon of fuel purchased at BJ’s Gas" when scanned.

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Annual rewards can reach up to $500 for Club+ Card holders. 

Customers wearing face masks wait in line to enter a Sam's Club store on July 16, 2020, in Miramar, Florida. (Johnny Louis/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Walmart-owned Sam’s Club said on its website its memberships give access to "low member’s only prices with new Instant Savings offers throughout the year." That includes cheap gas.

Club and Plus members can both utilize the retailer’s same-day and curbside pickup services. However, those with base memberships have to pay fees for both, costing $12 and $4, respectively, while the more expensive Plus provides free curbside and $8 for same-day delivery on orders, the retailer said.

Sam’s Club memberships come with a "Scan and Go" feature that enables customers to "scan the barcode of each item" while shopping and pay through the retailer’s app instead of a register. It can be used for Sam’s Club cafes too.

WALMART, SAM'S CLUB INTEGRATING GENERATIVE AI INTO SHOPPING AND STORE EXPERIENCES

There is an array of services through Sam’s Club for travel, health, cars, photos and other categories.

With Plus, members can also score "extra optical and pharmacy discounts," according to its website. The retailer also makes special auto-related perks like tire installation discounts available to them.

Sam’s Club similarly has a rewards program for its higher-level membership. Members can accumulate up to $500 worth of Sam’s Cash per year from purchases eligible for 2% back.

How do their membership fees stack up?

Of the three retailers, Sam’s Club sells its base membership for the least expensive annual price, $50. 

Costco currently has the annual cost of its Gold Star membership set at $60. Meanwhile, BJ’s Wholesale asks $55 per year for its Club Card option.

BJ's and Sam’s Club both charge $110 for their respective higher-level memberships, the Club+ Card and Plus. For Costco, the executive membership is $120 on an annual basis.

Each of the retailers has said millions of people have memberships to their locations. Costco, for example, reported having a total of 132 million cardholders at the end of the second quarter, while BJ's Wholesale said its member count includes over 7 million.

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Why the Amex Platinum Is the Only Card I’ll Use To Book Flights

Carissa Rawson

Senior Content Contributor

249 Published Articles

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Stella Shon

News Managing Editor

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The Amex Platinum Card Earns Me the Most Points

The amex platinum card has excellent travel insurance, amex’s global lounge collection is industry-leading, amex points are my favorite flexible currency, final thoughts.

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

Although I’m not technically a digital nomad, I fly enough to qualify as one.

With trips taking me on roughly 100 flights per year, I’ve done a lot of research when it comes to booking airfare.

Though I have plenty of credit cards to spare, The Platinum Card ® from American Express always finds its way to the front when it comes time to pay — here’s why.

There are plenty of credit cards that earn bonus points on travel , and especially airfare. However, the Amex Platinum card personally beats out others, despite its $695 annual fee ( rates & fees ).

This is because it earns 5x American Express Membership Rewards points per $1 spent (up to $500,000 per year) on flights booked directly with the airline or via AmexTravel.com .

The Platinum Card ® from American Express

The Amex Platinum reigns supreme for luxury travel, offering the best airport lounge access plus generous statement credits, and complimentary elite status.

When it comes to cards that offer top-notch benefits, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better card out there than The Platinum Card ® from American Express.

Make no mistake — the Amex Platinum card  is a premium card with a premium price tag. With amazing benefits like best-in-class airport lounge access , hotel elite status, and tremendous value in annual statement credits, it can easily prove to be one of the most lucrative cards in your wallet year after year.

• The best airport lounge access out of any card (by far) — enjoy access to over 1,400 worldwide lounges, including the luxurious Amex Centurion Lounges, Priority Pass lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, and many more!
• 5x points per dollar spent on flights purchased directly with the airline or with AmexTravel.com (up to $500,000 per year)
• 5x points per dollar spent on prepaid hotels booked with AmexTravel.com
• Annual and monthly statement credits upon enrollment ( airline credit, Uber Cash credit, Saks Fifth Avenue credit, streaming credit, prepaid hotel credit on eligible stays, Walmart+ credit, CLEAR credit, and Equinox credit )
• TSA PreCheck or Global Entry credit
• Access to American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts
• Access to Amex International Airline Program
• No foreign transaction fees ( rates and fees )
• $695 annual fee ( rates and fees )
• Airline credit does not cover airfare (only incidentals like checked bags)
• Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards ® Points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Apply and select your preferred metal Card design: classic Platinum Card ® , Platinum x Kehinde Wiley, or Platinum x Julie Mehretu.
• Earn 5X Membership Rewards ® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and earn 5X Membership Rewards ® Points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel.
• $200 Hotel Credit: Get up to $200 back in statement credits each year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts ® or The Hotel Collection bookings with American Express Travel when you pay with your Platinum Card ® . The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay.
• $240 Digital Entertainment Credit: Get up to $20 back in statement credits each month on eligible purchases made with your Platinum Card ® on one or more of the following: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and The Wall Street Journal. Enrollment required.
• $155 Walmart+ Credit: Cover the cost of a $12.95 monthly Walmart+ membership (subject to auto-renewal) with a statement credit after you pay for Walmart+ each month with your Platinum Card ® . Cost includes $12.95 plus applicable local sales tax. Plus Up Benefits are excluded.
• $200 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to your Platinum Card ® .
• $200 Uber Cash: Enjoy Uber VIP status and up to $200 in Uber savings on rides or eats orders in the US annually. Uber Cash and Uber VIP status is available to Basic Card Member only. Terms Apply.
• $300 Equinox Credit: Get up to $300 back in statement credits per calendar year on an Equinox membership, or an Equinox club membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you pay with your Platinum Card ® . Enrollment required. Visit https://platinum.equinox.com/ to enroll.
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If you travel often, you know that booking with a third party , such as Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, or even an issuer’s travel portal, can save you some money. But it can also lead to huge amounts of headache s if your flight needs to be changed or canceled or if there are crazy delays and you need to be rerouted.

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Compare the Amex Platinum card’s earning rates to other premium travel rewards cards :

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In order to earn these elevated rewards, you’ll need to book your flights with either issuer’s travel portal, which means you’ll be using a third party. That opens you up to issues in the event your travel plans change, which mine often do.

While the Amex Platinum card does have a limit on your 5x earnings up to $500,000 annually, I’ve never even come close to hitting the cap. This means that I’m always able to book directly with the airline while still earning the most rewards.

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest proponent of travel insurance . I know that it’ll protect you if you get injured, lose your bags, or have travel delays, but purchasing a policy goes against my “spend as little as possible” ethos when it comes to travel.

That’s another reason why I love the Amex Platinum card and use it for my flights. As a premium travel card, it offers complimentary travel insurance . For it to kick in, I need to pay for my travel with my card and it will apply in eligible scenarios.

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• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
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• Baggage insurance plan
• Premium Global Assist Hotline (emergency medical evacuation and emergency medical transport)

There are two things that really stand out when it comes to the Amex Platinum card’s travel insurance: emergency medical evacuation and emergency medical transport as part of the Premium Global Assist Hotline. Neither of these has a cap, which isn’t something you’ll find often, even when purchasing a policy.

There is only one exception where I’ll use a card other than the Amex Platinum card to pay for my flights, and that’s when I’ve booked an award flight.

This is because Amex has limitations on its baggage insurance plan for award flights, whereas competitors, such as the travel insurance on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card , do not. In this case, the Amex Platinum card won’t cover lost luggage unless you’ve paid the ticket in cash or you’ve used Amex Membership points for your flight. Other award flights outside of this don’t count :

“Other loyalty programs (i.e. non-American Express) do not qualify on purchases redeemed in part or full or pre-arranged travel cost,” according to the terms of baggage insurance plan on the Amex Platinum card. “An example would be common carrier frequent flyer miles point redemption.”

I’m not a snob about a lot of things, but airport lounge access is certainly one of them. I know that as more credit cards offer lounge access, they can be crowded.

That’s one reason I value the Global Lounge Collection offered by Amex’s high-end cards.

This collection includes a Priority Pass Select membership (upon enrollment), Centurion Lounges, Escape — The Centurion Studio lounges, Plaza Premium lounges, Lufthansa lounges (when flying Lufthansa), Delta SkyClubs (when flying Delta), and more.

That’s far more than you’ll get with other credit cards and lessens the chance that you’ll find yourself in a standing-room-only situation.

This is probably not the most popular opinion, but I think Amex Membership Rewards beat out Chase Ultimate Rewards , Capital One Miles , Citi ThankYou points , and Bilt Rewards .

While each currency has their own strengths and weaknesses, Amex points fit my travel style better than the others. Sure, I love that Chase has World of Hyatt (and it’s where I use my points most often) and that Citi transfer to Choice at double Amex’s rate, but Amex has more usable transfer partners .

I’ll be even more unpopular and say that I’ll often transfer Amex points over to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio, especially when they’re offering a transfer bonus . This isn’t usually a good idea, but I spend my Hilton points at high-end resorts such as the Conrad Maldives and the Conrad Bora Bora , where I can easily net 5-10 cents in value per point. That makes it worth it for me.

Other transfer partners that I frequently use include:

• ANA MileageClub : For low-cost business class flights to Europe
• Avianca LifeMiles : For Lufthansa first class
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club : For first and business class redemptions on ANA
• Qantas Frequent Flyer : For cheap Air Tahiti Nui flights to French Polynesia

Beyond transfer partners and the Amex Platinum card, I also find Amex points easier to earn . This is due to a variety of reasons, including their robust lineup of Amex point-earning cards , Amex Offers (upon enrollment), and their Rakuten partnership.

I’m not going to throw out all my other credit cards in favor of the Amex Platinum card — I love points and miles too much ever to let that happen. But there’s certainly a strong case for it sticking around in my wallet.

Sure, it offers lots of statement credits (enrollment required for some benefits) and other perks. But I’ll keep the Amex Platinum card to book my airfare. And it’ll stay that way until someone else can match the high earnings and travel insurance offerings, which I don’t anticipate happening anytime soon.

For the car rental loss and damage insurance benefit of the Amex Platinum card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company. Car Rental Loss or Damage Coverage is offered through American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

For the trip cancellation and interruption insurance benefit of the Amex Platinum card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the trip delay insurance benefit of the Amex Platinum card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the baggage insurance plan benefit of the Amex Platinum card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the premium global assist hotline benefit of the Amex Platinum card, you can rely on Global Assist Hotline 24 hours a day / 7 days a week for medical, legal, financial or other select emergency coordination and assistance services while traveling more than 100 miles away from your home. Plus, we may provide emergency medical transportation assistance and related services. Third-party service costs may be your responsibility. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. If approved and coordinated by premium global assist hotline, emergency medical transportation assistance may be provided at no cost. In any other circumstance, Card Members may be responsible for the costs charged by third-party service providers.

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About Carissa Rawson

Carissa served in the U.S. Air Force where she developed her love for travel and new cultures. She started her own blog and eventually joined The Points Guy. Since then, she’s contributed to Business Insider, Forbes, and more.

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'I’m not being blackmailed': Travelers ask airlines to be more upfront about ticket costs

When Patricia Cregan and her sister flew to Walt Disney World Resort from their homes in England in January, they were annoyed to find out they had to pay extra to choose seats on their flights.

“If I wanted to book my seats, they were 80 pounds (about $100) per person outbound and 72 pounds (about $90) per person inbound,” Cregan told USA TODAY. “I refused. I’m not being blackmailed.” 

Cregan said she had booked the trip as a package holiday through Disney and wasn’t informed of the extra charges for seat selection on British Airways until after she had already paid.

“I phoned up to book this. At no point did anybody say – which was my argument with the guy from British Airways – at no point in the initial process or throughout the whole process did I know you had to pay to book,” she said.

Cruising Altitude: Airlines make bank from bag fees even if you hate them

Cregan is hardly alone. For travelers shopping for airline tickets by price, it can be almost impossible to know the true cost to fly until nearly the end of the transaction.

“In advertisements airlines are only required to present the fare plus any taxes and mandatory fees. Airlines are also required on their website to have a page that’s dedicated to listing all of their fees, but airlines are not required to display ancillary fees such as carry-on bag fees, checked bag fees, or change and cancellation fees whenever they present a ticket for sale,” Andrew Appelbaum, counsel at FlyersRights.org told USA TODAY. 

Appelbaum said that travelers who book airline tickets through a third party, as Cregan did, can have an even harder time learning the true cost of their flights.

“When you look at these third-party sites, you might see some basic information such as no changes allowed, or no seat selection, or seat selection for a fee, but you won’t see the actual cost of the ancillary service,” he said.

Monica Layton, a screenwriter and actor from Louisiana, said she had a similar experience traveling to Europe as Cregan did on her Orlando trip.

“According to Travelocity (my ticket) included a seat choice, a personal item, carry-on and one checked bag,” Layton told USA TODAY. “I didn’t have any trouble selecting my seat with United, all the United flights, but then, when I got to the part of Lufthansa and Brussels, they didn’t allow me to do it.” 

Expedia, which owns Travelocity, explained in a statement that because United Airlines partners with Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines, tickets sold by United to some destinations in Europe may be operated by those other carriers, and when that happens, the operating airline’s ticket policies apply.

“When booking a flight on Expedia, the app will display fees and restrictions provided by the airline,” the statement said. “On codeshare flights, we are only able to display the fees and restrictions that the marketing carrier chooses to provide, which may not include separate fees collected by the operating carrier.”

The intricacies can be frustrating to travelers.

“It makes traveling very unpleasant when you don’t get a seat because if you don’t pay extra to get it, they usually give you a middle seat,” Layton said. “Why add this inconvenience? It’s all about money.” 

The Department of Transportation proposed a rule that would require airlines to be more upfront, both on their own platforms and on third-party travel sites, about extra fees that could be associated with a given ticket. That rule is expected to be finalized by the end of this month.

But unless that rule is enacted, Appelbaum said travelers will continue being slightly in the dark about the actual cost of airline tickets.

“Currently, it’s very hard to comparison shop. Unfortunately, it will take consumers more time to find the best ticket for them, and the airlines tout market competition. The way things are currently, it’s really hard for consumers to see the results of that competition. It’s hard for consumers to see the best ticket for them,” he said.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]

The Comprehensive Guide to Moscow Nightlife

• Posted on April 14, 2018 July 26, 2018
• by Kings of Russia
• 8 minute read

Moscow’s nightlife scene is thriving, and arguably one of the best the world has to offer – top-notch Russian women, coupled with a never-ending list of venues, Moscow has a little bit of something for everyone’s taste. Moscow nightlife is not for the faint of heart – and if you’re coming, you better be ready to go Friday and Saturday night into the early morning.

This comprehensive guide to Moscow nightlife will run you through the nuts and bolts of all you need to know about Moscow’s nightclubs and give you a solid blueprint to operate with during your time in Moscow.

What you need to know before hitting Moscow nightclubs

Prices in moscow nightlife.

Before you head out and start gaming all the sexy Moscow girls , we have to talk money first. Bring plenty because in Moscow you can never bring a big enough bankroll. Remember, you’re the man so making a fuzz of not paying a drink here or there will not go down well.

Luckily most Moscow clubs don’t do cover fees. Some electro clubs will charge 15-20$, depending on their lineup. There’s the odd club with a minimum spend of 20-30$, which you’ll drop on drinks easily. By and large, you can scope out the venues for free, which is a big plus.

Bottle service is a great deal in Moscow. At top-tier clubs, it starts at 1,000$. That’ll go a long way with premium vodka at 250$, especially if you have three or four guys chipping in. Not to mention that it’s a massive status boost for getting girls, especially at high-end clubs.

Without bottle service, you should estimate a budget of 100-150$ per night. That is if you drink a lot and hit the top clubs with the hottest girls. Scale down for less alcohol and more basic places.

Dress code & Face control

Door policy in Moscow is called “face control” and it’s always the guy behind the two gorillas that gives the green light if you’re in or out.

In Moscow nightlife there’s only one rule when it comes to dress codes:

You can never be underdressed.

People dress A LOT sharper than, say, in the US and that goes for both sexes. For high-end clubs, you definitely want to roll with a sharp blazer and a pocket square, not to mention dress shoes in tip-top condition. Those are the minimum requirements to level the playing field vis a vis with other sharply dressed guys that have a lot more money than you do. Unless you plan to hit explicit electro or underground clubs, which have their own dress code, you are always on the money with that style.

Getting in a Moscow club isn’t as hard as it seems: dress sharp, speak English at the door and look like you’re in the mood to spend all that money that you supposedly have (even if you don’t). That will open almost any door in Moscow’s nightlife for you.

Types of Moscow Nightclubs

In Moscow there are four types of clubs with the accompanying female clientele:

High-end clubs:

These are often crossovers between restaurants and clubs with lots of tables and very little space to dance. Heavy accent on bottle service most of the time but you can work the room from the bar as well. The hottest and most expensive girls in Moscow go there. Bring deep pockets and lots of self-confidence and you have a shot at swooping them.

Regular Mid-level clubs:

They probably resemble more what you’re used to in a nightclub: big dancefloors, stages and more space to roam around. Bottle service will make you stand out more but you can also do well without. You can find all types of girls but most will be in the 6-8 range. Your targets should always be the girls drinking and ideally in pairs. It’s impossible not to swoop if your game is at least half-decent.

Basic clubs/dive bars:

Usually spots with very cheap booze and lax face control. If you’re dressed too sharp and speak no Russian, you might attract the wrong type of attention so be vigilant. If you know the local scene you can swoop 6s and 7s almost at will. Usually students and girls from the suburbs.

Electro/underground clubs:

Home of the hipsters and creatives. Parties there don’t mean meeting girls and getting drunk but doing pills and spacing out to the music. Lots of attractive hipster girls if that is your niche. That is its own scene with a different dress code as well.

What time to go out in Moscow

Moscow nightlife starts late. Don’t show up at bars and preparty spots before 11pm because you’ll feel fairly alone. Peak time is between 1am and 3am. That is also the time of Moscow nightlife’s biggest nuisance: concerts by artists you won’t know and who only distract your girls from drinking and being gamed. From 4am to 6am the regular clubs are emptying out but plenty of people, women included, still hit up one of the many afterparty clubs. Those last till well past 10am.

As far as days go: Fridays and Saturdays are peak days. Thursday is an OK day, all other days are fairly weak and you have to know the right venues.

The Ultimate Moscow Nightclub List

Short disclaimer: I didn’t add basic and electro clubs since you’re coming for the girls, not for the music. This list will give you more options than you’ll be able to handle on a weekend.

Preparty – start here at 11PM

Classic restaurant club with lots of tables and a smallish bar and dancefloor. Come here between 11pm and 12am when the concert is over and they start with the actual party. Even early in the night tons of sexy women here, who lean slightly older (25 and up).

The second floor of the Ugolek restaurant is an extra bar with dim lights and house music tunes. Very small and cozy with a slight hipster vibe but generally draws plenty of attractive women too. A bit slower vibe than Valenok.

Very cool, spread-out venue that has a modern library theme. Not always full with people but when it is, it’s brimming with top-tier women. Slow vibe here and better for grabbing contacts and moving on.

High-end: err on the side of being too early rather than too late because of face control.

Secret Room

Probably the top venue at the moment in Moscow . Very small but wildly popular club, which is crammed with tables but always packed. They do parties on Thursdays and Sundays as well. This club has a hip-hop/high-end theme, meaning most girls are gold diggers, IG models, and tattooed hip hop chicks. Very unfavorable logistics because there is almost no room no move inside the club but the party vibe makes it worth it. Strict face control.

Close to Secret Room and with a much more favorable and spacious three-part layout. This place attracts very hot women but also lots of ball busters and fakes that will leave you blue-balled. Come early because after 4am it starts getting empty fast. Electronic music.

A slightly kitsch restaurant club that plays Russian pop and is full of gold diggers, semi-pros, and men from the Caucasus republics. Thursday is the strongest night but that dynamic might be changing since Secret Room opened its doors. You can swoop here but it will be a struggle.

Mid-level: your sweet spot in terms of ease and attractiveness of girls for an average budget.

Started going downwards in 2018 due to lax face control and this might get even worse with the World Cup. In terms of layout one of the best Moscow nightclubs because it’s very big and bottle service gives you a good edge here. Still attracts lots of cute girls with loose morals but plenty of provincial girls (and guys) as well. Swooping is fairly easy here.

I haven’t been at this place in over a year, ever since it started becoming ground zero for drunken teenagers. Similar clientele to Icon but less chic, younger and drunker. Decent mainstream music that attracts plenty of tourists. Girls are easy here as well.

Sort of a Coyote Ugly (the real one in Moscow sucks) with party music and lots of drunken people licking each others’ faces. Very entertaining with the right amount of alcohol and very easy to pull in there. Don’t think about staying sober in here, you’ll hate it.

Artel Bessonitsa/Shakti Terrace

Electronic music club that is sort of a high-end place with an underground clientele and located between the teenager clubs Icon and Gipsy. Very good music but a bit all over the place with their vibe and their branding. You can swoop almost any type of girl here from high-heeled beauty to coked-up hipsters, provided they’re not too sober.

Afterparty: if by 5AM  you haven’t pulled, it’s time to move here.

Best afterparty spot in terms of trying to get girls. Pretty much no one is sober in there and savage gorilla game goes a long way. Lots of very hot and slutty-looking girls but it can be hard to tell apart who is looking for dick and who is just on drugs but not interested. If by 9-10am you haven’t pulled, it is probably better to surrender.

The hipster alternative for afterparties, where even more drugs are in play. Plenty of attractive girls there but you have to know how to work this type of club. A nicer atmosphere and better music but if you’re desperate to pull, you’ll probably go to Miks.

Weekday jokers: if you’re on the hunt for some sexy Russian girls during the week, here are two tips to make your life easier.

Chesterfield

Ladies night on Wednesdays means this place gets pretty packed with smashed teenagers and 6s and 7s. Don’t pull out the three-piece suit in here because it’s a “simpler” crowd. Definitely your best shot on Wednesdays.

If you haven’t pulled at Chesterfield, you can throw a Hail Mary and hit up Garage’s Black Music Wednesdays. Fills up really late but there are some cute Black Music groupies in here. Very small club. Thursday through Saturday they do afterparties and you have an excellent shot and swooping girls that are probably high.

Shishas Sferum

This is pretty much your only shot on Mondays and Tuesdays because they offer free or almost free drinks for women. A fairly low-class club where you should watch your drinks. As always the case in Moscow, there will be cute girls here on any day of the week but it’s nowhere near as good as on the weekend.

In a nutshell, that is all you need to know about where to meet Moscow girls in nightlife. There are tons of options, and it all depends on what best fits your style, based on the type of girls that you’re looking for.

Related Topics

• moscow girls
• moscow nightlife

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Can Reed Hastings Disrupt Skiing?

The Netflix co-founder bought Powder Mountain, in Utah, and is turning half of it into a private club for wealthy homeowners who pay a hefty annual fee. Will the public-private model fly?

Reed Hastings is adjusting to life as a ski resort owner. “I used to snowboard about 10 times a year,” he said. “Now getting out is part of the job.” Credit... Alex Goodlett for The New York Times

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By Gordy Megroz

• March 29, 2024

On a Monday morning in early March, Reed Hastings, the billionaire co-founder and former chief executive of Netflix, clicked into the bindings on his snowboard and started off down one of the slopes at Powder Mountain, a ski area in Utah’s northeast corner. He quickly veered off the groomed trail into some well-spaced trees, and as he made turns over bumpy snow, you could hear his edges scratch against patches of ice.

“Not as good as I was hoping,” he said at the bottom. “But still not bad.”

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, Mr. Hastings, 63, seemed to be enjoying the perks that come with his new gig: ski area owner. “I used to snowboard about 10 times a year,” he said. “Now getting out is part of the job.”

Last September, Mr. Hastings, bought a controlling interest in Powder Mountain for an undisclosed sum, inheriting more than $100 million in debt.

Not long after, he announced that he was adopting a business model never before tried in the ski industry: He would make 2,000 acres of the mountain’s terrain private, accessible only to people who owned homes in an enclave atop the mountain and who paid a membership fee expected to run between $30,000 and $100,000 per year. The rest of the ski area would remain open to the public, underwritten by the private operation.

The move, he said, was a way to compete with the multimountain passes like Ikon and Epic, without drawing the crowds that come with them. “All of the independent ski areas are looking for ways to survive,” he said. “Going boutique, higher end, private, is probably where they need to go.”

Mr. Hastings, embraces the notion that he can disrupt the ski industry the way he disrupted entertainment, though he admits he’s learning the ski business on the fly.

Will it work?

“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Rick Kahl, 71, the longtime editor of Ski Area Management, a trade publication. “But I wouldn’t bet against the guy who started Netflix.”

Rickety chairlifts and charm

With 8,464 acres of skiable terrain, Powder Mountain, which averages around 360 inches of snow each season, is one of the largest ski areas in the United States. All of that terrain is on private land; most ski areas either lease their land from the U.S. Forest Service or operate on a patchwork of public and private land. Powder has rickety chairlifts and aging day lodges that imbue the place with a certain air of nostalgia. Adding to the charm is that, upon descending some runs, getting back to the lift requires hopping on an old bus.

And, because PowMow (as it’s affectionately referred to) is a bit off the beaten path and has very limited nearby lodging, there are never any crowds.

But the ski area — like many other independently owned resorts — has never been able to make money. Summit, an event-hosting group, bought it in 2013 and had huge plans to build a village with 500 homes, restaurants, bars and possibly even a neuroscience lab and high-altitude performance center. But it failed to sell many of the homesites, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for as little as a quarter acre of land, and the ski area continued to lose money.

Mr. Hastings, fed up with crowds at heavily developed Park City, had built a home at Powder in 2021. When Summit decided it wanted out, he swooped in.

“I felt I had to do it to preserve the experience here,” he said.

Mr. Hastings, whose net worth is $5.98 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index , immediately invested $100 million of his own money in the ski area, paying off a portion of the debt and purchasing four new chairlifts, which are set to be installed this summer.

He is also planning to build two day lodges with restaurants, private rentals and retail stores for the mountain’s private side, and a 40,000-square-foot lodge will serve as an afternoon and evening hub for members and feature a state-of-the-art spa.

Shortly after the announcement, Mr. Hastings pulled all existing lots on the mountain off the market. When he relists them, he said, the starting price will be $2 million. On Friday he announced that he had also purchased 2,400 acres of terrain adjacent to the ski area’s existing boundary, which will also only be accessible to members.

His bet is that if he can sell all the homesites, membership fees for the private portion of the ski area will pay for overhead and improvements on both the public and private sections.

The private experience

Mr. Hastings isn’t the only ski area owner with the notion that privatization might be a means toward profitability.

In 2022, the owners of Homewood Mountain Resort in Homewood, Calif., announced plans to restrict season pass and day ticket sales to certain Homewood homeowners. After public outcry, that plan was scrapped, according to a spokeswoman for the resort.

The new owners of Windham Mountain Club, in New York, announced in October that they would charge a membership fee starting at $175,000 that would give members access to special amenities and let them ski the slopes in the mornings before they open to the public.

The Yellowstone Club, which was founded in 1997, in Big Sky, Mont., is perhaps most similar to Mr. Hastings’s model. Club members have access to more than 2,700 acres of private ski and snowboard terrain, and if they have also have a pass to Big Sky Resort, which shares a border with the club, can ski directly onto Big Sky’s 5,800 acres of public slopes.

Before skiing together, Mr. Hastings and I sat on brown leather sofas in his Powder Mountain Village home — a cylindrical-shaped modern house with a concrete kitchen island, an impressive looking espresso machine and panoramic views of the Wasatch Mountains and Ogden Valley — as he explained to me why the changes at the ski area were necessary.

“I’m investing a lot of money in Powder Mountain but my plan was never to subsidize it,” he said. “My passion is the charities that I work with, but I never saw this as a charitable endeavor.”

As he looked at the mountain’s finances, he said, “it became clear that we needed to do something significant.”

In the end, that something was leveraging the mountain’s available real estate. “We decided that we needed to lure people here by offering a private experience that they can’t get anyplace else,” he said.

If his plan pans out, Harris Sondak, the former mayor of Alta, Utah, and a professor at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business , said that more ski areas might adopt a public/private model to increase revenue. “Running a ski area is expensive, and any new way to make money is often embraced,” he said.

In addition to taking part of the mountain private, Mr. Hastings is raising the price of a season pass to $1,399 from $1,259. A season pass for seniors 75 and older, which used to be free, will now cost $1,049. The number of season passes sold, which had been capped, will no longer be limited, though the number of day tickets will.

Much of the ski community, particularly locals, was upset by the changes. “I’m very concerned,” said Aaron Vexler, 48, who has owned a condominium at Powder Mountain since 2012. “They’re severely limiting the terrain, raising prices, and also selling more passes. How do you sell more passes and keep the ski area uncrowded?” Others, feeling as though Mr. Hastings is only interested in making money, gave the new owner a nickname, “Greed” Hastings.

During our conversation, Mr. Hastings pointed out that three of the new lifts he is putting in will provide access to public terrain. As part of the announcement of the new private terrain, Mr. Hastings also said that more than 1,000 acres of terrain will be added to the public side of the ski area, opening in 2025. “All the new terrain will help spread people out and help keep the ski area uncrowded,” he said.

Checking out the new terrain

After my runs with Mr. Hastings, Kevin Mitchell, Powder Mountain’s general manager, and I hopped in a small snowcat to explore some of the new private terrain in an area known as Davenport, which is currently used for guided cat skiing.

After a 15-minute ride, we got out and put on our skis to descend a steep slope, making smeary turns on untouched snow through the trees. I was impressed. But when we got back into the cat and headed around the bend, I was astonished.

Above us I saw steep, craggy pitches — terrain that’s so challenging it has garnered attention from the professional snowboarder Travis Rice, who has created a series of extreme snowboarding competitions known as Natural Selection . Mr. Mitchell said Mr. Rice was considering holding one of his events there. A lift is planned for the area, though for next season, members will ride a snowcat to the top.

Before venturing into Davenport, I’d wondered if the existing slopes that were becoming private were appealing enough to entice well-heeled skiers and snowboarders to throw down on $2 million lots and high membership fees. With Davenport, the private offering is the total package.

“The overall experience for the private community will feel integrated but elevated,” said Alex Zhang, Powder’s chief creative officer. “The homeowners have access to premium conveniences — such as ski-in ski-out housing, upscale lodges and private lifts — resulting in untracked powder that last for days.”

A few days later, we checked out the new public terrain. A large portion of it is known as “Don’t Mention It,” or DMI for short. It was named by backcountry skiers who found the descents there so good that they didn’t want anybody else to know about them. After a short hike beyond the ski area boundary, I was able to get a full view of the slopes and could see why they so coveted them.

Dozens of steep, long runs and chutes wind down the vast expanse, with huge boulders jutting out of the land like prehistoric monuments. A big open bowl makes up much of the new terrain, but extreme skiers and snowboarders will drool over the north-facing slopes, which trump the skiing in Davenport and, when they open, will likely be considered some of the best skiing in the country.

“There will be a lift back here and maybe two lifts,” Mr. Mitchell said. “We have a year’s worth of planning to do.”

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait that long. I dropped onto a slope and skied through well-spaced trees, descending the length of nearly seven football fields. It hadn’t snowed much in about eight days, but the run still held light powder that drifted over my boot tops. At the bottom, my legs were burning and I had a frozen grin on my face.

Traditions unchanged

One day after skiing, I grabbed a stool at the Powder Keg, a bar at the mountain that’s famous for its greasy burgers and its old-school ambience. I drank a beer and listened to a local woman strum her guitar and belt out folk tunes. None of that will change.

Though Timberline Lodge, the building that houses the Powder Keg, will get an upgrade, Mr. Hastings said he is intent on keeping many of Powder Mountain’s sacred spots and traditions unchanged. When finishing runs in the area known as Powder Country, for example, you’ll still get on a bus back to the lifts.

“You can’t just tear down a building, put up a new one, call it the same thing, and expect people to feel the same way about it,” Mr. Hastings said.

Mr. Hastings said it’s that old-school vibe that makes Powder Mountain special. “We’re building a luxury experience on the private side of the mountain,” he said. “But many of the homeowners will still ski the public side and want to experience the parts of Powder Mountain that you won’t be able to get in the village.”

At the time of my visit, Mr. Hastings had college friends visiting.

“I sent them to the Powder Keg for lunch,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite places to eat.”

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Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

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Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

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Moscow Travel Guide

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Why travel to Moscow

Contrasts: 12th century monasteries and some of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe can be found side-by-side in this complex and captivating city. The diversity of this mega-city is astounding. Only a few steps away from the solemn red facade of the Kremlin and the sounds of righteous church bells, a buzzing night scene and alternative-fashion boutiques can be found.

Culture: In Moscow only the best goes. Be it a theatre, restaurant or gallery, the standards are certain to be world-class. The Bolshoi ballet company is reputed to be even better than the Mariinsky’s and “MMOMA” (Moscow’s museum of modern art) exhibits works of art as profound as any that could be found in the famed MOMA.

Convenience: Unlike the rest of Russia, it’s easy enough to get by with just English in Moscow and, driving excepted, it is surprisingly safe: the murder rate is lower than in some of America’s major cities.

Top Sights in Moscow

St. Basil’s

Novodevichy Convent

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Why visit Moscow

It would take more than two days to walk around the perimeter of the biggest city in Europe, Moscow. Many of its inhabitants barely know what’s beyond the few blocks around their flat and there are so many attractions that it’s almost impossible to know where to start. If there is such a thing as an antidote to boredom, Moscow City is it. The mind-boggling range and diversity of things to do, places to eat, parks, historical monuments and more means that a vacation in Moscow has a wealth of activities to offer for every type of traveler, from young families to retirees.

Reasons to Vacation in Moscow in 2022

The Bolshoi theatre is familiar to almost everyone as Russia’s grandest theatre, but what people don’t know is that there are many more bolshoi (big) sites in Moscow that are worth travelling all the way to Moscow to see. For more than 100 years, the world’s biggest bell has been hidden behind the Kremlin’s walls and inside Moscow’s main park (which is bigger than some countries!) there is the world’s largest outdoor ice-rink. Travelers that visit Moscow can stay at the Izmailovo, Europe’s biggest hotel, then eat at the largest and most historic McDonald’s in Europe and after that have fun at the largest European indoor theme park!

Ancient Past & Stunning Architecture:

As those who travel to Moscow will see, just because Moscow is a city of record-breaking, glitzy high-rises doesn’t mean that there is no history. On the famous Arbat street, time-worn, wooden storehouses and century-old churches are squashed up against grey, soviet blocks which are then towered over by 21st century office-blocks. Unlike its much younger sibling, St Petersburg, Moscow’s roots stretch way back to the 12th century. Within the walls of the Kremlin, the city’s oldest building the Cathedral of Assumption can be admired in all its 500+ years of age.

Culture & Convenience

For a foreigner who has never visited Russia, Moscow is the perfect stepping stone into this great land of mystery. From the country’s best classical ballet troupes to snow-white troikas trotting through the parks, all the highlights of Russian culture can be had in Moscow without any of the complications that would be expected in other, less developed regions of Russia.

Cheap as Caviar

In Moscow, everything is bargain when with the current foreign exchange rates being what they are. Even caviar doesn’t seem so dear when the exchange rate is at 60rub to the dollar, so go on indulge yourself! Take your 2022 vacation in Moscow and have the best of both worlds, with European luxury at very affordable prices.

Lena, our guide in Moscow was excellent. She was very knowledgable and could answer any question we had for her. We liked that she could pick up on our interests and take us places we might not have thought of to go. When we realized that one of the places we had chosen to see would probably not be that interesting to us, she was able to arrange entry to the Diamond Fund and the Armoury for us. Riding the Metro with Lena was a real adventure and a lot of fun. In Saint Petersburg we found Anna well versed in the history of the Tsars and in the Hermitage collection. Arkady in Veliky Novgorod was a very good guide and answered all of our questions with ease. Novgorod was perhaps a long way to go for a day trip, but we did enjoy it. Vasily was a great driver to have and kept us safe with good humour and skill. We enjoyed ourselves so much, my daughter says she is already planning to return. We would both have no hesistation to recommend ExpresstoRussia to anyone we know.

Just wanted to let you know that My grandson Bruno and I couldn´t have been more pleased with our week in Moscow (6/15 - 6/21). We were absolutely enchanted with the whole experience, including getting lost a couple of times in the Metro during our free time. Although both our guides (both Eleanas) were excellent, I would particularly commend the first one (she took us to the Tatiakov, the KGB tour, and to that beautiful cemetery where so many great Russian artists, authors, composers, musicians, militarists, and politicians are buried). Her knowledge is encyclopedic; and her understanding of today´s Russia as a product of its past was, for us, truly enlightening. I will be taking another tour in Russia, with my wife, within the next two or three years. I will be in touch with you when the time comes. Meanwhile, I will refer you to other potential visitors to Russia as I meet them.

We had a great time both in Moscow and St Petersburg. Your travel agency was excellent in coordinating the whole trip. Everything worked like clockwork. The guides assigned to us were very nice and friendly. They had a great knowledge of their subjects. The cars and the drivers were great. The hotels were good and the itinerary was good. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. It was nice dealing with you and your company. Thank you very much for a great Russian experience. Have a great future ahead

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Albrecht Golf Guide

Moscow City Golf Club

Dovzhenko Str., 119590 Moskau, Russia

Phone: +7 495 921-28-55 , Fax: +7 499 147-62-52

[email protected] www.mcgc.ru

9-Hole Course

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Yes - every day.

Style: Parkland

Terrain: Flat

Practice Facilities

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Visitors are welcome every day. Advance booking is essential.

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General Information

Founded : 1987

Nearby Courses

Gc krylatskoye.

Moskva (5.6 km)

Skolkovo GC

Moscow (9.3 km)

Moscow Country Club

Krasnogorsky district, Moscow region (25 km)

5.0 of 5 stars (1)

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A Muslim-friendly guide to Moscow, Russia

In Travel Guide by Dina Dzhunskalieva May 2, 2020

A Muslim-friendly guide to Moscow

Moscow, the capital of Russia and home to an estimated 12 million people, may not be the obvious Muslim-friendly destination. However, the Muslim community in Russia grows year by year – various estimates place the current Muslim population in Russia at between 14 million and 20 million people. With this growth in the local Muslim population, the Russian capital is becoming increasingly Muslim-friendly. The proof? A rising number of Muslim-friendly cafes and restaurants, prayer facilities and festive Muslim events. 

Of course, no visit to Moscow is complete without a visit to the Kremlin, Red Square and St.Basil’s Cathedral. But how Muslim-friendly is Russia’s capital?

Here’s your Muslim-friendly guide to visiting this incredible city by local moskvichka , Dina Dzhunskalieva. 

Muslim-friendly experiences in Moscow

1. pray in one of the biggest mosques in europe.

The streets surrounding Moscow Cathedral Mosque fill with worshippers during Eid, despite the mosque’s 10 000 person capacity. Photo: AFP

The origins of Moscow Cathedral Mosque can be traced to 1904, but it was demolished and completely reconstructed in 2015. During the period of the Soviet Union, Moscow Cathedral Mosque was the only one in the city that remained open for Muslims to worship in. In September 2015 President Putin himself presided over the mosque’s inauguration ceremony, together with President Erdogan (Turkey) and President Mahmoud Abbas (Palestinian Authority). The impressive architecture features 72m-high minarets and a central dome decorated with no less than 12 kg of gold leaf, which looks especially beautiful on a sunny day, shining in all of its glory.  The new mosque can hold an estimated 10 000 worshippers, which is much needed in Moscow. During major celebrations such as Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha, it’s estimated that 100 000 Muslims gather outside the central mosque alone, filling the streets with worshippers offerring their Eid prayers.

Top Tip: Do not miss the opportunity to visit the small museum at the mosque, which has a number of historical artefacts from the Muslim world!

2. Try delicious authentic cuisine from Central Asia and the Caucasus at halal eateries

Moscow is a hub for ethnicities from all over Russia and post-Soviet republics. Every ethnicity has its national cuisine and with seven of Russia’s 22 republics being Muslim-majority populations, there is a sumptuous variety of halal local food on offer.

There are more and more halal cafes and restaurants opening in Moscow, and here are my personal top 3 recommendations that any foodie should not miss: 

• “Chaihona Aiva”

An Uzbek restaurant with a great range of the main Central Asian dishes: plov, manty, samsa and more. Reasonable prices make this place even more attractive for tourists, as for locals. 

Beautiful interiors compliment the hearty Uzbek cuisine at Chaihona Aiva. Photo: Chaihona Aiva/TripAdvisor

Great spot if you want to try Caucasus cuisine without going to the Caucasus region itself. Home style chudu (crispy puff pastry with various fillings), Dagestani hinkal (dough-like dish served with garlic sauce and meat) and many more to enjoy. 

Crispy chudu parcels from Zhi Est. Photo: Zhi Est/TripAdvisor

Chinese cuisine, mainly represented by lamian – Lanzhou-style noodles. Tastes very close to Turkic laghman and very cheap, although the portions are huge. Also try the steamed bun and selection of various teas. 

Lanzhou-style noodles and lagman. Photo: Lanzhou/TripAdvisor

2. Experience Ramadan in a tent

Ramadan tents have been a feature of Ramadan in Moscow since at least 2003. Photo: Caucasian Knot

The Ramadan tent in Moscow offers iftar dinners and festive Ramadan activities for locals and Muslims who live in the city. On average, it hosts more than 500 guests every night. The budget organization of Iftars and entertainment programme come from Muslims themselves, first of all from the republics and communities which hold thematic evenings during Ramadan.

3. Listen to the most beautiful Quran recitation

The Moscow international Quran competition has taken place annually since 2000. Photo: VoiceofglobalUmmah.blogspot

Every year in Moscow, competitors from around the world gather to take part in an annual international Qur’an recitation competition. This year is the 20th Moscow Quran Reciting Competition, which was scheduled for 19th of April but has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This competition sees representatives from a number of Muslim states including Iran, Turkey, Malaysia and Qatar as well as the Muslim-majority republics of Tatarstan, Dagestan and other regions.

Bookmark this travel guide so you can access it whenever a trip to Moscow is on the cards. In the meantime, check out more travel guides and tips over on our Inspiration Wall . 

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