The V.I.P. Tour

VICTORIA MATHER'S SECRET AGENTS TAKE YOU AROUND THE WORLD

FANFAIR

ROME

John Fort can get the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum closed for private evening visits. It's worth spending some $3,500 for a chance to lie on the floor and marvel at Michelangelo's ceiling, with a view unimpaired by Australian backpackers. Contact: Bellini Travel at 011-44-207-602-7602 or bellinitravel.com.

VENICE

Franca Zanchi takes guests to St. Mark's Basilica after closing hours (you arrive to soft organ music) and arranges backstage tours and private recitals at the newly rebuilt La Fenice opera house. Contact: Bellini Travel, as above.

NAPLES

Maria Luisa Gagliardi is a wonder with children, bringing the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum to life for them. She's also a demon shopping guide in this fun city, which gave the world pizza. Contact: Bellini Travel, as above.

BUENOS AIRES

Steven Chew can get you a booking at La Cabana, Buenos Aires's equivalent to '21' or Harry's Bar. He can also gain entree to ecoestancia Rincon del Socorro (rincondelsocorro.com), in northeastern Argentina. Stay at Eolo (eolo.com.ar), the lodge from which you can go to see the Perito Moreno and Upsala Glaciers—which are as blue as Paul Newman's eyes and 20 stories high—as they crack and move in Patagonia. Contact: Cazenove & Loyd at 011-44-207-384-2332 or cazloyd.com.

SPAIN

Javier Medem's family owns La Nava (in La Mancha), a stately, rustic hunting lodge with 16 double rooms and 60,000 acres of superb partridge country with mountains and deep valleys. Javier delivers only the best, be it shooting, Spanish wines, or food, with tireless attention to detail. Contact: RoxtonsatOl l-44-1488-683-222orroxtons.com.

ICELAND

Skuli Kristinsson is Iceland's best salmon guide and the premier tier of flies in the world. Real men fish on the East Ranga—Iceland's topproducing river last year. Contact: Roxtons fishing department at 01 144-1488-689-701 orroxtons.com.

EGYPT

Akram "Aki" Allam is the Egyptologist, hand-holder, mentor extraordinaire. He's with you from the moment you land in Cairo to the moment you leave in Luxor; he does everything from supervising your unpacking to organizing trips into the pyramids (very difficult now, as the sheer number of visitors is an eco-problem) with special passes, as well as tea with Madame Sadat and intense Egyptian-history sessions on Sun Boat IV, the best boat on the Nile. He has guided Ralph Lauren and Richard Gere. He's a sophisticated historian who becomes your best friend. Contact:

Abercrombie & Kent at 800-554-7094 or abercrombiekent.com.

PARIS

Sally Perrin is an American who has lived in Paris for 11 years. She is the expert at taking visitors around the flea markets—a unique Parisian experience— and you won't get fleeced. Contact: sally@frenchfinds.com.

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PERU

Marco Aragon can arrange a private tour of the sacred site of Machu Picchu at night, after closing. Once the tour buses have left, it's an entirely different magic. Contact: Cazenove & Loyd at 011-44-207384-2332 or cazloyd.com.

BRAZIL

Sylvia Acevedo is the expert on fabulous Brazilian beach houses to rent—the hot new trend—in places such as Buzios, the Latin-American Saint-Tropez. Sylvia is plugged into the social mainstream, her daughter is a pop singer, and there's nothing fashionable or happening in Rio that she can't open a door to. Contact: Cazenove & Loyd, as above.

THE AMAZON

Moacir Fortes guides the serious plant experts of the Royal Botanical Society but is equally happy piranha fishing with your family. Mo, as he's known to the trustees of Kew Gardens, has two small, comfortable sleep-aboard boats, can access the most untouched parts of the Amazon, roars with laughter, and is a life-enhancing soul. Contact: Cazenove & Loyd, as above.

GUATEMALA

You have to know John Heaton, the Swiss-educated anthropologist and homme serieux, if you're headed to Antigua, Guatemala's former capital. Everyone from Francis Ford Coppola to Harrison Ford has stayed with him in his kingdom of two courtyards behind a plain door off the Plaza Mayor. His address book is the equivalent of a genie's lamp for local experts and guides. You have to go to Lake Atitlan, which Aldous Huxley thought "the most beautiful lake in the world." Contact: the Ultimate Travel Company at 011 -44-207-386-4646 or theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk.

INDIA

Mary-Anne Denison-Pender, secret agent extraordinaire for India— maharajas weep with joy when you mention her name—is well worth consulting about Churhat Kothi and other insider-track camps, mahals, and palaces. Contact: 01 1 -44-207-373-71 21 or mahoutuk.com. Mehra Dalton at Greaves Travel also organizes faultless trips. Both are sleuths of all that is luxurious, charming, and genuine on the subcontinent. Contact: 800-31 8-7801 or greavesindia.com.

Nanda Rana is the Tiger Man. He's magic and has made many documentaries for National Geographic. Rana is based at Churhat Kothi, in Bandhavgarh Jungle Camp, which has been newly restored in the forests that were once the hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Rewa. There are just 12 tents, very eco-aware standards, and beautiful wildlife, including 250 different bird species. Contact: info@churhatkothi.com.

BOTSWANA

Meet Ralph Bousfield, whose family founded and owns Jack's Camp, deep in the Kalahari. It is the place to go for a more spiritual, yoga-like experience after the Okavango Delta. Set on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, it's a 1940s-style camp among the palms, with fabulous Persian carpets and—don't panic—flush loos. The bread is baked on hot coals, and the safari is hip-hop, with quad bikes. Return to camp to four-poster beds set up outside for a sleep under the stars. Contact: Nicole Fernandez at Uncharted Outposts at 888-995-0909 or nicole@unchartedoutposts.com.

ETHIOPIA

Thomas Pakenham leads trips to the spectacular Blue Nile Falls, near Bahir Dar; a series of monolithic sanctuaries; and Aksum, capital of one of the foremost empires of the ancient world. Pakenham is the author of Meetings with Remarkable Trees and of the awardwinning Scramble for Africa; he was the first European to visit Mount Wehni, and with him you can retrace his 1955-56 trip to Ethiopia. Contact: Special Tours at 011-44-20-7730-2297 orspecialtours.co.uk.

ST. PETERSBURG

Tanya Illingworth, Leo Tolstoy's granddaughter, is a whiz at guided tours and escorted trips. She can get you into the Hermitage privately—to be alone among the mighty Rembrandts is mystical, and there's no craning one's neck to see the exquisite little Leonardo. Also fantastic are trips to the Mariinsky Theatre—the tutu room is a joy, with the ballerina tutus in colored piles like rose petals—and the Yusupov Palace, where Rasputin was murdered. Contact: the Ultimate Travel Company at 01 1-44-207-386-4646 or retours.com.

ANTARCTICA AND THE ARCTIC

Bob Burton, winner of the U.K.'s Polar Medal for research in Antarctica and the Arctic, is the ideal companion for seeing penguins and polar bears: penguins in the south, polar bears in the north, where they're currently treading on thin ice due to global warming. Contact: Abercrombie & Kent at 800-554-7094 or abercrombiekent.com.