A former monastery on the Amalfi Coast, a minimalist resort in the Utah desert and a private island in the Maldives. For some of K-pop’s biggest stars, this year’s vacations came with price tags well into the millions of won a night. A 1,000-year-old tower in Ravello Blackpink’s Rose recently shared a set of vacation photos on Instagram with the caption “summer postie.” The images show the singer relaxing in casual clothes, playing the board game Rummikub with friends and sitting at a piano. The

Seoul Club does not say what it costs to join. When the figure was last made public about a decade ago, the initiation fee alone stood at 75 million won ($55,000). Paying the fee, however, is the easy part. In a city where exclusivity usually comes with a price tag, one of Seoul's oldest institutions rations entry by a signature. Without two existing members willing to vouch for an applicant, no amount of money opens the door. Tucked on the eastern slope of Namsan in Jangchung-dong, Jung-gu, the

The most expensive luxury on offer in Hannam-dong, Seoul, is the ability to enjoy a private life, out of reach. That is just what actor Byeon Woo-seok paid some 13 billion won ($9.7 million) for. The actor reportedly bought a 235-square-meter unit at Hannam the Hill in May. He joins a long list of corporate executives and celebrities, including So Ji-sub, Ock Joo-hyun and Choo Ja-hyun, as residents of the complex in central Seoul's Yongsan-gu. Hannam the Hill rose on the former site of Dankook U

Next Wednesday, a group of Korean travelers will sit inside a yurt on the Kazakh steppe and watch a rocket leave the ground. The seat, located at a safe distance from the launch pad, costs 28 million won, or roughly $20,600, per person. The seven-day Kazakhstan itinerary, sold by Modetour, is built around the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It covers the Gagarin launch pad, the assembly and fueling complex where the Buran space shuttle is stored, a test stand displaying the Energia-M rocket and an aerospac

Residents are designed not to cross paths. Service staff slips through hidden back corridors, guests are received in a separate lounge, and a fingerprint is all that opens the door. That is how Eterno Cheongdam looks after the 29 households in its single Cheongdam-dong tower, among them national soccer team captain Son Heung-min, who owns the most expensive home in the country. High-end residences trade on exclusivity. Few do so as hard as the building that has topped Korea's property valuations

86 floors above Seoul, inside Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, the country's most expensive spa treatment unfolds over four hours with guests wrapped in warm, edible chocolate. At Retreat Signiel Spa, the Chocolate Whole Body course runs 240 minutes and costs 1.5 million won ($1,000), the highest price of any spa program in Korea. Presented as the world's first full-body chocolate treatment, it draws on cacao's polyphenols and theobromine, delivered through heat meant to loosen the body and settle t

Where in Seoul do CEOs live? An analysis of the registered home addresses of 640 chief executives by local corporate data tracker CEO Score, released Wednesday, shows that many of the country’s top business leaders cluster in a handful of high-end apartment complexes in Seoul, especially in the affluent districts of Gangnam and Yongsan. The most common address, shared by 11 CEOs, as of April was The H Firstier I-Park in Gaepo-dong, southern Seoul. Among its most notable residents is Roh Tae-moon

For years, Busan’s luxury real estate story was easy to tell: look to Marine City. With its cluster of high-rise apartments facing Haeundae Beach, the district became the city’s defining symbol of wealth. But that map is starting to shift. Just uphill, Dalmaji Hill — Busan’s onetime enclave for the affluent — is staging a comeback, drawing a new wave of ultrawealthy buyers and reshaping the city’s luxury housing landscape. What makes this shift notable is geography. In South Korea, ultraluxury h

Louis Vuitton is stepping into Seoul’s dining scene with a high-end culinary venture, and now, food lovers and fashion enthusiasts alike are getting their first look at the menu — and the price tags. Reservations for Le Cafe Louis Vuitton, the brand’s first restaurant in Korea, opened Monday afternoon via the restaurant booking platform CatchTable. The venue is set to officially open on Sept. 1, occupying the fourth floor of Maison Louis Vuitton Seoul in the upscale neighborhood of Cheongdam-don

A trip to an island resort starts with a Rolls-Royce pickup and a helicopter ride. That’s how Villa Kosmos -- a two-floor residence with four rooms for up to eight people -- is serving an exclusive clientele seeking a secluded retreat on Ulleungdo. The island off the east coast of South Korea, together with Dokdo, forms the country’s easternmost group of islands. “A trip to Ulleungdo has never given our upscale clientele a single headache for the past eight years,” said Cho Hyun-jai, a chief man