Footballers' wives... and their holidays

By Clara Penn, The Mail on Sunday

Last updated at 09:52 10 January 2005

Diamond-studded watches, wardrobes stuffed with the chicest couture, three sets of gleaming wheels on the driveway of the mock-Tudor mansion - the everyday lives of some of the top footballers' wives are, to say the least, extraordinarily well appointed.

So a holiday to take them away from it all has to be something equally over the top. Take the queen bee, Victoria Beckham. She likes to go for a place apart, as demonstrated when she refused at first to join the other Euro 2004 wives at Portugal's Penha Longa resort hotel last June.

There's a further glimpse of her elevated travel tastes in the French snowboarding holiday that she had lined up for the New Year before pregnancy scuppered her carefully laid plans.

Mrs Beckham had her eye on the luxurious Chalet Lamato in Meribel - for which she would have paid just short of £16,000 to have its exclusive use for a week.

If unlimited drinks with the daily four-course dinner - prepared by an ex-Savoy saucier, no less - isn't enough, how about the free-flowing premium champagne? The chalet sleeps up to 14 and is just a 300-yard walk from the slopes and, more importantly, the shops.

Meanwhile, the playroom should keep the Beckhams' boys occupied, with its satellite TV, video and DVD players and PlayStation2.

Fancy it for yourself? Call Purple Ski on 01494 488 633 or visit www.purpleski.com for further information.

Mrs Beckham, who has recently graduated from singer to fashion designer, is just as extravagant when she travels alone on business.

On a recent visit to Tokyo, she stayed at the elegant Park Hyatt in the vibrant Shinjuku district. It's instantly recognisable from the Oscar-winning film Lost In Translation, about a young wife seeking inspiration.

No doubt Posh stayed in an exclusive suite. But if you're prepared to endure a standard room, you can enjoy three days at the Park Hyatt for £1,080, based on two sharing and including flights (Cleveland Travel, 0845 450 5733).

When she travels en famille, Mrs Beckham probably uses one of those conveniently compartmentalised baby bags that she has helpfully designed for jet-setting parents.

Other football mothers, such as Louise Redknapp, might not care for the 'DVB' (David Victoria Beckham) emblazoned across these bags - but Mrs Redknapp will need something similar for her return trips with husband Jamie and new son Charlie to their favourite hotel, the OneandOnly Royal Mirage in Dubai - with its own half-mile-long stretch of Jumeirah Beach.

Louise loves the treatments at the hotel's Givenchy spa and may now take advantage of the childcare while she partakes of Dubai's tax-free shopping.

ITC Classics (01244 355527, www. itcclassics. co. uk) offers seven nights at the Mirage in a deluxe room with breakfast, British Airways flights and return transfers from £1,001 per person based on two sharing.

Dubai is also a regular holiday favourite with some of the other first ladies of football, says former England player Warren Barton. He has retired from playing for Newcastle and is a director of Gibbon and Barton International Travel (0191 418 0200, www.gibbon andbarton.net), which caters for footballers as well as the public.

'They love the year-round heat, the shopping, the safety of the place and the privacy,' he says. 'It's also one of the places to be seen.'

Most footballers holiday in crowds, and there's no crowd greater than the 11 England players who have bought £1million apartments on Dubai's coveted Palm Island development.

Meanwhile, St Tropez has fully returned to the fore this year, Barton adds. 'It's back on the map again and the footballers love to be part of the scene.' The Hotel Byblos, spread like a little village on the highest hill of St Tropez, is one of the most popular hotels with footballers' wives.

Since it opened in 1967, with the young Brigitte Bardot as hostess, it has been the perennial haunt of the famous and beautiful.

'Once again it's the security and the cachet of the place,' says Barton.

Seven nights at the Byblos from April cost from £1,640 per person, room only, including British Airways flights from Gatwick and private car transfers, with Elegant Resorts (01244 897515).

When there's serious shopping to be done, New York is still a natural choice. Most of the wives are probably rather more savvy about it, however, than Manchester United star Wayne Rooney's 18-year-old fiancee Colleen McLoughlin, who reportedly splashed out £10,000 on her four-day shopping jaunt there last October, eliciting a huge customs fine on her return.

McLoughlin had treated a gaggle of friends to a stay at the Waldorf Astoria, an Art Deco landmark which prides itself on its refined, high-society history, using it as a base for the spree. Three nights there start at £573 per person including flights and a complimentary helicopter trip over New York with Kuoni Travel (01306 747 008 or www.kuoni.co.uk).

For glitzy shopping excursions other wives choose the Bellagio at Las Vegas, backdrop to the heist movie remake Ocean's 11. A week of razzmatazz starts from £1,195 per person including flights, with Elegant Resorts (01244 897520).

Sardinia, too, is maintaining its reputation for high glamour. The footballing crowd loves the Costa Smeralda and the Forte Village, with its seven hotels on the south coast. Prices start from £590 per person for three nights half-board, including return transfers, with Magic Travel Group (0870 888 0220 www.magictravelgroup.co.uk).

For short breaks, Spain, Portugal, Milan and Rome are all regular choices, according to Barton. In the Algarve, footballers' wives tend to choose resort hotels such as the impressively landscaped Sheraton Pine Cliffs. Two nights' bed and breakfast cost £500 per person including return flights and private transfers, also with Magic Travel.

It has an elevator to the beach - perfect for the footballer's wife who doesn't want to wear out her Jimmy Choos.