Chauffeur-driven Porsches, private cinemas, wireless internet access, chefs, maids, helicopter transfers, private beaches, high-tech gyms... British holidaymakers are developing expensive tastes when it comes to booking a villa. But you don’t have to remortgage your house to have a stylish villa break.

Yes, we know £13,000 a night is beyond the budget of most people who don’t play Premier League football. We’ve even heard stories of super-rich customers sending scouts ahead of visits to check pool temperatures are just so. Others have asked for personalised reports on local golf courses - with details on which are the trickiest holes. But there also are a lot of good deals around, from £135 a week to stay in a plush pad in Cyprus - good value by anyone’s standards.

Here we reveal the trends in villa holidays for 2007.

Dream designs

Chintzy furnishings and rural charm are out. Private World Villas has launched 20 “rad pads” — radically designed villas in Australia, the US, Brazil, Mexico, Ibiza and Portugal. Instead of buying places abroad, the wealthy villa-lover is choosing trendy “Wallpaper magazine style” properties, the company says. In Palm Springs, a Modernist pad designed by John Lautner is on offer. In Ibiza, you can stay in a villa by the French interior designer Bruno Reymond, or try Pierre Louis Faloci’s chic hideaway in the Algarve.
Details: 020-7723 5599, www.privateworldvillas.com

Cheap and chic

It’s not just the top end of the villa market that’s getting more design conscious. Meon Villas says holidaymakers are demanding “hi-tech, minimalist, style-led houses”. One example is Aquamarine, which overlooks the sandy bay of Pomos in Cyprus — which costs from £810 a week or just £135pp when six share. There’s a hot-tub, gym, an infinity pool and a clean, modern look throughout.
Details: 0870 8508551, www.meonvillas.co.uk

Lakeside view

To Tuscany is offering stays at Villa L’Orcio di Bardeggiano, which sleeps six and comes with its own “bio-pool” — a man-made private lake that is cleaned using rock filtration, not chemicals. It’s hardly natural, but it does a very good impression. The villa, a 15-minute drive from Siena, offers massage, yoga and Italian cookery lessons. From £525 a week.
Details: 020-7193 7782, www.to-tuscany.com

Good morning Vietnam

The villa holiday no longer belongs to the Med. Evason Resorts is flagging up its latest long-haul villa for 2007: the Evason Ana Mandara Villas & Spa at Dalat, Vietnam. This has 17 restored French colonial villas dating from the 1920s and 1930s. Each has its own bar and wine cellar, library, “private service host”, and a veranda with sweeping views. Villas cost £1,204pp, based on two sharing for a week, with flights and transfers.
Details: Kuoni (01306 747008, www.kuoni.co.uk ); also see www.evasonresorts.com

Porsche spice

If you want to live like a Premiership footballer, Villa Rahimoana in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, is a new four-bedroom property that comes with its own Porsche Cayenne Turbo and chauffeur. It also has a 25m lap-pool, gym, heated spa pool, infra-red sauna, home theatre, resident chef, and an office with wireless internet. From a mere £13,089 a night.
Details: www.eaglesnest.co.nz

Out of Africa

Stay in your own “safari house” — the African version of a villa. Wildlife Worldwide has 16 houses in Kenya, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Some come with chefs, child-minders, drivers and safari guides. From £1,015 a night for two adults and two children.
Details: 0845 1306982, www.wildlifeworldwide.com

Look no wires

Are we all turning into workaholics? Or are we just hooked to the internet? Coastline, a new operator which specialises in contemporary villas, includes wireless internet access in all its 22 properties in Ibiza, Majorca and Corsica. Andy Sturt, Coastline’s owner, said: “I can’t relax unless I’m able to work and I’m convinced there are more people around like me. If I can spend 15 minutes each morning checking e-mails then I feel better about things. People expect to get quick responses these days — it doesn’t matter if you are on holiday.”
Details: 0844 5571020, www.coastline.co.uk

Be like Bond

The first upmarket (and very James Bond) villas on the Goldeneye estate in Jamaica will open this year. Ian Fleming wrote all 13 Bond novels at Goldeneye. He began the first, Casino Royale, on the morning of February 17, 1952, with the famous opening line: “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.” The main building, where Fleming worked, is now a five-star hotel run by Island Outpost, which is owned by Chris Blackwell, the record producer who nurtured the talents of Bob Marley and U2. Prices for renting the villas have yet to be set, but you can buy one from £320,000.
Details: 020-8704 4500, www.goldeneyedevelopment.com

Book a cook

At least half of customers at CV Travel, an upmarket villa specialist, now want their meals to be cooked for them. Debbie Marshall, managing director, said that the number of people asking for chefs has doubled in the past three years. “People don’t want to be tied to the sink on their holidays,” she said. “With a private chef you can also order local specialities, and learn how to cook them if you want.” A week at a plush ten-person villa in Andalucia costs from £2,335, including a chef.
Details: 0870 0623427, www.cvtravel.co.uk

Moroccan chic

Cedric Reversade, co-owner of Unique Properties, a leading upmarket villa travel agency, says Tangier is the place to stay. “Chic people, and the wealthiest ones who want privacy and calm, left Marrakesh and they are all in Tangier now. It is a very elegant destination — you have amazing dinners and balls there during the summer.” He recommends Leila House, which sleeps 12, has terraces overlooking the sea and two butlers, two maids, a housekeeper, a driver (with two cars) and a cook. From £23,500 for a month.
Details: 020-7788 7815, www.cedricreversade.com

Different class

One trend to look out for is a growth in villas built within hotel grounds, which allow guests to sample restaurants and public areas, but maintain their privacy, says ITC Classics. It has put together a brochure with “hotel villas” covering the Caribbean, France, Greece, Italy, Mauritius and Spain. Christian Locke, project manager, said that most villas have private pools as well as chefs — plus you don’t have to mingle with other guests unless you want to. A week at the Elounda Gulf Villas in Crete is from £908pp, based on six sharing.
Details: ITC Classics (01244 355527, www.itcclassics.co.uk).

Keeping cool?

Global warming is having a knock-on effect when it comes to booking villa breaks — more people than ever are demanding air-conditioning. Igluvillas.com says that “air-conditioning is in high demand as it becomes hotter in Europe”.

Environmentalists, however, point out that this will speed up global warming as air-con units use electricity and produce carbon emissions. But with more people using low-cost airlines to fly to villas in Europe (adding to the problem of greenhouse gasses) the demand for air conditioning in the future looks set to grow.

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