When my wife and I were just starting out and every penny counted, we dreamed of luxurious travel. I remember on our honeymoon we scrimped and saved and stayed at a Best Western near Disneyland and loved it, but a block away was a Hilton. As kids, both of us came from what can be best described as modest income homes, so a Hilton was never a consideration. During that trip we dreamed of a day that we would come back to Anaheim and stay at that Hilton. It was only about 5 years later that we did. It was nice, but the dream was much better than reality. I don't mean to say the Hilton wasn't a worthy hotel for the money, we just determined that for our vacation style it wasn't for us.
Over the years I've been lucky enough to benefit from fine hotels and conference resorts as part of business travel and that especially whet the appetite for my wife for luxurious travel when she was able to come with me. Our travel budget definitely allows us to be more upscale, but their still needs to be a budget and we still look to get the most bang for our buck. We look for nice hotels and are willing to spend more for the right location, but it doesn't need to be luxurious; the RS approach describes us well. We disagree on food, I'm happy with a pub, she likes fancy, so we usually do fancy. Both of us see the benefit of spending money for a tour; I don't just mean something like an RS tour, but even an afternoon group tour of a particular site.
My wife and I were talking about this last night as we've recently begun binge watching Downton Abbey which features an Earl's family and it's staff around the WW1 time period and into the 1920's. When the family vacations, they appear to pack everything that isn't nailed down, plus a full compliment of staff-after all, who can vacation without a valet or ladies maid? Which brings me to my question, if money was no object, what would you change about your travel habits; longer stays, better hotels, better food, group tours, a butler??