Travel: Wait'll We Tell the Folks Back Home

What $360 million buys these days in luxury and fantasy

Times must be tough for jaded travelers. There are not many places left on this earth that still confer bragging rights now that Katmandu has as many package tours as Atlantic City and darkest Africa is bright with flashbulbs. So just in time comes the spanking-new Hyatt Regency Waikoloa on the lee shore of the Big Island of Hawaii. At $360 million, it is the most expensive resort ever built. But that's not, even nearly, all.

Guests at the oceanside Hyatt are festooned with exotic flowers and offered colorful concoctions before they reach the check-in desk of the half-indoor, half-outdoor lobby....

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