USA Grand Luxury — Five Cities, 13 Nights

A chauffeur meets you at JFK for the drive into Manhattan and a five-star check-in near Central Park. The first evening is kept free on purpose; your travel designer calls in the evening to run through the week and move anything you want moved.

A private guide and car for the day, shaped around you: the Statue of Liberty by ferry with pre-booked pedestal access, the 9/11 Memorial, then uptown along the High Line to Hudson Yards. Dinner is booked at an Indian fine-dining room in Midtown — we hold tables the group tours cannot get.

A gentler day: the Met or MoMA with a private docent in the morning, Fifth Avenue at your own pace after lunch, and sunset from the Empire State Building's 86th floor. Then the night this itinerary is named for — orchestra-section seats at a top Broadway musical, booked the day your trip is confirmed.

A free day with the car and driver on call for eight hours. Some families do Woodbury Common with an empty suitcase; some do brunch in SoHo and a Yankees or US Open ticket in season; some do nothing grander than Central Park with ice cream. All three are correct.

First-class seats on the Acela, with meal service at your seat, down to Washington in under three hours. The afternoon is a private monuments tour timed to end at the Lincoln Memorial for golden hour, when the crowds thin and the marble goes warm.

A guided morning at the Air and Space Museum and the National Archives — the Declaration of Independence in the flesh — with a pre-arranged Capitol tour where the session calendar allows. The afternoon is free for the museum each of you privately wanted most.

Fly west across the country and check in to a Strip-view suite. The evening is a slow private tour of the Strip's spectacles — the Bellagio conservatory and fountains, the Venetian, a stop at the classic Welcome sign — ending with dinner reserved at a chef's table.

The trip's centrepiece: a helicopter over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, dropping below the rim to land on the canyon floor for a champagne — or sparkling-juice — picnic beside the Colorado River. You are back in the city by early afternoon, with the pool and the evening to yourselves.

A free day — the premium outlets, the pool cabana we can reserve, or a lazy brunch that becomes a lazier afternoon. At night, category-A seats at a Cirque du Soleil production; "O" and Kà sell out weeks ahead, which is why yours were booked with the trip.

A short flight to Los Angeles and straight into the myth: the Hollywood sign from the Griffith Observatory terrace, the Walk of Fame, and a drive through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive with a guide who knows whose gate is whose. Check-in near Beverly Hills, dinner on Sunset.

A full day at Universal Studios Hollywood on Universal Express tickets, which skip the regular lines at every ride — on a summer day that is three extra hours of park. The Studio Tour's working backlot is the piece grown-ups remember; the Wizarding World is the piece nobody else remembers anything after.

A morning flight north and a private afternoon in the prettiest city of the trip: Twin Peaks, Lombard Street, a cable-car ride your driver shadows so nobody walks back uphill, and Fisherman's Wharf at the golden end of the day. The hotel is by the bay; the sea lions are your neighbours.

The classic finale: across the Golden Gate Bridge with the vista-point stop, brunch in Sausalito, and the afternoon ferry to Alcatraz with the cell-house audio tour — narrated by former guards and inmates, and better than any film. A farewell dinner at an Indian fine-dining room closes the trip properly.

A chauffeured transfer to SFO for the flight home. Your travel designer emails the full photo-spot list you never got to, which is our polite way of arranging the second trip.