View Slideshow

This time of year, all of us, even remarkably pampered stars, supermodels, and international business moguls, can use a secret getaway vacation. Come holiday time, celebs tend to congregate in the usual warm-water watering holes or on the same manicured slopes. They migrate aboard superyachts and Gulfstreams to exotic locales usually just a shade less famous than their own household names: St. Barts (Ronald Perelman, Paul Allen); Gstaad (Valentino); Telluride (Ralph Lauren, Oprah Winfrey); Parrot Cay (Donna Karan, Bruce Willis); and Mustique (Mick Jagger, Tommy Hilfiger).

To discover the lesser-known, more off-the-beaten-path locations, we asked them, in their heart of hearts, where would they truly like to disappear over the holidays? We surveyed the stars during the Emmy awards, at the Princess Grace Awards, at Tag Heuer’s launch of its new Link series of watches, at the Cinema Society debut of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2, and backstage at the Victoria’s Secret show—after all, supermodels get to know all the top beaches intimately during shoots. As Lady Caroline Dester says in the 1991 film Enchanted April: “I want to just sit and not talk and not think and not have to be the center of attention all the time.” Hear, hear.

Click here to see the slideshow of jetsetting celebrities