#1. Necker Island – British Virgin Islands
This is the home and favorite hideaway of Virgin Group CEO, Sir Richard Branson, by his very own admission. He purchased the 74-acre island way back in 1978 for a measly $180,000, when he was only 28. He invested $10 million to develop the resort, in a three year timeframe. He built a 10-bedroom Balinese-style villa, with Brazilian wood, Asian antiques, Indian rugs as well as fabrics and bamboo from Bali. The Grand House (the island’s largest and main structure) made international headlines in August 2011, when a fire burnt down the house. British actress Kate Winslet, who was a guest of Branson at the time, heroically pulled out his 90-year old mother, Eve from the burning building. Both women, together with Branson’s 29-year old daughter Holly and the other guests at the house escaped the flames, unscathed.