From Diana’s island hideaway to a ‘secret date’ location and a £40m yacht trip: Inside the Royal Family’s most iconic holidays

Although the Prince and Princess of Wales have only just returned from their summer holiday in Greece, the trip already looks destined to become one of the Royal Family’s most iconic vacations.

It is understood that William and Kate holidayed in the idyllic Ionian Islands on a luxury £40million yacht. 

The Prince and Princess of Wales – along with Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte – first travelled to Kefalonia before they were spotted off the coast of the tiny island of Ithaca.  

The royals then dropped anchor at nearby Zakynthos for a very special reason. 

During the weekend, the Daily Mail reported that a tender boat was dispatched on a special mission. Locals in Zakynthos have half-jokingly speculated that the 12-year-old George fancied a fast food treat. 

Sources remain tight-lipped about what the purpose of the trip was but allegedly the young prince – seemingly having grown tired of Greek staples such as souvlaki and moussaka – might have fancied a McDonalds.

The amusing story is just one of many famous tales to come to light once the Royals were back home inside their palaces. And while many are lighthearted, other trips abroad caused scandal and in other cases were marked by tragedy.

The tropical island made most famous by the royals is the Caribbean paradise of Mustique which was owned by The Lord Glenconner. He gave Princess Margaret a holiday home on the island as a wedding gift.

The holiday home quickly became Margaret’s sanctuary where she entertained guests with lavish parties.

Mustique found itself at the centre of a royal scandal in 1976 when pictures of Margaret frolicking in the sea with Roddy Llewellyn who sported a pair of striking Union Jack budgie smugglers were published. 

The photos exposed the Princess’ affair with Roddy, who was 17 years her junior, and played a part in the end of Margaret’s marriage to Lord Snowdon.  

Prince Charles was another royal who was spotted enjoying a swim in the sea during a holiday to Perth, Australia, in 1979.

The prince was still a bachelor at the time and got plenty of attention from young women who couldn’t keep away from Charles. In a video from the visit one woman – wearing a bikini – can be seen clinging onto Charles as he emerges from the ocean.

As he drying off with a towel, another woman runs up to Charles and gives him a peck on the cheek. 

It would be another two years before Charles married Princess Diana in 1981.

As any married family do, Charles and Diana went a number of summer holidays together including multiple trips to Majorca with Prince William and Prince Harry.  

Perhaps the couple’s most famous holiday was their visit to Italy in 1991. 

The excursion was dubbed their ‘second honeymoon’ as it came shortly after the couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.

Sailing along the coast of Italy, the royals enjoyed the splendour of the Alexander – which at the time was the third biggest yacht in the world – where they were joined by the former King and Queen of Greece, Constantine and Anne-Marie, as well as Prince Charles’ cousin, Lord Romsey, and his wife, Lady Penelope and all their children.

While the press dubbed the trip a ‘happy family holiday’, Charles and Diana would separate just over a year later in December 1992 and from what is known now their marriage was very much on the rocks by the summer of 1991.

After they separated Diana took a number of holidays with her sons to an array of destinations.

This included a trip to the Caribbean island of Nevis, accompanied by her mother, in January 1993 shortly after her split from the Prince of Wales. 

And a visit to Walt Disney World in Florida – where Diana and the boys were pictured enjoying the theme park’s famous Splash Mountain.

One of Diana’s favourite destinations at this time was the tiny island of Barbuda where she holidayed on multiple occasions after her separation and later divorce from Charles. 

This included a trip to the island with her secretary and friend Victoria Mendham in Easter 1996 where they stayed in Barbuda’s exclusive K Club resort. 

The close friends fell out during the excursion after Diana asked Victoria to foot half of the £5,000 bill which she could not afford. 

Diana then quietly footed the bill to end the drama.

Diana returned a year later where she was snapped smiling in a remarkably candid photo sitting cross legged on a sun lounger.

In recognition of Diana’s love of Barbuda, a secluded beach on the island was renamed Princess Diana Beach in 2011 on what would have been her 50th birthday. 

Her most notorious trip would tragically become her last when she spent the summer of 1997 sailing around southern Europe with Mohamed al Fayed and his son Dodi al Fayed.

At Mohamed’s invitation Diana travelled to the south of France, with William and Harry, in July that year for a week away at his home in Saint-Tropez and on his private yacht.

It was on this holiday that the princess met Dodi and a romance soon blossomed.

Diana enjoyed the break. The princess was pictured smiling and enjoying herself aboard the luxury vessel and Harry would write in his memoir, Spare, that ‘everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven’.

A month later, Diana returned to the French Riviera and spent more time with Dodi travelling to Corsica and Sardinia on his yacht.

The pair were soon photographed together leading to a summer of speculation in the media about what their relationship was. The Daily Mail ran a headline on August 7 which read ‘Diana’s cruise with playboy Dodi’.

It was during this fateful holiday that Princess Diana was snapped sitting at the end of the yacht’s diving board.

Alone, wearing a striking turquoise swimming costume, the picture instantly became one of the most notorious photos from that summer as just days later both Dodi and Diana would die following a car crash in Paris.

More recent holidays by the royals have been much more low key but that doesn’t mean they still haven’t grabbed headlines.

In 2006, William and Kate holidayed in Ibiza making use of Kate’s ‘bad boy’ uncle Gary Goldsmith’s £3.6million villa and his yacht – where they were pictured sunbathing together on the bow.

Gary’s luxury pad boasted an infinity swimming pool and a tennis court, but it quickly became known as ‘La Maison de Bang Bang’ – crude French slang for the house of sex – because of his penchant for wild parties.

In 2009, the trip made headlines after The News Of The World printed a shocking photo of Kate’s uncle – Gary Goldsmith – seemingly preparing to snort cocaine on the front page.

Gary had unwittingly invited two journalists from the paper into his villa in Ibiza where he shared stories about Kate and William’s time at his home including a tale of how William broke his ornamental pyramids.

In 2012, while Kate and William were enjoying a holiday, the French gossip magazine Closer published topless pictures of Kate from inside the private grounds of a chateau.

Following a trial in France, Closer was ordered to pay €100,000 to Kate and William for the publication of the pictures.

That same year leaked pictures of the Duke of Sussex in Las Vegas showed the then-27-year-old prince playing strip billiards.

The Sun was the only British newspaper to publish the photos at the time despite a warning from the Royal Family that it was an invasion of privacy.  

At the time the Palace said: ‘We remain of the opinion that a hotel room is a private space where its occupants would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.’ 

However, the Firm then decided not to lodge a complaint to the press watchdog claiming that to ‘pursue a complaint relating to his private life would not be appropriate at this time and would prove to be a distraction’.

Another headline-grabbing holiday was when Prince Harry whisked Meghan Markle away to Botswana in 2016.

The trip to the southern African country – which Harry was visited countless times – was their third date.

According to Tina Brown in her 2022 bestseller The Palace Papers, they stayed ‘in a £1,500 deluxe tent at the Meno a Kwena safari camp.’

To celebrate the Duchess of Sussex’s 36th birthday, the couple returned to Botswana again a year later where Meghan was pictured equipping an elephant with a satellite collar.

They were assisting Dr Mike Chase of Elephants Without Borders, who uses collars to track their movements.

The Duke of Sussex has returned to Africa many times since, both with and without his wife.

Perhaps the most touching picture from a royal holiday was released by Queen Elizabeth II following the death of Prince Philip in 2021. 

In the picture from 2003 – taken by Sophie Duchess of Edinburgh –  a relaxed looking Philip and Elizabeth can be seen enjoying a day out on the Balmoral estate.

It was reportedly one of the late Queen’s favourite photos.