This burgeoning travel trend plays to the BOGO concept (Buy One, Get One) and delivers a vacation slash medical procedure. This makes it easy to tell everyone at the office that you're off to Phuket for sun and fun, when really you're going to come back with a new nose or different set of genitalia. You get to recover in a tropical locale, and often the surgeries themselves are much cheaper. (Perhaps the surgeons and clinics are a little sketchy, but that's another subject altogether.)

Thailand is what you would call a medical vacation pioneer. Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, Thailand's largest healthcare provider, offers services in Bangkok in addition to tropical island service in Phuket (which specializes in sex change operations) and Koh Samui. The recovery rooms are plush -- flatscreen TVs and en-suite living rooms are standard. Procedures run about $1,500 for an upper- and lower-eyelid surgery and about $2,500 for thigh and ass lipo. You’ll pay an additional fee of up to $400 a day for your accommodations, including nursing care and room-service meals. Not a bad deal, all things considered.