The rich are very different. For one thing, they tend to build huge houses.

Keeping up with the Joneses is no easy task. Consider Lonely Planet’s list of 10 Greatest Mansions and Grand Houses.

At the top of the heap is Marble Palace Mansion in Kolkata, India. Lavishly built in 1853 it is filled to the rafters with marble inlay in a blend of neoclassical and traditional Bengali architecture. It’s still privately held and the owners aren’t fussy about dusting. In fact, some of the furniture is covered in old sheets.  You can see it on tour, but you will need a permit from West Bengal Tourism.

No. 2 is the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion in Penang, Malaysia. Built in the 1880s, this indigo-blue Chinese courtyard house was home to Cheong Fatt Tze, a prominent Chinese figure in the newly established Penang Straits Settlement.

Master craftsmen brought in from China built 38 rooms, five granite-paved courtyards and seven staircases. In all, there are 220 windows. Architectural elements include splendid Chinese timber carvings, gothic louvre windows, russet brick walls, porcelain cut-and-paste decorative shard works, and art nouveau stained glass panels. To ensure harmony, the layout is based on feng-shui principles. As befitting a mansion, it’s furnished with a rare collection of sculptures, carvings, tapestries, and other antiques.

Part of the mansion has been converted into a hotel, so you can really live it up. And the currency rate is on your side. Rates range from 420-800 Malaysian Ringgit. That’s $132-$252 in U.S. dollars. Or get a taste of the high life on a guided tour.

Among the Downton Abbey set is an inexplicable choice, Falling Water, a sylvan get-away in Pennsylvania designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that came in at No. 6. Cool? You bet. A mansion? Not even close.

Here are the other grand digs on the exalted list:

• Werribee Mansion in Australia, built at the height of the Victorian age when the gold rush made Melbourne the richest city in the world.
• Villa d’Este, outside Rome, transformed from an abbey to a pleasure palace by Lucrezia Borgia’s son.
• Castle Howard, England, the site of Brideshead Revisted. So grand it took three earls to build it over their lifetimes.
• Chateau de Chambord, a 16th century French mansion in the Italianate style, so big it could house a small city.
• Catherine Palace, glowing with gilt in the style of tsarist Russia.
• Sleeper-McCann house, a 40-room summer cottage in Massachusetts  overlooking Gloucester Harbor.
• Powerscourt, Ireland, a 13th century castle opulently restored in the 18th century.