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A 'Lost Island' Gets a Hotel (And No Reality TV is Involved)

In our inbox, we received a press release that started with, "Imagine an island, just a few hours from the U.S. eastern seaboard, with windmills, hot springs, a mild year-round climate..." and, as we read through it, we prepared ourselves for some sort of a reality show pitch a la "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" (the Heidi and Spencer disaster that we have yet to successfully wipe from memory) or "30 Rock"'s "MILF Island."

But, alas, this is actually a "lost"(ish) island, and now it has a hotel. And no reality show — as far as we can tell.

The teensy island of Graciosa, one of the Azorean islands (and one of the smaller ones, in fact — it's about 8 by 12 km with a population of just over 4600), was without any hotels for a long time — and now it has one: the Graciosa Resort & Business Hotel in Santa Cruz da Graciosa. Graciosa is just north of Sao Jorge and is known for the unique style of windmills that pepper the island's landscape, thanks to some of its first inhabitants, Flemish settlers. According to the press materials, the hotel is "part of a series of investments to build infrastructure connected to the tourist economy on Graciosa," such as the Carapacho thermal baths (which are said to cure bone and skin ailments).

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