HotelChatter - Tag: Unusual Hotels

Balea Lac: Get Down with Dracula at Romania's Rebuilt Ice Hotel This Season

Heidi Atwal — 2012-01-04T09:30:02-05:00

Eerily sculpted headboards adorn rooms at the Balea Lac Ice Hotel

It's been over a year since we last reported on an ice hotel, which we took as a sign that the kitschy travel trend had seen its final day pass. But rounding out this unusually mild winter season is news about the latest contender in (relatively) cheap and chilly accommodations: Romania.

The Balea Lac is one in a series of European icy lodgings that are rebuilt to compensate for melting and other seasonal changes. Temperatures inside top off at a spine-tingling 35 degrees Fahrenheit, though rest assured, every stay includes a "specialist sleeping bag" and some furs.

Don't Step Outside Your Bubble at The BubbleTree Hotel

juliana — 2011-09-28T16:58:11-05:00

While we wait for the W Paris to open, there's another funky hotel we can check into just outside the city--The BubbleTree Hotel at Chateau Mal-maison, the former home of Napoleon’s wife, Josephine de Beauharnais .

The WSJ reports on this unusual kind of outdoor hotel where the rooms are actually self-enclosed "bubbles." The French designer, Pierre-Stephane Dumas, said:

“It’s a structure without a frame, and so we send air into it to continually hold the structure up. This allows us at once to continually renew the air and avoid condensation and humidity. That avoids a problem frequently encountered in tents, so that we have a truly healthy habitat.”

Tepoztlán: Head To Mexico For Some Quality Tube Time

ASchechter — 2011-07-08T15:00:02-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/61268/tubohotel4.jpg" class="top">In terms of oddly-shaped hotel rooms, we'd say <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2010/2/3/163414/7686/hotels/A_Night_at_the_Cardboard_Hotel_in_NYC_is_Totally_Free">the cardboard hotel</a> and Sweden's <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2010/11/15/122639/77/hotels/Looking_for_a_Wintry_Getaway_Sweden_s_Icehotel_Will_Reopen_Next_Month">Icehotel</a> stand out prominently in our minds. But eco-news site <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/tubohotel-recycled-concrete-tubing-hotel-tepoztlan-mexico.php">Treehugger</a> tipped us off to the Tubohotel, whose rooms are made out of recycled concrete tubes. Perhaps not the kind of hotel room you'd want to <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2011/7/7/193327/5002/hotels/Want_To_Get_Treated_Like_A_God_At_The_Pierre_First_You_Have_To_Get_Plastic_Surgery">stay whilst recovering from plastic surgery</a>, but a winner if you're traveling through Mexico on a shoestring budgetrooms go for a very reasonable $43 per night (or 500 pesos, for those who are already on the plane) and rates stay fixed all year round. The hotel (we use the term liberally) is located in Tepoztlan, a 45 minute drive south of Mexico City. We laughed

Big Sur: Do Go Back To Big Sur, As Long As It's At Treebones

juliab — 2011-05-02T15:02:09-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/21888/treebonesyurts500.jpg" class="top"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1fGNCvZL_w">Remember The Thrills?</a> It says a lot about the place youre staying when a yurt is the pedestrian option, but thats how we felt when we booked two nights at <a href='http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel/local/4860'>Treebones Resort</a> the week before last. See, the reason we were really heading up to Big Sur was because we wanted to stay in The Nest the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2011/4/22/21201/1826/hotels/Flying_The_Nest_Isn_t_Easy_When_It_s_In_Big_Surhuman-sized birds nest/">treehouse perched on a bluff</a> overlooking Highway 1 and the Pacific. But, thanks to its being booked up months in advance, The Nest was only free on our second night. So the first, we luxed up in a yurt. Our yurt, 12, qualified as a partial ocean view although we didnt get much enjoyment

Big Sur: Flying The Nest Isn't Easy When It's In Big Sur

juliab — 2011-04-25T09:32:05-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/21888/nestfd.jpg" class="top"> There are hotels that look like <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2010/7/27/01728/3995/hotels/HotelChatter_s_10_Ugliest_Hotels_Alive_">Chinese gods</a>, motels <a href="http://www.dogbarkparkinn.com/">in the shape of a dog</a> and now we present our lodging from last Monday night: a human-sized birds nest perched on top of Highway 1 in Big Sur. The treehouse, which is actually called The Nest is one of the accommodation options at <a href='http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel/local/4860'>Treebones Resort</a> you can either choose a yurt (more on those another time), full-on camping, or this. Although, if you book the nest, youll be required to pitch a tent just below it, in case the weathers too bad to sleep in the nest (its bang on a ridge overlooking Highway 1 and the Pacific, so its the windiest part