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Sleeping By The (Red) Sea in Bir Suwair's Bamboo Shacks
We learned several things from our visit to Egypt last week. First, five star there does not necessarily mean the five star that you would be accustomed to. We stayed in three five star properties in the Sinai peninsula – the Four Seasons and the Concorde in Sharm El Sheikh, and the Intercontinental in Taba Heights, and, unless you count all inclusive buffets and slightly tired decor as desirable five star attributes, only the Four Seasons was up to scratch.
Second, do not trust the buffets. They will make most likely you ill.
Third, you may tire of the resorts after a week of the buffets and the activities and the enforced gaiety and being surrounded by what seems like half the inhabitants of Britain and Russia, comparing sun burn and complaining that the guy at breakfast overfilled the coffee cup.
This is when you need to escape. And this is where you should escape to: Bir Suwair, in northern Sinai, between Nuweiba and Taba. It’s a settlement on a lovely sandy beach (this is important because not all the beaches in Sinai are lovely and sandy; most are rocky and have to import sand that’s a bit chunky and scratchy, although they have awesome coral reefs to make up for this). And by “settlement”, we mean a group of about 30 campsites made up of bamboo and wooden shacks. Robinson Crusoe eat your heart out.
Tags: Themed Hotels / Thanatourism Hotels / Odd Hotels / Titanic Hotels / Belfast Hotels / Hotel Hype / → All Tags
A Titanic-Themed Hotel Might Be Coming to Belfast
Hmm...you definitely can't say it's "too soon" for a Titanic-themed hotel to open in Belfast but we're not so sure if we're loving the idea of a hotel that's built around a tragedy. But thanatourists will love this place.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, a five-star 90-room hotel with a swimming pool, a gymnasium and a Titanic theme has been announced for the old Harland and Wolff Headquarters building at Queen's Island in Belfast, near where the doomed ship was constructed.
The hotel, if plans are approved, will be part of a larger revitalization project called the Titanic Signature Project, which seeks to restore the Thompson Dock and the slipways where the Titanic and her sister ship, The Olympic, were built. This Titanic Quarter, as the area is called, will also have apartments, an entertainment district and an amusement park, Titanic-themed of course.
Tags: Switzerland Hotels / Hotel Art / Odd Hotels / → All Tags
The 'Zero-Star Hotel' in Switzerland Opens June 5th
Where: Teufen, Canton Appenzell Outer Rhodes, Switzerland
We're all about odd and unusual hotel offerings today, but seriously now: who would want to stay at a "zero-star hotel"? No-frills is one thing, but anti-luxury is an experiment in inconvenience and unwelcome irony that we are not so into. But maybe you're into that sort of thing. It's "art." So they say.
We mentioned the Null Stern Hotel in Switzerland back in January: two brothers came up with (and run) this hotel concept as an art installation slash business venture; inside a subterranean Swiss air raid shelter, "hotel rooms" are arranged sleeper-dormitory-style, with no walls between beds, a shared bath, and limited hot water. Instead of heaters, there are rubber hot water bottles hanging from clotheslines up along the walls to provide "low-tech personal heat systems." Oh, and there are no windows. The hotel was previously not open to guests, but alas, look what landed in our inbox today:
The Null Stern Hotel is set to open its doors on Friday, June 5, 2009 in Teufen, Canton Appenzell Outer Rhodes, Switzerland. After months of meticulous preparation from concept to reality and with currently over 1,000 reservations on the books prior to the official opening, Frank and Patrik Riklin, from the Atelier für Sonderaufgaben (St. Gallen), concept artists and inventors of the Null Stern Hotel, said, "The time for an unusual extension of hospitality has come; we are eager to see how the art installation will further develop as a business idea with real guests coming from all over the world".
1,000 people want to stay here. 1,000 people! What are the odds that we could get one of these things going stateside in our basement? Sigh. If you want to be number 1,001, try your luck at snagging a rezzie here. At least it's cheap to stay here.
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Ground Control To Major Tom: A Cool Tin Can In Poland
A candidate for our Geek Hotels 2010 list.
It makes sense that a luxury hotel decked out in electronic art would be located somewhere between Berlin and Krakow. (Or, for that matter, floating round a tin can far above the moon). Blow Up Hall 50 50 opened up last month in Poznan, Poland and it has taken interactive art to inhabitable levels.
Guests figuratively should take their protein pills and put their helmets on before entering the black-walled foyer flanked with a video installation created by Tate museum display artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Think meta-meta: 2,400 CCTV scrambled images of the hotel's guests doing whatever they do in the hotel lobby recorded for art's sake. Thankfully, this does not include footage from inside the guestrooms or bathroom use.
Too bad, though — as the bathrooms are niftily hidden behind closet doors and have disorienting mirrors strategically mounted for bizarre levels of voyeurism. (Actually, we're very glad there aren't cameras in the bathrooms).
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Au Revoir to the Hotel Everland
It's always hard bidding farewell, but when the, um, thing in question is well placed, cultured and seriously sexy, a little piece of the heart breaks. So we are shedding a little tear at the imminent demise of Hôtel Everland.
The art installation — which took the convenient shape of a cutesy little tub-cum-hotel, squatting on the top of the Palais du Tokyo — is going to that great hotel room in the sky at the end of the month.
With a king-size bed, free minibar and a stonking, unobstructed view of the Eiffel Tower (as well it should have, seeing as it sits 98ft above the ground and costs $488 a night), it was our dream hotel. Still, at seven years of age, with stints in Yverdon and Leipzig before reaching Paris in October 2007, it had a decent run. We're just sad we never got to try her out for ourselves. À la prochaine fois, notre amour.
Tags: Guess the Hotel / Odd Hotels / Netherlands Hotels / → All Tags
A Megatron Takes Over a Hotel in The Netherlands
It's a rare occasion that we don't know the name of the hotel that we toss out for you in our Guess the Hotel game. In fact, it's only happened one other time--and hey, we managed to figure that one out!
So this is what we know: This hotel is in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Yep, that's it. That's all we know. Well, that and that this transformer-eque building is a hotel.
If you think you can guess what hotel this is or if you know what hotel it is, would you please kindly share it with us in comments below? Also: Would you stay there? Is it just us, or does this place creep you out in a about-to-transform-into-Megatron-any-minute-now sort of way?
[Photo: xiffy]
Tags: Odd Hotels / Cockatoo Island Houses / Sydney Hotels / Jail Hotels / → All Tags
Stay In Sydney Harbour, Literally, at the Cockatoo Island Houses
When in Sydney, you might well be craving harbor views, but we've got a new alternative--just stay in the middle of Sydney Harbour itself.
We’ve experienced the camping version of a stay at Cockatoo Island, but if you want to stay overnight in more style on this island in the middle of the harbor--with clear views to the Sydney Harbour Bridge--you're in luck.
The Cockatoo Island Historic Houses are available for up to ten guests per house, and according to a Sydney Morning Herald review, these two historic houses (formerly prisons) have been elegantly refurbished and include three plasma TVs per house. The digs are available for A$400 ($260) a night during the week or A$1200 ($780) for a Friday to Sunday weekend stay. Those are somewhat decent prices for the views you're getting, especially if you're traveling with a group.
Tags: Design Hotels / Austria Hotels / Museum Hotels / Odd Hotels / → All Tags
It's Your Second Chance to Sleep in A Museum
Did you miss your chance to stay in the hotel room installation inside of the Guggenheim? If you're headed to Linz, the third-largest city in Austria, anytime soon then you may have another shot at spending the night within a museum.
As Linz has been chosen as a European Capital of Culture for 2009, they are setting up to host a year's worth of art openings and cultural events and they intend the accomodations for the visitors to play into the experience. Enter the Pixelhotel, which is not a single building, but a consortium of converted rooms throughout the city. All designed differently and with unique histories, the Pixelhotel rooms are in former workshops, on houseboats, in old storefronts, and even situated at the center of art galleries.
This is the case for designer Thomas Feichtner's Pixelhotel room within Simone Feichtner Gallery in downtown Linz. An elevated, nest-like bed and angular furniture are not merely on display; they will be used by actual guests throughout the installation. Beginning at 87 Euro, it's beyond doable when if you remember that the Guggenheim room started from $549 a night. To specify which Pixelhotel you would like to book, you must call +43(0)650 743 79 53 or send an email to office@pixelhotel.at. If you'd rather be surprised, then book online at Tiscover.
[Images: DesignMilk]
Tags: Vietnam Hotel Scene / Houseboats / Odd Hotels / Halong Bay Hotels / → All Tags
Floating Hotel Surrounds You In Natural Wonder, Wood Paneling
All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.
When we imagine living on a houseboat, it usually involves a serious amount of wood paneling, good scotch, and seriously outdated 70s furniture. So we were pleasantly surprised when, minus the booze, we discovered that a floating hotel on Halong Bay, Canh Buom 8, possessed these traits.
The tour boat shuttles travelers around the thousands of island jutting out of the bay. For boat standards, the cabin rooms--there were four on either side of the small, antique ship--were surprisingly spacious. We’ve seen cruise ships with more cramped cabins. And cruise ships certainly lack the appealing kitsch of these rickety ships. The entire trip from Hanoi, including the room, food, and transportation, costs either $32 or $56 depending on which “class” you select, although the difference between classes was indistinguishable.
Each room comes with a private bathroom, which had been recently renovated. While the water pressure was lousy, the hot water tank provided scorching, lasting hot water. This is impressive for a ship, since few hostel and budget-hotel showers offers as much. The restaurant area is spacious, with big windows that block the chilly February wind on the bay while still offering an incredible view.
There's no website but you can book a spot on a Canh Buom ship or on a similar boat with amenities that are just as oddly cozy, by visiting any reputable tour agents in Hanoi.
Tags: Odd Hotels / → All Tags
Would You Stay in Any of These Hotels?
It must be that time of the year, when news outlets break out lists like "world's strangest" in order to pass the slow months. This week, CNN is leading the pack with a nice wrapup of nine (why not ten?) funky properties around the globe in "Strange Hotels, Unusual Places." Some have been covered to death, like the Hotel Everland capsule in Paris and any ice hotel, but we always love a good list and this one does bear a few pleasant surprises.
Although we remember having seen it on a design blog in the past, Dasparkhotel in Austria has been laying low for a hotel made out of repurposed segments of drainpipe. If you're game to stay out in the woods in a length of pipe, we recommend thinking of it as something like the wine barrel hotel rooms, just with a more urban history.
In terms of new discoveries, CNN's list happily introduces us to The Shady Dell vintage trailerpark in Arizona, near the Mexico border. While they aren't exacly retro-cool airstreams, they are the next best thing for indulging your fantasies of a 1950s family vacation.
Also added to our list of must-go places is the Harlingon Harbour Crane Hotel near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Just as the hotel name implies, $400 a nights gives access to and a bed inside of the pilothouse of an old crane, which still functions just enough to allow you to turn it any way you want, chasing the best scenery if you so desire. It's plain to see that they've got our attention, as we're down for anything even slightly off the wall. Now if only artist Carsten Höller would do another hotel room installation in the Guggenheim, we'd be some literal happy campers.
[Photo: CNN]
Tags: Odd Hotels / Napa Valley Hotels / Train Hotels / → All Tags
Spend The Night in Napa in a Train Car
No, we’re not suggesting you become a hobo, riding the rails cross-country, stopping in a Podunk town every now and then to take in the view and scrounge for scraps. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find your bliss by sleeping in a converted train car at the Napa Valley Railway Inn in Napa.
This unusual lodging establishment is located within a couple miles of the Stag’s Leap, Oakville, Oak Knoll and Rutherford districts, in the almost oppressively manicured hamlet of Yountville, ground zero for foodies and oenophiles alike.
The hotel itself is a breath of fresh air with converted railway cars for guest rooms that sit along actual railway ties from the now defunct Napa Valley Railway. That means the accommodations are narrow. Very narrow.
Tags: Odd Hotels / Overwater Bungalows / Switzerland Hotels / → All Tags
A Swiss Twist on Overwater Bungalows
We get a bit tingly when we see pictures of a hotel that look as gorgeous as this one. This over-lake wonder is the Hotel Palafitte near Neuchâtel in French-speaking Switzerland, in the north-west of the country.
What makes us even more tingly is when it sounds like our high expectations might actually be fulfilled. Nearly every guest review of this place is overloaded with glowing adjectives and phrases like "One of Europe's best experiences" or "truly one of the most fantastic hotels".
There are rooms--they call them "pavilions"--both on the shore and over the lake, but if you're going all the way to Switzerland you've got to stay with the water lapping under you, right? That would put you back 695 Francs ($600) a night plus another 35Fr ($30) for breakfast.
[Photo: Tambako the Jaguar]
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