We are big fans of Queensland's incredible Great Barrier Reef and since we keep reading that it's kinda threatened by human activity and global warming, we're not really sure that we like the idea of the floating hotel called Reefworld that the UK Times reported about on the weekend.
They're saying that Reefworld will be the world's first "fully eco-friendly floating hotel" and includes eight underwater guestrooms. The bathrooms will have glass walls so all the fish will be able to see what you're up to in there! The plan is to combine it with a research facility, and also power the whole thing using solar panels and its own turbines and "underwater trickle-charge generators".
It sounds a bit science fiction-like and reactions have been mixed. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority have apparently given it their support, but local dive operators are more skeptical. And while in theory we love the idea of an underwater bedroom, we'd rather make sure the reef was still there for future generations to enjoy. Because that's just the kind of people we are.
We passed on Peter Greenberg's tips about the Treebones Resort in Big Sur a short while ago, and now this collection of yurts has made it onto a list from Budget Travel magazine too: a list of accommodations in Big Sur for under $200 a night.
The odd thing about Treebones is that the owners never intended to build a hotel or resort of any kind. They bought the land there to retire on, and then discovered that new planning laws prevented them from simply building a house. And gradually the idea of the yurts developed--because they didn't want a "normal hotel"--and Treebones as we now know it, 16 simple wooden yurts and a lodge--came to be.
Rates are still the same, starting at $155 a night. They have got a special coming up if you're in to planning ahead to 2009--a whale watchers' package with 20% off rack rates for two-night, non-weekend bookings.
Word on First Avenue is that Manhattan officials are trying to convince a developer to turn New York City's famous Bellevue psychiatric ward into swanky new hotel digs. Sounds crazy, no?
Not so says the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Health and Hospital Corporation, who report the building would make an ideal hotel and conference center to house the medical and life-science industry folk who travel to the area.
Built by architect Charles B. Myers, the 1931 Italian Renaissance-style asylum is still a beautiful, albeit rundown building with magnificent architectural details, many different wings, and long corridors totaling an insane (ahem) 400,000 square feet of virtual hotel space.And while the rooms are a smallish for new condos or co-ops, their size is just right for guest rooms.
Until the mid-1980s, the (in)famous psych ward hosted countless criminals and kooks, with Mark David Chapman (John Lennon's murderer), author Norman Mailer, Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick and jazz great Charlie Parker among its many one-time guests. Come on, what other hotel in the U.S. can boast that?
But will switching from straight-jackets to bathrobes be a tourist draw? Perhaps. A mental hospital-turned-luxe hotel might just attract all those hoping for a wild and crazy time in the Big Apple. Worst case scenario, it might just get the local crazies off the streets.
Maybe this planned hotel will make our Best Geek Hotels in the World list for the year 2020.
Architects are presenting renderings for this unusual-shaped hotel which some are already calling the Death Star Hotel.
Heerim architects are looking to build the Star Wars staple in, of all places, Baku, Azerbaijan. They're hoping to bring this design, called the Hotel Full Moon, and another, the Hotel Crescent, to one of the fastest growing economies and will rightly call the area Full Moon Bay.
According to SkyScraper News, the Death Star hotel will be a 35-story luxury hotel with 382 rooms. The pod-shaped structure on the bottom will be residential apartments called Palace of Wind 1 and 2.
Both hotels will overlook the Caspian Sea but again, these hotels still seem like pipe dreams so no word on when they will actually open, or if they will be destroyed before they are fully operational by a young jedi pilot who use to shoot wamp rats on Tatooine.
In the meantime, satisfy your Star Wars travel geek at Hotel Sidi Driss.
When is a hotel a hotel? And when is it a piece of art, and then when is it an alien space-ship?
There's a bit of all three posing on top of Paris's Palais de Tokyo museum of modern art, although to anyone jogging past (as our Paris correspondent was) it looks simply like the latter.
The Hotel Everland is the latest in a series of arty hotels popping up and closing down in Paris - only this one's doing it deliberately. Because despite the name, it's not a hotel but rathera work of art in the shape of a bright green and white fibreglass pod with a bed and bathroom inside.
There are Ice Hotels, Library Hotels, proposed Undersea Hotels, Hotels in Trees, on Boats and on Stilts. Hotels in Palaces, Farmhouses, and Tents.
But Guhantara may be a first: A subterranean cave hotel 20 kilometers outside India's Bangalore City.
Everything at this fantastical resort represents the powers of the earth. The entire place is carved out of rock, including the rooms (decorated with modern-day versions of ancient cave paintings).
There are intricate murals, enormous pillars, lobby, dining area, twisty darkened pathways past decorated shrines, open-air swimming pools -- all cut from rock.
For some people, staying at a Marriott or Hilton Hotel is just too boring for their vacation - that's where the boutique hotel comes in, but for some - even a boutique hotel is just too "hotely".
For those travelers, we have our Unusual Hotels category here on HotelChatter, where we told you about the Ice Hotel, or yet ANOTHER one of Dubai's architectural wonders - the Wheel Hotel.
Afraid of heights? Ok, then what about a tent hotel, or the original undersea hotel in Key Largo, FL? The website Unusual Hotels of the World has over 21 different categories of weird and wacky hotel themes, from desert to treehouse to train to art museum.
UHotW is a user-contributed site which offers not only photos and reviews, but also pricing ranges for weird hotels throughout the world. It was started by two lifelong friends who decided to put together a list of unusual places, and now has a list of 140 locations in almost every nook and cranny of the planet.
They've even written a coffee table book with the 50 top unusual hotels, so even if you don't have a travel budget - you can immerse yourself in these unique and one-of-a-kind locations.
A luxury hotel at the top of a TV radio tower in Amsterdam?? I'm in!
While staying a night or two in a yurt might be more commonplace as you transit through Mongolia on the Trans-Mongolian Express, you don't need to head to such exotic spots to do so. In fact, according to a tip from Peter Greenberg, you can overnight in a yurt--those tent-like affairs typically used by wandering Mongolians--at Big Sur in California.
The Treebones Resort in Big Sur has 16 yurts and all of them are a lot more luxuriously equipped than their Mongolian counterparts. Some of them have an ocean view and all of them have queen-sized beds, electric lighting, a heater and hot and cold running water. They even have polished wooden floorboards, which is much more than the nomads would've been prepared to carry around with them. Additionally, there is a heated pool and hot tub on site, and a lodge building for dining.
Two things you should know: there is no cell phone access (which is probably a good thing for a vacation but you might want to know about it ahead of time); and you can't drive right up to the yurts so you'll want to pack light enough that you can carry everything you bring. If the yurts are booked out and you've got a tent, there are also five campsites available for hire.
On weekends or through the April to October peak season, there's a minimum booking of two nights. A full ocean view yurt for two people comes at $175 per night, or $155 if you only get a partial ocean view; some of the yurts can fit from four to six guests and start at $245 a night for four people. All of which is a lot cheaper than flying to Mongolia.
