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Spinning Croatian Hotel Will Have Best Views For Everybody
You know how they charge a bit more for the rooms with a good view? There's one way to solve this dilemma and get no complaints about it, although it's a pretty hi-tech solution: build a rotating hotel. That's exactly what they're planning in Croatia where some spinning accommodation will be built on Šolta Island, near the city of Split.
But don't worry, it's not turning at a rate likely to make you dizzy. The design has it rotating 1.3 times per day, barely fast enough to notice at all, and at the right pace so that if you stay a few days, you'll get a different view at all times of day. It will be just a three-storey hotel and there will be a central hub including the reception, stairs and elevator that won't rotate, so you won't have to look for the front door in a different place each time.
Tags: Unusual Hotels / MIne Hotels / Underground Hotels / Swedish Hotels / → All Tags
Spend A Night Way, Way Underground In A Swedish Silver Mine
Beginning in the Middle Ages and for centuries afterward, the Sala Silvermine produced copious amounts of silver for Sweden and its monarchs. Those monarchs, in turn, paid miners to dig ever deeper, until today the mine is a cavern of shafts and alcoves and pristine underground lakes. So naturally it was only a matter of time before someone tried to convert the entire thing into an underground hotel.
The Sala Silvermine Company that maintains the mine has two types of accommodations, which they manage in addition to their regular tours and events. The standard option is the above-ground Gruvfruns Bed and Breakfast, a hostel with 15 single and double rooms and shared bathrooms. Prices are 400 SEK per adult for a double and 500 SEK for a single, or about $55 and $70 respectively.
The real treat, though, is the Mining Suite: a double bed tucked into a small alcove, buried 155m under ground. Don't bother bringing a cell phone.
Tags: Unusual Hotels / Hotel Pods / Hotel Design / Camping / Hamster Tunnel Hotel / → All Tags
Would You Spend The Night in a Hamster Tunnel 'Hotel'?
Here at HotelChatter, we're always interested in what future trends are on the horizon for hotels--whether it be sleek-looking Jenga-esuqe buildings or keyless doors or eco-technology. We also like to see what sort of unusual hotel lodgings are trying to get built out there like underwater hotels, the Death Star Hotel and the Egg Hotel. But this one has thrown us for a loop--The Hamster Tunnel Hotel.
Inhabitat.com reports:
This modular, mobile Snuggles hotel allows you to shack up in pods for an artsy camping experience not dissimilar to staying in oversized hamster cage tunnels. The project crosses the boundaries of temporary architecture and public art with its linkable framework, configurable platforms, and waterproof textile coverings. Able to be set up on a beach, in the forest, or in an urban environment, Snuggles offers a fun experience that’s on par with even the trendiest hostels.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Unusual Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
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).
Tags: Australia Hotels / Underwater Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Unusual Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Underwater Hotel at the Great Barrier Reef: Is It Really Eco-Friendly?
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.
[Photo: Leonard Low]
Tags: Unusual Hotels / California Hotels / Yurts / Big Sur Hotels / → All Tags
Treebones: The Big Sur Hotel That Nearly Wasn't
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.
[Photo: MindWideOpen]
Tags: Hotel Hype / Odd Hotels / Unusual Hotels / → All Tags
TrendWatching: Will Prison Hotels Be Replaced By Insane Asylum Hotels?
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.
[Photo: Atomische.com]
Tags: Geek Hotels / Unusual Hotels / Odd Hotels / Hotel Hype / Futuristic Hotels / → All Tags
The Death Star Hotel Not Being Built By Emperor Palpatine
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.
Tags: Odd Hotels / Unusual Hotels / Hotel Design / Paris Hotels / → All Tags
Staying Atop the Palais de Tokyo in the 'Hotel' Everland
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.
Tags: Cave Hotels / Odd Hotels / Unusual Hotels / → All Tags
Cave Enthusiasts Will Like This New Eco-Cave Resort in India
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.
Tags: Unusual Hotels / Odd Hotels / → All Tags
Are Boutique Hotels Just Too Boring For You?
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!
Tags: Peter Greenberg / Unusual Hotels / California Hotels / → All Tags
Peter Greenberg's Tips: Yurts in California
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.
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