This time of year many of us decide to pack up and get away from it all, which means big business for hotels, motels and caravan parks all across the country.
If you're looking for a getaway that's a little different, you'd do well to check out the new list of the world's extraordinary luxury hotels compiled by Forbes magazine.
The list features:
Ice Hotel, Quebec, Canada. Created anew each year out of 15,000 pounds of snow and 500 pounds of ice, the 34-room hotel features an ice chapel, two art galleries and a host of outdoor activities. The temperature inside the hotel ranges from 23 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the beds are carved from ice. You don't sleep directly on the ice, though -- there's a wooden plank between the ice and a comfy mattress, plus you're insulated with a special sleeping bag that can withstand the harshest climes (-40 degrees Fahrenheit).
Propeller Island City Lodge, Berlin, Germany. Would you rather sleep in a coffin or in a bed atop a castle? Each of the 31 rooms in this hotel is designed totally around a different theme, such as the orange room and the symbol room (tiled entirely with wooden blocks painted with 300 different symbols). Pictured below is the Padded Cell.
Library Hotel, New York City, where each floor is designed after one of the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System, such as Math and Science and Religion, and each room houses part of the hotel's collection of 6,000 books.
The Ariau Towers Hotel, Brazil lets you sleep in the treetops of the Amazon Rainforest. "Tarzan's house," for example, is perched on stilts 80 feet above the ground. Situated on the bank of the Negro River, Ariau's suites are linked by a series of catwalks.
Jules Undersea Lodge, Key Largo, Florida - a former research lab located underwater in a tropical mangrove habitat, and guests must scuba dive 21 feet to get to the main lobby that can accommodate up to six guests, and each air-conditioned room features a 42-inch window in the water.
Leave a comment