Saw this article on Msn.ca just now
Das Park Hotel, Austria
Here’s a hotel that allows you to “pay as you wish.” It’s minimalist, it’s quiet, it’s cozy. It’s also located inside standalone concrete drain pipes. But don’t flush this hotel down the drain. Created by an art student, there are three pods located in a park alongside the Danube in Linz. Amenities like bathrooms, food and a cafeteria are located nearby, and it’s perfect for passing backpackers. Booking takes place online, where you receive a code to open to the electronic door. When it’s time to leave, you make a donation. Plans are afoot to develop more of these 2m wide pipe hotels, because some travellers will always be attracted to fun, cheap, and most of all weird accommodation.
Quinta Real Zacatecas, Mexico
There are some weird hotels steeped in taste. Like the five star Quinta Real, which is built into the grandstand of San Pedro’s 19th century bull fighting ring. There are master, grand class and presidential suites, elegantly decorated with all the lush trimmings. Sure, it’s a nice hotel. The weirdness comes from the fact that the hotel surrounds a death ring, where locals once crowded in to chant for the matador, deftly maneuvering a charging beast into a position where it could be speared, and it’s blood spilt. Ah, the stuff of tranquil dreams.
The Toilet House – South Korea
There’s several odd things about this hotel. First, it’s a big house shaped like a toilet bowl. Second, it has a centerpiece toilet in the middle (motion sensors cloud the transparent walls for a little privacy.) Thirdly, it a two-story celebration of the toilet in all its glory - a place to relax and reflect. Finally, the house is open to anyone for the night, so long as you foot the bill, a mere $50,000. That sounds like a crappy deal, but you’ll be contributing to raising the awareness of sanitation and water. Eco-friendly and sustainable, the Toilet House is located about 40 miles outside of Seoul. If I were a billionaire, I’d rent the place out. Most travellers know all about staying in crapholes, but how many of us can say they literally spent the night in (and not on) the toilet?
The Shady Dell - USA
There’s no shortage of bizarro south of the border. Motels shaped like dogs, duck concierges, the California’s Madonna Inn with its 110 individually themed rooms. I’m going to go with Arizona’s Shady Dell with its 11 converted vintage aluminum trailers. Dating back to the 1950’s, each trailer is themed and fully loaded, a sort of dreamland for those accustomed to trailer parks. Leopard print, martini glasses, it’s all in the name of good fun and kitsch. There’s also an old school 50’s diner and gas pump. I once stayed in a caravan hotel in Western Australia. It smelled vaguely of Vegemite.
Capsule Inn Akihabara – Japan
If Propeller Island is a little too individualistic for you, consider joining the rat race and staying in Tokyo’s famed capsule hotel. Measuring 1m x 1m x 2m, your room is basically an elongated cigar tube, albeit one equipped with a single bed, television set, radio alarm clock and air conditioning. Forget doors, you front load yourself into a see through pod that looks disturbingly like an oven, neatly stacked above and adjacent to your neighbours. Your clothes are stored in locker room, and the bathrooms are communal. Their website mentions things like Bruce Willis in the movie Fifth Element, and controlling your environment “as if you were in a spacecraft.” It costs about $45 a night, based on single occupancy, although there are group capsules for two to four women. The only thing missing is suspended animation and someone to wake you up when you arrive in Pandora
Propeller Island City Lodge – Germany
Most hotel rooms have art, but what happens when your room itself becomes a work of art. Located in Berlin and billing itself as a luxury boutique hotel, Propeller Island is more like an imagination run amok. One diamond-shaped room is floor to ceiling mirrors. Another has coffins for beds. One has all the furniture upside down, while one looks decidedly like a torture chamber. There’s also the padded cell (in green leather) and a levitating bed. The rooms are the creation of a German artist named Lars Stroschen, determined to shock and amuse with his one-of-a-kind creations. Is it art? Possibly, but at 79 to 190 euros a night, it’s definitely a weird hotel
Karostas Cietums – Latvia
There’s a variety of prison hotels out there, some of which have found themselves into luxury catalogues, like Boston’s Liberty Hotel. But for a real prison experience, and a Soviet one no less, head to Latvia for a night of pure discomfort and psychological torture. On arrival, the guards confiscate your passport, conduct a harsh interrogation, and lock you up in a dark cell that once housed condemned political prisoners. Fun activities come in the form of cleaning toilets with toothbrushes, and being yelled at in a Baltic language. The guards are actors, but they take their roles very seriously, so no amount of smiling or begging will do you any good. You paid for an authentic Soviet-era experience, you may as well suffer and enjoy it.
Jumbo Stay - Sweden
I struggle to sleep on planes because I struggle to afford a business class ticket that might give the zzzz’s a slice of hope. Jumbo Stay, a permanently grounded 747-200 aircraft, might just change that. The plane has been converted into a hostel with 27 rooms and 76 beds, complete with an onboard café and luxury cockpit room. It’s located nearby the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, should new arrivals feel the need to get back on a plane. Meanwhile, the jury is out whether you can technically join the mile high club by staying in an airplane hotel.
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