Tourists and travelers thought that places, where you stay for the duration of your journey, are just simple places to stay, eat, or bathe. Behind that simple place may lie some history or is the main attraction of your stay! However, there are some unique hotels around the world you probably do not know exist that catch your imagination and maybe curiosity. You want to experience it. It’s the uniqueness in every way…first!
Below are our 15 unique hotels from around the world as the
main attractions and not the services per se.
1. The Hotel Ještěd, Czech Republic
The Hotel Ještěd is up there at 1,012 meters above
sea level! Perched amongst the surrounding beauty of nature as far as your eyes
venture to some parts of Germany and Poland and the majority of Bohemia! And,
yet you are still in the Czech Republic.
Construction started in 1966 and was completed in 1973 and was designed by Architect Karel Hubáček. Subsequently, the building was awarded
the August Perret Prize (1969) even before its completion. The building design
competition was announced, and it took place in February 1963 participated by
eleven architects/teams. The main criteria for the design are the building is
to have a hotel, a restaurant, and a TV tower. Architect Karel Hubáček won and
is the only one complying with both requirements.
The tower was designed to naturally extend the silhouette
of the mountain it tops, built to withstand the extreme climate. The result is
a view of one of the most breathtaking in all of the Czech Republic!
2. The Giraffe Manor, Kenya
The Safari Collection owns the Giraffe Manor set in 12
acres of private land within 140 acres of indigenous forest in the Langata
suburb of Nairobi, Kenya. By far it is an exclusive boutique hotel and the most
photographed property in the world. It is one of the most iconic buildings in
all of Nairobi which was built in 1932 by Sir David Duncan. It is surrounded by
140 acres (57ha) of parks and forests with superb views of the Ngong Hills.
Personally, and exclusively hosted, this small, elegant hotel is rich in welcoming accommodation. Moreover, The Giraffe Manor has one of Nairobi's finest
kitchens manned by highly trained staff. Also, the Giraffe Manor, one very
captivating thing about it is its resident herd of Rothschild’s giraffes. These
herds of giraffes may pay a visit morning and evening, poking their long necks
into the windows hoping for a treat, before retreating into their forest
sanctuary. Additionally, with its stately façade, elegant interior, sunny
terraces, verdant green gardens, and delightful courtyards, visitors would
often remark of being like walking into the film Out of Africa.
3. The Marqués de Riscal, Spain
Since the unveiling of this masterpiece in 2006, Hotel Marqués de Riscal has grown to become a
highly sought-after modern-day, luxury haven. Created by renowned Architect
Frank Gehry, its art, design, gastronomy, wine, and verdant scenery all blend
to make your temporary stay at The City of Wine a memorable one.
The Marqués de Riscal is nestled in the famous Vinos de Los
Herederos del Marques de Riscal’s vineyard of the Middle Ages village of Elciego,
situated in Basque Country of Northern Spain. The hotel’s titanium roof,
asymmetrical walls, and remarkable curves all give a classy contrast to the
iconic oldest wineries in the Rioja region. The building rises nine meters
above the ground with a symphonic composition of rectilinear prisms that seems
to float above the ground supported by three super columns. Underground, the
building crosses the wine store of Marqués de Riscal. The hotel has 43 stylish
luxurious rooms, each unique and so different in its shape and offered views.
All rooms featured a distinctive zig-zag window seat with views of the valley.
4. The Inntel Hotel, Netherlands
Called Inntel hotel, the hotel features an overlapping
green wooden facade typical of traditional houses in the region. The new Inntel
hotel in Zaandam is best described as the major eyepopper in the revamped town
center in the Netherlands. Hotel designer Wilfried van Winden (WAM
architecten, Delft) sources his inspiration from the iconic green wooden houses
of the Zaan region. The building is full of life “arrange in a stack” of
colorful examples of the traditional houses in the area.
The hotel has a swimming pool, a wellness center with a
Finnish sauna, a Turkish bath, a bar restaurant, and 160 guest rooms to book in
its eleven floors of space. Moreover, the nearly square tower is roughly forty
meters tall (130ft). Furthermore, the structure is constructed of timber and Eternit
fiber cement cladding, with well-defined diverse
fenestration, expansive protuberant sections, and stylish white eaves and
bargeboards.
5. The Sarova Saltlick Game Lodge, Kenya
The Sarova Saltlick Game Lodge is located
within the Taita Hills Sanctuary a private wildlife-rich sanctuary offering
great views of the untamed endless Tsavo plains and waterholes. The 9000 square
miles of protected terrain is a thrilling destination for true wildlife
enthusiasts. Moreover, this unique hotel in the wild combines responsible
ecotourism with a menagerie of amazing proximity to wildlife.
The hotel with 96 rooms is famous as one of the world's
most photographed lodges and is one of Kenya's flagship safari lodges. The
Sarova Saltlick Game Lodge, as the name suggests is made up of rooms on stilts
above watering holes. It has many terraces and is connected by walkways where
you can watch animals come and drink at the nearby waterholes. Furthermore, the
96 rooms are built on stilts on two levels and comfortably furnished with rooms
featuring en suite bathrooms with showers, a water closet, and running cold and
hot water.
6. The Marmara Antalya, Turkey
The Marmara Antalya is a five-star paradise in
touch with nature combining The Marmara privileges situated on the famed Falez
cliffs close to Antalya. It is the only revolving hotel in the world that gives
hotel guests a stunning 360° view. The venue comprises 2 buildings. The hotel
is 4.1 km from Kaleici Museum. Additionally, it offers a laundry room, valet
parking, and wedding services.
The 'Revolving Loft' annex building turns, with a full
rotation of its 24 guest rooms taking up somewhere between 2 and 22 hours. The
rotation is smooth, aided by 6 electric motors in the basement and you can go
to sleep facing the sea and wake up facing the pool.
This 2750-ton building floats in a tank holding only 478
tons of water. With the 3 bottommost floors submerged, nearby is also a lounge
at the entrance and rooms on another 3 floors. Yet in some way, the faucets
still work and the restrooms still flush.
The hotel has 238 originally designed rooms. An impressive
feat of engineering design, indeed.
7. Sun Cruise Hotel, South Korea
The Sun Cruise Hotel is distinctively unique
as it is like a cruise ship that seems to have been inexplicably transported
from the sea and placed on a high coastal cliff. As this hotel is unique in
itself as it is perched high above the shores of Jeongdongjin, a South Korean
tourist town known for having the best view of the sunrise, the Sun Cruise
Resort & Yacht is the world’s first on-land cruise-themed resort.
This 30,000 tons hotel measures 165 meters (540ft) in
length and 45 meters (150ft) in height and has 211 rooms, both condominium and
hotel style. Furthermore, it has a Western and a Korean restaurant, a revolving
sky lounge, karaoke, and a seawater pool. Additionally, it also offers six
state-of-the-art function rooms for seminars and workshops.
The ship is located next to a park with a sculpture garden
so you can wander through curios and beautiful flowers. The resort was designed
to give tourists a realistic feel of a cruise ship without motion sickness.
Check out the observation deck with its glass floor suspended above the crashing
waves below.
8. King Pacific Lodge, Canada
In Canada, you can find 21 million acres of rainforest
where you can also find the luxurious King Pacific Lodge, sited in one of the few
untouched wilderness areas of the world. The lodge is one of a few eco-lodges,
so do not worry, you can rest assured that it has a minimum impact on its
environment. Developers have worked closely with local First Nation tribes to
support the local economy.
The lodge is a huge floating barge that is towed 116 miles
from its winter home to its summer location deep inside the Great Bear
Rainforest. It is the only hotel in the world, where visitors can float on the
water while they sleep for a rest. And unlike cruise ships, this hotel is
comfortable and unique as it passes through one of the largest nature reserves
in the world, Princess Royal Island, Canada - a place full of flora
and fauna. The lodge provides the ultimate luxury adventure travel and
ecotourism vacations from its location in the heart of the Great Bear
Rainforest on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Open from May to
October, this lodge offers many exciting travel trips such as Heli-hiking, kayaking,
fly-fishing, nature tours, and a lot more. The resort is only accessible by
floatplane.
9. The Ocean Flower, Maldives
The Ocean Flower is in the North Male atoll,
Maldives, a unique development located in the most upmarket part of the
Maldives. "The 5 Lagoons" masterplan is being developed by Dutch
Docklands International in a joint venture with the government of the Maldives.
It is the first of five spectacular oceanfront developments in the Maldives.
This stunning place includes an array of services including a pristine beach,
floating restaurants, a diving center, a spa, swimming pools, and small private
islands. The most interesting and unique feature includes Underwater rooms with
glass walls.
The hotel has 185 spectacular waterfront villas that can be
rented as a part of spending holidays or vacations as well as can be bought for
residence purposes as well. The roomy oceanfront villas are distinctive with
the usual Maldivian architectural elegance, high-vaulted ceilings, and a
spacious living room with an open-design kitchen. The spacious large oceanfront
lodges are totally furnished, have expansive terraces and a private plunge
pool, and are just a short boat ride away from the international airport.
10. The Hotel Unique, Brazil
Perfectly stunning and inspiring owing to the architecture
work out in detail by Ruy Ohtake. Elegant and contemporary in design by João
Armentano. The Hotel Unique is a place in São Paulo where
architecture, art, design, fashion, gastronomy, music, and dedicated service
come together to enchant each visitor. Unique in its innovative gastronomy,
presented by Chef Emmanuel Bassoleil, in Skye, one of the most charming
restaurants in the world. Thus, the service and design of Hotel Unique win the
attention and recognition of both the public and the specialized media day
after day.
Conceived to be an avant-garde hotel in the city of São
Paulo, is one of the best hotels in the world, and one that truly deserves its
name “Unique”. It looks like a steel and glass boat that reverberates in the
Sao Paulo skyline. The entire hotel has been conceived to surprise and delight
guests, from the lobby to the rooftop lounge bar. The hotel has 95 rooms and suites,
each room benefits from specific touches that make it a little special. Hotel
Unique offers a prime location and a pleasant and peculiar experience for
guests looking for something out of the ordinary.
11. The Ariau Amazon Towers, Brazil
A boutique hotel northwest of Manaus, Brazil, on the Rio
Negro a major tributary of the Amazon River is the Ariau Amazon Towers. The hotel has 288 rooms split
among apartments, suites, and treehouses located in 7 towers. All 288 units are
raised from the rainforest floor by approximately 10-20m (33-66ft) and
connected by approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) of catwalks all within the canopy
of the rainforest. The tallest of the units, the Tarzan House,
is built on top of a living Mahogany tree, at a height of 22 m (72ft) from the
ground. Furthermore, within these treetops are two swimming pools, two
observation towers at 134 ft (41 m) high, and a panoramic auditorium for 450
people. There are also restaurants serving regional foods, bars, and
convenience stores.
The hotel has various tours available within the forest,
such as canoe walks, jungle walks, piranha fishing, visiting native houses, and
observation of nightlife animals. Macaws and various breeds of native and
non-native monkeys are common around the towers, providing a lot of
entertainment to tourists and visitors. Moreover, visitors can also watch
the Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro and the Solimoes
River meet, but because of the density and different temperatures of the water,
it does not get mixed. The separate shades of water run side by side for a
length of more than four miles (6 km) without mixing.
12. Spitbank Fort Hotel, UK
The Spitbank Fort Hotel is just a small luxury
hotel in a Victorian-era sea fort off the coast of Portsmouth, England. It only
consists of nine luxury guest rooms, three bars, three restaurants, a rooftop
champagne bar, a wine cellar, a library, a rooftop hot pool, a sauna, and sun
decks. This hotel fort is one of four located in the Solent - a strait that
separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England. Several of the fort’s
original distinctive attributes have been preserved, including exposed brick
walls, fortress windows, and a few of old cannons.
Moreover, the rooms are lavishly decorated with the
original exposed brick and vaulted ceilings to create a contemporary style.
Guests have the choice of a free cruise on a luxury catamaran which takes about
15 minutes traveling by the Portsmouth Naval Base and Historic Dockyards, or
those who like a thrill can be taken on a fast rib ride. While on Spitbank,
guests have a variety of living spaces and rooftop areas in which to relax and
enjoy the sea air.
13. Desert Lotus Hotel, Mongolia
The Desert Lotus hotel is part of a new resort
built amid a vast sea of dunes, in Xiangshawan Desert, Inner
Mongolia. It is sited 800 kilometers (500 mi) west of Beijing which is
increasingly popular with Chinese tourists with its Mongolian-themed shows,
camel rides, desert surfing, and more. The structure consists of repeating trilateral
white tent tops, rotated 45 degrees, and connected in a circular formation like
a lotus. And it’s not a regular hotel!
Furthermore, the resort is built with low carbon
environment-friendly materials utilizing solar, water, and wind energy in the
desert, reducing environmental pollution and strengthening ecology protection.
Moreover, load-bearing walls give the structure the bulk of its structural
integrity, while a dazzling array of repeating triangular panels provide shade
and protection from harsh elements. The panels and the supporting skeleton
structures are prefabricated and make the base of the building a large
container for sand. Thus, the steel panel structure can function as a boat
floating on the desert that carries the building. The sands in and out of the
structure exert the same forces on each other, and thus it is flexibly
stabilized.
14. Lake Palace, India
The Taj Lake Palace or simply Lake
Palace is located in the middle of Lake Pichola and
was built in 1746. It is constructed with marble featuring majestic
architecture on a natural foundation of 4 acres (16,000 m2) of rock on the Jag
Niwas Island in Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India. It is a luxury
hotel with 83 rooms and suites with white marble walls. Rooms come with butler
service. Moreover, it offers a full-service spa at Jiva Spa and customized
programs that include site-specific yoga sessions.
It has been voted the most romantic hotel in India and the
world. The upper room of the palace is a perfect circle and is about 21 feet
(6.4 m) in diameter. Its floor is inlaid with black and white marble, the walls
are adorned with niches and decorated with arabesques of different colored
stones dome is exquisitely beautiful in form.
The hotel operates a speed boat that transports guests to
the hotel from a jetty at the City Palace.
15. Magic Mountain Hotel, Chile
This unique hotel is shaped like a volcano, with water
spewing from its crater and a hanging bridge connecting to the main entrance.
This hotel has a fantastic covering of moss and plant life making it look like
a hobbit’s home. And what makes the Magic Mountain Hotel truly magical is its
location. The Magic Mountain Lodge is situated in the Huilo
Huilo Private Natural Reserve forests of Chile. Amongst the things at the
reserve are the Huilo-Huilo Falls, Pudu, the world's smallest deer species, and
the longest zip line system in South America.
Moreover, the Magic Mountain Hotel itself is built from
local wood and stone and each of the nine rooms is equipped with modern
amenities. Each room has large windows to look out at the forest, and each is
named after a different local species of bird. Additionally, among the
offerings are hot tubs - made out of huge trunks of trees, dugout, and then
filled with hot water perched on a deck overlooking the forest. A mini-golf
course is built into the forest itself, using the natural world as the
obstacle, and there are various outdoor activities such as horseback riding,
rafting, and hiking.
The Magic Mountain Lodge is truly an excellent place for
families and wild nature enthusiasts.
