Barking mad hotel breaks
It doesn't have to be just four walls and a bed. Karin Jones profiles some of the world's most extraordinary hotels...
Hotels can be sterile affairs, with a room in Hong Kong sometimes indistinguishable from one in Hull.
But some hoteliers bucking the trend, offering accommodation where the star attraction is the hotel itself, rather than a place to take a break between sightseeing.
From downtown New York to Dubai, those looking for an original experience should investigate these, the top ten of the world's most extraordinary hotels:
I'LL BE DOG GONE
The Dog Bark Park Inn is a bed and breakfast guesthouse in the body of the world's biggest wooden beagle, known as Sweet Willy.
Located at Dog Bark Park on Highway 95 in the small Midwest town of Cottonwood, Idaho, guests enter Sweet Willy from a private second storey deck. Inside and up another level in the head of the dog are a loft room for sleeping and, of course, a cosy reading nook in the dog's muzzle.
Dog Bark Park artists Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin built Sweet Willy and Toby, his companion 12-foot tall beagle statue. Do you have to be barking mad to stay there? Only you can decide.
THE WEATHER UP THERE
Designed to resemble a billowing sail, Dubai's Burj al Arab Hotel is the world's tallest hotel building, and at a height of 321 metres, dominates the Dubai coastline.
Part of the Jumeirah Beach Resort complex, the hotel overlooks Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Wild Wadi Water Park by day, while at night it is surrounded by coloured sculptures of water and fire.
Burj Al Arab is taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 60 meters shorter than the Empire State Building. This all-suite hotel is the epitome of Arabian luxury. With a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce, discreet in-suite check in, private reception desk on every floor and a brigade of highly trained butlers who provide around-the-clock attention, guests are assured of a highly personalised service.
Topping all other suites are the two palatial Royal Suites that include a private cinema, rotating beds, majlis (Arabic meeting room) and dressing rooms larger than the average hotel bedroom.
READING ROOMS
The Library Hotel in New York City arranges its guest room floors, room art and reading material in the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System of book classification. Floor choices include science and maths, language, literature, history and technology, with sub topics for individual rooms.
Each of the 60 rooms have collections of books and art exploring these topics. Housed in a landmark 1900 brick and terracotta building, the hotel has been restored into a memorable mansion-style luxury hotel. Personal service goes one step further as guests can request their rooms based on personal interests.
On the literature floor visitors can chose from poetry or the classics to even erotic literature, and all up there are 60 rooms like this to choose from.
Other distinctive features guests have at their disposal include the Writer's Den, a mahogany panelled room with a large fireplace, and The Poetry Garden, in case the Library atmosphere means you've just got to write.
AMONG THE TREETOPS
Brazil's Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel is about 60km from Manuas, at the meeting of the Rio Negro and Ariau Creek.
Built entirely at the level of the rainforest canopy, Ariau's towers are linked together by 61/2 km of sturdy wooden catwalks and offer a unique glimpse of the region's abundant flora and fauna while leaving the fragile eco-system completely undisturbed.
Ariau Amazon Towers is the only hotel complex at tree top level in the Amazon Rainforest and is part of the National Park of the Negro River and at the beginning of the Anavilhanas Archipelago, the largest fresh water archipelago in the world.
ONE FOR THE KIDS
While Blackpool may not be the cultural capital of Europe, it does have its charms, especially for the young ones. Sparkles Hotel is designed with children in mind, with eight childhood fantasy themed suites with toys, books, Disney and costumes for children aged from two upwards.
It also offers supervised children's activities a huge playroom stocked with models, toys, doll houses and is very close to all the major tourist attractions.
Sparkles does also cater for the whole family however, and in true Blackpool style also has facilities for the budget conscious, such as the bring your own takeaways restaurant and the bring your own drinks bar, when it's the clock strikes adult time.
CAMPING IT UP
Indonesia's Amanwana is a luxury nature camp and wilderness hideaway. Set in a secluded cove the camp's 20 luxury tents are surrounded by tropical forest and looks out over Amanwana Bay and beyond to the Flores Sea.
Unlike the traditional camping holiday, each one of these waterproof tents has windows, is air-conditioned and is furnished with Indonesian island artwork, hardwood flooring and a sitting area with two divans.
For guests there are a host of water sports activities including fishing and waterfall jumping.
Amanwana, which means "peaceful forest" has been an official wildlife reserve since 1976, and guests can spot rusa deer, banteng buffalo, boar, monkeys and bats, as well as the white-breasted sea eagle.
Again, a bit different from the local DOC campsite.
GO JUMP IN A LAKE
While the Australian dream is to own your family home on a quarter-acre block, apparently the Swedish dream is to have a small red house with white gables on your own island.
The Otter Inn (Utter Inn in Swedish) fulfils this dream and much more. The Inn is on a small, man-made island on Lake Malaren in Vasteras, Sweden, and while the main house (with red exterior and white gables) is above the surface, the bedroom lies three metres below, containing just twin beds and a table, offering panoramic window views in all directions for a real alternative sensory experience, where guests are often watched by fish in a reverse aquarium scenario.
Guests arrive at Vasteras and they are taken the 1km out on the Lake Malaren and left alone.
They can use an inflatable canoe to visit the closest uninhabited island, swim, sunbath and watch the fish, although the question is, who's watching who?
TAKING THE UNDERGROUND
Australia's Desert Cave Hotel in the outback, 650km from Alice Springs, allows visitors to experience dugout style living, with suites, shops and a bar all found underground.
In the heart of Coober Pedy, the underground suites are a place to escape the heat, as they remain quiet, cool, dark and airy, with a spacious design and high ceilings.
The Desert Cave Hotel, famous as the only international-rated underground hotel in the world, has 19 underground suites, but for those a little claustrophobic, it also offers 50 above ground as well.
WOODLYN PARK, OTOROHANGA
Woodlyn Park, two hours from Auckland, is both unusual and eclectic in its accommodation offerings, with guests able to stay in a train, a plane, or even in hillside hobbit holes.
For plane enthusiasts, a 1950s Bristol Freighter has been fully refurbished into two self-contained motel units, while the "Waitomo Express" is a 1950s rail carriage transformed into a completely self-contained motel unit with three separate bedrooms.
The latest edition to the park is the world's first Hobbit Underground Motel, cut into the hillside and sporting with circular windows, it has taken a leaf straight out of Tolkien. Lord of the Rings enthusiasts have been known to book these Hobbit holes out months in advance, so don't be precious if you miss out first time.
UNDERWATER WORLD
While Dubai's Hydropolis is not yet complete, it's worth a mention as one the most extraordinary hotels ever built.
Constructed from a combination of concrete, steel and clear Plexiglas, Hydropolis will be the world's first underwater luxury hotel, offering 220 suites, all sitting on the Persian Gulf floor 66 feet (20 meters) below the surface.
Covering 27 acres, the project will feature a wave-shaped above ground 'land station' and the jellyfish-shaped underwater hotel, linked by a submerged transparent train tunnel more than half a kilometre long.
Among the project's other unusual architectural details are the hotel's two translucent domes, which will house a concert auditorium and a ballroom that break the water's surface, with the ballroom featuring a retractable roof, and the hotel's bubble-shaped suites, with clear glass comprising both the sleeping areas' walls and each room's bathtub. Hydropolis will open in late 2007.
* Flight Centre can arrange flights to any of these extraordinary hotels. Contact 0870 499 0042 or go to www.flightcentre.co.uk.
