Icehotel, touted as world’s first ice hotel has hosted more than 200,000 people in the history of 18-years. The hotel witnessed its 18th season on 7 Dec., 2007 and has plans to swarm 29,000 people in its 80 ice rooms, bar and chapel this season. The hotel will be open till mid April. The creation of this hotel begins every year in November. Doing away with the usage of bricks to give it s form, it purely depends upon the tons of crystal clear ice from the Torne River near the village of Jukkasjarvi in Sweden, till the time it dilutes into water the following season.

The inspiration behind this model hotel is of a Japanese ice sculptor, who was engaged in Jukkasjarvi in the early 1990s. Floored away by his work, French sculptor Jannot Derit requested him to generate an exhibition in an igloo constructed on the Torne River. It was this 60-square-meter Arctic Hall that invited the attention of the foreigners’ as there was a dearth of lodging in Kiruna and they choose this igloo to spend their night. This led to the formation of the hotel.

With a room temperature zero minus five degrees Centigrade, one night at this hotel would cost you $800 plus while a six-person standard room costs $400. It features 80 rooms, 58 standard rooms and other specially designed suites by artists from all across globe. Besides an elite stay on the ice beds, other activities here include wilderness camps, husky tours, fishing on ice, northern lights Aurora and snowmobile safaris. You would be surprised to know that all glasses and chairs here are made of ice. Guests here can order a drink for 13 euros and the following ones will cost them 10 euros (only before the glass melts).

Via TurkishDailyNews

Conjuring the thought of spending nights in a flying hotel? It’s time to give shape to your dreams and admire the artistic creation by designer Jean Marie Massaud. Dubbed as ‘Manned Cloud,’ the designer has taken into account the future preferences for travel. Having bagged the award by the Design Observer 2008, the Manned Cloud is in reality a flying hotel that enables its commuters to pamper and get familiar with impressive and unusual places without being invasive or manipulative.

Structured like a whale-shape, the airship is developed by Massaud Studio in association with French national aerospace research body ONERA. It can lodge 40 guests and can fly within a range of 5,000 km. Two deck cabins will contain facilities viz. restaurant, library, fitness suite and spa. It also offers sun-bath facility to its travelers’. I am sure the very ride onto this hotel is going to realize the dream of living in sky and admiring Earth from a distance rather vice the customary vice-versa nature.

It claims to offer a 3-day tour to its commuters at a stretch while residing in any of its 60 rooms. It will maintain a cruising speed of 130 km/h and a top speed of 170 km/h. Well if you doubt your safety because of the present helium than you can simply ignore that thought as this behemoth gets its lift from helium.

More pics:

How about a virtual ride in Manned Hotel:

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This piece of news is for my wild readers who not only have the courage to fantasize themselves living in a sewer pipe but can do that to widen their experience. Unlike soon-to-be-be constructed hotels under sea or on sky, the one am talking about is very much active. Whilst lately I told you about underwater lodging that was no less than living in an aquarium and ewok-style house that rotated your eyelids, today I have something more to add my list of unique dwellings.

Albeit Christmas has just passed but the holiday mood is on to welcome 2008. How about celebrating New Year in a cave house or an elite prison cell? Well, you can! Aptly called as extreme hotels, the unique installment eyes customers who love experimenting with their life. So, it’s time to get book one now. Offering cockpit and cocktails, there is a New Zealand based old Bristol freighter that serves you as a hotel. With one suite in the old pilot’s quarters and other in tail, the dwelling is spell-bounding. You may call it a dog edifice but this was the out-product of the two chainsaw artists in Idaho, U.S.A, who wanted to install a roadside desirability to tempt guests to their studio. Based in Sweet Willy, it is known as the Beagle B&B.
Now comes lifeboat. These were marine survival capsules located in The Hague, Netherlands that have been turned into a hotel. If by any chance you wish to stay in a cave shaped above then it is here. These 5th century cliff dwellings positioned in Cappadocia, Turkey warmly welcomes as the rooms here are available for rent.

Now how about having a romance with your beloved in an underwater room? Utter Inn in Sweden offers this ultimate experience. Few more, I am sure you can’t afford to miss. The igloo Village offers astoundingly warm housing in a ski resort high in the Swiss AlpsPipe dream. And now my favorite! Handful of pieces of tangible sewage pipes has been fitted with beds in Austria and they don’t demand much. Also, the usage off old winemaking barrels to construct a bedroom in Stavoren, Holland and a youth hostel known as Celica (cell) formed out of one-time military prison in Ljubljana, Slovenia is amazing.

Gallery: Weird but Wonderful Hotels

Via DailyMail

Elite rooms for pets and not for people! Spread over 10,000-square foot, Chateau Poochie hotel positioned in Lighthouse Point, Pompano Beach, Florida invites only four-legged pets as its visitors. The hotel owner Michelle Soudry claims to offer world-class groomers and special treatment for your beloved pets. It also schedules an animal social hour that is broadcasted on a Web cam. Designed by Stephen G Interiors, this $2 million facility ensures care and a hodgepodge of plush services assured to please every fuzzy client’s fad. This new breed of lodging entices pet owners to drop a weighted sum for a deluxe upbringing of their poochie.

The crown jewel suites run here for $87 to $109 per night with each suite tinted with jewel shade viz. emerald, ruby, diamond. The feature-packed suites are equipped with flat-screen TV, private web cam, custom monogrammed bed linens and crystal chandelier. At a drop of $185 per night, you can offer a healthy and sound sleep to your poochie on a $7,000 designer toboggan bed. And the bonus includes a Chateau Poochie janitor sleeping next to your pet.

Other cost includes $4 for Tuck-in service and $6 for a story time. The hotel opening ceremony happened during the beginning of this month followed the theme of Diamonds and Furs. As an out product of which Mitzi Bitzi designed a $118,000 diamond necklace from Rosenberg Diamonds & Co. in Boca Raton. Gamut of facilities at the hotel include state-of-the art grooming services, doggie social hour, the behavioral institute as well as massages and bottled water.

Other hotel features include the haute couture fashion boutique, bone booth to talk to your pet, Le jardin outdoor garden, tea cup room, senior center, salon & spa, wellness center and food from a gourmet pet chef.

Gallery: $2 mn Dog Resort for a Pampered Pets

Via Sun Sentinel

There’s homeless as verified by a cluster of Italian tramps camping out in the garret above a seven-star Milan-based Hotel. The 10 drifters took shelter on the top of the swanky Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, few floors over the Galleria Townhouse hotel. The hotel charges $5,000 a night.

The clandestine camouflage packed with a washing machine, refrigerator and kitchen sink was identified by the cops during a custom tune check of the building, which is an abode to stores like Prada and Gucci. Police exposed two dormitories crammed with attires, sleeping bags and bare beer bottles. These 10 unlawful tenants use to access the fresh-room of the nearby fast-food restaurant. The structure was gated but the unidentified visitors actually made a copy of a key, advancing attic entrée in a service crane.

Via EarthTimes

Your ears may buzz when you hear the expensive face-lift done for the northern Strip by imploding Wild West-theme casino. Positioned in Las Vegas, the New Frontier casino-hotel was imploded lately in a fierce end to design the scene of Elvis Presley’s Las Vegas debut. This dramatic and pricey way of destruction has made this to the headlines.
Reporters and onlookers said that the 16-storey huge hotel became the target of around 1,000 pounds of explosives. It is being reckoned that $8 billion resort identified, as Plaza would reside at the same territory and would opening in 2011.
Owner of Elad Group and Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, a partner of the would-be Plaza welcomed the explosion of casino. Erased in an elite manner, the ashes of the building were taken away by easterly breeze. To your and my much surprise, the New Frontier was enjoying the reputation of the being the Strip’s first themed casino.

Opened in 1942, it has been serving as a host to the various entertainers including Ronald Reagan, Wayne Newton, and Siegfried and Roy. In 1956, Presley performed for the first time here. It was branded for bikini bull riding, cheap rooms and $5 craps when later it scanned its image only for good.
New York based owners of the group IDB Group and Elad Group are hopeful that the property would be a luxurious estate accommodating 3,500 rooms, private residences, retail space and a casino tagged as the Plaza brand making it reach the top-end of the market.
Also, first of its kind, the Donald Trump’s gold-glass, billion-dollar-plus condominium towers are anticipated to open behind the New Frontier site in the first half of 2008. Steve Wynn also wishes to open the $2.2-billion Encore in early 2009, and $2.8-billion Fontainebleau is expected to hit the north at the end of next year. Another masterpiece called MGM Mirage would be installed on the north tip of the Strip for 2012
Via Latimes

If you count yourself among a foodie and wish to burn some money then rush now to Serendipity, a restaurant based in New York. Having carved its position in Guinness Book of World Records, the Grand Opulence Sundae offered here demands $1000. The very tag of world’s most expensive ice cream is gaining customers for the restaurant, if not more at least one customer every month for the Grand Sundae. The ice cream was produced to commemorate Serendipity’s Golden Jubilee.

This exotic dessert is immersed with striking candied fruits from Paris, gold dragets, truffles and Marzipan Cherries and is crowned with a minuscule schooner bowl of Grand Passion Caviar, a special one. The sundae is doled out in a baccarat Harcourt gemstone goblet with an 18K gold spoon to participate in the luxury served with a diminutive mother of treasure spoon and with toppings of a gilded sugar flower by Ron Ben-Israel. It is available only after placing an order almost 48 hours in advance.

Ingredients:
5 scoops of the richest Tahitian vanilla bean
23K edible gold leaf
Amedei Porceleana (world’s most expensive chocolate)
Rare Chuao chocolate

Via Daily Olive

Days back when the news of Jail turning into a Hotel was unusual and invited eyeballs, today the very mention of Hotel Everland, one-room hotel has overshadowed its significance. Offering picturesque views, the hotel is parked on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris from November 2007-December 2008. This inventive creation is the result of the witty efforts delivered by Swiss artist-duo Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. The hotel is equipped with a single-room along with a king-size bed with attached bathroom and lounge.

This pricey single-room cost equivalent to three-night and four-day stay in any ordianary hotel. To your much-amaze, the per night charges of the hotel are 333 euros ($475) during the week, 444 euros ($634) at weekends. But to compensate the luxury deal or rather a lame excuse to yourself, you can always steal the golden embroidered bath towels as a memento.

This acts as more of an installed masterpiece offering 1970s-style glamour, artistic cachet and an elegant scenic beauty of the Eiffel Tower. This multi-functional edifice works both as a museum exhibit and also as a room offering you a chivalrous night-stay.

Historical Background:

Developed for the Swiss National Exhibition Expo.02, Hotel Everland was first located on the lake of Yverdon, followed by the mobile pavilion factory roof at L/B’s studio. After that from June 2006 till August 2007 Hotel Everland was placed on the roof of the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, Germany. During the daytime, the room is a medium to rejoice and entertaining medium for the museum visitors. So, if you have the heart to feel this luxury then rush now as the booking is complete for the coming two-months.

How about a virtual stroll into the room without any cost? Jump further to enjoy one with artists Sabina Lang (L) and Daniel Baumann walking across the room:

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Beacon Hill vicinity located in Boston is a domicile to countless hotels worth flaunting. Amongst the myriad of hotels, The Liberty Hotel is a $150 million luxury palace that adds an extra amount of honor to it as long back the Charles Street Jail instead of present Hotel.

The 16-story tower now features 280 guest rooms, three restaurants, including Scampo, governed by locally-popular chef Lydia Shire, recognized for her inspiring 2001 overhaul of Boston epicurean bastion Locke-Ober.

The décor of the hotel reflects the mirror-image of the city, deep-rooted in history, but yet breathing in contemporary ambience. The flat stonework at the lobby is in contrast to the rich stilted paneling and American colonial prints. Each bedroom is polished with soft, gentle tenor, like rose and taupe.

Every corner of the hotel is enchanting and the history seems to reside within the hotel as the remnants of jail attics are still alive inside the hotel lobby bar and splendid, huge windows.

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If you are blessed with sweet tongue to match your foodie spirit, then The Fortress Hotel in Galle, Sri Lanka would be your next sure-spot destination.

This Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence demands a bulky but justifiable sum of $14,500. Featuring a gold leaf Italian cassata relished with Irish cream and mango, the other ingredients of the dessert include Dom Perignon champagne, gold and silver leaf.

Following an age-old practice of the fishermen, the dessert is dished up with a concoction leaning against fishermen’s Valrhona chocolate sculpture carved out of an 80-carat aquamarine stone costing $14,000.

So, guys with a small bargain of $500, you can end up giving a feast to your eyes by grabbing empty sculpture but yes a total down payment of $14,500 can really make your day with a chocolate pudding overflowing out of this sculpture. The dessert eyes only the elite and exclusive clientele of the hotel.

Reuters states that the GM of the hotel has received two enquiries from Japan and the management is hopeful to ink one-or-two deals during this year. But the workers of Sri Lanka are not amazed with such an asset as BBC quotes a Colombo-based development worker saying Sri Lanka is still battling with the bents of life and death, making efforts to come out of the aftermath of 2004 tsunami. In such a difficult situation, this kind of promo won’t help.

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