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3 Insane Hotels You Won’t Believe Are Out There

August 21, 2013 By Danny

According to Jake Bush, a Braun & Steidl hotel architect and developer, anyone who makes it their business to craft a hotel considers the following: “who is the guest, and why are they here”. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand why hotels across the board vary wildly—each one is trying to accommodate a specific kind of traveler.

For the most part, hotels are trying to cater to the business traveler, the luxury vacation traveler, and the budget-friendly traveler. However, there’s still another kind of traveler out there that some very unique and utterly strange hotels try to cater to, which is: the adventurous, experience-seeking, explorer.

These travelers want accommodations that are nearly the polar opposite of all the others—they want intrigue, danger, and a unique experience they can’t get anywhere else in the world—plus, they’re often willing to sacrifice a substantial amount of comfort, just for the experience. For every other kind of traveler, comfort is the last thing to be sacrificed when it comes to hotels. You can find out more at Accor, http://accorhotels.com.au/.

So, what kind of hotels does this kind of traveler frequent? Here’s my top picks for the world’s most insane, strange, and quirky hotels—some, you just won’t believe actually exist!

THE MIRRORCUBE | Location: Harads—Sweden

What is This Place? Well, The Mirrorcube is exactly what it sounds like, actually; it’s an extremely lightweight aluminum box (4x4x4 meters) with one-way mirrors for walls.

Accommodations: At most, it can only accommodate two guests at a time—imagine the waiting list! However, the interior—albeit small—provides a double bed, a living room space, a bathroom, and the exterior roof provides a nice roof-tip terrace.

What the Adventure-Traveler Loves: Per the description thus far, The Mirrorcube might not seem that interesting, but I haven’t mentioned yet that this mirrored box is actually camouflaged within a tree canopy, suspended above ground, around a tree trunk that shoots up through the center.

How the world do you get in?! By way of a rope bridge, connected to a neighboring tree!

Fun Fact: Since The Mirrorcube is located in a tree canopy and is made of mirrors, occupants are provided a 360-degree view of the surroundings. Sounds cool, right? Well, to local wildlife—specifically birds that might fly right into it—it’s not so cool. To handle this concern, all of the reflective glass is embedded with an ultraviolet color that only birds can see.

ICEHOTEL | Location: Jukkasjarvi—Sweden

What is This Place? Again, the name really is what it is—it’s an entire hotel made from snow and ice! Apparently, it’s the largest in the world, which sparked this comment from me: There’s more than one?!

Accommodations: While the beds—as well as the furniture and fixtures—are made of solid ice, they’re covered in the finest, warmest, furs. From what I understand there aren’t individual rooms; guests enjoy a more of a community experience—sharing body heat probably helps!

What the Adventure-Traveler Loves: It’s a hotel made of ice—what wouldn’t an adventure-seeker like about that?! With temperatures never rising above minus 5 degrees Celsius, adventure travelers will have a wonderful time walking around in snow pants and furs, while enjoying the company of other like-minded travelers.

Fun Fact: The ICEHOTEL only exists in the winter months—it melts after that! Every year, in November, the ICEHOTEL architects get together and design a whole new structure. Several hundred tons of ice is used in the process and it provides return guests a different experience every year!

KAROSTAS CIETUMS | Location: Leipaja—Latvia

What is This Place? It’s a prison—no, really, it’s actually a prison. Well, a former one, anyway.

Accommodations: It’s not terribly dressed up from being anything other than a prison. Guests sleep on grungy prison bunks, eat prison food, and even take a substantial amount of abuse from the guards—I’m assuming they limit that to verbal abuse. I think even the adventure-traveler draws the line at paying for physical abuse from the hotel staff.

What the Adventure-Traveler Loves: “A good hotel has got to be safe, clean, and have a good staff,” says our hotel developer Jake Bush, so the adventure-traveler loves that this hotel does all of the opposite. Karostas provides an experience—one that you can’t typically get unless you commit war crimes for a living.

Fun Fact: As a former military prison—constructed in 1905—Karostas imprisoned Stalin-era war criminals, revolutionists, and even KGB operatives.

All photos courtesy of the respective hotels.

Gear For Travel – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

August 16, 2013 By Danny

It is really remarkable how quickly technology has completely changed the face of travel. Our RTW trip lasted nearly two years, 2009-2010. As we embarked, we invested in some of the best technology to get the job done that was possible. We thought of ourselves as flashpackers extraordinaire. That included a brand new netbook, an unlocked cell phone, and a fancy DSLR camera. Now, just a few short years later, when I look back on all of that still functioning gear, it just looks so old and antiquated. That’s the nature of technology.

This old piece of hardware was our PC for two full years.

The Phone – Our mobile phone was nothing but an unlocked GSM flip phone. We were excited when a SIM card we purchased allowed us to make calls home from the Sahara Desert in Sudan for Mother’s day. Now with VOIP calling, a smart phone can make calls around the world for free…and from anywhere. The best part is that there are finally some cutting edge phones (e.g. Galaxy S4 Active) that are water and drop resistant making it even easier to stay connected and travel adventurously.

The Tablet – These did not exist while we were our trip and are a tremendous game changer, at least if you are blogging or sharing pictures while you travel. We shared one netbook as we traveled, weighing and taking up far more room than two tablets would have taken in our packs. Any of these today – iPad, Android or even a Windows tablet – are both lighter and more powerful than our “state of the art” netbook was. Plus there is wifi virtually everywhere now making a tablet a really useful tool for travelers to check in.

The Camera – This area has changed a lot less, mostly these cameras now come with more features and more megapixels than before. However, by and large, they still do the same job. The big add-ons here are the ease by which photos can be geotagged and quickly uploaded. Camera processing has also improved allowing for better low-light photography and much better videos. That would have saved us quite a bit of time geotagging our photos.

This article is NOT about what gear to go out and buy, there are plenty of review sites on the Internet, It is merely a comparison of what has changed in less than 3 years time. In the next three years will Google Glass remove the need for a tour guide? Streaming video and video conferencing might ultimately replace the written word when it comes to blog posts. We might even be able to sterilize our meals on our plates with a UV light and completely make food poisoning a thing of the past! Sounds good to me.

I just ran a triathlon

August 12, 2013 By Danny

It may have been a short triathlon, taking place in North Miami Beach, but it was the maximum length allowed to be called a sprint and it was a good stepping stone for me in trying out this new sport. The race was the 25.75 North Miami Triathlon and it felt great to get out there and even better to finish!

First. What is a Triathlon?

A triathlon is three sports; swimming, cycling and running. The three sports are always in that order, it’s pretty logical when you think about it. In this race, the swim was 750 (.46mi) beautiful meters of open water swimming in Miami’s Biscayne Bay followed by a 20k (12.4mi) bike ride and a 5k (3.1mi) run. My job was very simply to do those three events, in that order, as quickly as possible.

But Wait, What about those Adventure Races you used to run?

So yes, the adventure races are far more involved, take a lot longer, and involve lots of alligators. This was NOT that. My best hope for wildlife was a manatee or two but we didn’t see any of those. Last year Jill did an Xterra Triathlon in the same waters and other swimmers did report a manatee in the water, but I digress. In an adventure race, the racer uses a map and compass to navigate the wilderness, sometimes on bike and sometimes on foot or in a boat, in whatever direction he or she chooses. I view adventure races as a more difficult undertaking than a triathlon, simply because of how long it lasts and the mental anguish of poor decision making. But, the events are very different and require a different type of fitness and mental fortitude. An adventure race can last for 6 hours to 6 days, this triathlon took me just over 90 minutes while the longest available – the Iron Man – will take the winner just over 8 hours. Because it is shorter, the triathlon requires a different sort of athleticism and a lot more hustle and no real opportunity to sit down and breathe. Added benefit of the triathlon: finishing in time for brunch!

As I mentioned, I finished in just over 90 minutes, which is fantastic considering my [much too easy] goal was 2 hours. My swim time was tremendously quicker than I had expected, I’d been working on that, while my run, which I did in normal shoes, and bike were right about as good as I could have hoped. Here are my stats:

The setting for the race was absolutely beautiful. Miami’s Biscayne Bay and cycling through Oleta River State Park was a treat as well. What wasn’t a treat was being passed on the bike by more racers than I could count. Basically, if do an image search for the word triathlete, you’ll see what one looks like and the kind of bicycle they have. Sometimes those bikes cost as much as $5,000. My bike, which I use to commute, cost a measly $300 and well, I don’t think I much look like a triathlete. Still, I enjoyed a great morning and have something to build off of. Besides, I had the best looking cheerleaders of the entire race!

IF YOU want to do a triathlon as well the 2575 race series is a great way to start. The races are short, yet still long enough to be a very meaningful distance. Also, the locations are simply phenomenal. Using these races to travel all around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean wouldn’t be such a bad plan.

4 Bachelor Party ideas for Las Vegas and Beyond

August 7, 2013 By Danny

Typically, most bachelor parties here in the USA involve a lot of booze and often a trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. In a few weeks, I’ll be heading out on a bachelor party myself and although some of the other guys wanted to take a traditional Vegas trip and stay at a place like the www.arialasvegas.com, the bride to be was dead set against that option. Several still took the time to research Vegas flights and things to do in Sin City but it was to no avail. Las Vegas can be a great place, but it is only one of the options we have here today.

A Backwoods Adventure.

Nothing quite says manliness and male bonding like a camping trip. Somehow the challenge us urban and suburbanites face when lighting a campfire always makes stories for the ages. Add to that a few rounds of brew and no real stressors and you can have yourself a nice relaxing trip…but that’s not what bachelor parties are all about. Instead, try to take a mountain biking or a white water rafting trip. The nice thing about rafting is that by choosing a rafting company, such as the one we used on my bachelor party, no one needs to have any real skills or gear.

Be A Kid.

With this upcoming bachelor party we chose instead to do something that would be simple and fun. We’re visiting Cedar Point in Ohio where we will ride roller coasters until we’re blue in the face. To add a little bit of manliness to the weekend we’ll also be hitting a baseball game and grilling out for dinner. The really exciting thing is that none of the crew has been to this park before; most have never been to Ohio for that matter.

Travel Abroad

In sticking with the theme of doing something new, why not take that same airplane and turn it in another direction. Recently I went to a Bachelor Party that took place in Puerto Rico, no passport needed and relatively inexpensive airfare still left us in a new country with plenty of options for things to do. Although if you have more money at your disposal, you could follow the British Stag Party tradition and visit Prague instead!

Living History While Traveling in Trabzon Turkey

August 1, 2013 By Danny

It about three years ago when we found ourselves traveling through Turkey during Ramadan. Turkey itself is a wonderful place to travel but what we found difficult was that as we headed further east, to the more religious parts of the country, we encountered the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. During the holiday, Muslims traditionally don’t eat during the day and instead pig out at night. Trying to be sensitive, and challenged by what food options were available to us, we tried to do the same which left us hungry during the day and awake at night as our busses made frequent food stops.

This past week we read an article in The Economist detailing how a Byzantine Monastary was being used as a Mosque to celebrate Ramadan. The article took me back to that time on the trip, travlling through that very city during this same very holiday. Although we didn’t visit this specific site, The Hagia Sophia of Trabzon, we were passing through during Ramadan and did visit another Byzantine Monastery, the Sumela Monastery. The site was itself quite beautiful and, as a tourist site, made a nice reprieve for us from the restrictions of traveling during Ramadan. Reading the Economist article I am left to wonder if it may to find a day when its own purpose is changed to another religion. This is something that happens all the time, especially in the Middle East, but I just can’t help to wonder what the future holds for sites such as this.

I intend to offer no opinion regarding the cultural and religious politics of that region of Turkey, but instead just want to offer a few photos from the Sumela Monastary