Making hotel reservations is a tricky business. Do you accept the website blurb at face value or do you get a second, third or fourth opinion via a travel review site? You never know exactly what you’re going to get until you arrive and that’s all part of the fun.
There are some hotels, however, whose reputation precedes them. Here are a few of the weird and wonderful hotels from around the world.
Giraffe Manor in Nairobi is the only hotel in which you can have breakfast with… giraffes, of course. In the luxurious Kenyan surroundings, guests can enjoy the finest foods while friendly giraffes poke their head through the door and hover over the dining table. Quite an experience!
Here’s a bizarre one for dog lovers, the Dog Bark Park Inn, situated in Cottonwood, Idaho. The accommodation is shaped like a beagle, complete with big brown ears, white nose and tail. Guests enter the dog bed and breakfast up some steps, via an upper level deck.
Then there’s the Hang Nga Guesthouse in Vietnam, better known as the ‘crazy house.’ Resembling a gnarly, spooky tree that is full of knots, holes and whorls, the corridors and rooms take unexpected twists and turns. There are reports of huge, gangling spiders. One suite has been made from a 727, another is a lion’s cage.
Those for whom space is not an issue may enjoy Japan’s Asakusa Capsule hotel, which comprises rows and rows of plastic, horizontal sleeping pods which are stacked upon each other. Definitely not one for the claustrophobics, this hotel caters for budget travellers. The pods do come equipped with a panic button, however. Men and women sleep on separate floors.
Along the same lines, is Austria’s Das Park Hotel, where the rooms are fashioned out of huge concrete sewer pipes. Located within a campsite, there are shared facilities, as the ‘rooms’ contain just beds, a light and a tiny window.
