You’re Staying Where?

I love hotels! It may sound weird, but I really do. I like walking into a new place I’ve never been before, nicely cleaned and set up, just waiting for my arrival. I like seeing what each new room has to offer, from their toiletries, decorations and random other amenities. It’s exciting to be in a different place that isn’t your apartment, even if it’s just for a couple days. While every kind of hotel is thrilling, and I would more than happy to stay at a random Holiday Inn somewhere, in all honesty, it’s the luxury or boutique styles that are the most appealing to me. I mean, they are just so different than your typical chain hotels—which, unfortunately make up the majority of locations in the country. The real tragedy is not just that there are fewer unique hotels, but they are also much more expensive. But to experience something truly out there…I think it would be worth the money.

Sala Silvergruva. Credit: WSJ

So, you can just imagine how excited I got when I read about Sweden’s Sala Silvergruva, a hotel that is so far from ordinary, it borders on creepy. It’s located in a 600-year-old silver mine dug in solid marble. The high-style rooms are situated over 50 stories below ground, and it takes guests a full four minutes in an elevator to get to the outside world. The rooms have silver leather chairs and candelabras all over. And since you are sleeping underground, the hotel uses a partition and electric heaters to bring the temperature up from its usual 36 degrees to a more reasonable 64 degrees—down covers and extra blankets are provided. Talk about stepping out of your comfort zone.

If guests don’t want to sleep in a cave, they can opt for a wooden dormitory, originally built for miners. While it may not be as nice as the mine suite, it is much cheaper and you still get a similar experience. The suite costs around $600 per couple, with a dinner and subterranean tour included in the price. The dormitory costs $60 per person.

A cave is certainly intriguing to me, but I think sleeping in a refurbished plane would be more my style. At Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport, a Boeing 747 that used to fly for Pan Am was gutted and transformed into hotel accommodations. It has 27 rooms equipped with bunk beds and cabinets made from luggage bins. Guests share the bathrooms, but they have been revamped to include shows and porcelain toilets. If you have the money, you can get a suite in the nose and tail of the plane that have double beds and their own bathrooms. Bunk-bed rooms cost $60, while the suites cost around $500.

In the Netherlands, an old harbor crane was made into a one-room inn. The cab sits atop four legs at 56 feet high and features a double bed and bathroom with a toilet and showers. It has large windows that offer panoramic views, but the cab is still designed to rotate, so guests can change their view with the push of a joystick. Day rates range from $570 to $857.

While some of these sound really interesting, and I would like to try them out at least once, there is one concept I think I would gladly skip: A prison. That’s right, you heard me correctly. Some hoteliers have taken to turning closed down prisons into boutique hotels. I cannot imagine two things more opposite. The Malmaison Oxford Hotel was converted from a prison in 2005. Part of the old complex dates back to 1071—which I guess is pretty cool. But I don’t know if I could sleep in an old cell that once housed killers, rapists and thieves. Stockholm’s Långholmen Hotel was also once a prison. It was where Sweden’s last execution was held in 1910 and closed in 1975. Decorations include mirrors that mimic guillotines and gray sheets striped like prison uniforms. Rooms are very small and have bunk beds.

So, there are more than a few quirky places out there for me to explore, and hopefully one day I'll get to see these hotels and experience everything they have to offer. Because, let's face it, it's not everyday you can sleep in a silver mine or an oil-rig escape pod, so why not step out of the ordinary, just once.

Airplane of the Future?

The future is a curious thing, who knows what people will wear, what kind of homes they will live in, what new gadgets they will use. It's a mystery only to be revealed as it becomes the present (deep enough for you?) However, Airbus is giving us a preview of what the future of air travel may look like.

The company revealed pictures and computer-generated video of what planes will look like in the year 2050--or at least what it predicts for the future The plane shows a long fuselage with duel fins on each side of the tail area, giving it a futuristic look. Airbus told reporters that it wants to do away with first- business- and coach-class, and instead offer zones for relaxation, activities and work.

The impressive images show uneeded seats at the rear of the plane collapsing, while the rest of the seats are moved to provide travelers more legroom (stretching out will be easier than ever) and the seats will morph to fit passengers' bodies (no more worrying about accommodating larger people or passengers getting angry about having to purchase a second seat if they do not meet a certain weight requirement). One of the most noteworthy features is that the aircraft will be built of "intelligent" materials that turn from solid to transparent on command, giving passengers a panoramic view of the sky. (I don't know about anyone else, but this would scare me just a little bit. I find comfort in the confines of the opaque cabin.)

As far as those "zones" are concerned, there are various ideas that Airbus proposed. The "vitalizing zone" is meant for relaxation, incorporating mood lighting, aromatherapy and acupressure treatments. The "tech zone" will offer corportate travelers a space to connect with their offices or clients via computers or other devices. The "interactive zone" will be in the center of the cabin and allow passengers to play a round of golf through a virtual projection. (I assume other sports or games could also be played. Round of tennis at 30,000 feet anyone?)

Of course, these are all just grand dreams envisioned by company engineers and whether we will see any of these features in future planes will depend greatly on both the quality of the technology and whether airlines will decide to purchase this impressive--and can we say slightly unrealistic--jet of the future.

For a better idea of Airbus' concept future plane, check out this video:

A No-Kid Section

I am sure that title will put many of you off, but hear me out before you click away to another screen.

How many times have you been sitting on an airplane, trying to fall asleep after a long business trip or vacation when suddenly the back of your seat is forcefully kicked by a five-year-old who needs to go to the bathroom or has to have a toy? How many people have experienced a flight where a baby screamed and cried the entire time? I know I have, and it can be infuriating. I have nothing against children, but there are definitely times where I wish they were not around, and on a plane is one of them. So when I read an article about possibly implementing separate seating that designates certain areas for children, I thought it sounded like a decent idea.

Child screaming on plane. www.nydailynews.com

According to polls from both Skyscanner, a travel search site, and Britain's Business Travel & Meetings Show, a majority of travelers want sections set aside for families or cabins that are for adults only. Some passengers believe there should be designated areas for taller, heavier or disabled passengers. While some of these requests may seem a bit outlandish, when it comes down to it, it's all about being comfortable.

Traveling today is already stressful and hectic, and the amount of room one gets on a plane is cramped due to airlines trying to boost capacity. Add an unruly child or larger seat-mate to the mix, and you are in for a very unpleasant trip. Think about the extra fees people are paying to get a little more comfort: extra legroom, a seat that reclines further, even seating that lets you cuddle with your travel buddy. It is possible that people would pay to not sit next to a child.

I even think families could benefit from the arrangement. I have seen more than one mother or father apologize to people because of their child's noise level or inability to sit still, it can be embarrassing. If families had their own space, their kids could be free to make a little extra noise or move around without bothering others.

Once again, I would like to emphasize that this idea is not about not liking children, but rather about finding a way to coexist in close quarters, possibly making everyone's trip a little more enjoyable. But it is just a thought, and people are free to disagree with it. 

Another Travel Song

I apologize for my absence as of late. This week has just flown by, and I have had little time to post. And as my friend aptly pointed out that I have not delivered a song of the week, I knew I needed to take a couple minutes and get to posting. And in honor of him, this weeks song will be....

Jet Airliner--The Steve Miller Band




As you listen to this late 70s classic, pay attention to the lyrics. I think the words really ring true to a traveler's mind.

Hope you enjoy this weeks travel song!!

Flying Innovations

I'm not really sure how we got on the subject, but my boyfriend and I were talking last night about flying: how expensive flights are, and how much time it takes to fly places. I was telling him that if I had the time and money to spend on flights, I would travel everywhere, and all the time. Unfortunately for both of us, money is the biggest issue and there is no way we could afford all those flights, with fees, taxes, etc. But then he said something interesting about how if the airlines could figure out ways to cut costs or create planes that were more fuel efficient, pricing could be improved.

This intrigued me, and today I actually found an article from Budget Travel that discussed the many innovations that airlines and airports are introducing. It was my luck that fuel efficiency was not mentioned anywhere, but there were plenty of other innovations that seemed interesting.

1. Cathay Pacific Airways, based in Hong Kong, has reinvented the coach seat. When a passenger reclines, the seat bottom slides forward rather than the back moving. This prevents the person behind from having the seat right in their face. My concern: would this cut down on leg room?

2. In cabin mood lighting. Not that kind of mood lighting. Rather softer light on long trips to help people adjust to time change. Apparently the harsh cabin lights can have negative effects on the brain as it is trying to fight jete lag. But better lighting could help travelers.

3. Worried about losing that boarding pass among your many bags and coats? Well, if you're anything like me, this next innovation will be most helpful. Mobile phone check-in. My dad mentioned this to me a while ago, but he said it did not work very well. But after some improvements, it seems like it could work well. When checking it, one enters their cell phone number and their boarding pass is automatically sent via email or text with a scanable bar code. The people at security and the gate simply scan the screen, and you're good to go. Now just don't misplace your phone.

4. Don't you hate it when you're working on an important document on your computer during a long flight and then your computer dies? In flight power sockets to the rescue! Virgin America was smart by providing Wi Fi on all flights, but to go along with it, there are individual power plugs at every seat. Needless to say, this will be helpful to those workaholic business types.

5. Upgraded radar is the newest innovation, but it is still in the early stages. Basically, radar is outdated, and it can take an airport up to 30 seconds to locate a flight--which I guess is pretty slow considering most planes travel at over 500mph. The FAA is rolling out NextGen, a GPS based air traffic control system, that gives real time plane locations to pilots and air traffic controllers. With this technology, planes will no longer have to fly those crazy zig zag routes, and flights will travel more efficiently.

Obviously, there are more innovations people would like implemented. (A few I read included sleeping compartments rather than seats for long flights, heated massaging seats, bigger windows, and letting passengers who didn't place luggage in the overhead bins leave the plane first.) Some are pretty out there, and others are just plain crazy. But isn't it nice to see that some things are changing?

Now if only we could discuss this free flight thing...