After the acclaimed success of the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarvi, Sweden offers another innovative hotel idea to the world – a suite in a disused silver mine. While most guests are prepared to pay top dollar for the penthouse, descending over 500 feet below ground into a disused silver mine is also pretty pricey at £380 ($600) per night.
Guests reach the unusual room-without-a-view via the lift which descends the mine shaft in seconds. The hewn out cave has walls that shimmer with silver in the candlelight, a comfy double bed and silver furnishings. There is of course no cellphone service, Internet access or central heating, but the air underground remains an ambient 18°C (64°F) year-round.
As for the mine’s history, this silver mine in the town of Sala was the largest silver producer in Sweden for over 400 years. It took miners ten years just to create the bedroom-sized cave. The painstaking process involved burning wood to heat the silver so it could be removed by hand more easily.
Perhaps with the current rising price of precious metals, guests may be packing a rock hammer in their suitcase to procure a precious souvenir of their stay.
by Gillian
Scientific research suggests that over half of all couples lose between one and five hours deep sleep per night due to the snoring and snuffling of their partner. Over time this adds up to a decade of lost sleep and a less than harmonious start to each new day.
Crowne Plaza has taken the issue seriously and has designed nine “snore absorption rooms” at various Crown Plaza hotels around the world. Those wanting to try out the gadgets, perhaps with the view to installing similar ideas at home, will find a range of anti-snoring devices in the specially designed bedrooms. First of all the walls are soundproofed to absorb some of the sound and help eliminate the reverberation of snoring. The beds also have a special sound-absorbing headboard to do the same job closer to the source of the noise.
The silently suffering partner is not forgotten as the rooms have a white noise machine to help drown the noise of snoring and hopefully aid relaxation.
The bed itself has special anti-snoring pillows which uses magnetic fields to stiffen the upper palate and control the mouth’s vibrations during snoring. The snorer will also sleep on an anti-snoring wedge pillow to keep them more upright with less chance of the tongue lolling backwards in sleep, another cause of snoring.
The anti-snoring room may work very well. With all these strange new contraptions, first time users are unlikely to find it easy to drop off to sleep at all.
by Gillian
For those who have not seen enough of the white stuff already this winter, there is the chance to head up to Quebec and sleep on a solid ice bed in your own ice-carved luxury hotel room.
The popularity of the original ice hotel in Sweden shows this unique experience is on many travelers’ must-do lists. Quebec’s Hotel de Glace opened on January 20, 2011 and this year’s theme honors the earth’s biodiversity.
Guests do not have to stay overnight to experience this amazing luxury igloo constructed entirely from blocks of ice, in Sweden’s case “borrowed” from the Torne River. Once the ice structure is completed, it is filled with ice carved chandeliers, sea life sculptures, furniture and a massive ice bar, colorfully lit to create a magical atmosphere. Even the glasses which the Absolut vodka-based drinks are served in are made from solid ice. Tours of the new hotel and icebar will take place each afternoon with check-in of overnight guests commencing at 9pm.
The 88 resident guests are invited to use the spa, sauna and bar before being zipped into artic-style sleeping bags. Tips from former guests include wearing long silk underwear and putting hand warmers in your boots to prevent them freezing by morning! Waking up in the eerie light in complete silence is part of the magic of this experience.
Prices start around CAN$230 per night, but you may want to upgrade to a specialty suite which has a fireplace and hot tub!
Inevitably the short season of this luxury hotel is a mere three month window before the melt sets in, so book a room at the Hotel de Glace before March 27 to be part of this inaugural year.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
A luxury hotel in the Maldives is offering a honeymoon suite to beat all others – it’s set sixteen feet below the surface of the Indian Ocean.
Usually, the Ithaa room at the Rangali Island resort (part of the Conrad Group) is used as a restaurant; about a dozen diners sit in the dome-shaped ‘aquarium’ and enjoy cordon bleu food while marvelling at the beauty of the underwater world around them.
But now, to celebrate the resort’s fifth birthday, the room has been converted into a honeymoon suite complete with every luxury imaginable.
It’s safe to say that this experience is not for newlyweds on a budget – the luxury hotel says the price is available ‘on application’. Until now, the top-of-the-range accommodation at the Rangali had been a King Deluxe Water Villa. That costs around £1,156 ($1,785) a night … and it’s above water.
by Andy Moreton
If you’re dreaming of a visit to paradise, keep your head above water and get the best rates at any of Luxique’s five carefully-selected luxury hotels in the Maldives.
