On your next vacation, do not go to conventional accommodation. Make your reservation at these converted hotels.
Tired of going to aseptic hotels? Below is a list of themed accommodations that are an experience in themselves. Before receiving tourists, they were the walls where a prisoner was serving his sentence, places of prayer such as a church or monastery and even caves.
sleeping in a desert cave
One of these curious lodgings is the Hotel Cueva Tardienta-Monegros, in Huesca, Aragón. It is located in the heart of the Monegros Desert, a protected natural reserve of the Ebro Valley. The hotel is also part of the Tardienta Aerodrome, so if you want to give your stay an extra plus you can ride a small plane. It was inaugurated in 2005 after being excavated inside the mountain. It has eight rooms decorated with different colors, furniture brought from Marrakech and wrought iron beds created by Aragonese artists. All of them are grouped around the interior patio and a rear garden with an outdoor pool.
The hotel environment is unbeatable. The absence of mountains makes the sunsets very special since the horizon seems to never end, a unique desert expanse in Spain. This area has been filmed in a multitude of reports, video clips, advertisements, some films and programs such as ‘Frank of the jungle’ or ‘Farmer seeks a wife’. You can enjoy nature thanks to different routes such as the ‘Kingdom of raptors and juniper trees’ and cultural routes such as the ‘Fertility Route’, the ‘Jacobean Route’ and the ‘Route of the Caves of San Caprasio’. Thanks to the Tardienta Monegros Leisure and Adventure Center you can ride a camel and have tea in a tent, practice your aim in a paintball or airsoft battle (simulation with replicas of real weapons) or play a game of ‘ bicibalón’ (football on bicycles).
Ecclesiastical luxuries
Another option is the Hotel Monasterio, in the Plazoleta Nazarenas, in the heart of Cuzco, Peru. It has five stars and occupies what was a 16th century monastery and previously the palace of the Inca Amaru Qhala. The best thing is its cloister, whose protagonist is a 300-year-old cedar, and around which are the rooms, presidential and royal suites, all of them with a unique design. You have two restaurants with international and Andean cuisine. And if you want to pamper yourself, go to the treatment room or request the butler service that will prepare the bath for you in your own room. You can also sign up for crafts and cooking classes by the chef, and if you want strong emotions, the hotel organizes whitewater descents and trekking routes through the Sacred Valley.
In Morocco, specifically in El Jadida, is the Hotel L’Iglesia, which, as its name suggests, was an old Spanish church from the 19th century. You can stay in any of its fourteen retro-style rooms and enjoy sea views on its roof terrace (the beach is only a ten-minute walk away). The entrance of the hotel is the apse of the church and among the offers you have a massage room, a common room, a bar where you can have a drink and a restaurant that serves local food, although the best menu in Cite Portuguaise is fish and the seafood.
Whether you are guilty or not, you will sleep in jail
But if there are some hotels that have become fashionable, perhaps because of the morbidity they give off, they are the ones that were once a prison. This is the case of the Hotel Katajanokka, in Helsinki (Finland), which hides a world of contrasts behind its red brick walls. It is a historic prison reopened in 2007 that consisted of 164 cells that today are 106 rooms classified in four classes with ‘in crescendo’ luxury, including gym and sauna. Linnankellari restaurant offers Finnish food in a prison atmosphere thanks to its long tables. In summer you can enjoy on its Jailyard terrace and remember how where hardships were spent before, today you stay in a four-star room.
Its neighbor Sweden also owns a prison hotel in Stockholm: the Långholmen Hotel. As soon as you enter, its corridors warn: this was a prison. Specifically, a royal prison with 250 years of history. Today it is an enclosure that houses a hotel, a youth hostel, a conference center, a restaurant and a museum. If you book in advance you can sign up for the role-playing game that makes you feel like a prisoner for a day (striped uniform and shackles included). Once out of its ‘bars’ you can enjoy the fresh air on the island of Långholmen, a very popular destination for walks, picnics and swimming on its small beaches.
