“Affordable” and “Caribbean” are not necessarily contradictions in terms.
To find cool hotels, relaxing beach resorts and luxurious bed and breakfasts in the Caribbean at an affordable price try these tips:
Look at the smaller establishments. They don’t get the press the big resorts do, but they sometimes provide much better value. A good Caribbean guidebook can be an invaluable friend in finding the high value hotel gems.
Check out the less developed areas. In Jamaica, for example, there are lots of great, inexpensive hotel and resort options outside of the major Negril, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay tourist centers.
Decide what’s most important to you and try to find a hotel without a lot of frills you won’t use. If you don’t care about using a spa, for example, you can save money by staying in a resort without one.
Shop around. A superb website for finding great deals on resorts, as well as on cruises and vacation packages, is Cheap Caribbean
.
.
And, most of all, read on. The resorts below are among Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite affordable Caribbean digs. Each has rooms in the high season for less—and in some cases much less—than $150 a night . . .
Continue →
The absolute smallest, cheapest room available is a two story suite.
Move over Las Vegas, the new new standard for resort luxury, grandiosity and audaciousness is now in Dubai. It is there, on an artificial island just off the coast, that you’ll find the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab. It is the world’s tallest hotel. And that’s only one of the world records it holds.
The Burj Al Arab is also home to the world’s fastest elevators, the world’s tallest atrium and largest aquarium. No other building in the world incorporates as much gold (the 2,000 square meters or 21,500 square feet of gold leaf!) and no other hotel has earned a seven star rating.
Continue →
Visitors to Taipei who happen to enter the D.S. Music Restaurant expecting to find an elegant place to eat, perhaps with a jazz band playing gently in the background, are in for a shock.
Their first hint that something is amiss might be the waitstaff: they are all wearing nurse uniforms. And then these confused visitors would see that the medical theme extends to the restaurant’s decor of wheelchairs and crutches, to the toilets marked with “emergency room” signs and to the drinks served from I.V. bottles.
And from there, things really get out of control.
Continue →
From the shores of Lake Malaren in Sweden, the Utter Inn looks like a bright red gardening shack stuck improbably in the middle of the lake. That visible section of the Inn includes a kitchenette and little dining area surrounded by an outdoor terrace. But what makes the Utter Inn really cool is part you can’t see from shore: the bedroom is down a ladder below the water! The sleeping quarters, submerged 3 meters (10 feet) underwater has windows with fish views on all sides.
Continue →
Some billboards advertise hotels. In Berlin, there is a billboard that IS a hotel.
Continue →
Where else would the first permanent ice lounge in the United States be located but in the middle of a hot desert?
The new Minus 5 Ice Lounge, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, is 2,000 square feet of frigid wonderland complete with an ice bar, ice sofas, an ice chandelier and an ice Elvis sculpture. Guests needn’t bring their own winter wear for the occasion—each is provided with parkas and boots to keep warm while they chill with their friends.
Admission is $30 though that includes a complimentary vodka cocktail. (No reason to order that drink on the rocks because, like nearly everything else at the Minus 5 Lounge, the glasses are made of ice). Accompanied minors are allowed inside too. Just make sure they don’t stick their tongues, well, anything.
Related Post: Ice Bars In Warm Places
BOOK A ROOM AT MANDALAY BAY 
| READ | FLY THERE
Continue →
Wow. This two-chamber hotel 30 feet (10 meters) underwater off the coast of Key Largo, Florida truly feels like you are spending the night in a different world. Guests are surrounded by views of tropical fish and lagoon water. But the vibe of this place is what makes it truly memorable — the lighting and sounds here are different than they are living on land. And since no hotel staff stays overnights below you’ll be free to explore around this underwater space station in privacy. To make the dive down to the lodge guests are required to take a three hour course if they are not already scuba certified. “Mer-chefs” are available to cook dinner. One guess what sort of food is on the menu.
LEARN MORE & BOOK | READ
Continue →
London’s Amora is like no museum you toured in grade school. This self-described “Academy of Sex & Relationships” is like an erotic theme park (without the rides).
Continue →
