Berlin is one of the greatest cities in the world for high design and artsy hotels. And king among the artsy accommodations of the German capital is the Propeller Island City Lodge. Its name is a misnomer. This hotel does not feel like a lodge, is not on an island and has no propellers. (But it is in a city).
What the Propeller Island City Lodge is—besides incredibly cool—is a collection of individually designed rooms in a former apartment building. Some of the rooms, the ones that get the most attention, are truly outrageous. There’s the mirror-filled room (room #15), the upside-down room (#23), the all-orange room (#1) and the jail-cell room (#26) which has the toilet in the middle of it and a “door” that’s literally a hole in a wall. You can sleep on a bed that’s suspended from the ceiling by ropes (#12) or inside a vampire’s coffin (#31). Check out the photos, below.
Continue →
Here’s a restaurant theme you didn’t see coming: darkness.
The concept of purposefully eating in complete pitch-black dark originated with Jorge Spielmann, a blind clergyman from Zurich. Dinner guests at the Spielmann house would wear blindfolds to show of solidarity with their host and to better understand his world. These guests found their dark dinning experiences fascinating. They found also that they enjoyed their food more—when you free yourself of having to see your sense of taste and smell becomes heightened. And that gave Spielmann the idea to open a dark restaurant, which he did in 1999.
Today you can stumble into dozens restaurants around the world where that question made famous in an American commercial in the 80s — Where’s the beef? — takes on a whole new meaning. Most dark restaurants employ blind waiters, offer a single set menu, and ban anything that could give off light (like cigarettes, cell phones and cameras) from the dinning area. All of them also have normally lit bathrooms though you’ll need to ask your waiter for help in finding it.
Here’s our illuminating look at some of the world’s dark restaurants:
Continue →
Oh, if you are wondering, each Modern Toilet restaurant does have proper bathrooms. They are very well marked to prevent patrons from making the horrible mistake.
We can’t imagine the marketing meeting during which some one pitches the concept for a toilet-themed restaurant . . . and the others in the meeting agreeing that it’s a good idea. And yet presumably such a meeting has happened. More than once. There are at least 20 (!) restaurants on planet Earth where toilets, urinals and potty talk are the central attraction. Five of those have opened in 2008 alone and at least ten more are planned for 2009, most in either China or Taiwan.
Let’s get you going with an overview of some of the world’s crappy dinning experiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany and Portugal . . .
Continue →
Some billboards advertise hotels. In Berlin, there is a billboard that IS a hotel. The blandly named Single Room Hotel houses said room inside a block of billboards. Behind one of the billboards, there’s a stepladder that leads to a cozy abode with an en suite bathroom and a comfortable, if not luxurious, sleeping area. The Single Room hotel is in a gritty area of the city near where the former Berlin Wall ran. At €30 per night, The Single Room hotel might be the best accommodations deal in the whole of the German capital.
LEARN MORE & BOOK | READ | FLY THERE
Continue →
Your average high design hotel starts out as sterile property before having an artistic aspect added to it. Berlin’s Arte Luise Kunsthotel began as an artistic compound before having a hotel added it. The funky, individually designed rooms here formed organically during the building’s time as a Bohemian artists commune. Today the Arte Luise Kunsthotel still has a communal feel — there’s a public kitchen downstairs and several rooms have shared showers. There’s free wifi, too. Every room is cool though some of the edgier options are better for looking at than staying in. Do you really want to sleep in a room that makes you feel like you are in a cartoon (room #306) or that has brightly colored socks coming out of the walls (room #411)? For the best mix of design and comfort we are partial to the double Loop room (#205), the pseudo-futuristic Future Comfort room (#431) and the sophisticated Baustelle Deutschland suite (#105). Rooms start at an extremely reasonable €49/€79 for a single/double with shared shower.
BOOK & LEARN MORE | READ| FLY THERE
Continue →
The Tides South Beach | Miami, Florida
