Destinations

You Buy It, You Break It

Feeling frustrated? Tense? Angry? There are several stores that sell stress relief in the form of yoga lessons, aroma therapy or, say, Quaaludes. In San Diego, California there’s a shop where you can reduce tension a different way.

Continue →


The World’s Largest Swimming Pool

The resort also has a massive indoor pool complete with waterfalls, jet massages and a beach with heated sand.

You know a swimming pool is big when an average swimmer is unable to complete a single lap within it. And when this swimmer is likely to be passed by a sailboat while trying.

Continue →


The Unusual Hotels of Harlingen, Holland

When in Harlingen, on the Dutch coast an hour’s drive from Amsterdam, you’ll need to crane your neck upwards to spot two of the three coolest hotels in town. One of those hotels is atop an actual working crane. The other is in a lighthouse. And the town’s third cool hotel? That’s on street level—or, more accurately, water level—inside a lifeboat.

Our reviews of each . . .

Continue →


The Island of Miracles

Once upon a time, fishermen off of the Greek island of Siphnos noticed a glow under the Aegean Sea. When they trolled the spot they were amazed at what their nets brought up: a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The fishermen brought the Virgin Mary icon to Chryssopigi, a small seventeenth-century monastery church on Siphnos located at the end of a spit of land jutting out into the sea. The Virgin of the Golden Spring soon came to be regarded as the protector of the island.

The Virgin’s protective powers were evidenced several years later when pirates, who regularly made life miserable for residents of islands in the Aegean, stormed the Siphnos shore chasing a group of nuns who were on their way to the Chryssopigi monastery. The nuns prayed as they ran with the pirates close behind. As the nuns reached the church containing the Virgin there was a great rumble, the neck of land connecting the church to the main island split open, and the pirates fell into the sea.

And that’s how Siphnos came to be known as The Island of Miracles.

Continue →


Eating In The Dark

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. When guests ate dinner at the Spielmann house some would wear blindfolds during their meal to show solidarity with their host and to better understand his world. What Spielmann’s sighted guests found was that the blindfolds heightened their sense of taste and smell and made their dining experience more enjoyable. 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 →


Museum Art That’s So Bad It’s Good

Spot Cool Stuff is, shall we say, “challenged” when it comes to the visual arts. Drawing, painting, sculpting—we’re terrible at them all. No self-respecting museum would ever consider putting one of our artworks on display. No museum except for one: MoBA.

Continue →


London’s Fashion Rock ‘N’ Roll Hotel

The Pavilion Hotel, near London’s Hyde Park, calls itself a Fashion Rock ‘N’ Roll Hotel. That description fits some of the hotel’s clientele better than the property itself.

Continue →


Simply Luxurious Hawaii Beach Huts

The idea of staying in a thatched hut on a tropical beach has nearly universal appeal—the beauty of it, the seclusion, the connection to nature, the lack of televisions and telephones and hectic bustle of life, the napping in hammocks to the sound of the waves, the perfect beaches and swims in the ocean . . . what’s not to like?

Well, for one thing most thatched huts don’t have indoor plumbing. Or outdoor plumbing. Or electricity. Or a bed devoid of sand bugs, to say nothing of a private whirlpool or a location near a superb spa and romantic restaurant.

For a stay in a thatched hut that doesn’t feel like you are taking part in an endurance contest or an episode of Survivor there’s the Kona Village Resort on the northwest coast of Hawaii Island.

Continue →



SPOTCOOLSTUFF Travel reviews unusual hotels and restaurants, great attractions, cool travel gear, places with amazing views and all manner of travel destinations with a WOW! factor. Because we live on an incredible planet! Get our latest travel posts by email . . .

    Awesome Curacao vacations — up to $530 off!
    Check out the freebies offered too, including airfare credits, breakfast and room upgrades!

Save $530 Time left:
Book Now!
Offer Closed!




PARTNER WITH US     |     BE OUR GUEST TRAVEL WRITER    |      SUGGEST COOL STUFF FOR US TO REVIEW     |     INFO FOR TOURIST BOARDS

Other SCS SectionsHot Travel CategoriesFave Travel Posts
Cool Tech & GadgetsBest hotel room viewsCaribbeanBest Sandals in Jamaica
Cool Architecture & DesignFamily travelEuropeBest Wheeled Carry-On Luggage
Cool WebsitesHoneymoon resortsFloridaWorld's Coolest Airlines
Cool EntertainmentUnusual museumsSoutheast AsiaThe Honeymoon Resorts of Bora Bora