A chi-chi en suite and pillow menu don’t cut it at these wacky hotel rooms, designed to look like a Ziggy Stardust dressing room, a petrol station forecourt and more
Have you ever dreamed of sleeping in a chocolate-themed room, a marshmallow suite or, weirder still, a bed surrounded by bratwurst? Perhaps not — but if you have, you’re in luck: these eccentric rooms, plus plenty of equally wacky options (psychedelic-style caravan, anyone? Or an Oreo-themed room in theme park), are all available to book for the night. Europe is home to some of the wackiest, most OTT hotel rooms around — and these are our favourites.
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Bratwurst Hotel, Rittersbach, Germany
They’re not joking when they say, “Here you sleep in bratwurst heaven.” Each room at the Bratwurst Hotel in pretty little Rittersbach, near Nuremberg, is dedicated to this prince of German sausages. Not only does a (packaged) sausage hang over your bed, but three of the rooms are decorated with sausage wallpaper, a squishy stool that looks like a sausage-meat tin, and charming pig outlines on the bed’s headboard to remind you where all that delicious meat comes from. Dinner is from 6.30pm at WURSTaurant, where they serve at least 14 different bratwurst mains.
Details B&B doubles from £120 (bratwursthotel.de). Fly or take the train to Nuremberg
ODSweet Duomo Milano Hotel, Italy
Bring an extra tube of toothpaste. Owned by a Milanese confectioner, the ODSweet Duomo Milano Hotel hosts 17 bedrooms dedicated to marshmallows. The decor skilfully blends pink with more pink (and soothing touches of white) — and once that’s got your mouth watering, you’ll find mountains of complimentary marshmallows heaped on a bedside table. After which, you may need a change of scene. So it’s good to know the hotel sits next to the Piazza del Duomo, just a few steps from the cathedral’s west front.
Details Room-only doubles from £356 (odsweethotel.com). Fly or take the train to Milan
V8 Hotel, Germany
Sorry folks, the Gas Station room at the car-themed V8 Hotel in Stuttgart isn’t the real thing. It doesn’t smell of petrol and there are no minimart shelves packed with tortilla chips and overpriced chocolate. But for all those people who have dreamt of sleeping on a forecourt, this is surely the next best thing. Home to a vintage petrol pump and a double bed that thinks it’s a VW Beetle, it is the perfect place to rev up your engines before a visit to Motorworld’s exhibition halls next door.
Details Room-only themed doubles from £170 (thev8hotel.de). Fly to Stuttgart
The Shankly Hotel, Liverpool
“The Flamingo room stands out among the crowd of generic Liverpool hotel rooms,” proclaims the Shankly Hotel. You bet it does. Decorated with pink-and-turquoise flamingo wallpaper, swinging egg chairs and Roman bath big enough for ten, it’ll sleep 14 people in seven double beds, six of which are bunks, with one couple stacked on top of another. And if that sounds a bit, you know, indiscreet, then bear in mind that this is what they call a party room — and the Shankly has several more. The wood-panelled Laurent Perrier suite sleeps 24.
Details Room-only suite for 14 from £500 (shanklyhotel.com)
CBeebies Land Hotel, Staffordshire
All parents of toddlers love the CBeebies show In the Night Garden. At least, they do for 30 minutes each day. But how will you take to a whole night of it? Here’s your chance to embrace your inner Makka Pakka and find out, at the CBeebies Land Hotel at Alton Towers. The themed In the Night Garden room has a bed beneath a canopy of stars for the grown-ups — and the first thing they’ll see in the morning are the floor-to-ceiling pictures of the Haahoos that decorate the walls. Little ones are watched over by Iggle Piggle.
Details B&B family rooms sleeping four start at £325, including waterpark entry (altontowers.com)
Hotel Pelirocco, Brighton
Ziggy played guitar. And you can play at being Ziggy when you check into Rebel Rebel, the David Bowie-themed room in Brighton’s Hotel Pelirocco. Not only is the room festooned with Bowie imagery, it comes equipped with Bowie vinyl (and a record player), plus an array of Bowie-esque costumes, make-up and even wigs. Perfect for parading around Regency Square in your best platform boots. Other rooms play homage to reggae, Dolly Parton and the Mods.
Details B&B doubles from £134 (hotelpelirocco.co.uk)
Basecamp Bonn, Germany
It’s definitely not a campsite. It’s not exactly a hotel, either. But we’ll gladly bend the rules for this mind-expanding hostel-in-a-warehouse in suburban Bonn. Home to a convoy of upcycled one-bedroom caravans, its collection includes Flower Power — decked out in a collision of 1960s and 1970s decor that’s positively psychedelic in its effect. A vegetarian buffet breakfast is included in the price. We wonder if it includes mushrooms: but either way, a night here is the perfect appetiser for a tour of Bonn’s Museum Mile, gorging on German Expressionist art and postwar history.
Details B&B doubles from £64 (basecamp-bonn.de). Fly to Bonn or take the train
Fabrica do Chocolate, Porto, Portugal
It’s not so much its sweet-shop-in-a-forest decor that will have chocoholics salivating. Though the room’s chocolate scent, soaps and moisturising creams will certainly get you in the mood. It’s what lies beyond the door of your family-friendly Hansel and Gretel suite. This is the Fabrica do Chocolate, a chocolate museum, chocolate shop and hotel in the pretty harbour town of Viana do Castelo, north of Porto. Guests can also book a signature, full-body “chocotherapy” massage, which includes crushed cocoa-bean exfoliation and a chocolate-butter body wrap.
Details B&B suite for four from £166 (fabricadochocolate.com). Fly to Porto
The Megaro, London
Ah, the smiley yellow face. Since being commandeered by the acid-house music scene it’s not exactly the international symbol of a good night’s sleep. Nevertheless, it features in the Backstage Britannia room at the Megaro because of its place in the history of King’s Cross,where the hotel is situated. After all, the now-demolished warehouses of the north London neighbourhood were a seedbed of late-1980s rave culture. Further nods to the musical past of the district are given with a headboard and coffee table made from speaker and instrument cases. It’s an oddly appropriate launchpad for a visit to the British Library, opened just up the road in 1998 — a potent indicator of how much has changed here.
Details Room-only doubles from £265 a night (themegaro.co.uk)
Quinta da Pacheca, Portugal
Yes, you may snigger. But after a day barrelling along the roads of the Douro Valley you’ll find one of these ten cask-shaped bedrooms at the Quinta da Pacheca a relaxing port of call. Inside, giant circular glass doors allow you to sit up in bed and gaze at the vineyards. Outside, tours and tastings draw on the 286 years of wine-making experience at the estate.
Details B&B doubles from £262 (quintadapacheca.com). Fly to Porto
Faralda Crane Hotel, Amsterdam
Imagine that Jimi Hendrix hadn’t made it as a global rock superstar and had got a job in the docklands of Amsterdam instead. One of the mezzanine suites at Faralda Crane Hotel would have surely been his home. All three are squeezed into the towering superstructure of a quayside crane, and offer such a gothic mix of purple-haze style and post-industrial detailing that they’re crying out for extended guitar solos. Expect antelope skulls, gold cushions and plenty of rivets holding the walls together.
Details B&B suites from £653 (faralda.com)
If you really want to put a different slant on your Christmas celebrations this year head to King’s Cross where The Megaro, known for its colourful, quirky and unconventional attitude, is pulling out all the most surprising stops with year! The weather has dropped, and like George Costanza we’re officially shifting into soup mode. It’s all we want to eat at the moment, and we’ve asked some of the top chefs from the UK and Ireland for their favourite recipes. Press & Insights
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