The World Most Innovative: The Hotel Marmara Antalya (Turkey)

The first entirely rotating building in the world.

In 2007, it won the Marmara Antalya a Worldwide Hospitality Award for the Most Innovative Concept in Luxury Hotels.

Antalya is a city on the Southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey and the capital city of Antalya Province. It is situated on coastal cliffs and surrounded by mountains. According to tradition, in the 2nd century BC, the Pergamum king Attalos II ordered his men to find “heaven on earth”. After an extensive search, they discovered the region of Antalya. With a population in 2008 of around 800.000, has played host to a revolving cast of empires over the centuries, from the Romans, to the Byzantines to the Ottomans and Turks. It’s known as one of the most beautiful cities in Turkey and it’s also the city that built one of the world’s most unusual hotels: The Hotel Marmara Antalya, which features the only fully rotating hotel building in the world.
The Hotel Marmara Antalya’s main building is an ordinary 214-room hotel building overlooking the dramatic scenery around one of Turkey’s most beautiful. It features only 24 rooms. With a cylindrical tower, which cost US$12 million to build, the whole building is designed to gently rotate through 360 degrees over a period of between 2 and 22 hours. The lower three floors are submerged under the water, while the upper 3 floors are treated to a slowly rotating panoramic view of the area.
Rooms can be had for under 100 Euros (US$150) or over 400 Euros (US$600) depending on what you go for.

Filed under: Antalya, Antalya Hotel, Hotel, Hotel Marmara Antalya, Luxurious Hotels, Luxury, Luxury Hotels, The Hotel Marmara Antalya, The Most, the most innovative

The Oldest Hotel in the World: the Hōshi Hotel, opened nearly 1300 years ago

Hōshi Ryokan is a hotel and spa in Komatsu, Japan that has been owned and run by the same family for 46 generations so far. Founded by a Buddhist disciple whose master had the springs’ location delivered to him in a dream, Hōshi is the world’s oldest hotel and also the world’s oldest continuously-operating business.

The world was a very different place back in 718 AD when Hōshi first opened its doors. The story goes that a great Buddhist teacher, Taicho Daishi, had hiked up to the top of the sacred Mt. Hakusan, near the village of Awazu. While he was asleep after a hard training session, the deity of the mountain appeared to him in a dream and told him:

“Lying 20-24 kilometers from the base of the mountain is a village called Awazu. There, you’ll find an underground hot spring with wondrous restorative powers that Yakushi Nyorai (the Physician of Souls) has bestowed upon it. The people of the village, however, do not know about this good fortune. Descend the mountain and head to Awazu. With the people of the village unearth the hot spring-it will serve them forever.”

Daishi went down to the village, uncovered the hot spring, and had some sick locals immersed in the water. They were cured immediately and their health restored.

Daishi had other things to do, being in search of enlightenment and such, so he bestowed the task of building a spa business at the site upon his disciple Garyo Hōshi, who really took the idea and ran with it. Hōshi’s family have diligently run a modest business at the side for nearly 1300 years. Hōshi has survived the rise and fall of the Samurai, the Ninja, many Japanese emperors and two world wars.

The hotel now has around 100 guest rooms. There are two indoor hot spring spas and another two outdoor that are separated for men and women only. Guests are provided with a special Yukata kimono for relaxation during their stay, there’s several traditional gardens and beautiful scenery all around.

Room prices hover around US$580 per night for a double room, and include breakfast and dinner.

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Filed under: Hōshi Hotel, Luxury, Luxury Hotels, The Oldest Hotel in the World

Luxurious Hotels in Movies: Lost in Translation, Casino Royale, The Darjeeling Limited, Pretty Woman and The Rock

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The Park Hyatt Tokyo

The Park Hyatt is one of the top 5 hotels in Tokyo and, because of this fact, Sofia Coppola included it in her film Lost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The movie is set in this luxurious hotel where the main characters look to discover their true selves exploring themes of loneliness, alienation, existential ennui and culture shock against the background of the modern Japanese cityscape.

Lost in Translation is a 2003 comedy-drama film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson which was the second feature film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, after The Virgin Suicides. Lost in Translation was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Bill Murray and Best Director for Sofia Coppola. Coppola won Best Original Screenplay.

The Bellagio Resort, Las Vegas

The Bellagio Resort has seen some of the most on-screen time of any hotel. Aside from all of the Ocean’s films, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, you can find the Bellagio in numerous places. Check out Dodgeball, Head of State and Knocked Up to see this great hotel.

Grand Hotel Pupp, Czech Republic

This hotel was the fictional Hotel Splendide in the Bond film Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig. In reality, the Pupp is in the Czech Republic in one of Europe’s leading spa towns. Grand Hotel Pupp is the premier getaway for stress relief near Prague.

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming is the first James Bond novel. It would eventually pave the way for thirteen other novels by Fleming himself in addition to two short story collections, followed by many ‘continuation’ Bond novels by other authors.

Hotels de Chevaliers, France

In Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman star in Hotel Chevalier. This short film reveals a long-term relationship between the characters and it sets the groundwork for Anderson’s latest feature. From the beginning, the hotel can easily be seen as one of the luxurious locations in France.

The Darjeeling Limited is a 2007 drama-comedy film directed by Wes Anderson, and starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman. It was written by Anderson, Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola. The film also stars Waris Ahluwalia, Amara Karan, Barbet Schroeder and Anjelica Huston, with Natalie Portman, Camilla Rutherford, Irfan Khan and Bill Murray in cameo roles.

Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills

This Beverly Hills Four Seasons is the location for most of Pretty Woman. Julia Roberts enjoyed all that it had to offer and throughout the film and it has become an icon in this Hollywood city. Roberts, alongside Richard Gere, show the audience why the Beverly Wilshire is the place to stay.

Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film. The film centers on down-on-her-luck prostitute Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) who is hired by a wealthy businessman and corporate raider, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) to be his escort for several business functions, and their developing relationship. Pretty Woman was such a critical success that soon became one of the 1990’s highest grossing films, and today is one of the most financially successful entries in the romantic comedy genre, with an estimated gross of $464 million USD.

The Fairmont San Francisco

San Francisco’s iconic hotel since 1907, the Fairmont is considered the White House of the west coast because nearly every president has stayed there. The Rock, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, features this hotel as Connery’s place to stay throughout the film. His $12,000 a night, 6,000 square-foot suite even features a grand piano.

The Rock is a 1996 action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island, and the San Francisco Bay area. It was directed by Michael Bay, director of Bad Boys, and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Crimson Tide, and released through Disney’s Hollywood Pictures. The film is dedicated to producer Don Simpson, who died five months before its release.

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Filed under: Luxurious Hotels in Movies, Luxury, Luxury Hotels, Movies

The Park Hyatt (Shanghai): the world’s highest hotel.

The Park Hyatt, Shanghai, has just taken the mantle of the world’s highest hotel. The Jin Mao Tower it’s about 40 meters taller than the Empire State Building in NYC in which the Park Hyatt Shanghai occupies floors 79 to 93 of the Shanghai World Financial Center (the tallest tower in China at a massive 492 meters). Its stand rates start at around US$320 per night and ramp up to nearly US$13K for the stunning Chairman Suite.

There may be hotels with nicer views, but there’s no hotel on Earth that lets you look down from a greater height than the brand spanking new 6-star Park Hyatt Shanghai. Situated on a bend in the Huangpu river, every room at the Park Hyatt makes full use of its positioning, with floor to ceiling glass windows. You can look out on the misty city below, the enormous Jin Mao tower across the road – which is the second tallest building in mainland China – and the Oriental Pearl TV tower.

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Filed under: Luxury, Luxury Hotels, The Most, The Most Expensive