Bid farewell to the identikit chain hotels and say a big hello to staying somewhere tinged with more than a little eccentricity. Across Britain, there are a few hotels that are willing to strike out and do something a little different. They might not be to everyone’s taste, but they sure are interesting…
Best Western Monkbar Hotel
Where: York
The rooms aren’t all that unusual, but the VIP (or Very Important Pet) policy is. The Monkbar actively welcomes dog owners, and provides luxury doggy beds for guests with canine companions. The hotel has also produced a series of walking route maps suitable for the dogs to take their owners on.
Bradford Old Windmill
Where: Bradford-on-Avon, The Cotswolds
As the name suggests, this is an old windmill that has been turned into accommodation. The oddness comes from the round tower shape, Victorian spiral staircases and pointy Gothic windows. The most fun room is ‘Damsel’, which has a conical ceiling and a water bed.
Hotel Pelirocco
Where: Brighton, Sussex
With individually themed rooms, all based on some aspect of pop culture or an icon such as Diana Dors, the Pelirocco’s rooms are fantastically odd. How does a Jamaican Dub Reggae room with Lee Scratch Perry wallpaper sound? Or the ‘Durex Play Room’ with a circular bed and ceiling mirror?
Hundred House
Where: Near Telford, Shropshire
Each room at this blast from the past is decorated differently, and all in furnishings that seem like they’ve come from a bawdy costume drama. The icing on the cake comes in the form of the velvet swings that hang from the ceiling in almost every room. Visitors can pretend they’re a young maiden in the 19th century, reading a swoonsome letter from their secret lover. If they so wish.
The Alton Towers Hotel
Where: Alton Towers, Staffordshire
Most come as day trippers for the rides, but those that decide to stay over have some decidedly odd choices. There are a selection of theme rooms at the Alton Towers hotel, ranging from the Peter Rabbit room to the Chocolate room, which has choccies hidden all over it. Women wanting to regress a few years should go for the bright pink Sleepover room – it’s designed to replicate a girly night in at a friend’s house.
West Usk Lighthouse
Where: Newport, South Wales
This big circular lighthouse has been converted into romantic seaside accommodation. The rooms are all wedge-shaped, and the B&B has a few decidedly weird extras, such as a flotation tank and a Dalek that stands at the bottom of the stairs. It can’t get up them, naturally.
The Witchery
Where: Edinburgh
The seven Gothic-style suites at The Witchery look like they’ve come straight out of a film about charismatic vampires. The roll-top baths, dark-but-camp decor and shameless opulence are about as far away from a standard business hotel as you can get.
The Crazy Bear
Where: Stadhampton, Oxfordshire
The reception is inside a double decker bus, and it only gets sillier from there. Each room has its own rather idiosyncratic touches; one’s all in bright peppermint green, another has seemingly hundreds of tassles dangling from the ceiling and some have tree branches sprawling all over them. All are kitted out with period furniture belonging on pompous album sleeves.
The Auld Kirk
Where: Ballater, near Dundee, Scotland
The rooms are relatively normal here, but the building itself certainly isn’t. It’s an old church that has been converted – but only on the inside. Walking in, you half expect to find people sat at the pews and a vicar trudging through his sermon.
The Wensleydale Heifer
Where: West Witton, North Yorkshire
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, this boutique joint offers a series of quirkily themed rooms, most of which have a local link. There’s a James Herriot room for vans of the All Creatures Great and Small vet, plus others devoted to Black Sheep beer, Wensleydale cheese and heifers. The Chocolate room is packed with chocolates to a ludicrous extent and guests are challenged to eat as much as they can.
This article was originally written for AOL UK.
Copyright David Whitley
