Turkey Tips & articles

3 September 2009 1:17pm

Europe’s most unusual hotels: #2

Lonely Planet Magazine put together their list of Europe’s 20 most unusual places to stay - beds in wine barrels, glass igloos in Lapland, that kind of thing. We picked our five favourites and we’re counting them down all this week.

Today’s choice is a truly magical little place in Cappadocia. It was the first of the area’s boutique hotels to open and its dream-like quality keeps it rating.

The landscape of Turkey’s Cappadocia region looks every bit like it has sprung from a child’s imagination, like something out of a fairy tale, and the hotel Esbelli Evi is very much a part of its fantastical surroundings.

Parts of the hotel have been built, but just as much of it seems to have occurred naturally. Unusual clefts in the rock replace doors, yielding to staircases worn smooth by centuries of pre-hotel use, while fireplaces send a breath of smoke up the locally famous fairy chimneys. This was the region’s first boutique hotel and the human touches in its interiors are rooted in local landscape and culture - blood-red Turkish carpets, dark Ottoman furnishings and traditional lace curtains offset the pale sandstone walls and hardwood floors beautifully. From the terrace, the views over a landscape sculpted by the centuries are unrivalled.

Rooms are available from £77. Get more details right here.

Want to see what came in at #3? It’s all about the art of slumber at this wild Copenhagen hotel.

And what made it to #1? Well this hotel is not for squeamish car lovers, as the check-in desks are decapitated Mini Coopers…

For the full rundown list of Europe’s maddest pads, take a look at the Lonely Planet Magazine.

• 
•