Tag Archives: hotel

A hotel in central Portugal has a library of 40 000 books for its guests

2018-01-18

Portugal is a hot travel destination for many reasons, for instance, because of its south coast beaches that were chosen the best in Europe and its quirky cities, but also a hotel in central Portugal is an absolute delight for book lovers. The hotel library has a collection of 40 000 Portuguese and English titles. Most of the books are available for hotel guests to read.

The Literary Man hotel has been built into an old house located in the ancient village of Obidos. Guest rooms in the hotel are individual and (reasonably) priced according to size and facilities. Books can be found in hotel’s public spaces in the lobby, bar and restaurant.

The hotel has also made available a few book-related activities. Book Romantics is a special dinner, Book a Story follows a story to the wine cellar for tasting, and Book Nature takes guests to a bicycle ride along landscapes of Obidos.

For an accidental literary traveler, a hotel located in a small town of Obidos is sort of no man’s land. In central Portugal, somewhere between Lisbon and Porto, a traveler really must have the will and the energy to look for the hotel. The famous surfing beach in the town of Nazare is relatively close to Obidos, but that’s about it.

The public service broadcaster in Portugal, RTP, made a visit to the Literary Man hotel. The recorded video is in Portuguese, but you can see how the hotel looks like.

As you view the interior of the hotel, you may get the feeling that books have only been used to decorate public spaces. So what? Many types of artwork have been used to decorate hotels for centuries, and I haven’t seen any artist complain about it.

Via Klaava.fi.

Traveling in Europe but no books to read? Why not stay a night at a library in Paris

2017-06-07

The city of artists, authors and a few million other people – Paris – has a special hotel room waiting for travelers who like to sleep with books. Paris Boutik Hotel has rooms that are all different, designed to a theme. One of these rooms is a library. It is located in Marais district of the city.

The library room is generous in size: 45 m2. There are books for children as well, but not for pets. Dogs or cats are not allowed in this room.

Books, on the other hand, are available in the bathroom as well, in case a guest forgot to take reading along from the bedroom or lounge.

The Paris Boutik Hotel has more information and online booking.

Via Actualitte (with more photos).

If you have always wanted to stay a night at a library, now it is possible in Wales

2017-01-06

There is an atmosphere of utmost safety and eternal truth in old libraries. They are like small and simple worlds inside the big and complex world we live in. On top of that, old libraries often are beautiful. So, who wouldn’t like to stay a night in a library where comfortable beds are waiting for tired book lovers. Gladstone’s Library in Wales invites guests to stay a night among books, but in bed.

Gladstone’s Library is both a real library and a real hotel all in the same building.

There are 26 rooms for guests to choose from. Guestrooms include Wi-Fi, free coffee, vintage radios, and views to the Welsh countryside, but for book lovers the real treat is access to the library. 250,000 printed items are available until 10 pm (doors are closed to the public at 5 pm).

Room prices start at £63 a night, and they include free breakfast in the cafe Food For Thought. Guestrooms don’t have TVs – perhaps you want to spend every precious minute with books.

The nearest town to the library is Chester. In order to get there, you can drive or take a train that stops in Chester.

The library has been named after the former Prime Minister of UK William Gladstone. He was a book lover who collected more than 30,000 of them during his lifetime. He lived in Hawarden Castle in Wales when he retired. The library was built after he died in 1898.

Images by Gladstone’s Library.

These neighborhoods are trending travel destinations in cities across the world

2016-01-27

Online accommodation service Airbnb is disrupting a large segment of travel industry: ordinary people make a spare bedroom available at their apartment for tourists, and usually at lower price than hotels. Young city-dwellers who like to travel are probably the most frequent users of Airbnb, and it reflects in the destinations that are popular at the service. Airbnb has released a report that lists the hottest neighborhoods in the world for travelers.

Osaka by Thomas Park

Here is the top 16 hottest districts ranked by the relative growth in bookings in 2015 (tallied up from bookings of 40 million users in 190 countries):

1. Chuo-ku (Osaka, Japan): 7,471% growth
2. Banglampoo (Bangkok): 1,239%
3. Brickfields (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia): 1,231%
4. Capucins (Bordeaux, France): 966%
5. Koukaki (Athens, Greece): 801%
6. Triana (Seville, Spain): 774%
7. Hammerbrook (Hamburg, Germany): 418%
8. Kaneohe (Oahu, Hawaii): 324%
9. Meireles (Fortaleza, Brazil): 287%
10. Roma Sur (Mexico City): 279%
11. Oak Lawn (Dallas, Texas): 264%
12. Poncey-Highland (Atlanta, Georgia): 242%
13. District VII (Budapest, Hungary): 148%
14. The Bukit Peninsula (Bali, Indonesia): 134%
15. Richmond (Melbourne, Australia): 126%
16. Constitucion (Buenos Aires, Argentina): 125%

The percentages for growth are so big that the starting point may have been rather low in many destinations. That’s often the reason for huge growth numbers, but nonetheless, something draws travelers into these neighborhoods, so there’s something going on in there.

Who would have thought that Dallas or Atlanta are hot destinations? We have visited many cities (or islands like Bali) listed in the hottest neighborhood report, but we can recognize only a few of districts. Who knows, maybe we have passed through Triana in Seville, but never took notice, or a taxi has driven us via Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur without making a fuss about it.

Buenos Aires by Kevin Dooley

Before booking a hotel room for your next trip, check out its Wi-Fi speed

2015-07-14

Practically every hotel and hostel advertises that they have a wireless Internet connection (Wi-Fi, WLAN) available for free or for a small fee. Sure, but does the wireless access really work? Is it fast enough for web browsing, watching news from home, or even for games? Now, there is a way to find it out in advance.

We have been disappointed so many times to the speed of our Wi-Fi connection in a hotel or apartment we have rented during our journey. Any information or service that hares information about the real in-house situation will increase competition among hotels and improve connection speeds with time.

Here is a story what happened to us two years ago. We were staying in a hotel by the Mediterranean Sea in Catalonia, Spain. Wi-Fi worked pretty well in the morning and in the afternoon, but at five o’clock, the signal almost died. On the second day, when it happened again, we realized that something had to be wrong. We decided to find out where the Wi-Fi hotspot was. We learned that the hotel’s broadband connection was in the back office, and that’s where nearest Wi-Fi access point was supposed to be as well.

The back office was closed, and we had to wait until next morning before we could talk to the people working in the office. Sure enough, we discovered the Wi-Fi access point in the office. The wireless connection worked fine. Why? Because the back office door was open during the day. It was a metal door.

We managed to convince hotel management to move the Wi-Fi access point outside the metal door. In addition to us, many other hotel guests were happy about that small change in hotel’s network configuration.

In any case, you can check out the speed of wireless connection in a hotel you are planning book here: Hotelwifitest.

Travel guides that show you the essential sights, cultural destinations and activities in your destination available for download here.