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Fantasy architecture and themed hotels

Summary

Fantasy architecture has long been common in American hotels, but it is becoming increasingly frequent on this side of the Atlantic too - and not just at Eurodisney near Paris. We look at examples from Turkey and the Canary Islands.

Fantasy architecture has long been common in American hotels, but it is becoming increasingly frequent on this side of the Atlantic too - and not just at Eurodisney near Paris where you can stay in hotels that evoke New York or Wild West themes.

On Tenerife, the Gran Hotel Bahia del Duque reproduces details of a nineteenth-century Canary Island village. Presumably the planners have been pretty selective in this endeavour, as guests surely don’t want to pay five star hotel prices only to find that their suite has no electricity and only an outside loo. The hotel makes much of the Scottish showers in its spa area. In truth, we have never judged Scottish plumbing to be especially noteworthy, but perhaps nineteenth century villages in the Canary Islands really did have Scottish showers. Who knows.

But one of the strangest themed hotels we have encountered on our travels is the Orange County resort hotel at Kemer on the coast of Turkey. The entire complex affects to be a piece of sixteenth-century Holland, complete with windmills, canals, bicycles, waffles and kroketten (we must overlook the detail that the potato croquette and bicycle did not exist in sixteenth-century Holland).

The resort is particularly popular with Dutch and German visitors who fancy the idea of a holiday in Holland with a helping of Mediterranean sunshine. You can see a pic or two of this bizarre resort on the hotel website.

Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner
(hidden europe)

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