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The hotel has evolved throughout the years. Whereas once it was simply a lodging, a place where you could go and get a hot meal and kick off your shoes for a night or two, today, hotels are so much more.

The trend in hotels is towards providing guests with an immersive experience. Hotels have become concepts; no longer is enough to be a stop over. Modern hotels are escapes; they act as little pockets of luxury, of freedom from the normal 9 to five grind.

Everywhere you look there are various themed hotels that have cropped up in all corners of the world. You can find a designer hotel with art themed rooms in practically every major city. There are hotels dedicated to fashion, to music, to being sustainable, to books and to celebrity personalities. And the public loves it.

Of course, you’ve got your standard beachside paradises, fully equipped with peace invoking reflecting pools, shabby-chic villas with mosquito netting romantically slung around the beds and organic chocolate covered coffee beans on the pillows; and you’ve got your upscale, metropolitan affairs, architecturally zeitgeisty structures that double as upstanding lessons on high class and elegance as well as those staid, institutional hotels which never go out of style.

Nevertheless, nowadays people are seeking more. They’re looking for something different, an authentic experience, whether it be a clean, green hotel in the Amazon jungle or a small artsy boutique in Manhattan. There’s no lack of edgy, cool hotels out there.

Here’s a look at just some of the latest and most unique hotels you can find in exotic and not so exotic locals around the world.

The Magic Mountain Hotel, located right in the middle of the beautiful and scenic Huilo Huilo nature reserve in Panguipulli, Chile is indeed a sight to behold. The hotel is one of a kind-it was actually constructed in the shape of a mountain. Guests will marvel at the waterfall which springs from the peak of the ‘mountain’ and flows down the sides. As the hotel makes its home in the midst of a forest, guests can go for hikes, enjoy the natural hot tub made from giant wooden logs, participate in white water rafting and go on customized skiing trips.

The Ice Hotel, in a little town in the north of Sweden called Jukkasakjarvi is a modern marvel. It’s constructed entirely of solid ice and snow. Guests have to don parkas and they can warm up with drinks at the hotel’s unique ice bar.

In the Netherlands, visitors can head over to the Harlingen Lighthouse and stay in this charming tower. While the tower only houses two, and must be booked well in advance, it makes the perfect romantic weekend getaway. Although it doesn’t come cheap, it’s great for couples looking for an escape from the stress of daily life.

In Rome, visitors can stay at the Franklin Feel the Sound Hotel, located just a few steps away from the Vatican in the Prati quarter. This hotel is dedicated to good tunes-each room comes equipped with a state of the art sound system and you can borrow CDs and vinyl records in the lobby.

Damian Papworth enjoys assisting people on their Gold Coast Holiday. As such, for added convenience he offers a search engine to choose Gold Coast hotels Australia.

Just a short bus ride or car trip from the SW capital of Sydney, Bondi Beach is a must on your Australian to-do list. Pronounced with a long “i” as in Bonzai, Bondi is the place for beach days of sun and fun.

Dating back to the Sydney’s suburban expansion in the’50s, Bondi Beach’s unique name is derived from the Aboriginal term for “sound of waves crashing on rocks.”

With nearly one kilometer of white sand, Bondi Beach is a great place to get away from the populous Sydney and enjoy South Wales’ beautiful beaches. In their migratory months, schools of dolphins and even whales can be seen off the coast. The rare fairy penguin has even been known to make the occasional appearance.

For visitor orientation, start at the Pavilion Community Center and pick up some helpful information. This town hub also has changing rooms and showers for bathers, several eateries and an amphitheater.

Stroll down the shoreline and work on your suntan or watch the locals show off their bronze physiques. Bathe in the safe waters on the northern end of the beach, or head to the southern side where the more treacherous waves and tides are enjoyed by the world’s surfing community. Any surfer hungry for a taste of good waves should check out this surfing spot. Shark nets are added in the summer months for extra protection and lifeguards patrol the area constantly.

To immerse yourself in local beauty, try one of Bondi’s popular nature walks. From the old Pavilion (ca.’28), hike up to the cliffs of Bronte. You’ll encounter some of the oldest wonders of nature along the way in Hawkesbury’s sandstone belt, which paleontologists date to 225 million years in the past. Or make your way to Waverley Cemetery after stopping at the old bath houses in Bronte.

For a look at Bondi’s bikini culture, don’t miss the vibes on the southern beaches, where topless sunbathers thumb their noses to convention on a daily basis. Bondi hold the title in the Guinness Book of World Records: Largest Swimsuit Issue Photo Shoot in history.

Get into the groove of the wild City to Surf Fun Run which takes place every August. Participants make their way to Bondi Beach from Sydney’s center. Or go fly a kite in the annual Festival of the Winds in September.

Along the waterfront is a wide variety of cafes, restaurants and bars to suit any budget. Have a pint in one of the pubs and see why the locals are known for their friendliness.

Bondi Beach has been a popular location for film and television, such as the lifeguard show Bondi Rescue or the fictional Breakers.

At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Bondi hosted the beach volleyball tournament for all the world to see.

Visitors looking to spend a night or weeks in Bondi Beach will find accommodations in any price range. Backpacker hostels, small upscale hotels and charming bed-and-breakfasts are all options.

Only a thirty minute drive from downtown Sydney, take Oxford street from the capital and follow it as it turns into Enfield Drive and finally Bondi Road. Because parking can be so difficult, locals suggest arriving via public transportation to avoid the hassle. Numerous buses arrive from Sydney everyday.

If you are looking for surf travel services in Sydney’s south coast beaches, call Brad from Sydney Surfboard Rentals You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

There is so much to do and see in Las Vegas, that you should consider making a list of “must see” attractions. Can you imagine Italy, Paris, and New York, all within walking distance of each other. Here is a list of the top, must see locations in “Sin City”.

The Bellagio is one of the greatest attractions in Las Vegas. Inside, you can enjoy fine dining in five star restaurants like Circo or Jasmine, gamble in our fabulous casino, and even see the amazing “O” show by Cirque du Soleil. There is also a recreated Venice which is home to exclusive art boutiques, a shopping center, and gondola rides. The grandeur is all accented by a gorgeous musical water fountain.

At the Mirage, between 8pm and midnight, their volcano erupts, a splendid display of fire and water. Though the Mirage is known around the world for their outdoor activities, come inside and there is much more to be seen. At the front desk you will find a 20,000-gallon saltwater tank. You will also experience the 90-foot high atrium ceiling, waterfalls, and rainforest garden. You can also find Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and a Dolphin Habitat inside the resort.

Freemont Street, home of the Freemont Street Experience, is a must see free attraction. Freemont street is home to street entertainers and performers, a nightly light show on the canopy, and it is all covered by a 90-foot high canopy. This street is open to pedestrians only and is one of the most popular Vegas attractions.

It is difficult to list the most popular attractions in Vegas, considering they do change from time to time. There is anything from amazing musicians or impossible acrobatics, to world-class singers, if you can think of it, you can probably see it here.

Vegas is home to many shows, like Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian, where the stage was built just for that show. Critics claim it is the best performance of Phantom. There are many Cirque du Soliel shows, even an “adults-only” show. Famous singers like Elton John, Bette Midler, and Cher are regulars on stages in Vegas, and the Blue Man Group is also a very popular attraction.

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The Mapes Hotel in Reno, Nevada met its demise on Superbowl Sunday of 2000 when 75 pounds of explosives packed inside the structure’s support columns brought it to the ground. The controlled demolition came despite years of effort by a number of groups within the community to preserve the building with lawsuits, redevelopment proposals, and grass roots lobbying efforts. The National Turst for Historic Preservation even took up the cause, challenging the destruction in a lawsuit that eventually reached the Nevada Supreme Court.

While the logic and necessity of demolishing the Mapes is very questionable, one thing that is certain is that the hotel was an important part of Northern Nevada history. The opening of the Mapes in 1947 ushered in a new era in casino gambling, and changed the economy and way of life in Nevada forever. The Mapes was actually the first property in the country to combine a hotel, casino and live entertainment under the same roof. It also became the hotel of choice for celebrities staying in Northern Nevada. Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe stayed at The Mapes during the filming of ‘The Misfits’. Joseph McCarthy, America’s famed anti-Communist crusader, admitted to a reporter over cocktails in the Mapes Lounge that he really didn’t have a list of Communists in the US despite his frequent and vitriolic insistence to the contrary.

During the ‘Rat Pack’ era of the 50’s and 60’s it became along with the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe the place to be seen in Northern Nevada. The 11th floor, window walled Sky Room Lounge hosted performances by a roster of entertainment legends including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Milton Berle and Mae West. Downtown Reno struggled during the 1960’s and 70’s but the Mapes continued to prosper. The hotel finally closed in 1982, due to financial problems experienced by the Mapes Family brought about by their other Northern Nevada casino holdings.

Reno never experienced the massive growth that occurred in Las Vegas and southern Nevada, and for that reason the destruction of the Mapes is more open to debate than the hotel demolitions to the south. Even the demolition of The Sands–perhaps the most historically significant casino in the state–is hard to argue against given the inability of such a small property to compete in the current Las Vegas marketplace and in light of the value of the mid-strip real estate. The old properties may have historic value to pop culture historians, but their survival doesn’t make economic sense. They’re simply ‘analog players in a digital world’.

That’s not the case in Reno, where vacant land and/or buildings ripe for redevelopment are abundant downtown and in the other casino areas of the city. The official reason that the Mapes had to come down was that the city needed the land to expand its vision for downtown redevelopment. While this is certainly a much needed effort, to suggest that the existence of the Mapes was a barrier is absurd. In fact, many of the proposals rejected by the city would have gone a long way to enhance the revitalization of downtown Reno and included artists lofts, office space and other mixed used properties. Despite receiving a number of viable concepts for the Mapes Building, the City Redevelopment Authority rejected all of them and the Mapes was destined for demolition.

The role of the City Redevelopment Authority was questioned throughout the process. Overlooking the Truckee River, the hotel was on a prime location between the downtown casino area and the riverfront district. Back in 1996, the city of Reno purchased the hotel and began entertaining proposals for renovation and redevelopment. A number of sound financial proposals were presented that would preserve the integrity of the structure including condominiums, office space, and perhaps most viable, upscale senior apartments. Oddly, all of these proposals were turned down by the citys Redevelopment Agency which eventually led to the demolition of the structure.

Following the 2000 demolition, the lot remained vacant for over a year until a temporary ice skating rink was hastily constructed the following winter. The site now houses a permanent ice skating rink which, while not a bad use for the land, isn’t the sort of game changing improvement suggested by the City Redevelopment Agency and their adamant insistence that the building be demolished. To the contrary, it appears they had no specific plan or even general idea of what to do with the land but for some reason wanted to see the hotel come down. This has led to all manner of speculation, ranging from financial self interest to a rumor that the structure was ‘haunted’ and needed to be destroyed to forestall future paranormal activity in Washoe County. Whatever the reason, the city of Reno lost a valuable landmark that played a significant part in the economic growth of the entire state.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected sports betting authority. He is also a consulting handicapper for Sports-1 Sportsbook and is in charge of setting NFL lines. He has written extensively on sports handicapping theory along with a wide range of other topics including fencing, self defense and flower arrangement.

She was just 15 as she waited offshore in the warm, tropical eastern Pacific off the small beach known as Ostional in a country that, about 500 years earlier, Christopher Columbus had named “Costa Rica”, the “rich coast.” She was an olive ridley sea turtle.

The nearly daily afternoon rains of November had stopped as the marine turtle waited in anticipation. The moon was in its final quarter and, though she did not know why, it was having an effect on her.

A dozen meters away, another olive ridley sea turtle joined her, followed by a dozen, then hundreds, thousands, and soon tens of thousands, all waiting patiently. For eons the moon has graced the earth with its timeless phases that affect the world’s tides-and today it was bringing her ashore this night, just as it had led her forebears to ancestral nesting beaches for more than 100,000,000 years.

Life is always magical. Just a few months earlier, this turtle was living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean more than 2,500 miles away. And the hundreds of thousands now alongside her were scattered throughout more than a million square miles of ocean.

Even though there was plenty of food, something more powerful had begun to stir inside her and hundreds of thousands more of her species. Whatever it was, they all felt the same timeless need to return to Ostional Beach. You see, it was at Ostional that they first had come out from the sand, scrambled to the ocean, and grown up so they could return to whence they had arrived.

Now, months after something inside spoke to her, she waited in the soft light just a few hundred meters from her destination. She had swum so very far but now the silent voice within her told her to wait. She was ready. Over the many weeks and thousands of miles she had swum she had met many different male olive ridley sea turtles in the clear ocean waters and she had bred with several of them because, like her, they too were being affected by something unseen, a force as old as life itself. Whatever it was, it was so compelling that her species had been returning to the same Costa Rica beach since before the first dinosaur.

In the tropical night this marine turtle was waiting. She had somehow returned to the very beach where she had hatched in 1995. We do not know how a Pacific marine turtle finds the exact beach where she started life. There are only a few nesting beaches on earth and they are not very big. Indeed Ostional Beach is only a few hundred meters in length. Now part of Costa Rica’s Ostional National Wildlife Refuge, it is without a doubt the most important olive ridley marine turtle nesting site in the world. Incredibly, in 1995, the year this turtle hatched, perhaps as many as 500,000 female olive pacific sea turtles had nested here in huge waves. These massive invasions are called “arribadas.”

Unfortunately, our sea turtle’s mother will not join her to nest at Ostional this year even though for twenty years, she had been part of massive Costa Rica arribadas annually. Not long ago, she drowned in an illegal shrimping net on her way back to the ancient nesting grounds. It was a needless waste since it could have been avoided by the simple use of an internationally required, but typically ignored, law requiring a turtle escape device. Thousands more were destroyed in what is euphemistically called “incidental catch” by long line fishermen who refuse to use larger hooks that would prevent tragedy to this ancient creature. And, no one knows how many thousands were killed terribly by eating carelessly discarded plastic bags. And, of course, there has been the wanton pillaging of nests: millions of eggs from just a few small, precious beaches.

Of course, the tens of thousands of olive ridleys just offshore know none of this. As we look out over the water in the pale moonlight, there are now so many that it almost seems one could walk on their backs for a mile or more. We stand in awe at the sheer numbers of God’s creation. They don’t know or comprehend that they were on earth long before there was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. They don’t know that we are waiting for them to come ashore so that when they lay their eggs on this tiny wildlife refuge, men, women, and children will lawfully raid their nests and take one million eggs in return for protecting the rest of the clutches and preserving the species. They only know that this is where they are meant to be.

Then, though no one knows why, it happens. As quietly as they first appeared, as silently as they gathered, their patience has been rewarded and they begin to come ashore. A single olive ridley turtle followed by a second. Then there are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands—even more than that—each intent on one task: bringing new life. All night they come. And all day, day after day. It is a wonder of magnificent Costa Rica and as timeless as the phases of the moon. It is the spectacular display of life called Arribada.