What do you do when your country is bankrupt and is in desperate need of foreign currency? Well, you rent out the buildings that house your foreign embassies. At least this is what North Korea has done with parts of its Berlin embassy, which has been turned into a hostel.

The Cityhostel Berlin opened on July 1. 2008 and has around 100 rooms covering two floors in the former embassy building.

The embassy was built in the 1970s on Glinka Strasse in the old East Berlin and consisted of two buildings. After the Cold War, staff numbers at the embassy were cut and now one of the buildings has been rented out and turned into the Cityhostel Berlin. The other building on the site still houses the North Korean embassy .

We hope that the money North Korea recieves from renting out its embassies will be spend on improving the miserable living conditions in North Korea, but we fear that the money will be converted into sustaining Kim Jong-Il’s repressive regime and the 'Dear Leader’s reputed exorbitant private consumption.

The history of the building and Cityhostel Berlin's location right next to the North Korean embassy will probably be attractive to many. Communist kitsch is a big thing in Berlin where the Ostalgie vibe has been going on for several years and in May 2007 the city got its first DDR design-hostel.

Author David Rich Momondo

Go further: Experience a night in the old East Berlin together with Erich Honecker and other former communist leaders at Ostel.

Find more hotels in Berlin here.

The Euro 2008 is well over and what could be a better treat for worn-out footballers and hung-over football fans (plus the rest of us) who need to regenerate body and soul than a wellness and spa-stay at the amazing Rogner-Bad Blumau hotel.

The hotel - that looks like a mixture between a hobbit-village and an old Arabic citadel - is nestled in the gently rolling hills of the Styrian hot springs region in South East Austria.

Rogner-Bad Blamau’s strong colors and asymmetrical shapes are drawn by the world famous Austrian architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser who has designed every detail in the hotel.

The hotel is the pride of small village Bad Blamau, and not only is it amazing to look at, it is also the right place to be if you want to relax and recover.

Among other it offers different beauty treatments and medical services and it has its own holistic center called 'Findedich' (find yourself). Here you can get in contact with your inner self through different alternative treatments such as sound-therapy and Shiatsu massage.

There are different indoor and outdoor pools with water from two hot springs which according to Rogner-Bad Blumau brings vitality, heat and energy to the hotel! And of course the hotel's restaurant serves organic food.

Rogner-Bad Blumau is only a 40 minutes drive away from the airport in Graz and 90 minutes away from Vienna.

Author David Rich Momondo 

Find more hotels in Austria here. 

Photo by Bjorn Bore 

If your criteria for the perfect holiday spot are total isolation, intimacy and not the least a fresh breeze, Hotel Utter Inn is just the right place for you. The hotel is a one-room affair in the middle of Lake Mälaren northwest of Stockholm.

You show up and are paddled 1km out to the archetypal Swedish miniature house on the surface of the water. Here you are dropped off and left to yourself.

 
Photo by Tom Airaksinen

If you bring a companion make sure it is someone whom you really get along with, as the hotel’s living space is only a few square meters. Most extraordinary is the bedroom, which is 10 feet under the water. Down here in the ‘abyss’ guests can keep themselves entertained with observing the dreamlike undersea world through the big panoramic windows or by being observed by a curious fish.

Hotel Utter Inn has a tiny kitchen, but if you are on a romantic spree you should seriously consider booking the deluxe version where dinner is delivered by boat.

Written by David Rich

Find more hotels in Sweden.
 

Photo by x.ni

If your girlfriend - like mine - thinks that ‘The Sound of Music’ is the most romantic thing that ever happened (even more romantic than our first date!), then here's the good news - you’ll soon have the chance to treat her to a passionate night in the bed of Captain von Trapp.

The Salzburg villa of the original von Trapp family, that gave inspiration to ‘The Sound of Music’ musical and movie (1965), will become a ‘The Sound of Music’ themed hotel in July.

The consequence is that on top of  'My favourite things' being played in heavy rotation at home and my girlfriend’s endless attempts to teach me to sing 'Do a dear, a female dear' in harmony, I might now also have to spend my summer holiday in Salzburg….

However, our stay in Salzburg is likely to be enriched by the company of other fans of the failed nun Maria who finds love in the arms of the widowed and terribly handsome father of seven, Captain von Trapp. The Austrian town is a must-see  place for ‘Sound of Music’ die-hards, who have the film as the sole reason for visiting Salzburg. Local tourism officials estimate that fans from the US, Asia and Japan generate 280,000 overnight stays in the city every year.

Photo by BHartzell

Seeing the film's original locations in Salzburg is for many a dream come true. As Lana Wright (51) from New Zealand puts it, stepping off the bus: "Finally I have arrived, arrived somewhere where I was supposed to be, somewhere that I was supposed to see", writes Reuters.

It is because of fans like Lana Wright and my girlfriend that I predict the ‘The Sound of Music’ theme hotel will have a bright and none the least prosperous future.

As an extra bonus, the hotel's guests will also be able to get married in the Von Trapp family’s private chapel. But please don't tell my girlfriend....

Written by David Rich Momondo

Find more hotels in Salzburg and Austria here. 

No, this is not another Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank O. Gehry. This is the amazing Hotel Marqués de Riscal in the town of Elciego in Spain – a country that definitely isn’t afraid of mixing old buildings with splashy modern architecture.

The 43-room Hotel Marqués de Riscal is a real eyecatcher. It is nestled south of Bilbao in the heart of the wine region of La Rioja, where its stunning (and very ‘Gehry’ish’) red-, silver-, and gold-metallic ribbon roof sticks out radically from the surrounding vineyards and rustic medieval stone buildings.

The hotel is situated right next to the 150-year-old Marqués de Riscal bodega and it is a so-called wine-theme hotel (first time we hear about this concept at Momondo). Grapes are pretty much everywhere, and among other things the hotel offers ‘wine therapy’ massages and treatments where all products are made of grape extract and mineral water. Enjoy!

The nearest airport to Elciego is in Logrono, but there are more frequent flights to Bilbao from where (after seing the Guggenheim Museum, of course) you can get to Elciego by bus or train. Find out more about Spain's airports here

Find more hotels in Spain.