Tired of traditional resorts, or are you just looking around for an unusual place to sleep?

You should try one of these underwater hotels!

Poseidon Undersea Resorts:

Located in a Fijian lagoon, this resort is being built 40 feet underwater. Accessible by elevator, and fully pressurized, you’ll be able to spend 2 nights underwater, including various activities such as relaxing marine-focused spa treatments, swinging on a hammock built for two, or meditating under the gaze of only the moon and stars.

You can find several restaurants and bars; a dive shop, water sports center and retail boutique, or you could just enjoy the library lounge, the theater area or the conference room.

On the island beneath you’ll also find a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, swimming pools and health clubs.

Located in Key Largo, Florida, it was opened 1986.

The front door is located less than 21 feet under water, so don’t worry you won’t need the scuba certification!

Previously used as a marine lab, the lodge features a 2 bedroom 1 bath retreat that can be rented for a night or more. In the bedroom is a 42inch round window, so you’ll wake up with a view at the maritime life.

The hotel also offers a scuba diving school. If you want to, you can stay a couple of days without even going to the surface. At day time you can take some scuba diving course and pass different diving certifications, or just dive around in the emerald lagoon in the company of their instructor.

The Worlds Strangest Beaches

When we think of a beach we tend to imagine a traditional white sanded beach with beautiful palm trees. However there are some great beaches around the globe which do not fit in this typical mold. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of these strange beaches with very unique features.

Punalu’u Beach

Punalu’u Beach is located in the Island of Hawaii. It’s relatively accessible and tourists can actually swim in the sea although it’s a bit rocky. The unique feature of Punalu’u Beach is the fact that its sand is colored black. The black sand comes from basalt and lava cooling in the water before it reaches the ocean.

Papakolea Beach

It’s another popular beach in Hawaii not because of its beautiful hotels and amenities but because of its sand. Instead of the traditional white sand you can find in Hawaii, Papakolea Beach features green sand. The sand’s color comes from Olivine, which is a mineral very common on the island. When the mineral and the sand mix it forms a green coloured beach.

Pfeiffer Beach

Located in Big Sur, California, Pfeiffer Beach is one of the most popular beaches in the state. It is highly accessible, has a wide range of recreational facilities and a unique sand color. Pfeiffer Beach often comes with pink sand in some areas and purple in some locations.

Hyams Beach

The Australian destination has a traditional seaside atmosphere and tourists can easily enjoy a good beach without the crowd. If you are looking for something more traditional the sand on this beach is white.

Visiting the Most Unusual Islands in the World

Beautiful untouched beaches with leaning palm trees are usually the first things that come to mind when you think of a tropical island. They are a great place to relax with your special someone and soak in the sun.

But there are actually islands that go beyond the idea of attracting tourists; these are highly unique places that draw visitors because of their quirky and even scary features.

La Isla De La Munecas (The Island of the Dolls)

Just outside Mexico City is a small island called “La Isla De La Munecas”. The island is considered one of the creepiest tourist attractions in the world because it’s full of decaying dolls hanging from trees. It’s certainly a very scary place but it was never intended to be a tourist attraction. The dolls where placed around the island in remembrance of a young girls death in the area.

Jindo-Modo Land Bridge

Also referred to as the “Moses Miracle”, the land bridge is one of the top destinations in South Korea. In the same way the seas split in two to allow Moses and his followers to cross the water, the jindo-modo bridge emerges twice a year (May and June) creating a road 40 meters wide. The land connects the islands of Jindo and modo allowing their people to visit each other. It’s a natural phenomenon of the tides with myths mentioning people fleeing to Modo Island to escape from tigers that roam around villagers in Jindo.

Nauru

The island-country is only 21 square kilometers and it’s considered as the 2^nd smallest state after the Vatican. The island country is often called “the country that ate itself” because of excessive exploitation of its natural resources. Decades of mining and extraction of phosphorus affected more than 80 percent of the land.

Unusual Winter Holiday Destinations

A winder holiday vacation often involves skiing, snowboarding and other adventure sports during winter. Aside from these activities, a holiday destination often involves a few days off in a beautiful winter hotel where guests can enjoy warm cozy room in the middle of snowy mountains. It’s a beautiful setting that can create lasting memories.

But for adventurers, a day or two skiing in a beautiful snow landscape is never enough. There are places adventurers visit during the winter season where they can experience something totally different.

Icebox Days (International Falls, Minnesota)

Celebrated every 3^rd week of January, Icebox Days are an increasingly popular winter festivity in the northern part of USA. Activities such as frozen turkey bowling, different types of unique snow-based racing and the FYGBR or the Freeze Your Gizzard Blizzard Run are only some of the things you can do during Icebox Days.

Hovercraft Tour (Luleå, Sweden)

Luleå is a very popular tourist destination during the winter season. It’s the place people visit to experience the vastness of the sea in a completely frozen condition. The tour is done through hovercraft for safety purposes but guests will still have a chance to visit and walk in the water to experience extremely low temperature.

Seafood Safari (Grebbestad, Sweden)

Another popular tourist destination during winter in Sweden is Grebbestad where the town has a Seafood Safari. Think of this activity as a safari adventure but only in the sea and you get to enjoy different types of seafood especially lobsters. For the foodies, this is the perfect way to enjoy the holiday season.

Unusual Holidays: Travelling to Antarctica

A traditional holiday often involves a trip to the beach during the summer season or a skiing lodge during winter. These holiday activities take full advantage of the weather because they perfectly complement specific destinations around the world.

But as tourists become too familiar with these destinations, they start to ask for more. This is the reason why near-space travel is experiencing aggressive development as companies try to be one of the first few to offer space flight to tourists.

Aside from space tourism, another unique form of holiday is also gaining popularity. Although it’s not space, it’s still an amazing destination to consider. Tourists can now visit the Antarctica and stay there for a day or two. The world’s southernmost point and one of the coldest parts of the world has become a tourist destination.

At first glance, reaching the South Pole can be very challenging because of its location. However, there are actually places in the southern hemisphere with easier access to the South Pole. Cape Town, South Africa is just five hours by plane to Antarctica and there are powerful aircrafts that can get to these places with no refueling required.

The price tag for the vacation is $30,000 (per person) and tourists will be guided by the famous explorer Patrick Woodhead. It’s a little bit expensive but it’s a fairly reasonable deal especially with world class amenities powered by alternative fuel. You’ll be staying in tents with the latest in technology and activities include penguin watching, ice climbing and kit skiing.

Hotel in Ruins after Red Flag Stamp

Deborah Sinclair is experiencing firsthand the effects of a ruined online reputation. Her hotel, Riverside Hotel and Restaurant in Evesham, Worcs, is currently experiencing drastic decline in bookings because of an unintended bad reputation by a travel website.

TripAdvisor is one of the largest travel websites in the world that specialize in collecting customer reviews of destinations, hotels, activities and services. Their “Red Flag” stamp is a notice to online visitors that the reviews could be fraudulent because someone from the inside may have posted the review.

The website posted a tag on the hotel after it received a review from the IP address identical to the hotels locations. The website considered it an insider review which means fraud was committed. Comparing the IP address of the submission to the actual location of the hotel is one of the many fraud preventing methods used by TripAdvisor.

But the hotel owner vehemently denied that she, or anyone in her family or employees have made the review. The hotel owner clarified that the review actually came from a guest but was using the hotel’s free internet access through WiFi. Because the guest is using the hotel’s internet, the website assumed that it came from an insider.

TripAdvisor is currently reviewing the case. It’s not the first time that the travel website had some run-ins with hotel establishments especially with Red Flag and fraudulent tags. Deborah Sinclair is currently seeking legal actions against the website because of the financial ruins the website has done to her hotel.

The Weirdest Island in the World - Socotra

The most popular tourist destination in Yemen is also one of the most isolated islands in archipelagos in the world. The Socotra Archipelago is a group of islands that are part of Yemen although it’s a lot closer to Somalia in the Indian Ocean. Even though Socotra is an archipelago, the largest island represents more than 90% of the archipelago’s landmass.

The popularity of Socotra is not based on the fact that it’s a very isolated island in the Indian Ocean. Because the islands are far from the mainland, the flora, fauna and animals that live in Socotra are often endemic. It is estimated that one-third of the island is endemic which means more than 30% of the plants and animals that live on the island are only found there.

The Dragon’s Blood and Other Plants

The most popular and unique tree found in Socotra Island is the “Dragon’s Blood”. It looks like a giant mushroom or an umbrella-like tree. The tree is named after its red sap and was believed to be dragon’s blood. It’s currently used as paint or even varnish because of its color. Another unique tree is the Giant Succulent Tree, Cucumber Tree and Socotra Pomegranate.

Endemic Animals

The only mammal that calls Socotra Island its home is a bat. The island is full of unique looking birds and many of them are already endangered because their population is really small in relation to the island. The sparrows and warblers in the island are unique species endemic only to Socotra.

UK Airport to Test Lie Detector

Lie detectors are used to determine if theperson’s statement is true. It’s an intricate device that monitors heart rateand other reactions to the questions and the statements they make. Althoughit’s not a strong proof that a person actually tells the truth, it is used inseveral events.

UKairports will now implement the same technology to beef up security. The uniquefeature of the lie detector in the airport is its ability to tell if a personis lying without extra gadgets or wires attached to the airline passenger. Thistype of lie detector was developed at the University at Bradford.The device was designed by Hasan Ugail, a professor of visual computing fromthe same university.

The method of determining if the personactually lies through the device is through thermal imaging. The lie detectorcan detect subtle changes in the facial expression and heat coming from theperson’s body. The information coming from the thermal scanner is then fed tothe database which will determine if the person is actually lying.

Testing the device in UK airports can be quite tricky especially when the public knows where the device is installed.For this reason, the authorities did not disclose the actual location where thedevice is currently in use. Some say that it may cause some privacy concernssince it can reveal more than it should especially with the use of thermaldetectors. No one knows where the detector is installed and a passenger couldbe scanned right now without being aware of the process.