In Wales we staid in a hotel that was adjacent to caves which are said to be one of the major natural wonders in the United Kingdom (we didn’t see them, as we’d intended to go to them on our last day in the morning before we drove back to London, only to find that they opened at 10:30). The hotel has capitalized on this natural wonder by erecting a park which it has filled with to-scale models of dinosaurs. As you drive toward the hotel you realize that there’s a brontosaurus looking at you through the foliage, and as you stay you slowly spot more and more intruding dinosaurs. It’s interesting.
But this isn’t the only thing the hotel has done to cast itself apart from other bed and breakfasts in the area. On no, it also has a dry ski slope (for Americans, this is something like a man-made 200 yard stretch of hill). It also has a tennis court and a bizarrely rudimentary (made entirely out of old steal piping) mini golf course. It has a pool and a snooker room and a breakfast room and it even allows pets. All the rooms had fully fitted kitchens and two TVs (one in the living room and one in the bedroom). When we entered our room we were greeted by a complimentary box of chocolates and bottle of white Californian wine.
I know, at this point you’re asking yourself, what doesn’t this hotel have. Well, let me tell you, their choices have been interesting.
For all that they provide, there are a few interesting thing that the hotel has left out. Like our room didn’t have internet, which I guess is common enough these days (even the hotels that have internet often make you pay for it). Communication difficulty with the outside world didn’t end with internet, though, as our room also didn’t have a phone. It turned out, in fact, that the hotel office doesn’t even have a phone. The only phone in the entire vicinity is in one of the famous caves. Okay, but fair enough, remove yourself from your dependence on the outside world.
But it doesn’t end there. In an interesting move the hotel has chosen to go with only water beds. That’s right, not a single mattress in the entire establishment, which, as a hotel, seems like it should primarily focus on delivering quality sleep.
But our surprise at their choices reached its peak when we discovered the room came with no soap (don’t all hotels come with soap)? Luckily, I’m moderately fussy about my shampoo and so I’d brought my own, so for four days we used shampoo as a soap substitute, until we finally acquired some Dove from a shop in a neighboring village.
So anyway, in an interesting move, the hotel came with dinosaurs, but no soap.
