Tuesday, November 9, 2010

AIRPLANE HOTEL (RESIDENCE)



   
AIRPLANE HOTEL (RESIDENCE)

     Located on a coastal rainforest bluff overlooking the Pacific ocean, Hotel Costa Verde near Quepos, Costa Rica, features one of the most unique hotel rooms I’ve ever seen. It’s not an ordinary hotel, but an Airplane one.  The incredible hotel suite set inside a 1965 Boeing 727 airplane, which originally shuttled globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines (Colombia), Salvaged the airframe, piece by piece, from its San Jose airport resting place. Each piece was carefully transported on five, big-rig trucks. The wonder of this airplane hotel is its location, facilities, and interior design.
     The unique plane is located three hundred yards from the beach and Manuel Antonio National Park. It features two cliffside pools with sundecks and spacious rooms and balconies, all offering a bird’s-eye view of the Park’s coastline plus rainforest canopy vistas dotted with native birds and monkeys. This hotel is nestled on the edge of the National Park perched on a 50-foot pedestal. At this height, you can enjoy scenic ocean and jungle views from the hard wood deck built atop the plane’s former right wing.
     If you have fantasies of living like the Swiss Family Robinson or even the characters in Lost, this rainforest resort near Quepos, Costa Rica may be just the ticket. The Hotel offers accommodations for a variety of options for vacation living, including air conditioned studio apartments with cable TV, and Costa Verde II, a special group of 15 studios designed exclusively for couples with an open-air design and no air conditioning, glass windows or TV. In addition, they have bungalows available for vacationers interested in renting a private house. Each area has its own swimming pool and vistas.

     The hotel looks a bit like a model airplane on a stand, and we can only imagine the spectacular views from the balcony and the airplane windows. The plane’s interior is Costa Rican teak paneling from the cockpit to the tail. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite also includes a kitchenette, flat-screen tvs, a dining room, and a terrace with an ocean view. We can’t really agree with their choice of furnishings, which are made from teak and shipped across the Pacific from Indonesia, but at least they were hand carved.

      In sum, the refurbished Boeing 727 home is such a unique dwelling in the world according to a Forbes Magazine article. Besides the eye-catching shape, we can see the uniqueness of this dwelling from the location, facilities and interior design. Of course, this very prosaic bit of aluminum scrap found some new ways to introduce convenience and luxury to people around the world.