When you’re searching for your next holiday, it’s unlikely you’re keeping an eye out for a place with ‘doom’ in the name.
Hotel of Relaxation? Sure. Hotel of Fun? Why not. But Hotel of Doom? There’s no chance I’ll be travelling there.
And it seems like a no from everyone else, as the nicknamed ‘hotel of doom’ that cost £600 million has apparently never had a single guest stay there.
Eerie images show inside the place in Pyongyang, North Korea, which building began on back in 1987.
You can’t exactly miss it. (Getty Stock)
It was aimed to be open for visitors by 1989 but it didn’t totally go to plan. Actually called The Ryungyong Hotel, it has a bit of a weird pyramid shape, measuring over 1,000 feet in height with 105 storeys.
With millions and millions splashed on it, it’s been throughout over the years with halted building works and companies pulling out. So, it’s pretty understandable why the place has earned the nickname ‘hotel of doom’.
Very few people have actually been inside of the place with it still not being open to public despite the design for it to have a whopping 3,000 rooms for people to go into.
Inside the ‘hotel of doom’. (@ZoeDiscovers/YouTube)
Simon Cockerell is one of those to have had a rare glimpse inside of the Ryungyong as a general manager of a company specialising in North Korea tours.
He told CNN: “They took us into the lobby area, where there was a lot of exposed cement. Then we went (on) the one working elevator to the top, which was the 99th floor, I believe.
“It took a long time to get there, because it was a service elevator, not a modern lift with a string of buttons. There was a lift operator who determined where to stop. At the top we had a look around, took some pictures and went back down to the lobby again.”
It doesn’t look particularly inviting. (@ZoeDiscovers/YouTube)
Cockerell shared these images while also discussing them on the Zoe Discovers YouTube channel in 2021.
While he said there’s an ‘amazing view’ of outside, inside is ‘literally just a shell’.
The man added that they only went to the ground floor, ‘the biggest floor’, plus the top floor, ‘the smallest floor’. At the bottom, he says it was divided into ‘three sort of cavernous areas’ that appeared to have mezzanine areas.
Cockerell describes it as looking a bit like ‘the end of the world’.
“So it’s slightly creepy and weird but very quiet, very clean as well given that it was a construction site,” he adds.
However, the bloke says he hasn’t seen any pictures of the inside since then but from glimpses from a far there’s ‘definitely something that has gone on’.
Well, it’s fair to say it’s unlikely most of us will ever be getting a first-hand look inside the ‘hotel of doom’.
Featured Image Credit: Eric Lafforgue/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images / YouTube/Zoe Discovers
Topics: Travel, Weird
We’ve had a good few nights of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! now so you know what that means, we’re not far off getting the power to boot them out.
Yep, having spent the last week or so voting for the celebrities to take on Bushtucker Trials, we’ll soon be voting to save our favourite.
But while some of the stars might form best mate bonds or grow quite accustomed to camp life, there’s no doubt they’ll feel some relief when they leave.
Especially when they get to stay at a £400-a-night five-star hotel. Ok, most of this lot are probably staying in places like this on the regular but still, imagine going from a sh**hole to absolute luxury.
The I’m A Celeb campmates used to stay in the Versace Hotel but nowadays it’s the JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort and Spa in Surfer’s Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast.
And I’ll be honest, it looks absolutely unreal.
Luxurious rooms overlook the Pacific Ocean with a number of outdoor swimming pools available.
That’s got to be better than the view from the Dunny. (Marriott hotels)
The hotel is rated a hefty 4.5 stars on Google, 4.5 stars on Tripadvisor, 9.1 out of 10 on Booking.com and 9.2 out of 10 on Expedia so it’s fair to say it’s a half decent place to kip.
As well as the Ocean and Mountain View 42sq guestrooms, there’s also 23 suites with floor-to-ceiling windows.
Like the name suggests, there’s a spa onsite so the celebs (and their families) can indulge in treatments while they wait for the show to wrap.
Oh and the pools aren’t just any old pools, there’s a freshwater pool with slides as well as a saltwater lagoon with a white sandy beach.
With jacuzzis and private cabanas for those wanting more of a relax, people looking for a bit more fun can access the aquatic centre to use snorkles and flippers to dive with the over 200 tropical fish in the saltwater lagoon.
I mean, you can’t complain with that. (Marriott Hotels)
The hotel also has an entire fitness centre, sports court and a number of places for the celebs to gorge out on proper food and drink.
The Citrique Restaurant offers Modern Australian cuisine while Misono is a teppanyaki-style Japanese restaurant complete with a whiskey bar.
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Then there’s Chapter & Verse bar and lounge which even has a luxury high tea if that’s what the campmates have been missing. Plus, for the celebrities who just want to scran as much as they can in piece, the five-star hotel obviously offers all day room service.
