Hobbit holes for humans: literary lodgings, part 1

Move over Eco-Tourism, stand aside Adventure Travel; the era of Literary-Tourism is upon us. Travel companies are reporting an upsurge in customers requesting hotels, tours and attractions that correspond to their favorite novels, poetry and authors. We’re not talking about touring the New York Public Library or a photo-op at Oscar Wilde’s grave, this is a revolution in the travel industry, albeit a strange one. Literary-Tourism caters to adults who want to spend a week living like Elizabeth Bennet (in full costume), or to families who want to take a ride on the Hogwarts Express. In keeping with this trend, hotels around the world are adopting literary themes that pay homage to books, authors or characters in their décor. Some are classy, some are decidedly not; here are a few of my favorites:

I have to start with the Hobbit Motel in Woodlyn, New Zealand. It’s my very favorite book themed hotel because it’s so campy, like a renaissance festival with beds. Those making a pilgrimage to the filming locations of the Lord of the Rings movies can enhance their Middle Earth experience by booking a Hobbit Hole rather than a boring old hotel room. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s true; you can stay in a room built into the side of a hill with a circular door and live out your Hobbit fantasies. No word on whether the proprietors will throw in those fake hairy feet, so you might want to bring your own just in case. And you can be certain your stay will be pleasant because after all, it’s a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.

If small, hairy mythical beings aren’t your thing, try the Library Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The world’s first lodgings to be organized using the Dewey Decimal System, the hotel’s ten floors each represent one of the major DDS categories: Social Sciences, Languages, Math & Science, Technology, the Arts, Literature, History, General Knowledge, Philosophy and Religion. The six guest rooms on each floor then represent separate sub-categories within their subject. On the Literature floor, for example, you can stay in a Mystery, Fairy Tale, Dramatic Literature, Poetry, Classic Fiction or Erotic Literature themed room. Each room is numbered according to its Dewey Decimal ID, and the books contained within pertain to the room’s theme. Appropriately, the hotel’s public spaces provide plenty of cozy corners for guests to curl up with any of the Library’s 6,000 volumes. For all serious bibliophiles who ever dreamed of living in a library, this may be as close as it gets.

Located on the top nine floors of a historic building in downtown Portland, Oregon, The Nines makes the list because of it’s collaboration with Powell’s Books, the world’s largest independently owned new and used bookstore. For those of you who don’t know, Powell’s runs a great online bookstore in addition to its multiple locations throughout the greater Portland area. While I’ve relied on their website to locate hard-to-find and out-of-print books in the past, the Nines’ proximity to the institution makes it a tempting location for traveling booklovers. The Nines also boasts its own library with floor-to-ceiling shelves entirely stocked with books from Powell’s. If you go, leave room in your suitcase for all those first editions.

Fancy a more macabre hotel experience? Check out the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Built in 1909 by F.O. Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, the hotel was the inspiration for Stephen King’s Overlook Hotel, which served as the setting for the classic horror novel, the Shining. The miniseries version of the Shining was filmed in the hotel, though Kubrick’s masterful feature film was not. Despite this slight, the fine folks at the Stanley make sure their guests can see the latter version any time they want by playing it on a continuous loop on channel 42. If you go, make sure you get out and enjoy the fresh air. Maybe go skiing or hiking because, you know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, but you feel certain it’s not a week of looking over your shoulder to see if those creepy twins from the Shining are following you, you might consider novelist Nora Roberts’ new hotel. Roberts is notable for her detective novels penned under the name J.D. Robb, though in her spare time she has a hand in shaping her community of Boonsboro, Maryland. Recently, she opened the Inn BoonsBoro, a small B & B with themed bedrooms based on famous literary couples. Choose from Elizabeth and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Eve and Roarke from Roberts’ own In Death series, Jane and Rochester from Jane Eyre (sans insane woman in attic), Merguerite and Percy from The Scarlet Pimpernel, Nick and Nora from The Thin man, Titania and Oberon from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (even though they kind of detested each other for most of the play), or Westley and Buttercup from The Princess Bride. There’s also a non-themed penthouse but really, why bother? Truth be told, the pictures reveal very little in the way of real themes, but the rooms look comfortable and each has a spectacular-looking bathroom.

The Laurel Villa Townhouse in Magherafelt, Northern Ireland, is a small, charming inn housed in a Victorian building from the 1870s. As is the case throughout Ireland, the owners harbor a deep respect for local poets, which is reflected in the hotel’s décor. Small, personal and exceedingly affordable (prices start at around $50.00 US for double occupancy), Laurel Villa boasts four rooms named after the most notable poets of the area. Choose from the Seamus Heaney room, the Patrick Kavanagh room, the Louis MacNiece room, or the Michael Longley room to sleep amidst that particular writer’s books of poetry, portraits, and other paraphernalia. The Villa also features a Seamus Heaney Museum, which contains some of Heaney’s old possessions and photographs. There is also a room dedicated to helping travelers track their Irish heritage.

Next we come to the Apostrophe Hotel, often referred to as the Poem Hotel, on Paris’s Left Bank near the Luxembourg Gardens. Choose the Reading Room and you can sleep beneath the fanned out pages of a giant open book affixed to the ceiling. The walls are covered in a graphic print that resembles a close-up of fluttering book-pages. Or select the Alphabet Room, in which large printing press-style letters are stamped all over the walls. The website suggests that guests spend some time musing over the role of letters in forming words and sentences, and ultimately how we ought to credit letters with human communication. Mull that over for a while.

Last, and probably least, is the ultimate tourist trap of literary travel. A hotel so immersed in kitch, and so inundated with bad taste that even I, who once made a point of visiting Graceland, question my ability to stomach something so cheesy. Get on with it, you say, and so I will: our final installment is the House of Dracula in Poiana Brasov, Romania. Constructed to look like the Castle of Bram Stoker’s famous count, the hotel more closely resembles one of those restaurants where you eat turkey legs without silverware while watching actors joust and fight with swords. It features stark white walls with faux crenellations, a bright red roof, and various turrets, spires and towers. It actually looks a lot like a cartoon. Go, if you can stand the Scooby-Do atmosphere, but for Pete’s sake take a lot of pictures.