Unusual Holidays – Abandoned Hotels From Around The Globe
For many reasons some resorts and hotels become abandoned whether due to political or economical situations. Can you imagine what these places were like in their heyday? Occupied rooms, people splashing about in the pool or lazing on sun loungers, a queue forming in the bar or hotel lobby, chatty diners in the restaurants. Now, all the people are gone and all that’s left are the buildings in ruins. While you obviously can’t stay at these resorts there is a growing number of tourists who like to take unusual holidays and travel close to these resorts to explore the abandoned buildings.
1.Bokor Palace Hotel And Casino – Cambodia
Bokor Hill Station in Cambodia was a resort built by French colonists in the 1920s and the epitome of the splendour found there was the Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino. Around 1000 people died during the construction of the hotel, only for the Europeans to flee the area in the 1940s due to political instability. It was used intermittently up until the 1990s when it was abandoned for good. Bokor Hill Station is now a popular tourist attraction and even though not even 100 years old the hotel looks much older than this. Locals in the area won’t enter as it is rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of those who lost their lives trying to build it.
Image via Matthew Klein
2.The Grand Hotel – Kupari, Croatia
The village of Kupari in Croatia’s Dubrovnik Riviera was once a summer getaway for high-ranking military personnel. Now, the resort is in ruins, bearing scars from the Croatian War of Independce of the 1990s. The formerly splendid hotels of Kupari have been subjected to water damage and rust meaning there is little lift of the former glamour found here. The jewel in the crown of Kupari, Croatia was Grand Hotel, which featured an indoor swimming pool and rooms with a sea view.
Image via Michael Kötter
3. Ducor Palace Hotel – Liberia
The Ducor Palace Hotel was a first-class hotel in its glory days and one of the few 5* hotels in Africa at the time. By the 1980s Liberia was ravaged by civil war and so the owner, Intercontinental Hotels, withdrew from the hotel in 1989. The hotel became dilapidated and became inhabited by the homeless. In 2007 the squatters were evicted with a view for the property to be renovated – a project that was to be financed by the Libyan government. Unfortunately, history repeated itself and the political situation in Libya escalated so the Ducor Palace remains in ruins.
Image via Mark Fischer
4. Varosha, Famagusta, Cyprus
Varosha was once a flourishing resort in Famagusta, Cyprus – even receiving visitors such as Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot. In 1974 however things took a turn for the worse and Turkey invaded and after much bloodshed the island was partitioned. The former resort of Varosha is now in no-mans land. Many once-majestic hotels will probably never receive a single guest ever again.
Image via S Siekutera
5. Polissya Hotel, Pripyat, Ukraine
Pripyat had to quickly be evacuated on April 26 1986 after an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor caused a radiation leak. Many tourists still head to eerie Pripyat to glare at the crumbling buildings – one of these being the Polissya hotel. The hotel was built in the mid-1970s, ironically to house delegations and guests visiting the power plant.
Image via Stanislav Manofeev
6. Gagra Resort Community
Gagra’s potential as a tourist resort was first realized in the late 19th century. To attract visitors a palace was built and tropical trees and animals were imported into what is now modern-day Georgia. Gagra’s popularity rose and fell throughout various political conflicts but when the situation stabilised, Gagra was nicknamed the Soviet Riviera. The old castle became a hotel called “The Seagull”. After the fall of the Soviet Union and when Gagra became part of Georgia, separatists waged war in the area and thus the resort became an abandoned ghost town.
Image via Vyacheslav Argenberg
