Stay and Play

Are

you bored with boutique hotels? Does the phrase "designer accommodation" fill you with ennui as you contemplate the unvarying Minimalism and terrible pretension that it so often conjures up? Then Swedish artist turned hotelier Mikael Genberg can help you. Located in Västerås—one of Sweden's oldest cities and just 100 km west of Stockholm—his Hotel Woodpecker and Otter Inn will bring out the inner child in any jaded traveler.

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The Hotel Woodpecker, tel: (46-70) 775 5393, is a little red hut perched among the branches of a huge, old oak tree in the middle of Västerås' Central Park. Guests climb up a 13-m ladder to reach the hotel's only room—and that's where they stay, because the ladder is then removed. Choose between a "bohème service," which means you bring your own food and bed linen, or the more comfortable deluxe option, where meals and blankets are hoisted up to you in a basket. There's a kitchen, bedroom, veranda with a hammock and—rest assured—a toilet.

Although the hotel is designed for one, couples who don't mind sharing a single bed are also welcome. And be prepared to become the center of attention. According to Genberg, guests become a kind of entertainment for people passing through the park below. "Staying here is a great adventure that opens up the mind. But also the guest is something of an actor in a strange role play," he says. In other words, this is hotel room as Surrealist art installation.

If a tree house is too high for you, how about sleeping 3 m under water? Genberg's other brainchild, the Otter Inn, tel: (46-21 830023), is a hotel room set on a 25-sq-m floating platform in the middle of Lake Mälaren, near Västerås. The inn, which is accessible only by boat, sleeps two in a steel tank under the water. Expect to be closely observed here as well: panoramic windows in all directions allow passing fish to scrutinize dozing occupants. Once again, guests choosing the deluxe option will have their meals and bed linen delivered, but there's a kitchenette above the waterline for those who want to self-cater.

It is rather unlikely, but should you become bored, you can always hop into the inflatable canoe and paddle to one of the lake's uninhabited islands. Or you could simply swim and sunbathe. But just chilling out in your hotel room has never been so much fun.