Smooth hotels in tough places. Legendary names that continue to provide (luxurious) shelter in the remotest places, during wars, crises and in danger zones.
Hotel Waldorf-Astoria Jeddah (left), Hotel Baghdad, Iraq (Wikipedia, center), Hotel Prezident Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (right)
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"Great hotels have always been social ideas, flawless mirrors to the particular societies they service."
Joan Didion
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Asia
Serena Kabul, Afghanistan
Intercontinental Kabul, Afghanistan
(Gandamack Lodge, Kabul, Afghanistan)
Shigar Fort Residence Serena, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
(Green's Hotel Peshawar, Pakistan)
Hyatt Regency Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Hotel Tojikistan, Dushanbe, Takijistan
Khorog Serena Inn, GBAO, Tajikistan
Hotel Prezident, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Hyatt Regency Bishkek, Kirgistan
Dwarika's, Kathmandu, Nepal
Terelj Hotel, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Kempinski Hotel Khan Palace, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Malikha Lodge, Putao, Burma
Le Royal, Phnom Penh, Cambodia ("Le Phnom")
Rex, Continental and Caravelle Hotels, Saigon, Vietnam
Park Hyatt Saigon, Vietnam (the former Brinks Hotel)
360° Leti, Ladakh, India
The Taj Mahal Mumbai, India (site of biggest hotel terror attack)
Hermes Palace Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
Nihiwatu, Sumba, Indonesia
Sheraton Timika Eco-Hotel, Papua, Indonesia
Esplanada, East Timor
Koryo Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea
Ryugyŏng Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea (105 floors high, 330 m tall, unfinished)
The Ananti, Mount Kumgang Tourist Zone, North Korea (opening delayed)
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Kabul Serena Hotel
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Africa
(El Minzeh, Tanger, Morocco (In WWII. Said to be the inspiration for Rick's Bar in Casablanca.))
(Shepheard Hotel, Cairo, Egypt)
Rixos Al Nasr Hotel, Tripoli, Libya
Corinthia Hotel, Tripoli, Libya
Tibesti Hotel, Benghazi, Libya
Novotel Nouakchott, Mauretania
Kempinski Hotel N'Djamena, Chad
Intercontinental, Asmara, Eritrea
Kempinski Palace, Djibouti
(Sheraton Djibouti)
Sheraton Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Almond Resort, Garissa, Kenya (near Dadaab Refugee Camps)
Paradise Beach Resort, Kikambala, Kenya (bombed in 2002)
Serena Hotel Lake Kivu, Rwanda
(Hotel des Mille Collines, Kigali, Rwanda (Movie "Hotel Rwanda"))
Serena Polana Maputo, Mocambique
Serena Hotel Kampala, Uganda
Emin Pasha, Kampala, Uganda
Masindi Hotel, Masindi, Uganda
Hotel Ihusi, Goma, DR Congo
Orchids Safari Club, Bukavu, DR Congo
Hotel Park, Lubumbashi, DR Congo (formerly "The Leopold")
Hotel Memling, Kinshasa, DR Congo
Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika, Bujumbura, Burundi
Country Lodge, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Wusum Hotel, Makeni, Sierra Leone
Mamba Point, Monrovia, Liberia
RLJ Kendeja Monrovia, Liberia
(Ducor Interconti, Monrovia - from luxury refuge to rebel base to squatter ruin)
Golf Hotel Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Hotel Ivoire, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (former Interconti)
Hotel President Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire (former Interconti)
Sheraton Lagos, Nigeria
Sofitel Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
(Ambassador Hotel, Hargeisa, Somaliland)
(Olympic Hotel, Mogadishu, Somalia - Defunct hideout of Warlord Aidid before Battle of Mogadishu)
(Sahafi Hotel, Mogadishu, Somalia)
Al Salam Rotana Khartoum, Sudan
(Grand Hotel Holiday Villa, Khartoum, Sudan)
(Hotel Acropole Khartoum, Sudan)
Equatoria Hotel Juba, South Sudan
Kwanza Tarpon Lodge, near Luanda, Angola
Hotel Terminus, Lobito, Angola
Selborne Lodge, Durban, South Africa (Shooting of FIFA-delegate Burgstaller)
Itsandra Hotel, Moroni, Comores
Galawa Beach Hotel, Moroni, Comores (Ethiopian Air water crash landing)
For classic wildlife and game lodges in East & South Africa please click here
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Remains of Ducor Intercontinental, Monrovia
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Middle East
(Le Commodore, Beirut, Lebanon)
(Queen Elissa Hotel, Tyre, Lebanon)
American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem
King David Hotel, Jerusalem
Intercontinental Bethlehem, West Bank
Intercontinental Jericho, West Bank
Mövenpick Ramallah, West Bank
Al Deira, Gaza
Mövenpick Hotel, Sanaa, Yemen
Hotel Abbasi, Isfahan, Iran
Hotel Sepehr, Tehran, Iran
(Esteghlal "Hilton", Tehran, Iran)
(Ishtar "Sheraton" Baghdad, Iraq)
(Palestine Hotel, Baghdad, Iraq)
Al Rasheed Hotel, Baghdad, Iraq
Erbil Rotana, Erbil, Kurdish Autonomous Region, Iraq
Armed Forces Officer's Club & Hotel, Abu Dhabi
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At Beirut's bombed St. Georges Hotel (Source: LebanonMatters.com)
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Europe
Aman Sveti Stefan, Montenegro
(Hotel Tomislav, Tomislavgrad, Bosnia-Hercegovina, from Rob Krott's book "Save the last bullet for yourself")
(Holiday Inn Sarajevo, Bosnia)
Hotels Afa, Ora and Ambassador, Pristina, Kosovo
(Hotel Polissya, Pripyat, Ukraine (abandoned after Chernobyl, only alive in computer game "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare"))
Leogrand Chisinau, Moldova
(Hotel Timoty, Tiraspol, Transnistria)
Grand Hotel Rodina, Sochi, Russia
Mega Palace, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
Sheraton Batumi, Adjaria
Park Hyatt Baku, Azerbaijan
Hotel Grozny City, Grozny, Chechnya
(Hotel Arena City, Grozny, Chechnya)
Hotel Armenia Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh
Royal Horseguards Hotel, London, UK (WW I Spy History and James Bond location)
Millenium Mayfair. London, UK (after the Litvinenko affair)
St. Ermins Hotel, London, UK
Hotel Savoy, London, UK
Hotel Lutétia, Paris, France (Artist's refuge in WW II.)
Palacio Estoril, Portugal (WW II History and James Bond Location)
Pera Palace, Istanbul, Turkey (Refuge in WW I & II.)
Hotel Bristol, Warsaw, Poland
Hotel de Bilderberg, Oosterbeek, Holland
Hotel Sacher, Vienna, Austria (Graham Greene and other Spy Histories)
Intercontinental Berchtesgaden, Germany (At the site of Hitler's Obersalzberg refuge.)
Hotel Adlon, Berlin, Germany
(Hotel Luftbrücke, Kreutzberg, Berlin, Germany (former Stasi operations center "Rhineland Base"))
Hotel Neptun, Warnemünde , Germany (infamous Stasi hang out)
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Royal Horseguards Hotel, London
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Caribbean, Central & South America
(Hotel Ambos Mundos, Havana, Cuba (Hemingway))
(Hotel Oloffson, Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Karibe Hotel, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Goldeneye Hotel, Oracabessa, Jamaica (tribute to Ian Fleming / James Bond)
Melia Panama Canal, Colon, Panama (former School of the Americas)
Royal Torarica, Paramaribo, Suriname
Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown, Guyana
Rock View Lodge, Rupununi, Guyana
The Charlee Medellin, Colombia
Decameron Decalodge Ticuna, Leticia, Columbia
ESO Hotel, Paranal Observatory, Chile (in movie "Quantum of Solace")
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Former "School of the Americas" Melia Hotel Colon, Panama
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North America
The Greenbrier Resort (and Bunker), West Virginia, USA
The Watergate Hotel, Washington DC, USA
Habita Hotel, Monterrey, Mexico
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The Watergate Hotel, Washington
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Oceania
Menen Hotel, Nauru
Robert Reimers Hotel, Majuro, Marshall Islands
Luana Liki Hotel, Tokelau
Otintaai Hotel, Tarawa, Kiribati
Airways Hotel, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Ambua Lodge, Tari, Papua New Guinea
Aggie Grey's, American Samoa (well, never a tough place, but "war history")
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Antarctica
(Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station)
"Vela Hotel"
Not really a hotel. In 1979, the American spy satellite "Vela Hotel" recorded a flash of light near Bouvet, a remote and uninhabited island belonging to Norway, which was later interpreted as a South African / Israeli nuclear bomb test. The Vela Incident is still not completely resolved.
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"A War Reporter's Most Memorable Hotels" (click)
Nice article by Global Post: "The War Hotels" (click)
"War of the Hotels", Beirut, 1975 (click)
The Guardian about Journalists at the Rixos Hotel Tripoli, 2011
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Book recommendation: "Himmelbett und Höllenangst" by Erich Follath (Picus Verlag 2003 or Fischer Verlag 2005)
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"Wherever you go, try to stay at the most famous hotel - even if you can only afford the smallest room!"
Aristoteles Onassis
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Selborne Lodge Durban, ZA (left), Juba Grand Hotel, South Sudan (center), Mövenpick Sanaa, Yemen (right)
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