Copernicus room in Hotel Krasicki (Picture: http://www.hotelkrasicki.pl)
For those of you who dread the bland interiors of Holiday Inns, Marriotts and Best Westerns, here's a selection of the geekiest places to visit on an extended city break.
You can fly to most with budget airlines so they're good value for money too.
1. For the astronomy enthusiast
Head to Poland and make sure you stop off at Lidzbark Warminski, which is virtually impossible to pronounce for any of the non-Polish speakers among you. It's is home to a four-star hotel Krasicki, complete with its own astronomical observatory, library, wine cellar and spa.
The building is a renovated 14th century medieval castle which used to be home to the Bishops of Warmia. The region is also famous thanks to Copernicus (one of the rooms in the hotel is dedicated to him), Tutonic Knights (head some 60 miles west to Malbork to see their largest castle in the world) and picturesque Polish lake district – Mazury.
How to get there: Fly to Gdansk with Ryanair and check in to a double room at the hotel for around £90 and you're guaranteed a great European break.
2. For the horror buff
The choice is obvious – Transylvania. Sighisoara precisely. A citadel city and UNESCO's World Heritage site. There's a stunning renovated 12th century old town, with cemetery and church which overlooks the city from the hill above. Head there during full moon and shivers down the spine are guaranteed. They generally are anyway, as this is Count Dracula's birth place (known as Vlad Teps in Romania).
Make sure you stay within the old town as high as possible to have a great view of the citadel and a clock tower.
How to get there: You can fly to Cluj Napoca or Targu Mures with Wizzair. Romania is one of the cheapest destination so make sure you visit castles around, especially Dracula's in Brasov.
Sighisoara, Transylvania (Picture: Kat Dziekan)
3. For the dystopian fan
If you suffer from radium deficiency and have a spare Geiger counter kicking around go on the super-spooky trip to Ukraine's Chernobyl where everything has been left untouched following the 1986 nuclear plant explosion.
You can stay in Chernobyl hotel and go on an organised trip which includes a meal in the zone. Even if you're not a radium connoisseur, it's worth it for the excitement anyway.
How to get there: You can find flights to Ukraine with Wizzair.
Chernobyl/Pripyat Exclusion Zone (Picture: flickr.com/pedromourapinheiro)
4. And last but not least for the super techy geeks out there…
Hotel Silken Puerta América in Madrid looks as though it was made by Apple, but it is designed by the famous Zaha Hadid.
The white, ultra-modern, futuristic interior is a jaw dropping sight to behold, even for the most committed technology fans. If you need a reality check you can come back to our matrix and head to a corrida (bullfight) and sniff some blood (horror fans go back to point 2)…
Hotel Silken Puerta América (Picture: flickr.com/joevare)
Source: METRO
