A room at the Sneek Zand Hotel (Photo: Zand Hotel)
Have you ever seen one of those huge, beautiful, detailed sandcastles and just wanted to crawl inside and spend the night? Well, don't do that—sandcastles don't have wifi. Instead, get 100% less grit in your private areas by spending the night on a real bed in one of the Netherlands' temporary sandcastle hotels.
The two Zand Hotels, in the awesomely-named towns of Oss and Sneek, are the first hotels of their kind in the world. Event planning company Global PowWow was inspired by Sweden's ice hotels to construct these beautifully-detailed lodgings for attendees of the local sand castle festivals.
The festivals feature about 30 large sand sculptures each, using nearly 900 total tons of sand, but none are as massive as the 26-foot structures that house the hotel accommodations.
The exterior of the Oss Zand Hotel (Photo: Zand Hotel)
The rooms have wifi, running water, electricity, and real furnishings, so you're not getting the full beached-mermaid experience, but that's probably for the best. The walls are also made of reinforced sand and concrete, so you won't be washed out if it rains. Slightly less authentic, but probably worth it to avoid paying $168 a night to end up like this.
Detail at the foot of a Zand Hotel bed (Photo: Zand Hotel)
It's too late to book the sand hotels this year, but they'll be up for the rest of the week. When the festival sculptures come down, so do the hotels—but they'll be back next year.
After a week in the sand hotel, you might never have to exfoliate again.