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No pat-downs, no gate check, no hassle
Pat-downs from the Transportation Security Agency, seat auctions and fees spiraling out of control have made commercial air travel a real drag. In the 1930s and 1940s, boarding a passenger plane and flying to a faraway place was thrilling and glamorous and luxurious. Unfortunately, but for the lucky few who can afford the awesome perks of business class, the glory days of commercial airline passenger comfort are long gone.
Thankfully, the romance and excitement of the early days of commercial flying lives on via a few ingenious entrepreneurs and architects around the world who dug deep into the sexy history of air travel and created amazing homes and hotels from decommissioned and/or deconstructed commercial aircraft.
Prepare for liftoff.
Photo Credit: lunchtimemama
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Hotel Costa Verde
High on a coastal rainforest bluff that overlooks the sparkling Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica, the Hotel Costa Verde offers sun-seeking vacationers a variety of accommodations from open-air rooms to private bungalows to the cozy fuselage of a refurbished 1965 Boeing 727.
Photo Credit: Hotel Costa Verde
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Hotel Costa Verde
The quirky and kooky suite, which formerly flew for Avianca Airlines, now cantilevers over the jungle atop a 50-foot pedestal and offers guests all the luxuries of a traditional suite - but with a serious twist. A spiral river-rock staircase leads up to the fuselage suite’s entrance and a pair of covered decks with treetop jungle views and a vista of the ocean through swaying palm trees.
Photo Credit: Hotel Costa Verde
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Hotel Costa Verde
Custom teak paneling covers the walls and ceiling of the entire interior, from cockpit to tail. The covered decks provide up-close encounters with the rainforest’s diverse flora and fauna and the well-appointed living spaces inside the body of the airplane offer the conveniences of home. A sitting area has a television and the kitchenette has an adjacent dining area.
Photo Credit: Hotel Costa Verde
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Hotel Costa Verde
There are two air-conditioned bedrooms including one with two double beds and porthole windows.
Photo Credit: Hotel Costa Verde
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Hotel Costa Verde
Each of the bedrooms has a private and surprisingly spacious bathroom that is a far cry from the broom-closet sized facilities we’ve all come to expect on even the most luxurious of commercial airliners.
Rates for the 727 suite at the Hotel Costa Verde run at $500 a night during the high season and $400 per night during the off-season.
For more information about the 727 suite at the Hotel Costa Verde contact Manuel Antonio by telephone (866-854-7958) or visit the hotel’s website.
Photo Credit: Hotel Costa Verde
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Max Power
If a few days in a retrofitted fuselage in the Costa Rican jungle isn’t enough to satisfy your urge to shack up in an airplane, there are a number of companies such as Max Power Aero that offer the sale, customization and installation of decommissioned aircraft for re-use as funky private homes.
Prices start at around $200,000 and Max Power Aero offers potential buyers the option to have the fuselage mounted on rotating pedestal that allows the plane to weathervane and point into the wind.
Photo Credit: Max Power Aero
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Santa Monica, Calif.
Retired Los Angeles Mercedes-Benz dealer Francie Rehwald took a slightly different spin on the notion of an airplane as home on her rugged 55-acre property in the Santa Monica hills, where renowned eco-architect David Hertz designed a luxury compound with the salvaged parts of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
Photo Credit: David Hertz S.E.A., Studio Of Environmental Architecture
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Santa Monica, Calif.
Rehwald paid just $35,000 for an entire 747 but considerably more to have it deconstructed and transported to the remote property that has unparalleled views of the surrounding mountains all the way to the ocean. The clever architect stuck to every part of the plan in the design and construction of the home: the curving wings and tail flaps were used for the roof of the very contemporary glass-walled main house and the upper part of the fuselage became the arching roof of the art studio building.
Photo Credit: David Hertz S.E.A., Studio Of Environmental Architecture
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Santa Monica, Calif.
Rehwald’s property has a long history of architectural folly: It was formerly owned by eccentric set designer and decorator Tony Duquette who littered and lavished the gardens and grounds with ornate and elaborate pavilions and pagodas. A massive blaze in 1995 destroyed all but a few of Duquette’s one-of-a-kind structures. In homage to the Duquette’s famously fantastical follies, Hertz and Rehwald upended the 747’s cockpit for use as a meditation pavilion.
Photo Credit: David Hertz S.E.A., Studio Of Environmental Architecture
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Santa Monica, Calif.
The project began in 2005 and it took years to secure the necessary permits and to install infrastructure like roads and water. The 3,000-square-foot main residence is now close to completion and is equipped with green systems that include solar power, radiant heating, natural ventilation and high-tech heat mirror windows that absorb light and help keep the interiors cool on scorching hot days.
For more information contact architect David Hertz S.E.A. at the Studio of Environmental Architecture.
Photo Credit: Carson Leh, S.E.A.
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Jumbo Stay Hostel
At the entrance to the Arlanda airport in Stockolm, Sweden, hostel entrepreneur Oscar Diös transformed a former Pan Am 747-200 jumbo jet into a modern and sophisticated hostel conveniently located just a 10 minute walk to the international airport’s check-in terminals.
Photo Credit: Jumbo Hostel
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Jumbo Stay Hostel
Although some of the original parts and signage remain, much of the interior of the plane was removed and replaced with 27 individual cabins of varying configurations. There are a total of nine bathrooms on the plane, some of them communal.
The coach-class equivalent accommodations would be the hostel rooms, where a single bed in a shared four-person room with communal bathroom access costs a budget-minded traveler $65 per night.
Photo Credit: Jumbo Hostel
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Jumbo Stay Hostel
The hostel’s business class-type cabins include the narrow but well-equipped Jumbo Single room with private bathroom (about $230 per night) and the so-called Black Box Suite at the far back of the fuselage sleeps four travelers in four beds with private facilities for just more than $300.
Photo Credit: Jumbo Hostel
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Jumbo Stay Hostel
Every jumbo jet has a first-class cabin, and at the Jumbo Stay Hostel it’s actually in the old cockpit where many of the now inoperable controls remain intact. The unique Cockpit Suite sleeps one or two people in relative luxury and offers a flat-screen television, wireless internet, complimentary breakfast, a private bathroom and panoramic views of the airport through the grounded aircraft’s front windshield. Like a first-class ticket, there’s a premium to be paid for the privilege of an overnight stay in the Cockpit Suite, which will cost the big spenders upwards of $500 per night.
Photo Credit: Lioba Schneider
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Jumbo Stay Hostel
Along with the first-class lounge located in the upper level cabin and furnished with the aircraft’s original first-class seats, the Jumbo Stay Hostel offers guests (and visitors) an on-board café in the nose cone where pre-packaged meals are served “in-flight” style on small plastic trays by staff wearing vintage air-hostess uniforms.
Photo Credit: Lioba Schneider
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Netherlands
An annoying overnight layover at the Teuge International Airport in the Netherlands need not be spent in a dingy airport hotel - not when there’s a sweet hotel room from Hotel Suites NL available in a decommissioned 140-seat jet spectacularly retrofitted in very contemporary high style. The super-luxe suite accommodates just two pampered passengers at a time and costs €350 (around $500) per night, with no charge for excess baggage.
Photo Credit: Hotel Suites NL
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Netherlands
Just behind the cockpit, which remains fully intact, the lounge area has porthole windows and twin banquettes with sliding end tables for in-between flight dining and relaxing. High-tech amenities of the Aircraft Suite include wireless internet, an integrated music system and a large flat-screen television with a Blu-Ray DVD player and large movie library.
Photo Credit: Hotel Suites NL
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Netherlands
The sleek kitchenette, custom-fitted with glossy white cabinets, has integrated appliances that include a refrigerator, microwave oven and plenty of counter space to lay out a first-class buffet.
Photo Credit: Hotel Suites NL
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Netherlands
At the far back of the fuselage, the bed sits on a raised platform with a view of the surrounding airport through the rows of porthole windows on either side.
Photo Credit: Hotel Suites NL
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Netherlands
The sybaritic open-plan bathroom compares to the luxury suites in any five-star hotel and has two sinks, a soaking tub, a separate shower and a private cubicle for the toilet. There’s even a sauna for sweating out in-flight toxins tucked into the fuselage behind a panel of floor-to-ceiling frosted glass.
For more information or to book the Aircraft Suite, contact the hotel by phone (+06 1938-8603) or through its website.
Photo Credit: Hotel Suites NL
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