STRUTH! Deep Sleep Hotel

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says that not content to have a hotel within the tallest building in the world, Dubai is now going in the opposite direction – it's going to have a hotel in which guests will spend their nights underwater.

A Swiss company called BIG InvestConsult is behind what it calls the Water Discus Hotel, an almost-James Bond-like structure that will consist of two main discs that will look like what its name suggests – one discus-shaped several metres above the water with several smaller discs projected off it, and the other discus-shaped ten metres below the surface of the sea.

They'll be connected by a central circular cylinder and three narrower legs, with guests getting down to twenty-one glass-walled hotel rooms, a submerged dive room and a bar by lifts in the main supporting cylinder.

The hotel's designers, Deep Ocean Technology say holidaymakers will go to bed with views of live coral, fish and other marine life, while the over-water discus will allow them to take-in the above-water views, sunshine and full dining and bar and recreational facilities.

And if you are worried about the likelihood of a little leak possibly becoming a major one, the underwater discus will automatically rise immediately to the sea's surface in the event of any danger.

(Photo: BIG InvestConsult)