Relaxing with no plans: Sleep as an experience

World Sleep Day takes place every year on March 13, and in this context the free travel metasearch engine momondo.ro team has gathered interesting information about hotel beds and has selected locations where sleep is considered a memorable experience, not only a necessity. After all, 67% of Romanians said they prefer to stay in a hotel room when traveling.

Whether we are at home or on a trip, enjoying a vacation or fulfilling a duty task, the best way to start a day is with a good rest. But this is not always very easy to achieve, and aspects related to the environment (different lights, weird sounds) or the mere fact that it is a different bed from the one we use to sleep in can be obstacles in the way of a restful sleep. However, we can influence this part of the journey by making informed decisions.

How can we request the perfect bed?

Many accommodation units in the world, but especially those in Greece, Switzerland, Germany or Austria, use the name “french bed” to describe a bed that inspires romance, especially by its size. Being a little narrower than a classic double bed, intimacy is favored, and people sleeping in this type of bed cannot have much space between them.

Also aiming from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, but slightly in the opposite direction, there is a possibility that the “double bed” may not be the most romantic, because of the space between the two halves: it happens that the bed becomes “double” by joining two single beds, so a confirmation from the hotel can be a good idea, before booking.

Getting back to the comfort of a large mattress, many UK accommodation units display sumptuous names for large beds (for 3 persons), with a width of 245 cm and a length of 220 cm: “Eastern King”, “Emperor” or “Caesar”. In the United States of America there are hotels that offer even unusual bed lengths, called here “Grand King Bed” – 250 cm. In addition, for those who want to feel again as children regardless of age, can also be found (on request) locations with offers hard to imagine, where the beds have extreme dimensions: 360 cm x 300 cm.

Those who prefer to sleep alone will be very happy in some hotels in Australia or New Zealand that are offering “King Single” beds, larger than the usual “single” beds: 107 cm x 204 cm. Of course, there is an opposite of this approach, even in closer locations, in Europe: different accommodation units in the UK, Norway, Sweden or Ireland have single beds of 75 cm wide, for those who are very confident that they cannot falling out of bed during sleep.

Beds where we can relax all day

Apart from the size and shape of the bed, many tourists are also interested in other aspects when booking accommodation, such as design, view, temperature or unique accessories.

Outdoor sleeping becomes more and more attractive to travelers, and the accommodation units’ owners are offering this possibility, especially in areas with friendly temperatures at night. In the Loisaba conservation area, tourists can choose to sleep under the largest roof possible, the starry sky, and during the day to enjoy the view of nature and wild animals in reservation without getting out of bed. A similar experience can be lived in places that have given up the idea of ​​having all the walls, and an example that inspires daydreaming is the Jade Mountain resort on Santa Lucia Island, which also adds a private pool right next to the bed, for that the holiday literally means “bed, swimming pool and a view difficult to replicate”.

Continuing with examples of incredible views, but adapted to the environment, tourists can enjoy the image of the Aurora Borealis directly from the beds placed just next to the large windows of the houses in Northern Lights Village, Saariselkä, Finland. An even larger window, as in all the walls and ceiling, can delight the guests of the Conrad resort in the Maldives, showing them the marine life without needing to get out of bed.

A special location much closer is located in Porto, the city famous for its specific wine. In addition to the experience of tasting different types of wine and learning more about how the process of making this liqueur works, The Yeatman offers to its guests the opportunity to sleep in a bed inside a huge and very comfortable wine barrel.

For those who enjoy a higher quality of sleep only when the pillow used is ideal for their body, there is the Benjamin Hotel in New York, which takes this aspect very seriously, offering a selection of 10 pillows of different sizes, shapes and materials. In addition, there is even a consultancy in sleep offered by a sleep expert doctor, besides other relaxation facilities.

The study was made on data collected in January 2020 through an online survey to 25,200 people from 24 countries, out of which 1000 Romanians aged between 18 and 65, from different geographical areas.