Boeing 747s have been used as airliners, freighters, flying ambulances and troop transports. This one is a hostel. That’s right, a hostel. And if you’re willing to share accommodations with two or three strangers, you can stay there for less than 50 bucks a night.
I’m not crazy, I’m not drunk and I’m not making this up. Hey, two out of three is not bad!
Regular IBIT readers will recall when I blogged about this old Russian-built turboprop airliner that was converted into a hotel.
Well, a man named Oscar Diös has gone one better. A BIG one better.
He’s obtained a Boeing 747-200 from a bankrupt Swedish airline and turned it into a ground-based hostel in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
No Mile High Club jokes, please. This is a family blog!
Mr. Diös calls it, fittingly enough, Jumbo Hostel. The plane has been christened Liv, for the owner’s daughter. That’s his head sticking out from atop the cockpit.
Purely as a gimmick, this would be notable enough, but from the look of it, Mr. Diös takes this whole hostel thing pretty seriously. Sections of the plane have been divided into rooms with bunk beds.
It is a hostel, not a five-star hotel, but they don;t seem to have skimped on very much. Flat-screen TVs. A shower. An on-board cafe. And what appears for all the world to be a “lounge” made up of the original First Class passenger seats from the days when this bird actually flew.
Free wi-fi throughout, naturally.
In addition to the communal bunking arrangements of the traditional hostel, there also are private rooms for singles, couples or families.
When I tell you I’ve seen worse lodging than this, don’t ask for details, just believe it.
Prices range from $45 a night for a bunk in a four-bed dorm to $425 for the Cockpit Suite. Yes, they really did build a suite in a 747 cockpit. (That grinding sound you hear is generations of 747 pilots gnashing their teeth — whether in horror or envy, I’m not sure.)
Then again, it’s probably the only jumbo jet in the world in which everyone in the cockpit can sleep through the night — and no one will object.
Also, it may be the only airliner left in the world on which you won’t have to fight with anyone else for overhead bin space. Not in the private rooms, anyway.
What’s more, how many hotels in the world will let you go out and walk on the wings? And as you’ll see on the video, that’s not a punchline!
Pics courtesy of Jumbo Hostel