A Night In The Gulag Archipelago

The perfect romantic getaway for a night in Liepaja, Latvia: a night in a KGB gulag!

I've packed some light reading, a toilet roll (just in case), a towel and an electric toothbrush. My guide and interpreter Evija said nothing else is needed for a night in Liepaja's most unconventional hotel. All other comforts are presumably laid on.

Wrong. No comforts are laid on, at all. This 'hotel' proudly bills itself as 'unfriendly, unheated, uncomfortable and open all year round'. But that's the point. A stay here is reality tourism writ large, a chance to experience at first hand (albeit handcuffed for part of the time) the brutal, degrading regime of a damp, rotting red-bricked naval jail built in 1905 to house the czar's mutinous sailors. New management took over in the 1970s: the KGB.

Apparently, the hotel — which specializes in dehumanizing and degrading its guests — is finding a great deal of its popularity coming from businesses looking for unique corporate get-aways that will also serve as team-bonding sessions.

But at least it's only £7 a night. And hey, if you like that, you're just a cheap flight away from Hotel Auschwitz to continue your romantic honeymoon trip across Eastern Europe.

Handcuffs are included in the room rate, sir [Guardian]