Description

It is impossible to ask for more originality. Its name appears in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest hotel in the world: all its facilities are limited to scarcely 600 square meters of built surface in a 9 meter tall building. But even more surprising is its meager capacity, only four double rooms. To reach it means a long trip to the end of the most remote of the Canary Islands, El Hierro; a pure volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And there, on a solitary wave-swept jetty, in front of the mythical small rocky islets of Roques de Salmor, inhabited until the middle of the century by a species of giant lizards of prehistoric origin, rises the small building fruit of the renovation of a small customs office that didn’t resist the decline in sea trade with America. Noemi Thinosi, Italian and a resident in the island for 20 years, now manages the business along with the rental of some very pretty apartments nearby. Its deterioration is unstoppable. A large part of the decoration comes from ship and wreck scrapping: portholes, compasses, lanterns, charts, portolan charts and a diving suit exhibited in the dining hall. Few curious people dare to sleep in such a far corner of the world. The bedrooms, located on the middle floor, go for simplicity and a lot of theatricality in the use of ship wood in its bathrooms. They are all unique, without a telephone, or television, or mini-bar, especially number 2, with a protruding terrace from which to throw the fishing line. The spirit of César Manrique can be felt in the interior design. The dining hall is downstairs, with a huge beech tree root hanging from the ceiling. A marine atmosphere full of singular details immediately stimulates the guest, forced to a strict European schedule. It is a pity that the carpentry is in aluminum and that salt residues deteriorate the screws in the tables. Upstairs is an always modern living room that is always empty, with two terraces and great views to the lava-formed coast.

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