Bee Travel
World's oldest hotels still welcoming guests
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Queen Elizabeth 2 - the ship, not the monarch - is retiring. The ship is 40. I read that 40 is old in ship years, a measurement akin to dog years, I guess.

The "Guinness Book of Records" recognizes Hoshi as the oldest hotel in the world. I must admit I had never heard of it, a rather amazing thing since I'm pretty old, too - especially in ship years. Hoshi, on Honshu Island, Ishikawa in Japan, is fabled to have been divinely discovered by Buddhist monk Taicho Daishi. He was guided in a dream to a hot spring said to have healing powers, and directed to unearth it to serve the people of the village forever. This happened in 717, which makes the hotel a couple of decades shy of 1,300 years old. While I can't speak to the efficacy of the hot springs' curative powers, I can tell you that Hoshi is a traditional ryokan, or guesthouse, of about 100 rooms that owes its heritage to 46 devoted generations of owners.

The oldest hotel in England is the Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, about 95 miles west of London. Malmesbury was England's first capital in 925, but it was another 200 years before the current structure is believed to have been built (about 1200). It has been entertaining guests for the ensuing 777 years, as far as records can determine. Its hospitable nature is further evidenced by the spiral staircase with the opposite rotation of what would normally adorn a castle. A typical spiral would allow the "sword arm" to be free and available for swashbuckling and otherwise defending against invaders.

The Parador Santiago de Compostela (Hotel Hostal dos Reis Catolicos) occupies a spot among the oldest hotels in the world. Like Honshi, it traces roots to health-related matters. Originally built as the Royal Hospital in 1499, it sheltered pilgrims on the way to Santiago at the end of the 15th century. Today's pilgrims are tourists on the unique trail of Paradors, that state-run chain of converted mansions, castles, monasteries and such that dot the Spanish (and Portuguese) countryside, and now welcome those less royal.

The El Convento Hotel in old San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a former Carmelite Convent which dates back to 1651. The Raffles Hotel in Singapore just turned 120 years old. Here in the United States, The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Mass., opened in 1773 as a stagecoach stop. (Our own Eagle House dates to 1827, though it stopped accepting overnight stagecoach passengers some time ago.) The stately Equinox Hotel in Manchester, Vt., is 200 years old, and the Boston Omni Parker House Hotel has welcomed guests since 1855.

My attempts to locate the oldest hotel in Las Vegas were frustrated by the continual implosion, demolition and reinvestment in Strip property, combined with an unforgiving deadline. Perhaps that's fodder for a future column.

Hotel years are evidently the inverse of dog or ship years, perhaps a function of staying out of saltwater. Whatever the reason, it gives me hope.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, N.Y. 14231-0150.)