The world’s first ever sand hotel has been made in Dorset and is accepting its first guests for £10 a night.
It took 1,000 tonnes of sand and a team of four sculptors working 14 hours a day for seven days to build the structure on Weymouth beach.
Guests can book to stay in the hotel, which includes beds made out of sand, until the rain washes it away.
The structure was created by a hotel company to celebrate a resurgence of holidaymakers flocking to the seaside.
Research by Laterooms.com predicts 37 million people will enjoy British beaches this year.
The sand hotel offers a twin and double bedroom, while the roofless structure gives guests the chance to “star-gaze” at night, the firm said.
But there are no toilet facilities and people were warned the sand “gets everywhere”.
Mark Anderson, creator of the sand hotel, said: “It is the biggest sandcastle-like structure ever in the UK.
“Four of us worked hard and with the help of a JCB we got it built.
“The beds are made of sand so it can get everywhere, especially between the toes.
“But the best thing is in the morning the tide laps through the door, what a great way to wake up.”
Kathy Gwinnett, of Laterooms.com, said: “It’s great that British beach holidays are enjoying a renaissance and that some of the less obvious resorts, such as Weymouth and Torquay, are getting rediscovered by a younger generation.”
The Sand Hotel has been likened in many ways to the famous Ice Hotel, in Sweden.
The ice hotel near the village of Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna, Sweden was the world’s first ice hotel.
In 1989, Japanese ice artists visited the area and created an exhibition of ice art. In Spring 1990, French artist Jannot Derid held an exhibition in a cylinder-shaped igloo in the area. One night there were no rooms available in the town, so some of the visitors asked for permission to spend the night in the exhibition hall.
They slept in sleeping bags on top of reindeer skin – the first guests of the “hotel.”
The entire hotel is made completely out of ice blocks taken from the Torne River – even the glasses in the bar are made of ice.
The hotel has more than 80 rooms and suites, a bar, reception area and church. The hotel only exists between December and April.
Each room is unique and the architecture of the hotel is changed each year, as it is rebuilt from scratch.
