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The Exploranter Overland Hotel Might Have Been The Biggest Mobile Hotel In The World

Who isn’t sick of having to drag around heavy suitcases whenever you travel? What if you could combine your passion for RVing and the outdoors with none of the work of driving or setting up camp?

Powered by a Scania truck chassis, the Exploranter Overland Hotel was one part truck camper and one part travel trailer. Except each were way bigger than you’d ever imagine.

See also: Ever Wondered What a $171,000 DIY Motorhome Looks Like? I am Speechless.

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The monstrosity was the brainchild of Brazilian businessman Flavio Melo, a young entrepreneur in the ski and hospitality industries in South America.

Exploranter Overland Hotel
MSK Hotels

While you might mistake this rig for a double pup freight trailer, there’s no denying it was designed exclusively for your pleasure.

The truck camper half included the dining area and lounge. This is where you could socialize, relax in leather armchairs, or gaze out the large windows to the surrounding wilderness.

Exploranter hotel
MSK Hotels

Inside the trailer was a sleeping area with 28 beds. But don’t worry, the designers had the foresight to include three bathrooms, showers, and plenty of hot water capacity.

Fellow travelers relaxing outside the Exploranter.

Guests on the Exploranter
MSK Hotels

Inside the dining area.

Inside the dining area
MSK Hotels

Sleeping quarters.

Sleeping area
Local Nomad

With three bathrooms onboard you wouldn’t have had to wait long.

Three bathrooms
MSK Hotels

Tickets started at around $40 USD, and trips could last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were included in the price as well.

One source says that the bus was only available for private charter. Sadly, it appears that Flavio stopped operating the bus a few years ago.

The Exploranter website is written in Portuguese but you can still see more pictures of the rig out in the field.

Here’s what Flavio had to say,

I Idealized, projected, built, legalized and managed the first and only fully self-sufficient overland hotel in the world.

A huge truck with everything you need to take 30 guests into the wild for unforgetable experiences.

More than a mobile hotel, it became a laboratory for human cohabitation. We became lives catalysts, creating marriages, business ventures, life turnarounds and all kinds of changes in ones life.

We travelled extensivelly through Brazil, Chile and Argentina, with most of our trips in Patagonia.

We were featured in every possible media from the cover of the New York Times to Korean and Swedish TVs to Hard Cover books like Extreme Hotels (Tectum Publishers) to most publications and medias in Brazil.

As for me, during this period I felt more and more confident to venture away from the usual. It became clear to me that the apparent loneliness of the road less travelled is much more rewarding than the dullness of the paved road of the ordinary thinking.

I think he feels the same as many of us!

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