Jules' Undersea Lodge is an American hotel located in

Key Largo Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and is the only underwater hotel in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is 30 feet (9 m) deep on the ocean floor and guests have to

scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

dive to get to their rooms. The hotel is located at the bottom of the Emerald Lagoon and was opened in 1986. The hotel's name comes from the novelist

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

, author of ''

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...

''. Scuba certification is required for entrance as the front door is located under water. Jules' has over 10,000 overnight guests in its 30 years of operation. Today, many certified divers who are interested stay in the Jules' Underwater Lodge, and some who meet the skill and bottom time requirements and participate in underwater experiments in the MarineLab can elect to receive specialty diver recognition from PADI or NAUI as a Recreational

Aquanaut An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satura ...

. This is the only Recreational Aquanaut qualification available worldwide. Today, Aquanaut Hotel guests must scuba-dive to reach the facility, and a nearby land base offers diving lessons for people who are unfamiliar with the activity. Years ago, non-scuba diving guests were taken down to the lodge breathing air pumped down from the surface through a long hose similar to a garden hose, but this practice was discontinued and now all guests must scuba-dive to the lodge entrance five fathoms below. The air hose system has been replaced by a hookah rig, featuring modern scuba regulator second stages, and is often used by guests and the operations crew to get back and forth to the lodge without donning scuba gear.

Amenities

Jules’ Undersea Lodge was formerly the

La Chalupa Research Laboratory Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In thi ...

, an undersea marine lab operated off

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

in the 1970s. The lodge features a 2 bedroom 1 bath retreat that can be rented for a night. The hotel also offers a scuba diving school.

References

External links

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Photos of Jules' Undersea Lodge
{{coord, 25.1330555656, N, 80.3991666767, W, source:ruwiki_region:US_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Hotel buildings completed in 1986 Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Florida Underwater habitats 1986 establishments in Florida

Amenities

See also

References

External links