I Stayed at a Secret Billionaire Hotel

This camouflaged building, hidden away in the most isolated part of the most geographically isolated country in Europe, is one of the most expensive hotels on the entire continent. It makes no sense to have a luxury hotel here, yet billionaires and celebrities willingly pay fortunes to stay here. Justin Bieber literally called his trip to Deppel Farm, the best trip of his entire life. But what could a hotel located in the middle of nowhere in Iceland possibly offer to justify the insane price tag? Today, I'll be adventuring and staying at this secret hotel with the goal of answering one thing. What are they hiding? Getting to this hotel is going to be an absolute mission. I'm currently on a flight now to Reykjavik, which is the capital of Iceland. And then when I get there, I've got to rent a car and drive six hours north to the hotel. Six hours. Now I know what you're thinking. There must be an easy way to get to this hotel. And there is. There's an airport 45 minutes away from the hotel, but it's such a small airport. There's very limited flights, which is fine if you're on a private jet. But I'm on the easy jet. And unfortunately, the flights are so limited that I can't get a flight there. So I've got to drive. Oh, yeah. Now we're talking road trip time. Let's go. We are on the road, baby. What are you hiding, hotel? What are you hiding? It's just under a six hour drive now to the hotel. And you know what? I'm not mad about it because doing this super long drive is going to mean I get to see a lot of Iceland as I travel through it, as opposed to just flying over it. Iceland is supposedly one of the most scenic countries in the entire world as well. So this could be special. By the end of this drive, I would have driven across the whole length of Iceland at this point. But let's not forget the mission at hand here. We've got to find out what this hotel is all about, why it is where it is. Who decided this was a good idea? Random question. Have you ever heard of Deppler Farm? Deppler? Deppler Farm? No? Okay. What are you hiding, Deppler Farm? Wow. Are we making good progress? Just under two hours left now of this monster drive to the secret hotel. Don't tell anyone. It's crazy to me that I'm almost going to be in the arctic circle by the time we get up to the hotel. Which means as well the landscape is going to change even more. I think as well there is going to be snow on the ground at the hotel. It's not going to be like what it is here. It's going to be even colder. I just find it the funniest thing that I'm driving six hours and some guests will get a helicopter transfer from the airport. That is actually a thing that this hotel offers. For a bit more context, I am going to be in the cheapest room. I'm going to jump into the car. You ready? I'm actually booked in for a two-night stay at Deppler Farm at this point in the season. It's actually a minimum three-day stay but three days was just too expensive. They were kind enough to make an exception for me to go and stay for two nights. But I'm still thinking we are in the middle of nowhere. Increasingly in the middle of nowhere. What can there be to do for a minimum of three nights? As we're getting further in this trip as well, I'm just seeing less and less cars, less and less people. We are getting more and more isolated. Just had a horrible feeling all of this could be a scam. You can't pay for three. Oh, we'll do two days. No worries. Scams. Wow, we really are in the sticks right now. I'm more and more convinced this is a setup but talk about most isolated hotel. This is insane. Who came up with the idea to put a hotel here? It's crazy but I love it. After six hours of driving, I'd made it to the most isolated part of Iceland and I was now on the road up to the hotel. Look how far we've got. All the way down there. This is the middle of nowhere. How have humans even discovered this place yet? This is a cool adventure. Come on, let's go. Imagine just living there. That's your home. You're going to talk to your neighbors. You haven't got any. Just living here. I mean that's cool. For a split second, I thought I had a flat tire and was not going to make it to the hotel but thankfully I didn't. No way. I think I can see it. I think I can see the hotel. Not so secret after all. It looks so out of place even though it was an old farm. What a place for a hotel. This is crazy. Here we go. Oh, I've stalled it. Here we are. I was greeted by some really friendly staff who then took my bags into my room and then urgently took me into a safety briefing. So as you can see, I'm in the hotel. More on that later. But in a crazy series of events, when I pulled up, they said, we don't usually do this but the conditions are really good so do you want to go heliskiing now? It's four o'clock in the afternoon but why not? Let's go heliskiing. I never thought I'd say that. I can see why Justin Bieber liked this hotel so much. I had two really serious detailed safety briefings before we actually went heliskiing. I've literally not been skiing in almost 10 years. Nine years. Don't need to know that. On my first run, I fell over three times. I genuinely thought they were going to drop me back off at the hotel. I was that bad and especially considering the guests I was with had been skiing every single year of their entire lives. But thankfully, after those first few slams, I managed to get the hang of it. The conditions out there were perfect. They'll sometimes describe people as the mayonnaise in the baloney sandwich. The group I'm with are so so nice. It's three Americans, they all know each other and they seem to get on really well with the instructor as well. Great team to be out with. Such a team spirit. I wasn't. During this activity, it became immediately obvious why they chose this location for the hotel. The whole point is that it's an activity hotel and basically the hotel here opens up the doors to loads of different activities all year round. Having this hotel in a city literally makes no sense and that's not even to mention how good the scenery is here. I mean, that's, come on, that's a given. Anyway, after four hours of shredding the snow, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. That might have been perfect. Oh stop it. Also, shout out to helicopter pilot for these insane maneuvers. Is that normal? I don't know. Doesn't look it but it's cool. Thanks Jimmy. I sat with my new friends for dinner but I couldn't show you guys that because my phone was busy drying after skiing. Anyway, before I knew it, it's 11 p.m at night and it's not dark. Look at that. The perk of being in the nautic circle. There is so much more to uncover about this hotel. I've not even given you a room tour yet. Tomorrow is going to be a huge day. I'll see you then. Day two started with a ginger and olive oil shot. Who decided that was a good idea? I don't know. Followed by the bougiest avocado toast of all time and a phenomenal coffee. It's finally time for a room tour. I'm going to walk in the room and pretend I'm surprised even though I've already stayed here a night. It's a cool room. So in the room, there's a bed. A very very cozy bed. I spent at least 15 minutes trying to make this bed look as neat as when I came here in the first place but I've just not got it. Like, wow. I didn't even notice this. There's a fridge with snacks and drinks. Nice. And then we get this like coffee area. Cool. More pillows, more blankets. You want to be extra cozy. So this is just storage with a safe. A great view out the window. You get a robe, a chair to sit, something to hang your luggage on, a seating area to work and enjoy TV. You also get a custom itinerary for your stay. More great views. Lots of nice natural lighting in this room. And then the bathroom. In the bathroom, you get a sink and a mirror. That's me. Hello. You can set the temperature and lots of different lighting options. You can even play music. You get a toilet with the most unbelievable flusher I've ever seen in my life. Let me give this a flush for you. It's a worrying sign when I get that excited about toilet flushes. Then you get literally the biggest shower I have ever seen. There's also a steam thing. I'm not quite sure what it is. It's a white noise machine. I didn't know these things existed. Look at this. Or listen, should I say. But that's pretty much it with the room. It's a nice simple room. It's just got everything you need and it's really high quality. But I think the focus of this hotel is not the room. The idea is that you don't spend much time in your room. It's more in the rest of the hotel and out doing activities. Anyway, let's get out on today's adventure. At the start of the day, I was asked what activities I wanted to do. Most guests headed out heliskiing again, but not me. I wanted to do as many different activities as possible. First activity of the day, e-biking. Just been e-biking down from the platform just up there with Mick. Okay. So his name was actually Mark, but I clearly got confused at some point and started calling him Mick. Hi Mick. I've nicked his sunglasses. I feel terrible. But this is one of the properties that Def will have. This is like a lake house. And then there's a couple of others in the valley is there as well. Did you say something about a ghost farm? Ghost farm further up the valley up there. It's like this, but with a bedroom attached to it. And it's an old abandoned farm that we renovated in the middle of nowhere. And there's ghosts. Is this a hot tub? Yeah. No way. With that view. Oh, this is sick. Mark then took me for a tour around the lake house. Oh, it's so toasty in here. It was fully stocked with drinks and snacks. It was more a place they use for the summer, to be honest, but I could have still spent all day there. Everything seems so like authentic to try and keep it like what it was originally almost. No way. Secret bunker. Top secret. Don't tell anyone. It was so secret. In fact, I can't actually show you what was down there. I'm joking. It was just storage and changing rooms. Enjoy the view. When's your favorite season? All of them. All of them. Even in the winter when it's, you know, it's bleak and it's dark, it's still nice. And you get days like this, you know, bluebird days like this. Yeah. All of them really. It was pretty clear that Mark loved his job. Mick just told me a really cool fact about, I think it would be a lot of the houses around here, won't it? When people choose to build a house here or a property, they have the land surveyed for hot water. And if there's hot water running through your property, you can drill down and you then use that hot water to heat your house, give you the hot water that comes into your house in the heating. So you notice if you have a shower here, there's a slightly sulfur smell to the water, but saves you a ton. Oh right. Case in point, this lodge here, the hot tub. And that's why all the water that's coming out here is steaming hot. So the plan for today is take these e-bikes all the way down the valley and we're going to be going to the music studio. Is that right? Is it true that Justin Bieber recorded his album there? We're following Bieber. We're following the tracks of the Bieber. I feel so lucky to be out here in Iceland, making a YouTube video. Making YouTube videos is literally my passion, but sometimes filming videos is not so easy. But that's why using my TORAS phone case with the integrated O-stand makes it 10 times easier. The O-stand is essentially an integrated tripod into your phone case, which means you can set up your phone to record things practically anywhere. But it's more than that as well. I use the O-stand for just giving me a better grip when holding the phone and just makes my phone feel more ergonomic. This version of the Q3 Air phone case that I've got at the minute is designed in collaboration with the Portuguese Football Federation. But they also do a wide variety of colors so you can make your phone case look however you want it to. The O-stand integrated into the phone case means you have hands-free capability of using your phone wherever you are. The phone case also features literal airbags on the corners. So if you drop your phone, it's going to be protected. So if you're going to grab yourself one of these slick phone cases today, check the link in the description and use code HOWIT30 at checkout to get yourself the discount. Thank you TORAS for making this video possible and making it easier to film. So they're the only breed of horse in Iceland and they're like a four-wheel drive. So a lot of people call them ponies. Technically they are a horse. That building up there is where a lot of the staff live. Me and Mick are almost at the recording studio. There's a couple of other things here as well. Hot tubs and that kind of kind of jazz. We're gonna do some sea kayaking as well. Yeah, well me and Mick, we've been having a great chat. It's been a nice ride down. Lovely day for it and talking about some of our favorite things about Defla. What would you say is your your favorite part of Defla? It's a day like today isn't it? Yeah. You have to remind me on the way down here that today's Friday because you lose track of the days. Beautiful blue sky, there's snow, the sea's nice and flat. It's like, oh you know what? Let's just go kayaking. Let's do what we want and let's just enjoy and have a good day. That was a funny thing wasn't it? You literally came to me this morning. It was like, what do you want to do? And I was like, I don't know, maybe something different to skin and you're like, we could do this, this and this and here we go. So I've actually written a bit of a freestyle, like a song. Yeah. Can I riff it off in the studio? Yeah. Can I? Yeah. This is the recording studio. Mark gave me a tour around the music studio and this place was the real deal. It had all the modern music equipment yet it still felt very Icelandic. You play any instruments? No. Do you reckon we could start our own band? He was doing absolutely anything he could to draw me away from the studio, including showing me the hot tub and sauna, which was outside, but nothing was going to stop me, even looking at this view. I don't know if Mick believed me when I told him that I'd written some lyrics, but here we go. Deppler Farm, Deppler Farm, the off-grid hotel. This is what it's like. I've been skiing with Mike, riding with Mark on my bike. I pull up to the studio and this is what it's like. You know it's Deppler Farm because it's got the charm. It makes you feel alive like a nine o'clock alarm. I'm lighting up the same Mike as Bieber, spitting lyrics that are so cold you could be mistaken for thinking I'm running a fever. The people are a vibe. It's like we're a tribe and if you're still listening, hit the like and subscribe. Yes. We then had a very nice pack up lunch and I tried shooting some hoops before going on to the next activity. All right, Mick, what are we doing now? Now we're going to go sea kayaking on this beautiful day. There's no wind. We're surrounded by snow, snow-capped mountains. There's no wind. Might see some wildlife, have a giggle, tell some bad jokes. What more could you ask for? This is your remit though, isn't it? Yeah, this is me. You've done 20 years of kayaking, have you? Yeah, something like that. This is a guy you want to be with when you go kayaking for the first time. All right, let's go. Next stop, Greenland. Sea kayaking was so peaceful. There aren't any main roads, towns or cities for miles, just mountains and some seals as well. All right, we have just been, we followed the coast all the way around, coming across and then back in on this horseshoe. What a day. Have you got any kayaking jokes, Mick? You haven't? You've been doing it 20 years. Seal. Dave, you got a name for him? After kayaking, I went for a quick dip in the geothermal heated hot tub before finally heading back to the hotel. In Deplathon, there's a couple of fireplaces like this and one of the stones is loose and if you find the loose stone, behind there, there is a bottle of alcohol which you can then have if you find it. A shot of. A shot of. You have a shot of the alcohol if you find the bottle. It's like a little mini game. I mentioned to Mark when we're driving back to the hotel that I fancied a coffee. Lo and behold, when I got back to the hotel, there was a coffee waiting for me. After me saying that, Mark had coordinated with the staff back at the hotel to have me one ready when I arrived back. It was unbelievable customer service. Just made a horrible realization. At some point in the day, I stopped calling Mark. Mark and stopped calling him Mick. Is Mark here? He was here. He's about somewhere. Oh, he's over there. Hi, Mark. I'm about to just get a high five for the video and say sorry for calling you Mick all day. It was a great day. We're back from the excursion. The hotel's a bit quiet at the minute so let's take you on a hotel tour. So this is the reception area and the view outside. Sorry, I'm just talking to myself. Sorry. No, it's all right. This is the dining area. Everyone sits and eats their meal together which I think is a super cool thing about this hotel. It's really social but this is where everyone sits. This is like a viewing area. I don't know. I mean with views like that, I'd be sitting and viewing that all day. So yeah, this is the main reception area or like the main area of the hotel for relaxing. There's a pool table, football pool, table tennis and then also a performance area up there. That's where like bands play if you have bands I guess. This is the main bar area. Then more just nice seating areas. Look at this. I think this might be the most scenic place on earth to work. This place is absolutely massive. Then there's this area here. Again, like a big nice social lounge, big TV. One of these. I can't remember what this game's called. Private dine. Maybe this is like the wine tasting area. I don't know. So there's a gym. Do you want me to give you a demonstration? No, it's off. There was also a Pilates room. I wasn't in danger of using that properly. Then the rest of the downstairs was a spa. So there were massage tables, changing rooms and another geothermally heated pool, a sauna, a cold plunge and a nice seating area to just relax and enjoy the views. I do love the views. This kind lady explained to me that I could go and do the Icelandic Viking ritual of going in a sauna and then doing a cold plunge straight after if I wanted. But I passed on that. Turns out they've got like these floating tanks as well. Those like baths where loads of salt in and then you just lie back and you float. You have to book to go in them and I've not booked. There was loads more to the hotel but this tour would have taken hours if I showed you everything. But here's past Chris on the way to the hotel to give you a fun fact. Another crazy thing about this hotel. The reason Deppler Farm is called Deppler Farm is because it was a farm. From the 15th century up until 2016 it was a working sheep farm and a fun fact about the area, sheep outnumber the number of people by two to one. So there's more than two sheep for every one people that live in that little area that I'm going to. I didn't actually see a single sheep on this entire trip. Where are the sheep? Someone tell me. Right, I'm back at the hotel room. It's time to answer a couple of questions you've probably got about this hotel. So how much is it? I'm staying at the cheapest room in this hotel and it costs $5,000 a night. It's also a minimum of three nights to stay. Thankfully I managed to spend a two night stay because I just couldn't afford three. It's pretty common as well for people to buy out this entire 13 room hotel. That is something they offer. I think it's just over $100,000 a night to do so. I am extremely grateful to be able to stay here. It's such a special experience being here. The amazing activities that you can do and just how nice all the staff and all the other guests are. Mark slash Mick was actually telling me a bit more earlier about just the levels that the staff go to here to make this experience so enjoyable and the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. He was talking about the different group chats that they've got. They've even got their own special app to make sure they know where all the guests are. Just making sure that all the guests are basically catered for and getting the service that they paid for. He also explained just how many staff there are here. I think Deppler Farm has almost 70 staff members. At the minute I think there's around 15 or just under 15 people staying. So that's four staff per guest. It's that level of customer service that makes this place so amazing. It was my last night at Deppler Farm and dinner time once again. For starters we had soup then duck for main and some chocolate themed for dessert. Just popped outside from dinner to take a minute to look at the sunset. Dinner's so nice. There's such a communal feel to it given that you're all sat around this one big dining table. Yeah having some great conversations meeting some really nice people. I just can't get over the fact where this hotel is in this stunning valley. Miles and miles from any other civilization. What a place. I sat and had a drink with my mates Joking. I haven't got any mates. Look at this. It's almost midnight and the sun is setting. Anyway I'm going to bed but the stay's not over. Got some fun activities planned for the morning. Let's go and do it. This place is crazy. Good night. Good morning team. Leaving a bit early so getting an early breakfast in. Let me talk you through a situation while there's not many people here slash no one. So for breakfast you get all of these pastries and breads and nice dips, bits of fruit, juice and this ginger shot and cod liver oil. Had that yesterday. It's unique. Most of the meals are all set meals but for breakfast you get to choose from a menu. This has been the seat I've been going for every time. I don't know. I just like this seat. Here we go. By the way your coffees are like the best coffees ever. I don't know. I don't know what you do. Yeah they're really good. Thank you very much. It's all right. Fun fact about me. I eat with my cutlery in reverse. I also love strawberries and pineapple. But boy do I love a good view. Look at that breakfast. All right guys. I'm here with William. He's one of the staff members here at Deple farm and I've got some fun questions for you. Okay where are you from by the way? I'm from Quebec originally. Oh nice. When did you move here? I was a year and a half ago. My wife is Icelandic so that's the reason I moved here. You moved here. Nice. One of my questions actually was. So this Deple was a sheep farm originally. Have you had any sheep coming back to the farm thinking they still live here? No. What do you enjoy the most about working here? I think it's the diversity of the activities. Yes. Sometimes when you work as a guide you know you end up doing the same thing over and over. Yeah. And here I enjoy the fact that we can be creative. You know depending on the guest what they want to do. Link multiple activities together and so it's a much more creative job than just a regular guiding. Right. Yeah. That's what makes it so good as a guest to be honest. Like the variety of activities you do here. Last question. If you had a message to the world what would it be? Just enjoy every day like it's your last day and treat everybody with care and compassion. Yeah. Oh that's brilliant. Oh I love that. Yeah. Right. Brill. Thank you so much. And yeah great to meet you. Nice to meet you. After that lovely conversation I headed off for my final activity of the stay. Let's go find some whales. Whale watching. Do you think we'll see any whales? All right so we're on the whale watching tour. Look the boat's on the move. We're out. We're going out to sea. Brilliant. Made a bit of an unnerving discovery. This is where they drive the boat. Look who's driving. No one. Is this safe? Let's go and find some whales. We headed out into the bay. We've been traveling for ages but hadn't seen anything yet. I felt a lot of people were actually starting to give up on the hopes of seeing one. Everyone was looking forwards so I kept looking backwards just in case one was sneaking up behind. You never know. All right team this is it. We've parked up. The engines are off and we are waiting for the whales. We are in the prime real estate for whales. Over the show. Oh my days. No way. I could not believe what I was witnessing here. I was literally stood meters away from a 50 foot humpback whale. Just look at that thing. Iceland really is something else. So we're just on the whale tour and I've met some friends here. This is from Tennessee in America. We've been on the whale tour together. What did you both think to the whale tour? Yeah. This is the 100% whale company. Is that true? Yeah that's what they call themselves. I was literally coming into this. I was like I'm not sure we're going to see any whales. It's not guaranteed. We exceeded our expectations. Absolutely. I just found it fascinating how the tour guide that was doing the the tour for us she knew didn't she the whale just by their markings. The whale had a scar on its tail and that's how they knew what whale it was. What an experience. This has been so much for Craigan and Ginger here. I'll go in on the Iceland ring road. So yeah safe travels on your journey and pleasure to meet you both. After the tour I actually went for lunch with Craigan and Ginger which as a solo traveler was especially nice. Thanks guys. I then went back to the hotel. I had a quick go on that game. Turns out the game's not very easy. To answer the question though what is this hotel hiding? Nothing. Well I couldn't see anything did you? To be honest I spent most of my stay thinking about how two years ago I made a start on YouTube by running a marathon in Crocs. I managed to get a free entry for the race and filmed it on cameras that I borrowed from friends. So to be able to come and do all this for a video is insane and I owe that to all of you watching. So thank you. Wow what an experience that was. I was honestly just so curious about Deppler Farm and I thought it would make a good video. I hope it didn't come across as distasteful because honestly I just felt uncomfortable the whole time being there. I felt so out of place. I think I'll just go back to my normal hotels. I'm not even camping this. Good space in the back actually. Yeah this looks good.