In recent years, travelers have sought experiences beyond the standard hotel stay. This shift has been driven by a yearning for authenticity and adventure, with a surge in experiential travel emphasizing distinct experiences. Today’s hotel visitor may choose an earth-sheltered cave dwelling, a treehouse deep in a forest, or even a transparent bubble under the stars. The motivation is more than Instagrammable: it’s about creating stories and connecting with local culture.
This guide profiles fifteen remarkable properties across the globe — from desert eco-lodges to undersea suites. Each entry includes detailed descriptions of the guest experience, practical booking information, insider tips, and suggested alternative lodgings. Travelers can use the quick-reference comparison table below to survey each option at a glance.
Accommodations considered “unusual” in this guide include:
– Cave hotels: Rooms carved into volcanic rock or canyons, blending history and landscape.
– Treehouses and canopy lodges: Elevated wooden retreats among forest canopies, offering immersion in nature.
– Underwater and seaside suites: Submerged or coastal rooms with panoramic ocean views.
– Stargazing domes: Geodesic or glass structures designed for unobstructed celestial views in remote areas.
– Capsule hotels: Compact, high-tech pod rooms maximizing space and privacy.
– Converted structures: Repurposed vehicles or historic buildings (planes, trains, chapels, lighthouses) transformed into lodging.
– Eco-lodges and glamping sites: Sustainable lodges using natural materials, often with minimal modern amenities.
Each property is distinct, but all share an emphasis on setting and story. Read on to find which extraordinary stay might fit your travel style.
| Property | Location | Type | Price | Best For | Unique Feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adrère Amellal | Siwa Oasis, Egypt | Desert ecolodge | $$$ | Couples, adventurers | Candlelit mud-brick huts with desert/oasis views |
| Saugerties Lighthouse | New York, USA | Lighthouse B&B | $$ | Couples, nature lovers | 1869 stone lighthouse accessed by boardwalk |
| Chapel of Rest | Derbyshire, England | Converted chapel B&B | $ | Couples, history fans | Gothic chapel with graveyard views |
| Elqui Domos | Paihuano, Chile | Stargazing domes | $$ | Stargazers, romantics | 360° clear-sky domes on an astronomical farm |
| Bristol Plane | Waitomo Caves, NZ | Airplane motel | $$ | Adventure travelers | WWII Bristol Freighter fuselage turned hotel |
| All-American Trailer | Arizona, USA | Retro trailer park | $ | Families, roadtrippers | Vintage Airstream trailers on a desert ranch |
| Kadir’s Tree House | Olympos, Turkey | Treehouse resort | $ | Backpackers, nature seekers | Rustic wooden bungalows high in the trees |
| Blow Up Hall 5050 | Poznań, Poland | Art-tech hotel | $$$ | Art lovers, trendsetters | High-tech design with interactive digital art |
| Rêve de Bisons | Rouen, France | Farm B&B | $$ | Families, animal lovers | Stay among free-roaming bison on a countryside farm |
| Trullo Azzurro | Puglia, Italy | Trullo cottage | $$ | Couples, design buffs | Iconic Apulian trulli stone house |
| Hostel Celica | Ljubljana, Slovenia | Art hostel (ex-prison) | $$ | Young travelers, artists | Former prison turned artistic hostel |
| Swiss Customs Post | Franche-Comté, France | Mountain lodge | $$ | Hikers, peace seekers | Historic wooden border post in Jura mountains |
| Gamirasu Cave Hotel | Cappadocia, Turkey | Cave hotel | $$$ | Culture seekers, luxury fans | Ancient cave dwellings with candlelit ambiance |
| Poseidon Undersea Resort | Fiji (planned) | Underwater resort | $$$$ | Divers, luxury travelers | Fully submerged resort concept (future) |
| Nine Hours Kyoto | Kyoto, Japan | Capsule hotel | $ | Budget travelers | Futuristic sleeping pods |
Adrère Amellal, a remote eco-lodge in Egypt’s Siwa Oasis, is built entirely of salt and mud-brick. At night, all lighting comes from candles and lanterns.
Adrère Amellal rises from the dunes on the Siwa Oasis’s white mountain as if it were part of the landscape. This off-grid camp has no electricity or plumbing; guests trade modern comforts for an elemental desert immersion. By day, visitors wander among the sun-warmed rooms and palm-shaded courtyards. Evenings bring spectacular sunsets and a candlelit ambiance: “the starriest sky” imaginable stretches overhead. Communal meals are served under palm trees around a large lantern-lit table, and the silence of the desert night is as memorable as its beauty.
The wooden boardwalk to Saugerties Lighthouse (Hudson River, New York) guides guests across marshland to a 1869 stone lighthouse where historic rooms await.
Perched on a shoal in the Hudson River, the Saugerties Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast transports guests back in time. To reach it, visitors walk a half-mile wooden boardwalk through tidal marshes. Surrounded by water, the 1869 stone lighthouse and its keeper’s cottage are impossibly quaint and quiet. Inside, you’ll find antique furnishings (mahogany beds, oil lamps) alongside simple modern comforts (fans in summer, wood stove in winter). The only sounds are lapping waves and the distant horn of passing ferries. From a rocker on the porch at sunset, the vast river vista feels timeless.
In a Victorian cemetery in Wirksworth stands the world’s most unusual B&B. The Chapel of Rest was built in 1812 as a mortuary chapel; today, one of its 19th-century chapels has been reborn as a guest suite. The carved oak bed and original pews remain, sharing space with a modern mattress. From your bed you look out through stained-glass windows onto aged gravestones and rolling Pennine fields — a view both breathtaking and slightly eerie. On some nights, only candles and moonlight illuminate the chapel interior, lending it a gothic romance.
Elqui Domos sits atop a windswept plateau in the Chilean Andes, where the skies are famously clear. Seven transparent geodesic domes perch on wooden decks, each one essentially a private observatory. At night, guests can point out constellations from the comfort of their bed. Telescopes are on hand for close-up views of the Milky Way and Southern Cross. By day, the domes feel like greenhouses: sunlight floods the cozy interiors, and the mountains and vineyards below glow in the crisp air. Evenings are communal — dinner is a local feast under the stars (weather permitting), followed by guided sky tours.
At Woodlyn Park, a retired Bristol 170 Freighter sits permanently on a custom stand — and it has been turned into a novel motel. The 1954 plane is split into two suites: one inhabits the cockpit (upstairs, with the nose windows) and the other uses the fuselage’s tail section. Inside, aviation details mix with home comforts: control yokes decorate the walls, yet the cabin has a plush lounge and full kitchen. Breakfast is served in a cottage on the ground before “boarding.” At night, it feels like you’re sleeping in an aviation museum — metal bulkhead walls and porthole windows — but with soft sheets and a warm shower.
In Arizona’s desert highlands, a community of fully restored vintage Airstream trailers offers a 1950s roadside-charm experience. Each shiny aluminum unit is retrofitted with modern comforts: queen beds with quilted throws, a compact kitchenette, and even an outdoor picnic setup. The communal patio area features a star-patterned fire pit and mid-century lawn games. Guests gather nightly around firelight to roast marshmallows under a clear sky. The feel is nostalgic, like a movie set, but with luxury bedding and air conditioning to ensure comfort.
Perched high among pine trees along Turkey’s Lycian Coast, Kadir’s Tree Houses Hostel offers a bohemian getaway. Guests clamber up wooden stairs to open-air cedar cabins built on platforms. Each hut is unique: some have rooftop terraces with sea glimpses, others include colorful kilim rugs and hammocks. Nights at Kadir’s are communal: an outdoor kitchen and lounge are at the property’s heart, where travelers share dinners (fresh mezze, grilled fish) and warm raki by bonfire. Dawn brings birdsong over the Mediterranean and cowbells from nearby farms — a stark contrast to the lively party nights below.
Blow Up Hall 5050 redefines boutique lodging with its ultra-modern art theme. The moment you enter, your reflection is instantly projected onto a giant LED wall — the name “Blow Up” comes from this huge digital mirror. Remarkably, there is no front desk: instead, a concierge greets you and hands over an unlocked iPhone as your room key and city guide. Each guest room is a high-tech loft painted entirely in black and white. Minimalist furnishings contrast with rotating digital artworks on the walls. The overall effect is that guests live inside a piece of pop art.
Located in Normandy’s countryside, Rêve de Bisons (“Dream of Bisons”) is a family-run farm stay where European bison roam the fields. Accommodations include rustic wooden cabins and platform tents scattered across pastureland. Inside each cabin you’ll find warm quilts, wood-burning stoves, and windows framing the old oak forest. At dawn, the pasture often holds a herd of bison lazing near the cabins — an awe-inspiring sight from your deck. Evenings are communal and cozy: the owners serve hearty farmhouse dinners in a shared dining room, often including home-baked bread and local cheeses. Guests recall falling asleep to distant snorts of the bison as the fireplace crackled.
Just outside the town of Alberobello, Trullo Azzurro celebrates the classic Apulian trullo: small, conical limestone huts painted white with bright blue trim. These 18th-century trulli have been lovingly restored into luxury suites. Inside, you’ll find marble floors, polished wood ceilings, and modern bathrooms (some with tubs in alcoves of rock). Each trullo building usually houses a double bedroom and a living space; going from room to room feels like exploring a fairy-tale village. By night, lanterns glow on the stone walls and you might hear cicadas in the olive groves beyond. Guests often dine al fresco under the trulli cones, serenaded by Italian ballads on the radio.
Hostel Celica is a masterpiece of adaptive reuse. Its building was a military prison until 1992; today, each cell is a unique art installation. Stepping inside, you find one cell painted with a rainbow mural, another with black-and-white optical art, yet all retain the original stone walls and heavy doors. Surviving bars divide the hostel’s common areas from bedrooms. Guests often describe the atmosphere as surreal — you could be in a modern gallery or in an avant-garde play. Despite the youthful energy, there’s a respectful hush after midnight: Celica is very much still an institutional building.
High in the Jura Mountains, a rustic hostel sits exactly where an old Swiss border customs post once stood. The Auberge du Poste de Douane is a family-run lodge offering simple comfort at 1,000 meters elevation. Built of wood and stone, it exudes Alpine charm — the lobby is a cozy parlor with a stone fireplace, antler lamps, and tartan armchairs. Outside, rolling meadows and conifer forests stretch uninterrupted. The design is unpretentious: handwoven rugs, floral curtains, and polished wood floors. Dinner is typically a communal affair of fondue or croûte aux champignons by candlelight. Above you, an immense starry sky blankets the Alps.
Set among Cappadocia’s “fairy chimneys,” Gamirasu takes ancient rock dwellings and turns them into a peaceful retreat. The hotel comprises 35 units carved into the soft volcanic tuff of a hillside. Each room is different: some have stone vaulted ceilings dripping with pendant lights, others feature cozy fireplace nooks and antique rugs. The architecture is Byzantine-era — you might sleep in a former monk’s cell or a centuries-old granary. Despite the age, amenities include heated floors and plush linens. Breakfast is served on a stone terrace overlooking pigeon-houses and twin valleys. Guests wake to hundreds of hot-air balloons drifting overhead at dawn — an iconic Cappadocian sight.
Imagine drifting to sleep surrounded by coral and fish. The Poseidon Undersea Resort (still in planning stages) promises fully submerged luxury suites on a private Fijian island. According to concept art, each suite would be a two-level cylinder anchored to the lagoon floor. Guests would descend via a pressurized elevator from a surface clubhouse into a living area encased by panoramic acrylic walls — an underwater lounge with 360° views of the reef. Sleeping quarters and bathrooms would occupy the upper levels closer to the surface. Design proposals include an underwater restaurant and diving excursions from personal submersibles.
Nine Hours Kyoto is the epitome of a Japanese capsule hotel taken to its modern extreme. Its very name comes from the formula: 9 hours total (1 to wash up, 7 to sleep, 1 to prepare and depart). The lobby is ultra-sleek white, with individual lockers and cushioned lounge chairs. After a self check-in kiosk, guests remove shoes and ascend to the sleeping level via illuminated blue stairwells. The capsules themselves are stacked in neat rows along softly lit corridors. Each pod is roughly 2m x 1m, with a mattress, pillow, alarm clock, and simple control panel to set the climate and lighting. Privacy curtains close each unit. There are no televisions or phones — the idea is a place to crash, not to entertain.
A capsule hotel (or pod hotel) is a Japanese-style lodging with numerous small, pod-like sleeping cabins. Each capsule provides basic sleeping quarters (bed, light, outlets) but no private bath. The concept maximizes space efficiency and is aimed at cost-conscious or short-stay guests. Nine Hours Kyoto’s all-white design and emphasis on prompt rest exemplify the genre.
Unusual accommodations are lodgings that break the mold of standard hotels. They include stays in caves, treehouses, lighthouses, underwater suites, or other creative settings. What makes them “unusual” is the experience itself — sleeping in a former church, a transparent dome, or a vintage airplane. These accommodations focus on atmosphere and story. For example, a cave hotel immerses you in history and geology, while a converted bus might offer a retro road-trip feel. They’re chosen for adventure and novelty, not just a bed.
It varies. Many quirky lodgings fall into mid-range or luxury categories because they’re niche or remote. For instance, an undersea suite or an exclusive eco-resort might cost more than a city motel. However, not all are pricey: capsule hotels, some hostels, and rural guesthouses can be very affordable. Always check what’s included. Sometimes higher rates cover extras (like meals, tours, or gear). In short, unique stays exist at every budget level — from backpacker glamping ($) to luxury eco-lodges ($$$$). Value often comes from experience rather than square footage.
Generally, earlier than a typical hotel. With only a handful of rooms, these places sell out quickly. If you’re traveling on fixed dates (holidays, festivals, peak season), book 6–12 months ahead. For example, summer weekends in a treehouse hotel or a ski chalet often need early booking. Off-season or weekdays might allow last-minute deals. Check each listing’s booking window and cancel policy. Many hosts recommend locking in reservations as soon as your itinerary is fixed.
Pack according to the setting.
– Remote/Nature Lodgings: Bring essentials like a refillable water bottle, flashlight, insect repellent, and layers. Many off-grid sites have limited services, so include snacks, toiletries, and medications.
– Historic/Unique Spaces: If local culture has dress codes (monasteries, traditional villages), be prepared to cover shoulders or remove shoes.
– Capsule/Hostel: These usually provide linens and towels. Still, a small padlock (for lockers), earbuds/eye mask, and flip-flops for shared showers can be handy.
– Adventure Props: Don’t forget specialty gear (swimsuit for underwater stays, trekking shoes for mountain huts, etc.). Always check the host’s advice on amenities so you can pack accordingly.
Some are, but many have restrictions. Family-friendly options usually include multiple beds or communal lodging (like farm stays or large treehouses). Pet policies vary widely: eco-lodges often disallow pets to protect wildlife, while campgrounds and trailers usually welcome them. Always confirm beforehand. Accessibility is another concern: treehouse stairs, cave thresholds, and rustic paths may not suit young children or mobility limitations. Hosts will inform you of any age/pet limits, so ask in advance to avoid problems.
Expect a spectrum. Some unique hotels are fully equipped (modern cave hotels with Wi-Fi and climate control, luxury glamps with electricity). Others purposely strip away comforts: off-grid eco-retreats may have no Wi-Fi or limited hot water as part of the charm. Be sure to read the listing details. If staying truly remote, prepare for lack of internet, bring power banks, and rely on natural lighting (flashlights or lanterns provided). However, most city-based novelty hotels (capsules, art hotels) maintain high tech levels, so you can stay online if needed.
For many travelers, absolutely. These stays turn lodging into part of the adventure — you return home with stories, not just souvenirs. The price you pay often buys more than a bed: it buys connection to place. A cave hotel immerses you in history, an overwater villa in a coral reef experience, a railway carriage in nostalgia. However, ensure it matches your travel style. If you dislike roughing it or hate insects, a jungle treehouse might frustrate you. But for open-minded travelers, the novelty and authenticity often justify the cost.
