Hotels don’t always have to be the conventional four-walled places you stay in while you’re on your vacation. For the guests who long for the quirky, interesting, and adventuresome, fortunately, there are hotels in many parts of the world that will make your time spent there utterly unforgettable. Many of these hotels have particular themes.
Car lovers will surely refuse to leave their suites when they visit the V8 Hotel, located in the heart of Stuttgart’s Meilenwerk. All the rooms there have themes to do with automobiles, especially classic and vintage cars and racing paraphernalia. Of course, a drive-in cinema is also featured in this hotel.
Art lovers will surely book their reservations at the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. The site, once a storage area for tobacco and whiskey, features 90 rooms which are adorned with art pieces, and galleries that showcase the work of acclaimed artists. There is also an award-winning restaurant which updates its menu twice a year, just like the artworks. If you want some company, hire one of the red penguins (shown here in the picture) to keep you happy.
If living inside a cave sounds appealing to you, you can do so literally at the Aydinli Cave House Hotel in the picturesque old town of Goreme, Turkey. Opened in 2008, the hotel is family-run, with 14 individually-styled rooms all carved out of natural rocks and the stones of Cappadocia. One of the rooms, which was previously an area of pigeon nests and food storage, boasts original carvings and a terrace that offers an uninterrupted view over the Goreme Village. The hotel is adorned with beautiful locally-made carpets and antique decor, but they are also furnished with modern comforts.
Living inside a sewage pipe? This would sound ridiculous and disgusting, but Das Park Hotel in Linz, Austria makes it possible for human habitats. Fortunately, these concrete sewage pipes are neat and well-kept. Each of these circular post-industrial styled concrete suites is equipped with beds, lighting and other functions. These “holes” are located on the banks of the Danube River, which makes them perfect for travelers looking for a nice place to stay overnight.
Hankering for a nomadic life once in a while? El Cosmico in Marfa, Texas, will provide the answer. They offer a variety of “shelters” which include vintage trailers, scout tents, safari tents, Indian tepees, Mongolian yurts, and tent campsites. They are all equipped with modern amenities and comforts for guests, giving “nomadic” living a notch up.
No, you’re not feeling dizzy or trippy. This Gaudi-inspired hotel in Da Lat, Vietnam, also known as a “Fairy Tale House” or “Crazy House,” resembles a banyan tree as it’s meant to be designed. This irregularly-shaped hotel incorporates sculptured elements that represent nature, such as mushrooms, portholes, spiderwebs, and many types of animals. Each of the ten rooms is animal-themed.
Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry worked on the first and only hotel project in his career somewhere in Spain’s wine-growing region of Rioja. The man who is also behind the Guggenheim Bilbao and the bizarre Dancing House in Prague designed this hotel in Rioja’s Elciego district, named Hotel Marques de Riscal. Gehry’s curvy, avant-garde tendencies are evident in this hotel, which uses titanium ribbons that stick out prominently among the vineyards.
If you’re a fan of Frozen and thus fantasize about living inside an ice castle, your icy Scandinavian wishes may come true in the world’s first-ever ice hotel is named (what else) Icehotel in the locality of Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. The ice blocks used for the hotel are gathered from the nearby Torne River every November. Each year new themes are introduced in all of the suites. There is also a chapel and a bar where you can buy drinks not “on the rocks” but rather “in the rocks” — in ice glasses.
The hotel is impeccably beautiful and elegant, and at first glance, it doesn’t seem to be anything unusual. But a long time ago, the Liberty Hotel used to be the Charles Street Jail, whose inmates included Malcolm X and disgraced Boston mayor James Curley. Built in 1851, the jail was finally shut down in 1990 due to overcrowding. It remained empty until it was fabulously restored and converted into a luxury hotel in 2007. It features the famous CLINK restaurant which is located in the lobby of the hotel. Despite its present posh status, you can still see the vestiges of the hotel’s jail past, including the cells, catwalks and three-story arched windows. Feel locked up for a while in luxury.
Do you want to stay closer to nature? Then go to the Magic Mountain, a fairy-tale like place nestled in the middle of the Chilean Patagonian forest. Guests who enjoy trekking, fishing, and hunting in the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve will equally enjoy staying at Magic Mountain Hotel. The hotel’s main lodge spurts out a waterfall that cascades down from the pinnacle of the roof, which makes staying there truly magical.
Standing about a couple of kilometers off the Isle of Wight, the No Man’s Land Fort in Solent, Portsmouth was built between 1867 and 1880 from orders by Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. This fort was meant to protect Portsmouth from an attack by Napoleon III (but the attack never happened). It was converted into a luxury hotel and finally opened its doors for service in April 2015. It has four stories with 22 guestrooms which are appropriately designed in a nautical style. It also has a private lighthouse, a rooftop garden, a golf course, two helipads, and a restaurant.
In 1972 the former fort was used as a filming location for several scenes for the Doctor Who television series.
With its name literally meaning “salt palace,” the entirety of Palacio de Sal is made out of salt blocks. Most of its furnishings are also made out of salt. No wonder — the hotel sits on the salty desert, the Salar de Uyuni, which is the biggest salt flat on the planet. The hotel has a splendid lobby, 30 bedrooms, a sauna and steam room, electricity and central heating. If you have a case of UTI, we suggest you shouldn’t go there as the hotel serves salty house specialties, including the famous salty chicken. When staying at the hotel, there’s one rule that you should follow at all costs — never, ever lick the walls!
Built in 1142, this building used to serve as a monastery or an abbey. Converted as a hotel, the Strahov Monastery offers the best of the old and the new: the awesome Basilica of Our Lady, the grand library, the Theological Hall with stucco decorations and artworks, together with flat-screen TV’s equipped with satellite channels, mini-bars, and high-speed WiFi.
You love your pets and you want to take them along with you when you take vacation trips, but you are probably distraught when most hotels and lodgings have a “no pets allowed” policy. Not so here in the Dog Bark Park Inn in Idaho. Designed, built, and owned by two chainsaw artists, the Dog Bark Park Inn is one of Idaho’s famous landmarks. The beagle-shaped hotel has dog-themed interiors and rooms and sleeps, four guests. Pets, of course, are also welcome in this hotel.
This hotel is also featured on our “Great Glamping Destinations” list. The Treehotel is located on the pine forests of Harads and features six “tree houses” — rooms which are uniquely designed on their own. Choose any one of these rooms, including the UFO and the Microcube. There is also a restaurant and a sauna.