Travelling is always exciting and if you want to make your trip extra special, you might want to stay at some of the world’s most unusual hotels.
There are so many strange and bizarre accommodation which make your average hotel or hostel look really bland and boring.
Here are our picks for the most quirky and unique hotels on the planet.
1. Manta Resort, Tanzania
On a tropical island off the coast of Tanzania, the Manta Resort offers splendid dining, a world class spa, and a choice of a most unusual room – four metres below the surface of the ocean!
On the upper deck you can enjoy sunbathing by day and stargazing at night. When it’s time to get tucked in, your glass-walled bedroom is surrounded by tropical sea splendour and wildlife.
On shore, enjoy a photo safari and world class dining seaside, celebrating the bounty of fresh local fish and seafood.
2. Haoduo Panda Hotel, China
The planet is panda crazy of late, and so much so, the Haoduo Panda Hotel in China is determined to cater to fans of the cute furry creatures.
Located at the base of Emei Mountain in the Chinese provide of Sichuan, a thousand miles northwest of Hong Kong, the rooms are decorated with all things panda – bedding, linens, towels, carpet and pandas of the stuffed variety strategically placed about.
Staff members wear panda costumes for the guest amusement!
3. Treehouse Hotel, India
If “in the air” is more your thing than under the sea, you’ll be drawn to the Treehouse Hotel in the Umaria district of India.
Located deep in India’s tiger country, not only are the comfortable rooms perched in the trees, but so is the hotel’s reception and social area, where you can lounge and spy exotic wildlife grazing at a nearby water hole.
When you’re not asleep in the trees, the hotel can arrange jeep safaris to the adjacent Bandhavgarh Nature Reserve, home to the highest concentration of Bengal tigers in the world. The park also contains rare white tigers, leopards, and rare species of deer.
4. Kakslauttanen Hotel and Igloo Village, Finland
At Kakslauttanen Hotel and Igloo Village in Saariselkä, a collection of glass igloos, with comfy beds, ensuite facilities, and a personal sauna present a wonderful opportunity to view and sleep under the Aurora Borealis, the astral phenomenon commonly called the “Northern Lights.”
In winter, hotel guests can enjoy “safaris”, trips into the calm winter surroundings via reindeer, snow machine, or dog sled. Ice fishing is available with down hill and cross country skiing nearby. Under the midnight sun in summer, you try their luck at gold panning, forage for local wild mushrooms and berries, or bike on mountain trails.
The main dining facility, housed in a beautiful log building, as well as two other on site eateries, serve a variety of Lapland and Asian inspired dishes.
5. Icehotel, Sweden
If “igloos” are not “winter enough” for you, the Icehotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden just might be to your liking.
At 200 km above the Arctic Circle, constructed each year since 1990, entirely from ice and snow, the hotel has an annual season lasting only from December through April. Everything in the hotel is constructed from snow and ice, including the chairs and beds! In the hotel bar, you’ll find the glasses made from ice.
Each year, different artists are invited to “sculpt” the guest rooms, providing each sleeping quarter with a unique appearance and style.
Winter activities include snow machine, horse or dog sled treks, learning the art of ice sculpting from resident professionals, or mastering daredevil ice driving in a Mini Cooper on the hotel’s private ice track.
Dining at the Icehotel Restaurant is an adventure in the culinary arts, as the chefs use the finest local ingredients to come up with very innovative dishes such as moose carpaccio, fillet of reindeer, and pureed local root vegetables. Lighter meals are available in The Lounge.
6. Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, USA
A remnant of the highway culture of the 1950s, the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona offers accommodations in replica Native American teepees, but with modern conveniences like private baths and cable television. The fifteen units are laid out in a rectangle to resemble an American plains Indian village.
7. Shady Dell Vintage Trailer Court, USA
Also in Arizona, enjoy sleeping in a vintage caravan at the Shady Dell Vintage Trailer Court in the town of Bisbee near the US / Mexico border.
The restored trailers are furnished with 1950s style decor and original kitchens. Linens and dishes are furnished. A supply of decades old magazines and black and white television programs will further entertain you.
You may have been “in the doghouse” or slept at an inn that you think may have “gone to the dogs”, but you haven’t slept inside a giant Beagle unless you’ve stayed at the Dog Bark Park Inn Bed and Breakfast in Cottonwood, Idaho.
The dog-themed rooms at the Inn sleep four, include modern amenities, except for a restful stay, televisions and telephones are not allowed in the doggy decorated rooms. An extensive breakfast buffet is included with the room tariff.
Many of the hotel’s furnishings and decorations were created by the hotel’s “chainsaw artist” owner.