The top 10 unusual hotels
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Forget the idea of sleeping in a hotel because you need a place to stay while visiting your intended destination---sometimes, the hotel is the destination. There are unique and unusual places to sleep all over the world, from a research laboratory at the bottom of the sea to an ice building that melts every spring.
Jules' Undersea Lodge
Jules' Undersea Lodge was originally an underwater habitat and research laboratory by the name of La Chalupa. Located at the bottom of the Emerald Lagoon in Key Largo Undersea Park, Florida, the Lodge can only be reached by scuba-diving. You can spend several days at the Lodge without surfacing- overnight stays include all dive gear, unlimited dives for certified divers, a gourmet dinner prepared by a "mer-chef" and breakfast in the morning.
Jules' Undersea Lodge
at Key Largo Undersea Park
51 Shoreland Drive
Key Largo, Florida 33037
305-451-2353
jul.com
Hô-tel de Glace
Every year, the Hô-tel de Glace is redesigned and rebuilt in its entirety: it takes five weeks, 15000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice. The hotel is open for business from early January through the end of March, although exact dates vary depending on weather and temperatures. It usually offers 36 rooms and themed suites, an ice bar and café-, and even an ice chapel for weddings. Even all the furniture is made from ice- beds are made from a solid ice base topped with a wooden box spring and an arctic sleeping bag. Warm clothes recommended!
Hô-tel de Glace
9300, rue de la Faune
Qué-bec
Qué-bec Canada G1G 4G4
418-875-4522
icehotel-canada.com
Canopy Tower
Located in Panama's Soberaní-a National Park, Canopy Tower was built in 1965 by the United States Air Force to house a radar used in the defense of the Panama Canal. Now repurposed as a hotel, the tower offers five single rooms, five double rooms and two suites, as well as a library containing books on birdwatching, the area's history and other related subjects- from the observation deck, 50 feet above the ground, you have a 360 degree view of the neotropical rainforest surrounding it, as well as Panama City, the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean.
Canopy Tower
Semaphore Hill Road
Soberania National Park, Panama City 0832-2701
Panama
1-800-930-3397
canopytower.com
Sassi di Matera Albergo Diffuso
Located in a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Albergo Diffuso offers eighteen guest rooms in a 2,500-year-old series of Neolithic caves, with a common area in a rock-hewn church. Once housing shepherds and the poor of the area, the rooms have been completely restored and upgraded using locally-created furniture and furnishings.
Albergo Diffuso Sextantio
via Civita, 28 - (Sasso Baribano)
75100 Matera
Italy
+39-835-332744
sassidimatera.com
Taprobane Island
Originally built in the 1920s by the self-styled Count de Mauny-Talvande, Taprobane is a private island with only one choice of accommodation: a 5-bedroom Palladian-style villa with a pool overlooking the Indian Ocean, 2-acre tropical garden and a staff of five to look after your every need. The island is just 200 yards off the Southern Coast in the center of Weligama Bay, it can be easily accessed by wading through the surf---or even by riding in on an elephant!
Taprobane Island
Weligama Bay, Weligama
Sri Lanka
+94-91-4380275
taprobaneisland.com
Woodlyn Park
Woodlyn Park, located in New Zealand, offers four different types of accomodation, all unique. You can choose to spend the night in a 1950s Bristol Freighter airplane, reportedly one of the last allied planes to live Vietnam- in the "Waitomo Express," a refurbished 1950s rail car- in a converted WWII patrol boat, built in 1942 in Auckland and now housing 4 separate suites- or in the "Hobbit Motel," a series of units inspired by the Hobbit village in the "Lord of the Rings" movie.
Woodlyn Park
1177 Waitomo Valley Road
RD7, Otorohanga, New Zealand
+64-7-878-6666
woodlynpark.co.nz
Palacio de Sal
Built entirely out of salt, the Palacio de Sal hotel is located in Bolivia, at the edge of the Salar de Uyuni---the world's largest salt flat. The hotel offers 16 rooms, a restaurant and bar, a spa and even a 9-hole designer golf course. Don't lick the walls!
Palacio de Sal
Salar de Uyuni
Potosí-, Bolivia
+591-2-622-5186
palaciodesal.com
The Lighthouse
There are many lighthouses that have been converted into tourist accommodation, but how many of them look like a fortress? Built in 1862 by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, the Lighthouse is situated in the Great Orme Country Park and was constructed entirely out of limestone and Canadian pitch pine. It offers three suites, one of which is located in the glass-paneled room which originally housed the optic, all offering panoramic sea views.
Marine Drive, Great Orme's Head
Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 2XD
United Kingdom
+44-1492-876819
lighthouse-llandudno.co.uk
Kokopelli's Cave
Originally built to be a geologist's office, Kokopelli's cave is a large, one-bedroom cave home carved out of sandstone rock 280 feet above the La Plata River. Fully furnished with modern appliances, a waterfall shower and a flagstone hot tub, the cave is located 70 feet below the surface and can only be reached by walking down a sloping path cut into the sandstone. Pack light, as there are no elevators.
3204 Crestridge Drive
Farmington, New Mexico 87401
505-326-2461
bbonline.com/nm/kokopelli/
Airplane Suite
Located in the Teuge airport, the Airplane Suite is an Ilyushin 18 airplane built in 1960 which has been converted into a single luxury suite for two. The airplane offers a shower, jacuzzi, flat screen television, free wireless internet and air conditioning- the cockpit area has been left untouched and is fully equipped, although non-functional.
Airplane Suite
De Zanden 61b
7395PA Teuge
The Netherlands
+31-6-19388603
Tags: Airplane Suite, Albergo Diffuso, Canopy Tower, Jules Undersea, Jules Undersea Lodge, ocirc-tel GlaceSource: www.ehow.com
