I concluded my last post about Sand Art with highlighting how Booking.com offered the chance to stay in a sandcastle as a promotion for Coney Island’s Sand Sculpting Competition. Here’s a link with more on that unusual “opportunity.”
Giant Coney Island Sandcastle Offers Sleepovers (Summer Delaney, WPIX)
That may have sounded like a one-off type of oddity, but in truth, it wasn’t.
Booking.com is known for cooking up some “unique” promotions. For example, here’s a silly clip on what they did for that illustrious holiday, National Avocado Day.
Buzz60 (YouTube Channel)
Buzz60 (Facebook)
The aren’t alone in promoting atypical places to stay. In fact, far from it!
There are also a bevy of travel articles about a broad array of places to stay.
17 Weird and Wacky Hotels Across the United States (Violet Kim, CNN Travel)
22 Weird, Wonderful and Unique Hotels in the World (Stine Gjevnøe Sørensen, momondo)
No matter what your passion happens to be, there’s bound to be a place to stay for it.
The reason that I’m so aware of this is because awhile ago, with amusement, I realized that there’s some sort of lodging related to almost every subject on Cosma. Sometimes those experiences end up as adventures like Sand Art. That’s why I have a huge stash of links to “thematic” lodging that range from mildly amusing to pretty wild.
For example, there’s some kind of place to visit for what ever kind of transportation.
If you like trains, then you might enjoy a say at the Featherbed Railroad (Upper Lake, California). If you’re into cars, then you might want to book a night at V8 Hotel Motorworld (Stuttgart, Germany).
DIRS21 by TourOnline AG (YouTube Channel)
Are planes more your thing? There’s quite a few adventures ranging from sleeping in a Plane Airbnb (St Michel Chef Chef, France) to a 727 Airplane Fuselage (Costa Verde, Costa Rica).
If you’re into boats, then try a stay at The Queen Mary Hotel (Long Beach, California).
If you prefer an even more aquatic experience, then there are undersea hotels like these.
Atlantis – The Palm (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
The Manata Resort (Psv-zanzibar, Tanzania)
Jules’ Undersea Loadge (Key Largo, Florida)
The Muraka (Rangali Island, Maldives)
Let’s say you are into trees, then how about staying in a tree house? There are many places to consider. Here are links to a few of them.
Out’n’About Treehouses Treesort (Takilma, Oregon)
Azulik Resort (Tulum, Mexico)
Treehouse Lodge Resort (Iquitos, Peru)
Less run-of-the-mill tree houses include Freespirit Spheres (Vancouver Island). Here’s a link to a video about them.
Free Spirit Spheres Ultimate Treehouses (Animal Planet, YouTube)
Trees are nice, but what if you prefer animals?
Dog lovers might get a kick out of cuddling up inside a beagle at Dog Bark Park Inn (Cottonwood Inn, Idaho).
KTVB (YouTube CHannel)
KTVB (Official Website)
If you love giraffes, there’s Giraffe Manor (Nairobi, Kenya). Here’s a virtual 360° visit.
Photos of Africa (YouTube Channel)
Photos of Africa (Official Website)
Do you long to see polar bears in the wild? Then climb on the Tundra Buggy Lodge (Churchill, Manitoba).
Amanda Williams (YouTube Channel)
There are also some places where you can take shelter in ice. The two most famous are Hôtel de Glace (Quebec City, Canada) and Icehotel, Sweden (Jukkasjärvi, Sweden).
There’s also a place called Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in Saariselka, Finland where you can have all sorts of winter fun and then chill in glass igloos and watch the northern lights.
Goway Travel (YouTube Channel)
Goway Travel (Official Website)
So there you have it — there really is a place for about any interest that you can imagine, and also some that you might not expect.
For example, there are places where dyed in the wool Tolkien fans can live like hobbits!
5 Places Where You Can Vacation Like a Hobbit on Hobbit Day (A. Pawlowski, USA Today)
You might think that nobody would want to stay in a jail, voluntarily, but that’s not so.
While people do pay to stay in an ex-jail here in Boston called The Liberty Hotel, that’s a tame example. A far more extreme and bizarre experience can be found at the Karostas Cietums aka Karosta Prison (Liepāja, Latvia)!
Monta Krafte (YouTube Channel)
I hope you’ve enjoyed this adventure in strange places to stay around the world.
Now you know that whatever your passion, there’s bound to be some lodging where you can revel in it.
Here are still more sites where you can find unusual lodging organized into handy categories.
Unusual Places to Stay and Unique Holiday Accommodation (CoolStays)
The Most Unique and Unusual Places to Stay (Host Unusual)
If something isn’t covered in this post or those sites, then you can probably find something with a search for “Your+Interest+Hotel 🙂
That’s how I found a place for my inner librarian called the Library Hotel. It’s on Madison Avenue in New York City, and the rooms are organized by Dewey Decimal! Here’s a link to a video about it.
Library Hotel New York (NY) (HotelReviews, YouTube Channel)
So, next time you are booking lodging, I hope you will consider looking for something a bit less “traditional” that will fit your interests and maybe even become an adventure in its own right!
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