Worlds Most Unusual, Quirky Hotels

Tired of staying in typical, traditional hotels - the kind with large lobbies and hundreds of identical rooms? Within this list I'm certain there is something to tickle everybodys tastebuds and with a little research you can find tonnes more! All I can say is that my bucket list just rolled out the door and down the road....Enjoy!

Liberty Hotel in Boston

If you're going to spend a night - or more - in jail, this is the place to serve your time. Acting as the Charles Street Jail in Boston starting in the mid-1850s, the Liberty Hotel at the foot of historic Beacon Hill was extensively renovated and opened in 2007.

Sporting an ultra-stylish interior design, Italian restaurant and upscale lounge, the present-day hotel makes it hard to imagine it as a home for hardened criminals. Along with extensive in-room amenities boasting stunning views of downtown Boston, the Liberty hosts nightly events like fashion shows and parties.

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Hotel de Glace in Quebec City

Even though it's built from snow and ice, Hotel de Glace in Quebec remains a red-hot place to stay. Completely rebuilt each winter, the hotel has 36 rooms and suites and is the only ice hotel in the Americas.

It also boasts the famous Ice Bar, a perfect spot to warm up, where even the drink glasses are made from ice. More than 85,000 visitors take tours of the frozen accommodations each year, and 4,000 stay overnight.

Guests get to choose from a wide array of winter activities including dog-sledding, snowshoeing, ice-skating and cross-country skiing. Our one piece of advice: bring gloves!

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Kennedy School in Portland, Oregon

You won't mind staying after school at the Kennedy School hotel. A former neighbourhood elementary school, the Kennedy was transformed into a luxurious and funky hotel, with guest rooms in former classrooms - complete with school-related décor like blackboards and coatrooms.

After-school features include a restaurant, multiple bars, a brewery and a movie theatre. Set in an up-and-coming residential neighbourhood, the Kennedy draws locals and visitors alike.

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Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, Australia

As the world's only internationally rated underground hotel, Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy is an exciting change for surface-dwellers.

Set in an opal-rich region of the Outback, the hotel is hewn from sandstone and stays cool and dry, and the luxurious rooms are perfect to return to after a long day exploring the scorching and beautiful surroundings.
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You'll feel snugger than a baby kangaroo in its pouch when you turn in for the night under down under.

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Dog Park Bark Inn in Cottonwood, Idaho

This is no ordinary doghouse; it's an inn in the shape of the world's largest beagle, nicknamed Sweet Willy.

The Dog Park Bark Inn has guestrooms inside the multi-level interior, including a sleeping alcove in the dog's muzzle.

Even toilets are shaped like fire hydrants. Located in Cottonwood, Idaho, there are plentiful outdoors choices, such as the Lewis and Clarke trail, historic monasteries and white-water rafting. Woof!

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Library Hotel in New York

You won't run out of bedtime reading when you stay at the Library Hotel in New York City. The top-rated, luxury library-themed hotel has arranged its floors according to the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System - remember literature, history and math from back in the day?

Guests choose from a room menu of sub-topics according to their interests, such as classics, astronomy or new media, complete with book selections. The Library includes an elegant great room and greenhouse as well - its Midtown location is ideal.

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Jumbo Hostel in Stockholm

Jumbo Hostel gives a whole new meaning to sleeping on a plane, and you don't need a ticket to board.

A decommissioned 1976 Boeing 747 has been converted into a 27-room hostel on the grounds of Stockholm's Arlanda Airport. Completely rebuilt from the inside, Jumbo Hostel has "passenger" rooms in the cockpit and cabins, a bar and café, and a first-class lounge-turned- conference room that holds up to eight people - the next best thing to having your own 747.

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Winvian in Connecticut

For a whimsical and eclectic stay, look at Winvian, located on 113 acres of rolling Connecticut countryside. Guests choose from 18 individually designed and themed cottages such as camping, golf, and maritime.

The coolest one might the helicopter-themed cabin, built around a retired Coast Guard rescue chopper - the bar and lounge situated within the fuselage. There's also a spa and restaurant, and an adjacent 4,000-acre conservation preserve to explore.

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Rendezvous in Palm Springs, California

Visit the postwar boom era at the 1950s-themed Rendezvous in Palm Springs, California. Transformed from a roadside motel, the Rendezvous oozes kitschy-cool with pink flamingos, frosted glass, blue Astroturf poolside and Googi-inspired décor. Period-themed rooms are dedicated to 50s films and television, as well as Route 66, Elvis and James Dean.

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Qbic Hotel in Amsterdam

If you want to stay in a hip, sexy hotel without blowing your budget, the ultra-chic Qbic Hotel in Amsterdam is the place. Its cutting-edge design is typically found in the most expensive of hotels around the world.

The focus of each room is the Cubi, a cube-shaped living space complete with designer furnishings and individual mood-lighting schemes.

Spending a night in your retro pad is like staying in a hotel from the future, and ideal whether your time in Amsterdam is spent in old museums or modern clubs and coffee shops.

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Safariland Treehouse Resort, India

Safariland Treehouse Resort: Deep in a mountainous jungle region of India, you’ll stumble upon one of weirdest hotels on the planet. This hotel actually consists of 4 treehouses which stand approximately 15 feet off the ground, and each is built out of locally sourced materials such as bamboo. These gigantic tree houses provide awesome views of the mountains and jungle streams below.

Each of the 14 rooms here cost between $150 and $250 per night depending upon the room, and there’s plenty to do for eco-tourists including wildlife treks, mountain hikes, bonfires, elephant rides, and you can even get some good food at the on-site restaurant.

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Imperial Boat House, Thailand

Located on the unspoiled Cheong Mon Beach in Thailand, the Imperial Boat House Hotel consists of 34 authentic teakwood rice barges that have been converted into luxurious beachfront suites. The pool here is even in the shape of a large ship. Each one of these converted barges features 91 square meters of living space, a beautiful sundeck, sky-lit bathroom and separate living rooms.

There aren't many places on earth where you can ride an elephant on the beach as you can do at Imperial Boat House Hotel. These recycled barges are surprisingly comfortable in their design, and they are definitely a unique way to holiday.

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Helga’s Folly in Sri Lanka

The 40 room boutique Helga’s Folly hotel, located on a hillside in dense foliage near the town of Kandy, is more of an experience than just a stay at a hotel. This 1930’s-style hotel features a flamboyant colour scheme and eclectic furnishings. The sound of soft jazz music can be heard throughout this unique hotel, which combined with the interior design and unique setting make for a sensory explosion.

The hotel walls are littered with antique paintings, unique photographs and newspaper clippings from the local area; even the bathrooms are decorated with magazine covers as wallpaper. People who stay here claim that the experience at Helga’s Folly is unlike any other hotel in the world, and they get a feeling of sadness when their stay is over. Rooms start at about $100 per night.

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Three Camel Lodge, Mongolia

A traditionally designed nomadic retreat in the middle of the Gobi desert, the Three Camel Lodge somehow manages to mix weird design, eco-friendly construction, and Mongolian Buddhist architecture. This hotel consists of 30 gers (nomadic tents) which are made from felt and wood without using a single nail to hold it together. This luxurious wilderness camp is also eco-friendly and takes advantage of both wind and solar power.

While these plush tents are small and expensive to stay at (doubles start at $300 per night), how many people can say that they’ve actually stayed in an authentic Mongolian ger in the middle of the desert?

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First World Hotel, Malaysia

This is the second largest hotel in the world behind the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a total of over 6,000 rooms, and is located in Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. It’s not so much the interior of this hotel that makes it weird, but rather the exuberant colour scheme of the hotel’s facade which puts it on this list of weird hotels.

The brightly coloured facade is a perfect fit for this entertainment hotspot with a fully-equipped theme park, casinos, lounges and enough shopping to satisfy anyone’s taste. Any trip to the Genting Highlands area is not complete without a visit to the First World Hotel, and believe me, you can’t miss it!.

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Crazy House Hotel, Vietnam

It may be officially called Hang Nga Guesthouse, but locals have dubbed this off-the-wall hotel the Crazy House Hotel, and for good reason. This hotel was built in 1990 in Dalat, and has since been added onto numerous times over the years. This treehouse of sorts more resembles a fairytale castle than a hotel with its curvy interior and exterior. There’s also plenty of friendly stone animals surrounding this unique place including a huge giraffe, bear, and spider.

If you don’t wish to fork out $60 to stay the night here, you also have the option of taking a tour of this offbeat hotel for a very small fee.

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Hobbit Hotel New Zealand

Well-parked at Woodlyn Park in Waitomo, the Hobbit Hotel is considered World's First Hobbit Motel. The motel is an indispensable part of the unique complex built by the genius Billy Black. The complex comprises the most updated technological facilities, from U-Drive Jet Boat course, a large stage for the presentation of Billy Blacks Kiwi Culture Show, and has added up an exotic restaurant inside the campus. The hobbits are all self-equipped with every household amenities like kitchen, shower and toilet facilities. Each unit can accommodate upto 6 people.

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Love Hotels, Throughout East Asia

These so-called ‘love hotels’ are scattered throughout Japan, South Korea and parts of China, but they’re not the type of place to go for your honeymoon. These hotels are basically a cheap way for couples to ‘rest’ for a short period of time from 1-3 hours in most cases. There’s also overnight rates, but you can’t reserve your room for the night until after 10:00pm.

Often these odd love hotels take the form of castles, UFOs, and boats to name a few. The interiors can get even weirder with leather-laced rooms, dungeons, plenty of neon, ceiling mirrors, and even rotating beds.

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Dotonbori Hotel, Japan

One of the weirdest entrances to a hotel in Asia has to be the Dontonbori Hotel in Osaka, Japan. The front of this luxurious hotel right in the heart of the shopping and entertainment area of Shinsaibashi features 4 gigantic pillars that are shaped liked heads. This type of grand, and weird, entrance to a hotel is not something you see everyday!

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Flush Hotel, South Korea

Maybe the weirdest hotel on the planet, the so-called Flush Hotel is a fitting name for a building shaped like a toilet. The owner, Sim Jae-Duck, built the $1.6 million toilet bowl in order to raise awareness about cleaner sanitation around the world. This live-in restroom is over 400 square meters in size, and is located just south of Seoul, South Korea.

The most amazing part about this giant toilet is not the design (surprisingly), but rather how much it costs to stay here for one night: $50,000! It must be said, though, that the proceeds go to provide poor countries with proper sanitation, so at least you know your hard-earned money won’t be going down the crapper!

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Capsule Inn Osaka, Japan

This was the first hotel of its kind where each ‘room’ of the hotel was actually a small capsule with cramped 2m x 1m x 1.25m dimensions. The capsules are stacked on top of each other to maximise space, each one consisting of a TV, bed, and a wireless Internet connection which almost seems like a 5-star luxury all things considered. The Capsule Inn Osaka is extremely popular amongst local businessmen who need a place to sleep on long business trips, and it’s also popular to those who need a place to stay after drinking a bit too much sake the night before.

The notion of having a capsule for your hotel room was introduced in 1979 and its popularity has sparked interest by other hotel chains around the world to duplicate its design, including hotels in New York City and London. Nightly rates here are rather inexpensive starting at the equivalent of £15-20.

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Hotel Marques de Riscal

One of the most ambitious projects among Spanish wine cellars to date, The City of Wine was designed to create a world of sensations for wine and architecture aficionados. It spans an area of almost 100,000 square metres, consisting of the Marqués de Riscal cellars, the dramatic hotel, two restaurants—the Bistro 1860 and the Marqués de Riscal Restaurant—a spa, roof top lounge, a wine bar, a wine shop and meeting and banqueting areas.
Designed by Frank O. Gehry in the Rioja wine region, Hotel Marques de Riscal offers superb gastronomy and endless relaxation at its finest.

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Propeller Island City Lodge

More an art gallery than hotel, the Propellar Island City Lodge is made up of thirty one unique rooms. Themes range from coffins to castles to symbols. Other rooms are not as clear in their subject- the brightly colored ‘orange room’ is a prime example. The symbol room, pictured here, is tiled entirely with wooden blocks painted with three hundred different symbols. Propeller Island is truly a inspiring, unless you check into the coffin room that is. Although Propeller is not the most luxurious hotel on the list, it is certainly unique and worth a visit.

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Das Park Hotel Ottensheim, Austria

Designed by artist Andreas Strauss, this hotel is made of three 10-ton segments of drainage pipe, each 6.5 feet in diameter and just long enough for a double bed. Strauss put holes in the pipes for light and slapped on doors with electronic locks. Voila! a hotel.

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And after all that your sitting there thinking youve been there and done it all, then guesss what....theres more!

Poseidon Undersea Resorts is a proposed chain of underwater five-star resorts currently under development that was first slated to open by September 2008.[1] The first will be located on a private island in Fiji. Once construction of the first resort is finished, it will be the world's first permanent one-atmosphere seafloor structure.

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Great thread! Personal favorite is the "Crazy House" hotel in Vietnam.

That jazz looks sweet.

Thanks for the interesting tidbits of Hotel knowledge.

s&f

MM

reply to post by grindhouzer


Wow, grindhouzer. Awesome thread, my friend! I had absolutely no idea many of these existed. Some of them are extraordinary! I especially like the Poseidon Undersea Resorts, and the Ice Hotel. I have most definitely just updated my "Bucket List" with these two new locations. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I am positive that everybody who views this thread will feel the same way! S&F for a most fascinating post.

Cheers,
Strype

You had me at library hotel!!

Omg I LOVE books! I'd love that hotel!

reply to post by Strype


I didnt know about most of them either! But remember, there are plenty more unusual must see places to stay, these were just some favs. thanks for the comment

Its not as grand as most, but I've stayed here...

freespace.virgin.net...

It was like home from home.

Some years back, I remember staying at the Penthouse Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand. Got a crazy awesome room.

The room had 2 king size beds, 2 jacuzzis, 2 sex swings, mirrors on the ceiling, 2 stripper poles on tiny dance tables, and these weird christmas lights strung all over the place. Good times.