Reposted from Huffington Post
Not everyone desires the standard space service, continental breakfast, and double bed of a chain hotel. Whether you nonetheless harbor a childhood dream of living in a treehouse, or you enjoy wine so considerably you’d give anything to sleep inside a giant empty wine barrel, there’s a crazy hotel out there that fits your getaway demands. At times, one thing whacky is known as for. Right here are 15 of the globe’s most eye-popping, weird, and superb hotels.
–By Maggie Gorman
La Villa Hamster, Nantes, France 
“Is it feasible to put myself in the spot of my hamster?” queries the site of this whacky gîte tucked on a humble Nantes side-street. If this question resonates with you, La Villa Hamster holds the answer–and with its woodchip-lined bathroom, haystack beds, giant suspended foot-operated water bottle, and trés romantique hamster wheel for two, the answer appears to be yes. Yes, you can be a hamster for a evening if that’s what you want, right down to the fur–the front desk equips each guest with hamster masks upon check-in.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of La Villa Hamster
Bubble Tree, France
Living in a bubble isn’t just for Glenda the Great Witch any longer. In France, you can see what it’s like for at least a night by booking a stay in 1 of designer Pierre Stéphane Dumas’s inflatable private pods. The see-by way of, surreal shelters are floating all over France in 8 diverse nature-y places, including 16th-century castle Château de la Forêt. Guests have possibilities when it comes to privacy (half-translucent bubbles are offered) and size–a “Bubble Lodge” can be created by combining a smaller sized bubble to the principal a single, or a “Grand Lodge” by attaching two full-sized bubbles. And with a filter that removes all bugs, moisture, and allergens, along with ultraviolet-proof plastic, these glamorous orbs provide protection from the elements that’s considerably greater than that of an actual bubble.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pierre Stephanne Dumas
Grand Canyon Caverns Suite, Arizona
For true privacy on your subsequent retreat, it’d be difficult to beat the Grand Canyon Caverns Suite, which at 220 feet is so deep underground and devoid of organic light that totally absolutely nothing lives there. Thanks to the mammoth limestone cavern that includes it, the room’s air is dry and filtered and along with the beds, attached living location, and bathroom, the cavern is perfectly match for human hospitality. In fact, the cavern functioned as a Cold War-era bomb shelter fit to help 2,000 survivors for a month. Today, it’s element of a bigger, 48-space motel at the Grand Canyon and is a genuinely exclusive way to knowledge some of the last vestiges of Earth’s most unspoiled territory.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Grand Canyon Caverns
Propeller Island, Berlin
If the kooky, avant-garde ethos of Berlin could be captured in 1 hotel, it would be in thePropeller Island City Lodge. In reality, there’s a explanation “hotel” isn’t in its name–a remain at Propeller Island is a lot more akin to spending the evening in a perform of art. Each area comprises a radically exclusive ambience constructed completely from the handiwork of German artist Lars Stroschen, like a peppy prison cell full with coffin beds, a suite enveloped in mirror fragments, and a space exactly where upside-down furniture dangles from the ceiling as you unpack your sunken bed from inside the floor below.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Propeller Island City Lodge
Save the Beach Hotels, several places
Who would have thought a hotel that’s actually made of trash would have advocate-guests as nicely-heeled as Bar Refaeli, and Helena Christensen? Apparently German artist HA Shult foresaw a glamorous future in repurposing refuse as refuge–his mobile hotel creation, placed very first in Rome in 2010 and then in Madrid in 2011, is constructed from 12 tons of litter identified on beaches throughout Europe. The notion is to revitalize European beaches by cleaning them up, and the hotel is the mission’s vibrant manifestation, with walls studded with every thing from plastic bottles and crushed cans to abandoned instruments and limbs of discarded mannequins.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gianluca Battista
Sala Silvermine Underground Suite, Sweden
All that glitters is not gold–sometimes it’s silver. Though, we’re not positive if there’s even adequate light at 500 feet underground to cast a sparkle on something. That’s the depth of the Sala Silvermine Underground Suite, but the 1-room hovel is mesmerizing if only for becoming the deepest hotel in the world, carved in an abandoned 18th-century Swedish silver mine and sparsely furnished with silver-hewn pieces. Guests are treated to a brief tour and then left to weather the chilly, 36-degree area for the evening–not a suite for the faint of heart.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pappila Bild
Dog Bark Park Inn, Idaho
It’s Clifford-sized, Snoopy-colored, and you can devote the evening inside of it. It’s a Trojan Dog of sorts, positioned on the Idaho prairie, along with a porta-potty disguised in a giant red fire hydrant. The Dog Bark Park Inn itself is a 9-meter tall beagle named “Sweet Willy” that houses a canine-themed wonderland, comprehensive with 26 carved dogs and dog-shaped cookies. Guests sleep in a single area with a queen bed and an adjacent loft with two twin beds–probably the nicest doghouse you’ll ever sleep in.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dog Bark Park Inn
The Balancing Barn, England
Trip exists to strike a balance in between perform and play in life, so why not take that as literally as attainable by booking a stay in the Balancing Barn? Perched on a picturesque hillside in Suffolk, England–which you can view by way of its panoramic windows framed by futuristic metallic tiles–The Balancing Barn is the manifestation of Alain de Boton’s philosophy of the “architecture of happiness,” constructed by UK conceptual architecture group Living Architecture. From its peaceful teetering point on the edge of a nature reserve, the 8-person sleeper has won a series of travel and design and style awards.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Living Architecture
Palacio de Sal, Bolivia
Keep far away from the Palacio de Sal if you’re trying to reduce back on sodium intake. The spot is constructed from pure salt, from walls to floors to furniture. The chalk-white huts blend into the desolate ivory landscape of the Wonderful Salar de Uyuni, which stretches into salty oblivion in all directions and gives superb grounds for stargazing and popcorn-eating. Or French-fries, or potato chips…you get the picture. It’s a land of salt, and lots of it. Just don’t bring your pet slug.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Palacio de Sal
CasAnus, Belgium
We’re not sure why you would, but if you’re ever compelled to invest the night in a giant sculpture of the human intestine, head to CasAnus in Belgium. The jaw-droppingly weird, bulbous sculpture is anatomically right appropriate down to the veins and lies coiled in a remote Belgian field. But the place is definitely no “dump”: as opposed to human bowels, guests can appreciate a double bed, electrical energy, heat, and a complete bathroom with hot water. Explains artist and CasAnus creator Joep Van Lieshout, “Our presentation is unfinished, in motion, unpolished, contradictory, untidy, complex, inharmonious,”–kind of like the human intestine, proper?
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Anda van Riet
Capsule Hotel, the Netherlands
These quaint orange capsules resemble something out of Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, but they were truly rescue pods for an oil rigger back in the 70′s. Artist Denis Oudendijk got the concept to transform them into floating hotels for an art project, and that’s what they became–moored in the Hague, these 4.25 meter wide survival pods remain unchanged except for the addition of a lock and an “emergency” chemical toilet inside.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Denis Oudendjik
Giraffe Manor, Kenya
You can’t be stingy with your brunch at Kenya‘s Giraffe Manor–one of the 8 spotted, lengthy-necked creatures who dwell on this sanctuary-like home will almost certainly poke his head in for a snack, lick your plate clean and then amble away. The friendly giraffes make this East African hotel, which dates to the 1930s, a surreal yet uniquely nostalgic historical establishment. Other safari animals abound on the 140-acre home–if you’re so inclined, cease by the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and adopt a child elephant prior to returning home.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Safari Collection
Karostas Cietums/Karostas Guardhouse, Latvia
This naval port prison closed in 1997 soon after almost a century-extended run as a dank and dangerous lockup for military prisoners, but it’s mentioned to still be haunted by the ghosts of its grim tsarist previous. Spooky Soviet remnants fill the dark, barren metal cells, and actors in military garb recreate the atmosphere of the brig with terrifying realism. Guests can pick whether to take a tour with “elements of spectacle,” engage in a complete-on, participatory “reality show” known as Behind the Bars, or actually spot themselves in a prisoner’s shoes by spending a dismal night at the prison in which they’re processed just like prisoners would have been.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Karostas Cietums
Treehotel, Sweden
Getting to haul your luggage up to a treetop perch is worth it when the dwelling is as undeniably cool as Sweden‘s Treehotel. The vertiginous lodgings float ethereally in the evergreen forest outside of tiny Harads village, developed by prime Swedish architects to present the ultimate in design and style innovation. There’s a bird’s nest lookalike suite, an alien UFO suite, and a specifically futuristic suite that reflects the trees on all sides from its mirrored cubical walls. Guests ascend to their treetop roosts through ramp, bridge, or electric stairs. You may possibly not want to leave the space, but just outdoors the Northern Lights, dog-sledding, and snow shoeing tempt in the winter, while summer season touts outstanding fishing and kayaking.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Peter Lundstrom
Hôtel de Glace, Canada
You don’t require to live in an igloo to get the full Canadian encounter, but it would probably be fun anyway. For a handful of months every year you can expertise this sensationalized Eskimo life style in this Québec City hotel, constructed totally of ice and snow. Even the bedframes are freezing to the touch here, exactly where 500 tons of ice and 15,000 tons of snow comprise soaring 18-feet ceilings and intricately carved furniture.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pandanosquare/Flickr.com
Originally posted at Iroonie
