Craziest hotel rooms in the world
The world is full of wonders, but did you know it's also full of crazy hotel rooms? These accommodations are as wacky as they are extraordinary, and they'll probably leave you contemplating a few unexpected additions to your bucket list.
At Hotel Kakslauttanen Igloo Village in Finnish Lapland, for example, you can watch the Northern Lights through the roof of your very own glass igloo.
The hotel even offers a sort of fusion accommodation, called a "kelo-glass igloo," for those who want to combine the jaw-dropping views of the glass igloos with the coziness of a log cabin and the warmth of a fireplace.
Crying rooms
The Mitsui Garden Hotel Yotsuya in Toykyo's Shinjuku Ward offers a unique brand of accommodations exclusively for women: crying rooms.
Equipped with extra soft tissues, eye makeup remover and a selection of twelve tear-jerker films, these rooms are designed to help women combat stress by having a good cry in private.
Its movie selection includes "Forrest Gump," a South Korean film in which a young couple confronts the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's disease, and a Japanese film about four dogs struggling to survive the Chuetsu earthquake of 2004.
If movies aren't your thing, a selection of tragic comic books is also available.
Dog Bark Park Inn
At the Dog Bark Park Inn, being in the doghouse is a good thing. This quaint B&B on a prairie in Central Idaho is pet-friendly, can sleep four, and all of its accommodations are housed within the world's largest beagle.
There are also 26 chainsaw-carved dogs decorating the floors and headboards of its bedrooms. So, no more Snoopy sleeping on top of the house. Here, Snoopy is the house.
You can even channel your canine side by going outside to go to the bathroom. See that red fire hydrant? There's a porta-potty in there.
Giraffe Manor
Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Africa offers a dining experience like no other, and not because of its food. This iconic East African boutique hotel, set on 12 acres of private land, boasts a herd of resident Rothschild giraffes that will stick their heads through the windows of the dining room and help themselves to whatever's on your plate.
Hôtel de Glace
Every year, during the winter months, a hotel is constructed entirely out of ice and snow outside of Québec City, Canada. The Hôtel de Glace features soaring 18-feet ceilings and intricately carved furniture that is freezing to the touch. If you play it safe and attend the "How to sleep on ice" info session the hotel offers before an overnight stay, it's sure to be a once in a lifetime experience.
Underwater Room
In the underwater room at the Manta Resort in Pemba Island, Tanzania, you can sleep with the fishes... in a good way.
They offer private floating accommodations, where the bedrooms are 13 feet below the surface. It is quite literally like vacationing inside an aquarium, where you are the attraction. The $1500 a night it costs to stay in one of these underwater rooms buys you an unrivaled feeling of both serenity and oneness with the tropical marine environmental. It also buys you the ability to sunbathe and stargaze on the roof of your room, as well as dine on its private water deck.
Underwater Room
What's more, at The Manta Resort's Underwater Room, guests are about as far from civilization as it gets. The room is quite literally its own island, floating in the middle of the ocean.
727 Fuselage Home
Most people have slept on a plane before, but at the Costa Verde Hotel in Costa Rica you can sleep in one for your entire vacation.
Suspended 50 feet above the Costa Rican jungle as if it's just crash landed there, an actual 1956 Boeing 727 jet has been gutted and transformed into what they now call the "727 Fuselage Home." This private wood-paneled suite has two air-conditioned bedrooms, a wing deck and views of the ocean, rendering it a rather extraordinary place to spend a vacation.
Capsule Hotels
The 9h Capsule Hotel in Kyoto is one of many in Japan that offers basic accommodations for travelers on a budget. By basic, we mean that travelers get a thin tube with just enough space for a light and a mattress. These capsules are then stacked in rows on top of each other to maximize space.
Underground Cave Suite
If hiking the Grand Canyon isn't earthy enough for you, you can cap off the experience by literally sleeping within the earth.
At the Grand Canyon Caverns, there is a limestone cavern 220 feet below the ground. It is completely devoid of light, sound and life of any kind; but despite that, it is fully furnished and available for $800 per night.
When else are you going to sleep beneath 70-foot ceilings?
Cuddle Cafe
A Soine-ya, which literally translates to "sleep together shop, recently opened in Tokyo. It allows male customers to pay a fee to simply sleep next to a woman. For an extra fee, customers can purchase a minute of eye contact or three minutes of hair stroking. Sexual favors, however, are strictly prohibited.
Bubble Tree
If you watched "Jurassic World" and you're now craving that translucent pod experience (just without the blood-thirsty dinosaur trying to break in), Bubble Tree may be the answer. Strategically planted in eight different picturesque locations around France, designer Pierre Stéphane Dumas's inflatable private pods offer a novel way to vacation at one with nature.
Available in a variety of sizes and degrees of see-through privacy, these surreal "bubble lodges" are also equipped with filters that keep out all moisture, bugs and allergens. So, it appears Glenda the Good Witch had a pretty good grasp on how to spend a few days off.
The Batman Room
No Alfred? No problem. You can still sleep in a Batcave.
The Batman Room at the Eden Motel in Taiwan is tricked out with everything from a Bat-signal on the ceiling to a super authentic Batmobile protruding from the wall. So, you no longer have to fight super villains or get trapped in a well with bats to feel like Batman.
Underwater Suite
For those who want the underwater experience without total seclusion... or those who want to admire exotic marine life without the threat of sea sickness, the Poseidon and Neptune Underwater Suites at Atlantis the Palm in Dubai are the answer.
Poseidon Underwater Suite
The Underwater Suites at Atlantis the Palm in Dubai feature floor-to-ceiling windows, which immerse guests in both the ancient ruins of the mythical lost city of Atlantis and its thousands of aquatic inhabitants.
The Balancing Barn
Teetering on the edge of a tranquil nature reserve near the Suffolk coast of England, this existential art piece strikes the perfect balance between ingenuity, playfulness and comfort. Take in panoramic views of a picturesque British hillside, while you marvel at your accommodation's award-winning design. The Balancing Barn sleeps eight, and the paintings of two local Suffolk artists -- Constable and Gainsborough -- have been manipulated into its floor and wall coverings.
La Villa Hamster
In Nantes, France, there isa quaint gîte, called La Villa Hamster. With everything from a woodchip-lined bathroom to a huge foot-operated water bottle and a hamster wheel housing a breakfast bar for two, this establishment does an impressive job of emulating a rodent's perspective on life. Guests are even given hamster masks upon check-in.
Gruft
At Berlin's Propeller Island City Lodge, every room is a unique work of art by German artist Lars Stroschen. In "Gruft," for example, guests who are curious about the after life can sleep in coffins with the lids closed.
Two Lions
In "Two Lions," guests can sleep in dual cages, propped up on stilts in the center of the room.
Upside Down
In "Upside Down," all of the room's furnishings hang from the ceiling and there are four beds in "comfortable boxes" beneath the floorboards on the ground.
Mirror Room
The Propeller Island City Lodge considers the "Mirror Room" one of its highlights. Shaped like a diamond and covered entirely with mirrors, this room gives guests the unique experience of living inside a kaleidoscope.
The hotel cautions prospective guests, however, to go into this room knowing that it has the tendency of being very sexy.
Freedom
In the "Freedom" Room at the Propeller Island City Lodge, guests sleep in a quirky prison cell, complete with a toilet in the bedroom. They can then crawl through a hole in the wall to a balcony with a parasol.
4 Beams
In "4 Beams," the bed is suspended from ceiling rafters by thick shipping rope. Guests reach it by climbing up a steep vertical ladder. Due to safety concerns, the Propeller Island City Lodge does not allow overweight guests to stay in this room.
Wrapped
The "Wrapped" Room at the Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlin sleeps three guests in a tilted sort of tube, which is meant to evoke the feeling of sleeping in a mine... in case that's something you've ever craved.
The Hobbit Motel
At Woodlyn Park in Otorohanga, "Lord of the Rings" enthusiasts and curious travelers alike can vacation like Bilbo Baggins at the Hobbit Motel. These rooms, complete with grass roofs and circular windows and doors, are situated on a working farm in New Zealand, just a short drive away from the locations where the epic JRR Tolkien series was filmed.
