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Pelirocco Hotel, Brighton, England
The Play Room is made for dirty weekends. You won’t be playing Scrabble while lying on the 8ft round bed that features a full mirror above. It might be the only hotel room that includes a “pole dancing area.”Photo: Hotel Pelirocco - The Original Rock n Roll Boutique Hotel - Brighton
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Madonna Inn Resort and Spa, San Luis Obispo, CA
You could sleep in a different room at this hotel for 110 nights and never have the same experience. The Caveman Room is a room of solid rock. Hotel literature promises that “a waterfall spills from overhead in the stone shower and water flows from the rocks into a stone sink basin in the cavern-style bathroom.”Photo: mrlerone
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Hang Nga Guesthouse, Dalat, Vietnam
Dubbed “The Crazy House” during its construction, this bizarre guesthouse is the creation of Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga. The most common description is “Gaudi meets Disneyland,” with more than a little of Dali thrown in. The Bear Room has only a slight lead over the Kangaroo Room for weirdness.Photo: author
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4
Propeller Island Hotel, Berlin, Germany
Every room here is crazier than the next. A bed suspended 1.6 meters from the ground by ropes? A suite with a sleep-in cage? A room with two coffins? Or how about a room laid out with mirrors to give you the impression of living inside a kaleidoscope?Photo: Propeller Island City Lodge Gesamtkunstwerk Hotel Berlin
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Treehotel, Boden, Sweden
The Cube room gets all of the press attention (it’s hard not to print a photo of a mirrored cube room), but we’re more blown away by the UFO Room, which is suspended in trees and looks as if it’s about to land.Photo: Treehotel
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Hotel Kaklasutten, Saariselka, Finland
Designed to admire the Northern Lights, these glass igloos will keep you warm even in the deepest of winter nights. The hotel also has log cabins and traditional snow igloos, but our money is on being able to stare at the sky when nights are longest.Photo: Hotel & Igloo Village Kakslauttanen
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Adonis Love Hotel, Osaka, Japan
An entire coffee-table book can be published on Japan’s love hotels. The Hello Kitty Bondage Room at Adonis in Osaka has us wondering just how aroused this pussy could get someone.Photo: the_toe_stubber
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Hotel Costa Verde, Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
This hotel on the west coast of Costa Rica features a Boeing 727 “fuselage home”. The pimp pad has an ocean view terrace, a private entrance up a river rock, spiral staircase, and a 360-degree view of the surrounding gardens.Photo: adventure
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V8 Hotel, Stuttgart, Germany
It’s impossible to photograph any room here and not have the picture turn out badass. Each car-obsessed room is done with great detail and quirk. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another hotel room in the world that looks like the inside of a car wash.Photo: V8 Hotel
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10
Free Spirit Spheres, Vancouver Island, Canada
Free Spirit offers three sleeping spheres, all dangling near Qualicam Bay on Vancouver Island. Each sphere is wired for power and comes with speakers for your iPod, should you want to put on something lovey dovey and cozy up in the trees. Don’t rock too hard, because “when another body inside a sphere shifts his/her weight the motion is abrupt. This is because the mass of the sphere is low.”Photo: Free Spirit Spheres
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Magic Mountain Hotel, Huilo-Huilo, Chile
The rooms of this hotel are built into an artificial mountain, which is topped off by a waterfall that blows like a volcano. You’ll have to cross a monkey bridge to get to the structure.Photo: Montaña Mágica Lodge | Huilo Huilo
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Dog Bark Park Inn, Cottonwood, ID
A chainsaw-wielding husband and wife team made a pile of money selling small wooden dogs on QVC. How to invest the haul? By making a large wooden dog that doubles as an inn. It is currently #1 of 2 inns in Cottonwood, ID on TripAdvisor.Photo: erin_pass
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Au Vieux Panier, Marseille, France
This “hotel particular” is ever-evolving. It invites artists to update rooms so that they change into new seasons of art. Current themes include Mass Confusion, Panic Room, Fusion, and Land of the Moon.Photo: Au Vieux Panier
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Tree House Lodge, Punta Uva, Costa Rica
The bathroom at the Beach Suite is definitely weird. Designed to feel like an alien craft on the inside, it’s just as strange from the outside, peering into its colored glass dome.Photo: Tree House Lodge
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Hotel de Glace, Quebec City, Canada
Your night at Hotel de Glace includes a Nordic sleeping bag. If the concept is a bit too overwhelming, don’t worry. Your booking also includes a bed at the Four Points Sheraton.Photo: Hotel de Glace — Quebec City's Ice Hotel
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16
Desert Cave Hotel, Coober Pedy, South Australia
Not only is the town’s hotel largely underground, but so are many of its homes. Located in the Outback’s desert, staying beneath the ground is one of the only ways to beat the blazing heat.Photo: Coober Pedy Travel
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Karostas Cietums, Liepāja, Latvia
Spend the night in a prison that is every bit as notorious as Alcatraz. Upon entry you’ll be stripped of your possessions, handcuffed, and shown to your cell. The one shown here is fancy -- others are just wooden bunks. You’ll be served prison food and shouted at by guards. Bonus: It’s haunted. Double bonus: There are discounts for school children.Photo: siggimus
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Marmara Antalya Hotel, Antalya, Turkey
The 24 rooms in this hotel’s “Revolving Loft” make a 360-degree loop during the course of a day.Photo: The Marmara Antalya
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Palacio de Sal, Uyuni, Bolivia
A hotel straight out of the shaker, Palacio de Sal is completely made of salt. Its salted ceilings give the rooms a quarry-like vibe.Photo: Palacio de Sal - Uyuni - Bolivia
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La Balade des Gnomes, Durbuy, Belgium
Each of the 10 rooms at this converted farmhouse serve as wild interpretations of some kind of classic tale. You’ll need to open the drawbridge in order to enter The Trojan Horse suite.Photo: Veritas event management
Tom Gates
Tom is a wayward writer based in Los Angeles. He has served as Editor for both Matador Nights and Life. He loves to go far, far away whenever possible. He is also pretending to be a third person right now and is obviously writing his own bio. He knows that you knew that, despite the deft maneuvering of pronouns. Tom's new book 'Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year On The Road' is available for download on Amazon and iTunes.
Bizarre…I’ve always wanted to check out Coober Pedy.
Bizarre…I’ve always wanted to check out Coober Pedy.
Bizarre…I’ve always wanted to check out Coober Pedy.
Ive been to the one in montreal.. is this it? it is very strange.. the hotel has a bar with a tv and people watch hockey games.. I did not stay there over night tho..
Magic Mountain in Chile for me most def.