unique hotels

9 of the World's Most Unconventional Hotels

16 September 2019

These hotels will make better stories than any night at the Plaza.

Why stay in a regular hotel when you can stay inside an empty wine casket, or an igloo that will melt as soon as the spring comes? These extraordinary hotels cost anywhere from $40,000 to $50 per night, and are located all over the world, but they all share the ability to provide you with a very unique story to tell. Read on to discover some of the world's most unusual hotels, perfect for anyone looking to get off the beaten path (and possibly into a coffin).

The Maldives are a pretty magical place, and you can experience the magic of these bioluminescent seas firsthand via a stay at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. (The catch: it costs $40,000 a night). Still, when else will you get to distract yourself from your insomnia by staring at a shark that's only a foot away from your face, separated from you by a thin glass wall?
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These picturesque igloos are located in Lapland, Finland, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. They offer unobstructed views of the Aurora Borealis and the surrounding winter wonderland, without the below-zero temperatures. Northern lights season runs from August 24th to the end of April, and the world will melt in 11 years if we don't put a stop to climate change, so catch these views while you still can.
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If you're looking to immerse yourself in another world, look no further than this peculiar hotel. It features a number of luxury rooms inspired by a different theme—Princess, Roman, space, and Polynesian, for example—and if that wasn't surreal enough, the whole thing is located inside a gigantic Canadian shopping mall.
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This very unique hotel is located inside a gigantic red mansion in Sri Lanka, and is run by a 70-year-old woman named Helga, which is essentially all you need to know about it. It's full of luxurious novelties and junk, year-round Christmas trees, tapestries, plant murals, the melted remains of giant candlesticks, jukeboxes, newspaper clippings, porcupines, bats, and God knows what else.
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Located deep in the jungle of Chile's Huilo Natural Reserve, this hotel is a prime example of just how compatible architecture can be with the natural world. The structure was engineered to release a flood of water over its cone-shaped walls every day, and resembles a kind of hobbit-house crossed with a volcano, making it a whimsical yet subdued work of design. Though made of lumber and stone, the hotel is covered in a thick layer of jungle foliage, and it's easy to mistake for a mountain or part of nature. On the inside, though, it contains cozy suites, a wellness center, a spa, and plenty of other luxurious amenities, making it a study in contrasts as well as a perfect escape from reality.
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If you ever wanted to stay inside a gigantic wine casket, now is your chance—and you can bet that these rooms still smell faintly of the wine they used to hold. Even better, these rooms go for $50 to $150 a night. They're a perfect example of recycling at its finest, and really, how could you turn down the chance to spend a night inside a huge barrel for that price?
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This inflatable hotel gives "sleeping under the stars" a whole new meaning. Located in Marseilles, France, the soundproof and temperature-controlled pod offers little by way of privacy but lots in both views and novelty. The above pod is one of five of its kind, and though there are many other types of pod hotels around the world, these are is definitely among the fanciest—made of 100% recycled materials, complete with electricity and a tiny washroom, Marseilles' inflatable hotels offer a whole new way to experience life inside a bubble.
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Ice hotels have become something of a chic phenomenon. They're quite common in the nordic countries, but you can't get any further north than Norway's Kirkenes Snowhotel, which is a stone's throw from the Russian border. Each year, ice sculptors from the famous festival in Harbin, China come together to build 20 new ice hotels, which all provide magnificent views of the nearby fjords and, if you're lucky, those elusive Northern Lights. The hotel complex also has a resident reindeer and provide easy access to husky-led sled rides, so if you're willing to brave the trek and the absurd cold (-4 celsius on average), it's a win-win.
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If you ever wanted a chance to stay in a coffin before you die, unfortunately, that chance is no longer available, because this hotel has since closed—but it will live on in all of our memories and imaginations, just like many of these hotels, unless you happen to have massive amounts of disposable income.
The Propellor Island hotel was classic Berlin, in that it was aggressively avant-garde to the point of absurdity. Each room was designed by the artist Lars Stroschen, and in addition to the coffin room (which also contains an underground labyrinth), there was also a floating bed, a rotating circular bed, a room inspired by prison cells, and so much more.
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