7 craziest hotels around the world
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Not everyone wants the typical room service, continental breakfast, and double bed of a chain hotel. Whether you still harbor a childhood dream of living in a treehouse, or you love wine so much you’d give anything to sleep inside a giant empty wine barrel, there’s a crazy hotel out there that fits your vacation needs. Sometimes, something whacky is called for. Here are 7 of the world’s most eye-popping, weird, and wonderful hotels
Sala Silvermine Underground Suite, Sweden
All that glitters is not gold—sometimes it's silver. Although, we're not sure if there's even enough light at 500 feet underground to cast a sparkle on anything. That's the depth of the Sala Silvermine Underground Suite, but the one-room hovel is mesmerizing if only for being 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 room for the night—not a suite for the faint of heart.
La Villa Hamster, France
"Is it possible to put myself in the place of my hamster?" queries the website of this wacky place 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 seems to be yes. Yes, you can be a hamster for a night if that's what you want, right down to the fur—the front desk equips each guest with hamster masks upon check-in.
Bubble Tree Hotel, France
Living in a bubble isn't just for Glenda the Good Witch anymore. In France, you can see what it's like by booking a stay in one of designer Pierre Stéphane Dumas's inflatable private pods. The see-through, surreal shelters are floating all over France in eight different nature-y locations. Guests have options when it comes to privacy (half-translucent bubbles are available) and size. 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 much better than that of an actual bubble.
Grand Canyon Caverns Suite, Arizona
For true privacy on your next retreat, it'd be hard to beat the Grand Canyon Caverns Suite. At 220 feet, it's so deep underground and devoid of natural light that absolutely nothing lives there. Thanks to the mammoth limestone cavern that contains it, the room's air is dry and filtered; and along with the beds, attached living area, and bathroom, the cavern is perfectly fit for human hospitality. The cavern functioned as a Cold War-era bomb shelter fit to support 2,000 survivors for a month, and is now part of a larger, 48-room motel at the Grand Canyon.
Propeller Island City Lodge, Berlin
If the kooky, avant-garde ethos of Berlin could be captured in one hotel, it would be in the Propeller Island City Lodge. In fact, there's a reason "hotel" isn't in its name—a stay at Propeller Island is more akin to spending the night in a work of art. Every room holds a radically unique ambience constructed entirely by German artist Lars Stroschen, including a peppy prison cell complete with coffin beds and a room where upside-down furniture dangles from the ceiling as you unpack your sunken bed from within the floor below.
Save the Beach Hotels, multiple locations
Who would have thought a hotel that's literally made of trash would have advocate-guests as well-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 first in Rome in 2010 and then in Madrid in 2011, is constructed from 12 tons of litter found on European beaches. The idea is to revitalize the beaches by cleaning them up, and the hotel is the mission's vibrant manifestation, with walls studded with everything from plastic bottles and crushed cans to abandoned instruments and limbs of discarded mannequins.
Dog Bark Park Inn, Idaho
It's Clifford-sized, Snoopy-colored, and you can spend the night inside of it. It's a Trojan Dog of sorts, located on the Idaho prairie, along with a porta-potty disguised in a giant red fire hydrant. The Dog Bark Park Inn itself is a nine-meter tall beagle named "Sweet Willy" that houses a canine-themed wonderland, complete with 26 carved dogs and dog-shaped cookies. Guests sleep in a single room with a queen bed and an adjacent loft with two twin beds—probably the nicest doghouse you'll ever sleep in.
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Craziest hotel eh...?
Hotel Woodbridge...