The Madonna Inn Resort and Spa, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Walk through the rooms of this quirky hotel and you’ll find 110 different themes—and the designers spared no expense on any of them. Just to give you a taste, there’s the Caveman Room made of solid rock, with a waterfall in the stone shower, a fake tree growing out of the wall and animal print bedspread.
Hang Nga Guesthouse, Dalat, Vietnam
During its creation, the guesthouse was called “The Crazy House” and for good reason. Designed by Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga, this “Gaudi meets Disneyland” hotel has childlike rooms like the Bear Room and the Kangaroo Room, with all the appropriate fixings for the respective animals like crooked ceilings and wooden chairs fit for the story of Goldie Locks.
Treehotel, Boden, Sweden
Do a quick Internet search of this hotel, and you’ll find endless photos of the mirrored cube room, reflecting the nature around it. But the UFO room deserves a little more press. Suspended high in the trees with nothing but a thin ladder leading up to it, this pod-like structure looks like it’s waiting for the mother ship to return.
V8 Hotel, Stuttgart, Germany
The car-obsessed designer of this edgy hotel made each room unique. Some rooms are dedicated to car brands; others are dedicated to different aspects of the motor world such as the room designed to look like the inside of a car wash.
Magic Mountain Hotel, Huilo-Huilo, Chile
Fit for an amusement park, the rooms of this hotel are built right into an artificial mountain. A waterfall spurting from the top of the mountain cascades down over the windows—so don’t open them at the wrong time! You have to cross a monkey bridge to enter the “building.”
Au Vieux Panier, Marseille, France
This ever-changing hotel presents a great opportunity for artists to display their work. Artists are welcomed to update the rooms every season, so the walls are constantly being recolored, reshaped and re-arranged. Past themes have included Mass Confusion, Panic Room, Fusion and Land of the Moon.
Hotel de Glace, Quebec City, Canada
You’ll be welcomed with a Nordic sleeping bag to stay in one of these rooms, made almost entirely of ice.
Marmara Antalya Hotel, Antalya, Turkey
Warning: these rooms are not for the traveler with motion sickness. The 24 rooms that make up The Revolving Loft make a 360-degree loop over every 24-hour period.
Palacio de Sal, Uyuni, Bolivia
The perfect spot for someone with low blood pressure? Perhaps. This hotel is made entirely out of salt. But don’t lick the ceilings—that could end up under “incidentals” on your bill.
La Balade des Gnomes, Durbuy, Belgium
Yes that says “Gnomes” and each room feels like the home of one of these small, magical creatures. A farmhouse turned hotel, the property holds 10 rooms, all meant to be an interpretation of a classic tale. The Trojan Horse Suite must be entered via a drawbridge that you lower yourself.
