There are many of the world’s large hotels which all seem the same and only the views from their windows are different. But there are some hostelries dare to be different. However, there are a few “Weird Hotels,” of the world which includes one set up in Turkish caves and othersin a converted Victorian prison in England, in Thai rice barges and inside a 9m-tall wooden dog in the United States. In Australia, Gagudju Crocodile Hotel at Jabiru in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, and the underground Desert Cave Hotel at the sun-withered opal-mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia.
1. Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa, Dubai.
The hotel lies among 25 square kilometers of classical desert landscape a 45-minute drive from ultramodern Dubai City, this resort was designed to reflect a Bedouin Arab site.Guest areas are decorated with desert artifacts and antiquities, while each of the 30 sumptuous suites has its own chilled pool. There are views of the distant Hajar Mountains which can be visited as one of the diversions for guests among which are camel and horse-riding, 4WD trips over sand dunes, falconry, archery and nature walks.
2. Silken Puerta America, Madrid, Spain.
This unique hotel in central Madrid was co-designed by 18 well-known international architects. There are 342 rooms over 12 floors, each of them designed in different materials, colors and shapes.The decor for Floor 2 was inspired by the works of the late Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, while Floor 7 features curved walls and a circular bed. From the hotel, guests enjoy panoramic views of the city and of mountains.
3. Ariau Jungle Towers, Brazil
To the northwest of Manaus, capital of Brazil’s vast Amazonas state, are the extraordinary Ariau Jungle Towers. The resort comprises eight towers with 268 rooms, built at treetop height on the banks of the Rio Negro, with more than 8km of grandiloquent catwalks.
4. Malmaison Oxford Castle, England
The castle dates back to 1071 AD and was used as a prison from Victorian times until it closed in 1996. Guests can lock themselves in for fun or just for the experience and photo opportunities.The hotel has 94 lavishly-furnished rooms, some of them converted from sets of three of the old cells.
5. Dog Bark Park Inn, Idaho, USA
This place is a wooden beagle, situated near the little Idaho town of Cottonwood. Inside “the world’s biggest beagle” are two connecting rooms, one with a queen-size bed.
6. Gamisaru Cave Hotel, Ayvla Village, Cappadocia, Turkey
The hotel is located in Ayvla Village, Cappadocia, Turkey. It is set in a 1,000-year-old Byzantine contemplative retreat built into a cliff over a stream, the 25-room troglodyte hotel that combines marble bathrooms and other modern facilities. The Middle Anatolian area has hundreds of volcanic pillars from which people carved homes. It’s place is photogenic.
7. Tea Factory, Sri Lanka
The hotel maintains the ambience of the long-gone colonial era. The hotel’s restaurant is in the old sifting and grading room, and the bar used to be the packing room. The hotel has 57-rooms. Guests can visit surrounding tea plantations, the mountains and their waterfalls, a wildlife protection and a national park, trekking or travelling by horseback or bicycle.
8. Huvafen Fushi, Maldive Islands
This hotel was voted as the world’s best beach resort. The resort is described on its own website as “a magnificently sensual escape with paradise,”. After a 30-minute ride on the speedboat from Male International Airport, guests are met by their own butler and are taken to one of the 43 bungalows and pavilions with their own courtyards plunge-pools, waterfall showers.and decks with day-beds dining tables and chairs.
9. Hotel de Glace, Quebec, Canada.
This is one of a number of seasonal winter hotels, located in the village of Ste (Ste) Catherine de la Jacques Cartier, 35km from Quebec City, the hotel offers 34 suites and rooms. There’s an ice cafe, a ice wedding chapel and an ice bar with drinks served in the bar in glasses also carved from ice. Additionally, in the ice-walled bedrooms guests snuggle down in sleeping bags on beds of ice.
