The most unusual hotels in the world: sleeping underwater, in ice, or suspended from a cliff

Some hotels don’t just offer accommodation: they become the experience itself. Underwater, in ice, carved from salt, or suspended in the void, here are ten of the most unusual addresses on the planet, where a night becomes an unforgettable memory.

Sleeping underwater

In the Maldives, The Muraka at Conrad Rangali Island was the first luxury villa with a master bedroom entirely submerged five metres below the lagoon. Launched at $50,000 per night, it can now be booked from around twelve thousand dollars. In Dubai, the Neptune and Poseidon suites at Atlantis The Palm plunge bedrooms and bathrooms into the heart of an eleven-million-litre aquarium populated by sharks and rays.

A night in the ice

Rebuilt every winter from the ice of the Torne River, the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Swedish Lapland, was the first ice hotel in the world, in 1990. Around fifty suites are sculpted there each year by artists from all over the world, before melting in the spring. Its North American cousin, the Hôtel de Glace near Quebec, is also reborn from scratch each season, using 30,000 blocks of ice.

Nestled in the rock

In Cappadocia, Turkey, troglodyte hotels are carved into volcanic rock, with vaulted rooms and terraces suspended above fairy chimneys. The Museum Hotel in Uçhisar, the region’s only Relais & Châteaux, displays hundreds of historical objects and presents itself as the world’s first museum-hotel.

A salt palace

In Bolivia, on the edge of the world’s largest salt desert, the Palacio de Sal is built from around a million salt blocks: floors, walls, ceilings, beds, and furniture are all made of salt. An internal rule simply asks guests not to lick the walls.

Perched in the trees

In Swedish Lapland again, the Treehotel suspends its designer cabins in pine trees. The Mirrorcube, a four-metre-square mirrored glass cube, literally disappears by reflecting the forest; the 7th Room, by Snøhetta, offers a net-terrace under the Northern Lights. In Provence, the transparent bubbles of Attrap’Rêves invite you to sleep under the stars.

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Suspended in the void

In Peru, in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, the transparent capsules of Skylodge Adventure Suites are attached to a rock face, one hundred and twenty metres high. To sleep there, you must climb a via ferrata, and descend by zip line. Finally, in Spain’s Rioja region, the spectacular Marqués de Riscal hotel, designed by Frank Gehry, unfurls its pink and gold titanium waves above the vineyards.

Night as a destination

From an underwater room to a mirror cabin, these hotels remind us that the journey sometimes begins when it’s time to go to bed. All that remains is to choose your element: water, ice, rock, or sky.