Unusual places to stay
It is no coincidence that unusual places to stay, such as tree houses, yurts and houseboats, have taken off in recent years. They not only appeal to that desire to biff the banal on the head, but also to the child within. They are like playhouses. The sorts of places we dreamed of as children. And so few of us have time to play anymore - except on vacation. Most interestingly, however, from a responsible tourism perspective, unusual accommodation is often created by people who are committed to sustainable builds and living. Funnily enough, the creators of these fun places to stay often come up against more planning difficulties than concrete resort developers, but they battle on because they believe in what they are doing. And we thank them for hanging on in here, because we believe in them too.
Our Unusual vacations guide Vacations
Transylvania vacation accommodation
Stay at a Count's guesthouse
From
€95 to €183
per person per night
Devon eco lodge accommodation, England
Quirky eco lodges, 1 with Hot Tub, on a Devon nature reserve
From
£252 to £965
per accommodation per week
Kasbah du Toubkal in the Atlas Mountains
Peace and quiet only 40 miles from Marrakech
From
€145 to €960
per room per night (sleeps 2)
Unusual accommodation in Lanzarote, Canary Islands
360º sea/mountain views, cozy studio cottage, couples/family
From
€150 to €350
per couple per night
Dordogne self catering cabin sleeping 4
Off-grid, off-beat self catering cabin
From
€690 to €960
per week (sleeps 2-4)
Tobago beach accommodation
17 beautiful accommodations in unique eco resort
From
£117 to £390
per accommodation per night
Tree houses
From the minute you start to climb the ladder to your bed in the branches, smell the leaves, touch the bark, you know you are entering different territory. And seeing life from a different perspective. Tree houses come in all shapes and sizes. Just like trees. Some have bathrooms – really. Showering in a tree is worth writing home about. Others have wood nymphs that climb up and leave breakfast on a branch for you. You can sleep with the breeze on Cirali Beach in Turkey, feel like you are part of the Northern Lights in a tree hotel in Sweden, and put the icing on the cultural cake in Sri Lanka by sleeping under the stars in Sigiriya. Or start closer to home, by heading to one on the Isle of Wight. No better place to spot their gorgeous red squirrels.
Homestays
You might not think a homestay is for you, if privacy is what you want on vacation, but it really is worth spending at least a couple of days of a vacation in a homestay - if not the whole shebang. Because, take it from us, homestays are vacation highlights. Apart from supporting the local economy, you are also embracing the notion that we, as visitors, are guests in a country and that the people who live there are our kind and generous hosts. In Kerala, you can go on a homestay tour, seeing different aspects of this stunning state but staying with different families throughout your stay. In Vietnam you can trek from home to home in the Tonkinese Alps near the Chinese border, with superb home cooked food at the end of the day to reward you for all your walking. Food is also a big element of homestays in Costa Rica, often hosted on farms where beans, corn, and dairy products are a very much part of the culinary experience. They're a great way to improve your Spanish, too.Ecolodges
Ecolodges have inherited this name because they tick various environmental boxes and may even be totally off grid. And yet they are so far from tickbox territory, really, each incorporating unique designs, passions, ideas and cultural influences. They are also nearly always welcoming to families, as the creators of such unique accommodation are forward thinkers, and know that children are the conservationists of tomorrow. They’re not all hardcore hemp though. Stay at our eco-guesthouse in the heart of the Portugal’s Sintra Natural Park, for home from home comfort in one of the country’s most stunning locations. In the rainforest bungalows in Malaysia, you can have a massage on your crisp white sheets while overlooking the Berembun Forest Reserve. And the African style huts in Gambia’s ecolodge have en suite bathrooms and are cocoons of creative cosiness. Ecolodges all have something different. As well as a story to tell.Tipis & yurts
A few years ago, people would look at you strangely if you said you were going to stay in a yurt. A what? And you have to spin out the same Mongolian history, how they are warm and cosy, many even have stoves, and show all your pics of how stunning they are as a piece of sustainable architecture. Now, these gorgeous off gridders have gone global, along with tipis which are also cool, but still not as prolific as the yurt. A yurt camp in Lanzarote has led the movement to ensure that this Canarian island is so much more green than grotty. Or stay in a yurt on a biodynamic farm in the alternative Algarve, Portugal, alongside the superb new Rota Vicentina long distance coastal walking trail. And as most of them have a (coverable) hole in the top, you can sleep under the stars in panoply of places, from Andalucia to Australia, Catalonia to the Channel Islands.
Our top Unusual vacations guide Vacation
Transylvania vacation accommodation
Stay at a Count's guesthouse
From
€95 to €183
per person per night
Accommodation
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Houseboats
The ultimate in slow travel, staying on a houseboat is not only a way of taking it easy, but also entering a community of waterway users. Which is a whole other world where you learn things like lock etiquette, what a macerator is, and how it feels like to wake up with the ducks. It’s like camping for water lovers and, generally, you do want to love each other, because houseboat vacations are intimate to say the least. You will, of course, have a very different experience spending time on a houseboat in the backwaters of Kerala, for example, to winding your way through Wiltshire. No matter what houseboat experience you plump for, however, you always gain that real sense of isolation and peace. Along with the opportunity to explore waterside communities that you might not otherwise find.