The digs at these hotels are every bit as strange as the dreams you'll have when you lay your head on their pillows. (Word to the wise: They can be costly to visit, but our slide show is free.)
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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Meet the giraffes
Without sacrificing its estate-in-the-country dignity—or all of it, anyway—Giraffe Manor in Langata, Kenya, is arranged so that roaming giraffes can poke their heads into any open window or doorway with impunity and lather guests with their sticky, prehensile tongues. Your guesthouse is their guesthouse, so the silly creatures pop up everywhere, including over the breakfast table, in the lobby, and through the curtains of the five guest rooms for adults. Regrettably, as of this writing, the U.S. government had issued a travel warning for Kenya.
For the latest info, visit the State Department Web site.
011-254/20-890-948, off-hours: 011-254/20-891-078, giraffemanor.com.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
The open-sewer experience
Artist Andreas Strauss designed Das Park Hotel to be an elegant exercise in simplicity and recycling: It consists of three unadorned, 10-ton segments of drainage pipe, each 6.5 feet in diameter and barely long enough to accommodate a double bed. Strauss punched the pipes with skylights, added doors with electronic locks, and then laid the trio artfully in the grass by the Danube River, in Ottensheim, Austria. Amenities are skimpy, as you might expect: You get a lamp, a mattress, and a few sleeping bags. On the positive side, the hotel has no fixed rates. You leave whatever amount you think is fair. Dasparkhotel.net, reservations online only.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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Hang out like a Teamster
For savoring the windswept Dutch landscape, nothing will lift you higher than the Harbour Crane, which for almost 30 years toiled at unloading timber at Harlingen, a port city an hour outside of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since 2003, the massive crane has housed a luxury hotel room for two, roughly 60 feet above the harbor docks. Don't expect to sleep in an oily industrial hutch—the hotel's lighting system is touch-screen operated, the chairs are Eames Lounges, and the spindle of structural steel around you has a certain sculptural elegance. But the big payoff: You and your guest can jump into the cockpit and seize the controls, swinging the 143,000-pound crane a full 360 degrees. 011-31/517-414-410, vuurtoren-harlingen.nl.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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Gone to the dogs
After years of selling dog sculptures that they chainsawed out of wood, Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin sank their considerable profits into constructing Dog Bark Park Inn, a two-story, beagle-shaped B&B in Cottonwood, Idaho. Guests enter the structure from the deck that lines one side of the pup's rib cage. The main quarters are in the belly of the beast; the sleeping loft is in the pooch's head. And, yes, pets are allowed. 208/962-3647, dogbarkparkinn.com, open April through October.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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A trailer with a view
Hotel Everland is a one-room portable inn created by Switzerland-based installation artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. It's mobile, like a trailer home, but it's fancy, too, with pastel walls that swirl and swoop. The artists are moving the inn around Europe; through 2008, it will reside in Paris on the rooftop of the Palais de Tokyo museum, with its heart-swelling views of the Seine, 100 feet below, and the Eiffel Tower, in the near distance. Unfortunately, Hotel Everland becomes a contemporary art exhibit by day. So you can only stay for one night, and you have to be cleared out before the museum opens for business—or risk becoming part of the exhibit yourself. Everland.ch, reservations online only.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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Take this hotel for a spin
Those of us who miss the Carter administration-era craze for revolving rooftop cocktail lounges will no doubt be pleased to learn that in certain parts of Turkey, it's still 1977. In sunny Antalya, Turkey's version of Miami Beach, you'll find the world's first hotel that has a rotating annex: the Marmara Antalya. Two dozen of the hotel's rooms are built atop a foundation that spins, completing a full rotation every seven hours; guests are rewarded with shifting views of the Mediterranean Sea. 011-90/242-249-3600, themarmarahotels.com.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i++] = new Array("","Hobbit habitats for humanity","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo_StoryLevel/080314/9hotels-Hobbit-hmed-1p.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "Courtesy Woodlyn Park", "", "273", "364", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
Hobbit habitats for humanity
If you queued up for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, you'd probably feel right at home in the Hobbit Motel, in Otorohanga, New Zealand. The motel's two hillside burrows are faithful replicas of the fictional hobbit dwellings—right down to the circular windows and doorways, red-and-beige walls, and camouflaged exteriors. The real-life rooms are scaled to human proportions, though, so actual hobbits might find them disagreeable.
The Hobbit Motel is only one part of Woodlyn Park, a bizarre collection of lodgings that includes a 1950s railway car, a dry-docked patrol boat, and a grounded airplane from the Vietnam War. As if that weren't eccentric enough, the complex caters to visitors of the nearby Waitomo Caves, where the star attraction is a colony of glowworms. 011-64/7-878-6666, woodlynpark.co.nz.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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Up a tree
Human beings spent millions of years evolving to the point where they wouldn't have to sleep in the trees. That job done, there's just one direction for them to go: back up. The owners of Out 'n' About Treesort & Treehouse Institute just outside of Cave Junction, Ore., fought nervous zoning authorities to permit the construction of their 18 unorthodox treehouses—some enclosed, some open to the bugs, and some perched in oaks and Douglas firs more than 35 feet above the ground. The Swiss Family unit, for instance, is connected by a suspension bridge to a special kids' area. The Treeloon unit looks like an Old West saloon, complete with swinging doors. And the Cavaltree, a duplex in the branches, feels like a pioneer fort.
Most of the rooms are equipped with modern conveniences, like sinks and refrigerators, but bathrooms are in a cabin on the ground. Given all the spiral staircases at the 36-acre complex, you have to pity the chambermaids. 541/592-2208, treehouses.com.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
Pioneer wagons get an upgrade
In Christchurch, New Zealand, the two-year-old Wagon Stays company has come up with a marketing slogan for its tricked-out, eco-friendly, mock Conestogas: \"Where luxury meets history.\" The settlers of New Zealand would have considered themselves lucky to bunk down in these bad boys, which feature queen-size beds, computer-controlled showers, flush toilets, fully equipped kitchens, and satellite TV. Most absurdly, the carriages have glass doors that open to balconies, which are perfect for kicking back with a pint of ale after a long day of going absolutely nowhere. 011-64/3-322-8277, wagonstays.co.nz.
See more photos of the hotels you won't believe!
Check out 16 stunning sunset photos ";
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TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
See more photos of the hotels you won’t believe!
";
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TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i++] = new Array("","14 romantic hotels ","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
14 romantic hotels
These spectacular, affordable spots—some close to home, some in classic Europe—are perfect for a secluded getaway.
Close to home
California
Sonoma Valley
Beltane Ranch
Just north of the town of Sonoma, in Glen Ellen, Beltane Ranch's 105 acres are filled with fruit trees, vegetable and flower gardens, a vineyard that sells grapes to nearby winemakers, and an olive orchard yielding oil that guests snap up for $15 a bottle. No wonder, then, that L.L. Bean and Victoria's Secret have shot their catalogs here: The location is downright idyllic. The yellow, gingerbread-trimmed lodge features five rooms and a two-story wraparound porch. The best rooms are on the second floor, where hammocks and porch swings overlook the vineyard and Sonoma Mountain beyond. (Ask for Room 1, which has a wood-burning stove and a separate sitting room.) Alexa Wood is Beltane Ranch's third-generation owner. Her great-aunt and great-uncle bought the property in 1936 to raise cattle, sheep, and turkeys. Breakfast, which may include sweet-potato latkes or buttermilk pancakes with homemade raspberry syrup, is made with ingredients from the gardens. Second helpings are basically mandatory. You can burn off extra calories on the property's tennis court (the front desk loans out rackets and balls) and by exploring the 20-plus wineries within a five-mile radius. 707/996-6501, beltaneranch.com, from $150, breakfast included.
Read the full article and see photos of the romantic hotels here! ";
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TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
True stories, rated R
These tales prove that travel is stranger — and funnier — than fiction.
Hurts just looking at it
My husband and I spent the final day of our honeymoon in Bonaire at Washington Slagbaai National Park. Before heading out on the trail, we made a quick stop at the visitors center to use the restrooms. As we approached the two doorways, I failed to see anything that would distinguish the men's room from the women's—at least until I got close enough to look at the men's room sign in all its glory. Diane Knoepke, Oak Park, Ill.
See the Rated R slide show here! ";
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TRAVEL_0308_WeirdHotels_BudgetTravel[i-1].body = "
Tips for traveling couples
Eight couples share ideas on how to make the most of traveling together.
1. Communicate \"Find your own phrase to say to support your partner when you don't have the privacy you want or when life on the road is getting you down. For instance, a simple 'Good morning' can mean 'I love you.' \" --John Mock and Kimberley O'Neil, authors, Lonely Planet 'Hiking in the Sierra Nevada'
2. Stay amused \"Play silly games. Like 'Which movie star does that driver we just passed look like?' Such pointless fun alleviates the kind of boredom that sooner or later leads to pointless arguments.\" -- Jane and Michael Stern, authors, 'Roadfood'
Read on for the rest of the tips! ";
// END editorial data