Beautiful And Bizarre Hotels: 5 Dream Locations For International Playgirls!

Beautiful And Bizarre Hotels: 5 Dream Locations For International Playgirls!Photo by Corrie Bond.

You may have guessed by now, but travel is one of my passions. Few things get me more fired up than the idea of a completely new experience!

I’m always thinking about where I want to go next, and part of that is an obsession with looking up hotels and daydreaming about where I might hang my hat. Here are a few of my latest favourites…

Giraffe Manor in East Africa is clearly the place to be if you’d like to share your breakfast with a giraffe. And who wouldn’t want to do that?!

It’s startlingly straight-forward: there is a herd of giraffes who live on the grounds, and at each mealtime, the windows are flung open to invite them in. They simply stretch out their necks and poke their heads inside the manor, where you are welcome to feed them pellets or even give one a kiss. Amazing.

This exquisite hotel was built in the 1930’s, and is also home to the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage, which rehabilitates orphan elephants and rhinos. You can watch them being fed and bathed every morning, as well as take in a game of baby elephant football… All together now, “Awwwwww!”

Grand Canyon Caverns offers up a hotel room 220 feet below the surface of the Earth. Insane!

It’s not a teeny little cave-dwelling, either. The Canyon Suite is 200 feet by 400 feet, an immense space, and you get to it by taking an elevator 22 stories straight down…

The walls of the Canyon Suite are 65 million years old, and you even get to share your bedroom with a mummified bobcat!

I love the idea of the Canyon Suite as the ultimate escape from the rest of the world. I think the only way you could get further from humanity is perhaps by taking a flight on Virgin Galactic… (Ultimate dream!)

Montaña Mágica Lodge — also known as “Magic Mountain” — is a man-made volcano-shaped hotel nestled into a Chilean forest. And it’s an apt name, because it truly looks like something from a fairytale.

Water spews from the top in an imitation of lava, running down the windows, and the property is dotted with huge hot tubs made from dug out tree-trunks.

Montaña Mágica Lodge isn’t your only choice of accommodation in the Patagonian jungle, either. Nothofagus Hotel and Spa looks completely magical, too.

At Atlantis, The Palm, you can literally sleep underwater in one of their Underwater Suites. And that is basically the coolest thing I can think of.

If you get sick of lying in bed, watching the fish, you can always head out to their waterpark, Aquaventure. They say, “In a one or two person inner-tube you begin spinning down into the blackness of the Ziggurat tower’s mysterious core before emerging through the shark-filled lagoon at a leisurely ‘shark-viewing’ pace.”

Let’s go there. Right now. Okay?

…And now for something completely different. The Shack Up Inn in the Mississippi is a true slice of the spirit of the Delta blues. Stay in an authentic shotgun shack, lean on a dilapidated pick-up truck, listen to the rain beating on the tin roof and bring your guitar…

This is the perfect place to stay if you want to harken back to a simpler time!

It’s not really my cup of tea, but my husband loves the look of this place. It might be your kinda thing, too. And their FAQ is hilarious…

wireless INTERNET — yesbrochures — hell nodiscounts — call Priceline for big fat swollen William ShatnerAC and heat — yes, both of them in all unitsrunning water — both hot and coldindoor BATHROOMS — yes, 1 in each unitcoffee, condiments, fridge and microwave — yesroof leaks — only if it rainsRoom service — call the Peabody in MemphisPhone & fax service — call a Comfort Inn anywhereSheet thread count — NO KIDDING FOLKS, SOME CRAZY LADY ASKED THIS QUESTION…call the Alluvian in Greenwood, they really have the good onesWake up call — yea right, automatic one minute after check out time, it consist of a chain saw right outside your bedroom window at 11:01 AMBeer — We got all you can stand

Ha! It doesn’t get more perfect than that…

So tell me: what’s your dream location? If you could rest your head anywhere, where would it be?

I heart room service,

Photo credit: 1-5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
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