Hotels You Won’t Believe

Provided by: Budget Travel By Jason Cochran

From the annals of the wacky, the odd, and the inspired – these unusual lodgings will make you look twice. Part I

Giraffe Manor in Langata, KenyaWithout 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.

Harbour Crane , NetherlandsFor 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.

Hotel Everland, Paris, France Hotel Everland is a one-room portable inn cr

eated 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. You can only make reservations online, during one specific hour each day, and that hour changes randomly. Good luck in booking!

The Marmara Antalya, Turkey

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

Hobbit Motel, Otorohanga, New Zealand.

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

Wagon Stays, Christchurch, New Zealand

In Christchurch, New Zealand, the two-year-old Wagon Stays company has come up with a marketing slogan for its tricked-out, ecofriendly, mock Conestoga: "Where luxury meets history." The settlers of New Zealand would have considered themselves lucky to bunk down in these bad boys, which features 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.

Out 'n' About Treesort & Treehouse Institute, Takilma, Oregon, USA

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. At Out 'n' About Treesort & Treehouse Institute, most of the rooms are equipped with modern conveniences, like sinks and refrigerators, but bathrooms are in a cabin on the ground.