Sometimes, a trip comes together around not just a destination, but the actual place to stay. Unique vacation spots and the out-of-the-ordinary hotel can become the perfect foundation for a larger excursion—or sometimes it’s the only reason to hit the road, with the accommodations being the destination in itself.

I’ll admit that I’ve planned trips around a hotel before—as a lifelong fan of “The Sound of Music”, I took my first trip to Stowe, Vermont, specifically to stay at the Trapp Family Lodge. I’ve since gone back on subsequent locations not just to stay at the lodge again, but also to visit the region’s amazing restaurants and specialty food shops, hike the surrounding Green Mountains, and soak up the gorgeous New England small-town and pastoral atmosphere. It’s a place where the hotel piqued my interest, and the destination then only deepened the love affair.

And an unusual hotel can often take on an even greater sense of intrigue: It may be a quirky structure, built from unexpected materials, in an unanticipated setting. If you’re looking for a little inspiration for your next getaway, check out these five unique vacation spots that are sure to kick-start your wanderlust.

You’ll soon find, too, that sometimes just the hotel makes the trip.

1. Cappadocia Cave Suites, Goreme, Turkey

No two rooms are alike at Goreme’s Cappadocia Cave Suites, designed to complement the surrounding ancient cave dwellings and stone structures of the Hittite, Roman, and Byzantine civilizations. But while the rooms may have an old foundation, the comforts are decidedly modern, including Internet access, coffee makers, and towel warmers – and some rooms even have Jacuzzi tubs. The on-site restaurant offers daily breakfast and dinner buffets focusing on local ingredients and traditional recipes. And if you want to see and learn more about the region, the hotel partners with local tour operators for guided museum and walking tours, hot-air balloon rides, and canyon hikes.

2. Costa Verde, Quepos, Costa Rica

Like something out of “Lost” (but somehow even more quirky), the Costa Verde hotel redefines high-end accommodations by reinventing a retired 747 airliner as a luxury suite – all against the backdrop of Manuel Antonio National Park, a gorgeous Costa Rican rainforest abutted by a pristine beach. If you don’t want to stay in the one-of-a-kind fuselage suite, there are also more traditional bungalows, apartments, and hotel rooms. The refurbished 727, however, is the big draw, featuring private balconies (over each wing, of course), hand-carved teak furnishings, and tip-top views of the ocean and rainforest.

3. Giraffe Manor, Nairobi

Some hotels have an on-site dog or cat to make the guests feel more at home, or B&Bs double as working farms where hens provide fresh eggs for breakfast each morning. While such touches are certainly special, they’re perhaps not quite as distinctive as the resident giraffes at The Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya. The Art Deco-style grand resort is home to a herd of Rothschild giraffes, who often stop at the hotel room windows to indulge their curiosity (and request treats). Room rates include three meals per day and most beverages, as well as complimentary car-and-driver transportation to local attractions such as a nearby elephant sanctuary and art galleries.

4. Ice Hotel, Quebec City

Are your kids “Frozen” fans? (That was a trick question. Of course they are.) Indulge their inner Elsas this winter with a stay in a real-life ice palace at Quebec City’s Ice Hotel. Constructed each winter entirely of ice, the hotel has rooms with thermal sleeping arrangements (and some even have fireplaces). Add-on packages featuring dog sledding excursions, “under the stars” hot tub and sauna dips, and gourmet meals are also available. And each spring, when the weather warms up, the hotel melts … to be reconstructed anew the following winter. As such, if you go each winter, year after year, you’ll never stay in the same building twice.

5. Jules Undersea Lodge, Key Largo, Florida

Divers, get your fix for hours on end: You can stay under the sea (literally!) at Jules Undersea Lodge 21 feet below the ocean surface in Key Largo, Florida. Post-dive, down at the hotel, guests will find a fully stocked kitchen, hot showers, TV, a stereo, and books to pass the time. Who needs TV, though? The lodge’s large windows give guests an up-close view of the aquatic surroundings – a much better show, in my opinion. And for the sheer novelty of it, book the “Undersea Luxury” package and get dive gear to access the hotel, a pizza dinner delivered by a diver, breakfast the next morning, and beverages. Packages are available for solo travelers or groups up to six.

Where’s the most unusual hotel you’ve ever stayed? Which unique vacation spots have been most memorable to you? Share your recommendations by leaving a comment below!

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Photo courtesy Allen’s Vision via Flickr Creative Commons

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Would you book a hotel deal if you saw a fantastic per-night price, but you didn’t know the property name?

In a nutshell, that’s the concept of opaque travel sites, such as Hotwire and Priceline. Big hotel companies use these sites to unload excess inventory (e.g., unbooked rooms) at really low prices. But because they don’t want to devalue their brand, the name of the hotel itself isn’t revealed until after you’ve booked – and even then, in a private message, emailed directly to you, the customer. (Unadvertised prices, the premise implies, keeps the deal rare – not to be taken for granted.)

Done right, it can be a win-win: Customers aren’t flying totally blind and they get great hotel deals; hotel properties get to remain anonymous (on a grand scale) with that super-low rate.

Sounds risky, you may be thinking. I need to know everything about the hotel in advance, even if the price does seem like a steal.

If you’re willing to do a little online sleuthing, I’m pleased to report that with new updates on both Hotwire and Priceline, you can often eliminate the guesswork considerably – and maybe even entirely. For two recent trips, I was able to use opaque booking sites, cross-referenced against travel review sites and the big online travel agencies’ neighborhood maps and product descriptions, to determine the exact hotel in advance – and I saved hundreds of dollars by doing so.

Let me show you how!

Getting Started

On Hotwire, go to the Hotels tab, and type in your destination and dates for your hotel stay. On the subsequent screen, narrow your properties by neighborhood. For example, for a recent search in Chicago, I limited my hotel options to the Magnificent Mile area.

On Priceline, start at the Hotels tab as well, also typing in your destination and dates. On the following screen, choose the Express Deals tab. Use the right-hand Refine My Results tool to filter your hotel listings further.

Start browsing the property listings. You’ll see lots of identifiers that you can use to help guide you in determining which hotels you’re actually seeing. The areas you’ll want to zero in on are star rating, user reviews, potential hotel brand names, non-sale price, and list of property amenities.

Cross Reference Your Hotels Across Sites

Keeping the Hotwire or Priceline tab open on your screen, open up two new tabs in your browser: one for TripAdvisor, one for your online travel agency of choice (Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity). Type in the exact same parameters and apply similar filters as you did in either Hotwire or Priceline.

Then, narrow down to the neighborhood you chose, and start cross-referencing the info you have from Hotwire to the listings on both the travel review and agency sites. You will want to do apples-to-apples comparisons across sites (hotels with free Internet to hotels with free Wi-Fi, five-star hotels with five-star hotels, etc.) to ensure you’re on the right track.

Across each subsequent hotel listing page, compare the details within the listings to see how well they match up. After checking across several categories, your search should start to narrow so you have a ballpark sense of a handful of properties (in a city, for example), or down to even just one or two hotels (in a more small town/rural area setting). Once you feel comfortable that you’ve got a good sense of which properties you could be booking, that’s when it’s time to make your reservation.

After you book, you’ll be routed to a confirmation page that tells you the name of your hotel. (You’ll also get an email reservation confirmation.) If you’ve matched your descriptions across properties during your side-by-side comparisons, chances are you’ll have narrowed down your chosen property accurately.

Tricks of the Trade

Note to travel deal hunters: This strategy is easier in smaller destinations (e.g., small towns, rural areas) that have fewer hotel properties to compare. If you’re going to a major city with hundreds of hotel properties, be sure to budget extra time to do your research.

In my case, I tend to give myself about an hour to do some digging – within that amount of time, you can typically narrow down your properties, as well as tell whether the opaque prices are really great, or not worth the extra sleuthing. This is also subjective to the traveler – you may find that your time spent researching may be more valuable than the dollars saved, given your search results.

But if you’re like me, you may find this hotel treasure hunt of sorts to be an interesting and fun way to find a travel bargain. If you don’t mind putting in some time, this can be a great strategy to save on hotels.

Image: Aymaan Ahmed via Flickr Creative Commons

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Booking hotels can often feel like guesswork. Despite all the information readily available—photos, location maps, pricing, and user reviews—the value of the hotel, the quality of the room, and how well the property gels with your expectations is usually only determined once you show up for your actual stay.

Three sites are working to change that, however. Hotel Chatter, Room 77, and The Suitest offer both expert and user-generated data—some down to the room level—to inform you on what to expect from the properties that interest you. Together, these sites offer the closest means I’ve found to try before you buy – or “stay” (albeit virtually) before you book. Check them out for your next trip, and be in the know before you turn over your credit card.

Hotel Chatter

Hotel Chatter offers the latest scoop from an editorial staff that eats, sleeps, and breathes hotels. The site reports on industry trends (such as eco-friendly properties and LEED-certified hotels), hotel openings and closings, celebrity news (who’s staying where, often in real time), and destination-specific updates, all with an insider/behind-the-scenes feel.

The hotel is the destination here: All news is geared toward jetsetting travelers who consider their hotel choice to be the most important part of their vacation. As such, you’ll find details on hot spots, one-of-a-kind properties, and international see-and-be-seen info front and center here.

Room 77

Everyone is familiar with TripAdvisor and its reviews from fellow travelers on hotels around the world. Room 77 goes one step further, soliciting traveler reviews beyond the properties down to the actual rooms, with details including rooms with the best views, the quietest rooms, and the most spacious rooms. I really like Room 77’s dynamic mapping feature – search your hotel by floor, and a floor plan of rooms shows up, along with a list of specific room links. Click on the room of your choice, and you can see the views from that room – a cool feature that gets you “inside” the room before you even step foot on the property.

The one caveat to Room 77? Beyond B&Bs, I don’t know of any hotel that enables you to book the actual room you want in advance (beyond presidential suites, that is). Room availability is always subject to inventory and customer demand, and often changes. My advice is to call your hotel directly a few days before check-in and request one of the rooms you’d like, preferably speaking directly to a hotel manager. Have a list of several rooms that would appeal to you, rather than just one, to increase the chances of scoring your desired accommodations. Or, use Room 77 to determine which overall properties would serve your needs on a larger/more general scale – if many rooms within a particular hotel appeal to you, it’s probably a safe bet for your next trip, regardless of which room you’re given.

The Suitest

Focusing on luxury properties, The Suitest offers compiled data on amenities and perks, so you can compare properties side by side on the features you want for their upcoming stay. The searchable amenities go way beyond cookie-cutter options: For example, you can compare rooms by stone bathrooms, fireplaces, TV-screen size, and iPod docks. Views are broken down by property, pool, city, landmark, mountain, water – or no view at all. Room prices are searchable, down to the day, with cost calculators also adding in the extra fees for all those desirable amenities. And if you’re overwhelmed by all the searchable data, the staff has helpfully given each room a grade, determined by the price for the room against what you get (as well as compared to that hotel’s competitors’ prices for comparable accommodations).

If you’re splurging for an upcoming vacation and want to make sure you’re getting exactly what you hope for (and also want to know exactly what you’ll pay for such indulgences), this is a fun site to include in your trip-planning research before you book your hotel.

Is there a site you always consult before booking hotels? Leave a comment and let us know!

Second photo courtesy Alex France

Main Photo Credit: NCM3

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Brody House: a rough-luxe aesthetic in the bohemian city of Budapest.

At Brody House, hospitality, design, art and music come together in a stylishly refurbished period building at budget prices. Still under the radar, this hip but homely hotel on the Pest side of the river is a favorite for low-key showbiz and media types. A multi-talented space, it has places to sleep for one night or one month, showcases work from international artists and musicians, whose pieces can be seen, heard (and bought) in the rooms and apartments as well as holds live events.

The hotel is a refurbished historic 19th century building – what could be more eco than reusing an existing period gem? But it’s not just a museum/gallery; thanks to its tireless owners, Brody House has become a social and artistic hub of the Hungarian capital. It’s also a private members club, with a stream of varied events from workshops, tastings, debates and readings to gigs, film screenings and magic shows – and guests can join in on the life of this regenerated boho mecca.

The eight guest rooms, named after the artists whose work hangs on their walls, are decorated to respect the original character (parquet floors, distressed walls, freestanding bathtubs), while adding an individual, contemporary-without-being-cold vibe. Home-designed and made furniture use recycled materials – headboards are made from old doors, and beams turned into beds.

If you want to hang out and meet the other guests, the club rooms have sofas, an honesty bar, and musical instruments for jamming sessions: a grand piano, a violin and a guitar. There’s no restaurant, but the in-house chef can rustle up simple meals and special dinners, as well as all-day breakfast, brunch at weekends, and afternoon tea.

When in Budapest:

You must immerse yourself in one of the world-famous public baths, which use the waters from natural thermal springs. Here are our top 5:

Szechenyi: Outdoor Neo-Baroque wonder; one of Europe’s largest bathing complexes.

Gellert: Art Nouveau furnishings, mosaics and stained glass windows.

Kiraly: Dates from the 16th century, during the Ottoman rule.

Rudas: Features octagonal pool dating from Turkish times.

Lukacs: Medicinal bath, swimming pool and park.

Rooms from $76 including tax, breakfast, and a free pass into the city’s artistic scene.

Images: Money Week; This Charming Home; Swoon Worthy; Hermes College

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

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At Free Spirit Spheres you can literally hang out in a Canadian forest.

How often do you stay in a handcrafted room? Not furniture wise, strictly speaking. But in an entire, spherical handcrafted structure (capsule, really) made from wood and fiberglass, which is then suspended from trees in a coastal rainforest on Vancouver Island? Never, you say. Well, it’s time to plan your next glamp-out in a circular porthole of your own.

Like something out of a surrealist Spanish movie, these convex structures look like giant eyeballs.

There are three Free Spirit Spheres: meet Melody, Eryn and Eve (whose details page is, naturally, called All About Eve). Well, they’d have to be female, offering such curvy, womb-like accommodation. Be warned: since they’re suspended, they do sway.

Designed with comfort and compactness in mind, rather than high style, each pod has a double bed and a small table for two. It’s a tight fit. Measuring three metres diameter, Eve (cedarwood) is on the cozy side, while Eryn (spruce) is slightly roomier, at 3.2m, with a second bed on a loft gallery, plus fridge and sink. Melody is the deluxe version, in yellow fiberglass with a walnut interior. She also features a drop-down bed.

Get back to nature when nature calls in the mushroom-shaped composting outhouse.

As if it needed mentioning, there’s no WIFI here, although there are speakers fitted for you to plug in your iPod: the very definition of surround sound. In a separate nearby building are bathrooms with showers, a sauna, and a barbeque deck.

Rates from $269 including tax, arrival snacks, and the gentle croaking of Pacific Tree Frogs.

Images: Free Spirit Spheres

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Free Spirit Spheres, Vancouver Island, Canada appeared first on EcoSalon.

A discreet eco-luxe hideout in the city of love – ideal for a clandestine romance with a French lover.

One normally associates French design with Louis XIV furniture or Provençal-country style, but the Hidden Hotel in Paris is minimalist chic that is also très planet friendly. The French are well-known for their love affairs, so where better for a secret rendezvous with your amoureux(se) than a hotel that is virtually invisible, tucked away down a tiny alley?

Everything is exquisitely natural – not a hint of plastic or metal – and the textures are super-tactile. Even the facade of the building is clad in recycled floorboards. In the 23 wood-paneled guest rooms and suites on six floors, you can swathe yourself in organic linens after showering in the earthy ceramic, stone and slate bathroom. Rather than hard doors, there are floaty curtains dividing sleeping from bathing space. Handy for a spot of suggestive dancing.

The beds have mattresses made from organic coconut fibers and private terraces are wood-decked (naturally).

Want to invite your amis round for a cosy dinner chez toi? You can book the private kitchen and 12-seater dining room to whip up moules marinières and citron soufflé (or splash out on your own chef); if that all sounds too complicated, the bar has cocktails and amuse-bouches.

Take home the low-key rustic-chic with some furniture and clothes from their shop. What do stylish French people wear over the weekend? Linen shirts and simple knitwear that scream effortless elegance.

Rates from $181 including tax, organic breakfast and an innate sense of Parisian eco-chic.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Hidden Hotel, Paris appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Gaia Hotel & Preserve is a Costa Rican getaway guaranteed to bring you back to nature.

This is the first installment in a new round of Places & Spaces here on EcoSalon. Look for writer Kara DiCamillo’s travel series here every Saturday.

Situated next to the Pacific Ocean in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica is the Gaia Hotel & Reserve, an adult only luxury boutique hotel and resort. Perhaps what we love most about this tropical getaway – aside from its modern amenities, lush views, and more conveniences than one could possibly need on vacation – is that it’s smack in the middle of a lowland coastal forest. The Gaia Hotel & Reserve is committed to preserving this natural land, and with their eco-friendly and socially responsible values it shows.

The preserve was originally a center for native orchid and endangered wildlife conservation, called Jardín Gaia and today the land is still home to many native species.

Guests at Gaia Hotel & Reserve are able to experience Costa Rica’s tican hospitality and natural beauty, be it taking in vistas of the volcanic mountain range and Pacific coastline while sitting by the pool, or interacting with nature first hand snorkeling, sea kayaking, surfing and river rafting or surrendering completely to your inner romantic with a horseback ride along the shore.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: Gaia Hotel and Reserve, Costa Rica appeared first on EcoSalon.

I learned this week about a hotel in Madrid that is made almost entirely out of garbage. Built from trash that has been dragged out of landfills and the sea, it was meant to be an object lesson about the disposal of waste – but the message I got from this hotel was something else entirely. As I considered the idea of sleeping in a structure built out of used tissues and scraps of anchovy, I was struck by just one thought: better that than a Bed & Breakfast.

I had always assumed I would like B&Bs since I am drawn to charming old houses and the “shabby chic” school of decorating. But a recent visit has led me to believe that a B&B stay is not so much a vacation as a brief, rural prison sentence – a time of enforced companionship and dining for guests who are locked up with their hosts in prissy, privacy-free dwellings.

When my husband and I first arrived for our weekend at an upstate New York Bed & Breakfast, there was no one there to greet us –  just the stale aroma of cigarettes and kitty litter. When we signed the guest book we realized that we were the first visitors to register in almost a year. Upon further inspection it was not hard to see why: this B&B was actually just a glorified house, and by “glorified” I mean suffocatingly packed with faux antiques, embroidered throw pillows, and  a cloying collection of dusty knick knacks (every available surface housed at least one Hummel figure and a cluster of ceramic angels). In the stifling Victorian “parlor” I noticed a pile of board games under a fine netting of cobwebs. The floorboards creaked, the bed linens were musty and the whole place reeked of cats and neglect.

The innkeepers, when they finally appeared, were a study in contrasts: the husband was gregarious and eager to please, seeming very much like a man who spends too much time alone. His wife was a quiet and dour woman who grimly invited us for an evening of games, followed by TV in the parlor. She informed us that  we would be sleeping down the hall from our hosts (in a room with no lock) and that we were expected for breakfast at 9:00 am sharp. My husband glared at me, as it dawned on him that I had signed us up for a 48 hour playdate from hell.

I’m sure many people enjoy this kind of cozy house-sharing situation, but for me it was torture. I am someone for whom a cocktail party is a stress-filled ordeal, since having to make small talk with strangers is my own personal nightmare.  On top of that, this B&B had a decidedly spooky atmosphere – my husband darkly referred to it as “The Shining,” although the place really didn’t rise to that level of drama – its sad, countrified creepiness felt more like an endless rerun of Murder She Wrote. Still, I texted all of my friends, supplying helpful hints on where my body should be searched for if I didn’t show up for work on Monday.

After an awkward and silent breakfast under the watchful gaze of our hostess, my husband and I checked out a day early, decamping for a nearby Holiday Inn. I loved it on sight, and danced with giddy joy around our sterile, knick knack-free room. I took deep gulping breaths of dust-free air and had to force myself not to kiss the front desk clerk, who was distractedly cheerful and showed absolutely no interest in playing Boggle with me. That Holiday Inn is now my favorite hotel – but if I had to, I would happily stay in Madrid’s garbage hotel, in a room made out of torn pantyhose and used coffee filters. Anything but a bed and breakfast.

Editor’s Note: Susan Goldberg is a slightly lapsed treehugger. Although known to overuse paper products, she has the best of intentions – and a really small SUV. Catch her column, The Goldberg Variations, each week here at EcoSalon.

Image: avenueslimited

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Sure, the name means basic, but basic it is not. Hotel Basico in Playa del Carmen, Mexico is a property beautifully convoluted with basic, local materials. Here’s a quantified list of Hotel Basico’s intricacies (notice the relative weights of sand and plastic, not all hotels can boast this impressive ratio).

8200 tons of sand
7142 pounds of glass
2122 tons of concrete
1300 tons of iron
1050 tons of mirrors
264 pounds of plastic
16 tons of wood
35 pounds of paper
162 artisans
881 pounds of cotton
2660 pounds of latex
1140 square feet of tire

Before your mind wanders too far wondering and dreaming of 2660 pounds of latex, rest assured it’s not what you think. Each room is embellished with latex curtains (a subtle nod to a local tire shop). Add these basic materials and Héctor Galván (of Omelette) will mold magic.

This excerpt from Design Hotels has me drooling already:

A thrilling jumble of influences, found objects, new design and local culture, the Basico is a defiantly modern Mexican hotel in the newly bustling Caribbean coast town of Playa del Carmen. White-sand beaches are steps away, but the real story is the openness of the hotel, from its street-market-style reception area and bar to its floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows. Basico’s 15 guestrooms are eccentrically furnished with local references including spare tires, plants, and rich textures, featuring recycled materials, resins, exposed plumbing pipes, and even latex.

Beds are elevated and contain a variety of pleasant surprises underneath, while a white Polaroid camera sits above the bed to capture magic moments. Plasma-screen televisions show a constant video feed of the beach. Upstairs, the top floor contains the Azotea Bar and pool area. Two converted petroleum tanks serve as above-ground pools with views of the Caribbean; a bar, DJs and film projections fill the evenings. It all evokes a glamorous, style-savvy and young Mexico, one that defies conventional wisdom and offers a glimpse of the future.

Perhaps the most attractive and inviting facet of Hotel Basico (aside from the latex curtains) is the attainability. The reservations website currently boasts rates as low as $115 per night. I know, right?

If slopes and snow is more up your alley than sand and surf, perhaps this winter resort in the Alps will have you packing your suitcase.

(Thanks for the introduction to this gem in Mexico, Pure Green.)

The post Hotel Basico Por Favor appeared first on EcoSalon.

I have an unusual relationship with winter. I love it and I hate it. Freezing fingers, frosted windshields, and walking the dog in temperatures below freezing are the antonym to my definition of pleasure. But crisp air hovering above a pristine dusting of fresh, powdery snow and frosted pine cones dangling on branches is purely whimsical. It seems winter is the perfect place to lounge when the intricacies of real life are removed. Maybe that’s why this travel resort is so alluring and appealing.

The view from The White Pod Resort nestled in the Swiss Alps at five thousand feet of altitude is gorgeous. Imagine gazing out over a tangible winter wonderland, sipping steaming hot chocolate, long johns clinging to your skin, huddling under organic cotton bedding while wood-burning stoves flicker and radiate waves of warmth. I am open to this kind of blustering winter perfection.

The White Pod Resort is a collection of geodesic-dome pods propped on wooden platforms and surrounded by a blanket of snow in the village of Les Cerniers. The glamorous views and comfortable accommodations are, “designed to be in harmony with the surrounding environment.” In addition to the capricious domes, the resort offers a handful of other ways to amuse you, including a spa, restaurant, miles of private ski slopes, and adventures to chase.

Let it snow!

(Thank you Trendenser for the charming introduction to this delicious winter getaway.)

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