BEST UNIQUE HOTELS

Sixteen tented pavilions on red desert dunes, each with an unobstructed view of Uluru from inside. The premium Dune Pavilion also looks out to Kata Tjuta. Guests watch the monolith shift from ochre to deep red at sunset without leaving the tent.

A hotel constructed from approximately one million salt blocks at the edge of the world's largest salt flat. Floors, walls, ceilings, beds, tables, and chairs are all salt. The posted rule — no licking the walls — is not ironic.

Four handbuilt wooden and fibreglass spheres suspended in a coastal rainforest by a rope system inspired by nautical rigging. Each sphere took roughly three years to build. Creator Tom Chudleigh began with just a concept sketch in 1994; no two spheres are identical.

North America's only 100% ice and snow hotel, reconstructed each winter at Village Vacances Valcartier from 2,300 blocks of ice and 15,000 tons of snow. The 30 rooms, ice restaurant, and 40-foot igloo performance hall are rebuilt entirely from scratch each season.

A 50-room all-inclusive lodge on a 42-acre estate in the Atacama, designed by Chilean architect José Cruz Ovalle. The only hotel in the area with its own horses, and with exclusive access to the Puritama Hot Springs conservation reserve. On-site stargazing observatory.

Twenty-one luxury safari-style canvas tents on stilts on a steep jungle hillside overlooking the Arenal Volcano. Each tent includes a private plunge pool fed by natural hot springs. Inspired by African safari camps but placed in a Central American cloud forest.

A 22-room glass-and-steel lodge inside a 3,200-acre private cloud forest reserve at 950 metres in the Chocó biodiversity hotspot. Guests travel the forest canopy via the Dragonfly Gondola. Up to 400 bird species have been recorded on the reserve.

The world's most recognized glass igloo resort: thermal-glass igloos with a fully transparent roof for watching the Northern Lights from bed without leaving your covers. Houses the world's largest smoke sauna. Open year-round; summer offers midnight sun.

Eighteen guest rooms carved into ancient cave dwellings in the oldest district of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage city. The caves retain their original stone walls, floors, and forms — no imitation materials. A former church on-site serves as an exclusive dining room.

A 17-floor ryokan in central Tokyo: guests change into yukatas at the entrance, leave their shoes, and move through the building on tatami. Each floor has a communal living room in the style of a traditional inn. The rooftop onsen operates at night, with city views. The kaiseki breakfast is served in the room each morning. Shoes go back on only when leaving.

A 1930s Scottish manor house in Nairobi where a resident herd of endangered Nubian giraffe visit at breakfast and in the evening, poking their heads through open windows to reach the pellets guests leave on sills. Part of an active giraffe breeding and reintroduction programme.

The world's first two-level undersea residence: two overwater bedrooms above the lagoon and one master bedroom 5 metres below the surface inside a 180-degree acrylic dome surrounded by coral and reef fish. Opened 2018; requires 2–6 months advance booking.

Handcrafted wooden treehouse suites built on stilts above the mangrove forest along the Tulum Caribbean coast, connected by rope bridges and cantilevered platforms. A strict no-technology policy applies inside the rooms — no electricity, no Wi-Fi, no air conditioning — in favour of wood-fired copper showers, natural ventilation, and complete darkness at night for stargazing. Every surface is built from natural materials: bent wood, woven fiber, and stone. The property sits between the Tulum National Park ruins and Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, within walking distance of the beach clubs on the coastal road.

Seven glass-box rooms cantilevered on stilts over the Valldøla River in the Norangsdalen valley, each facing a different direction into the landscape so that each room sees a completely different view. The architecture is designed to disappear: no room can see another. Juvet achieved international recognition as the filming location for Alex Garland's Ex Machina (2015). Open year-round; the landscape transforms between snow, autumn colour, and midnight sun.

Eighty-six suites and villas perched at 2,000 metres above sea level on the razor edge of a deep forked canyon in Oman's Al Hajar Mountains. The architecture camouflages into the clifftop; the view is directly into a dramatic desert gorge with no railing between guest terraces and the drop.

Three polycarbonate and aerospace-aluminium capsules bolted directly into a granite cliff face 400 metres above the Sacred Valley. Each pod is 7.5 metres long with 300-degree panoramic views. There is no road up; guests arrive by via ferrata or zipline.

Twenty-nine "sanctuaries," each with only three walls — the fourth is entirely open to a direct, unobstructed view of the UNESCO World Heritage Pitons and the Caribbean Sea. Each suite has its own private infinity pool. The jungle air and birdsong are part of the room.

Fifteen glass-walled loft suites cantilevered over the N'wanetsi River on a private 33,000-acre concession in Kruger. Timber walkways between buildings mean game — including lions and leopards — routinely pass within metres of guests. The architecture is modelled on an eagle's nest.

The world's first ice hotel, rebuilt annually since 1990 from blocks of ice and snow taken from the Torne River. Guest artists design each room anew each season. ICEHOTEL 365 keeps a permanently refrigerated wing open year-round for those who visit in summer.

Seven architecturally distinct treehouses built into the boreal forest, each by a different Swedish architect. The Mirrorcube is clad in reflective glass that makes it effectively invisible from the ground. The Bird's Nest, The UFO, and The 7th Room each occupy their own branch of the forest.

A small red Swedish cottage floating on Lake Mälaren with a hatch in the floor leading to a 25-square-metre bedroom 3 metres below the surface, with panorama windows on all four sides. Created by artist Mikael Genberg in 2000; sleeps two. Intentionally rustic.

Fifteen geodesic dome pods set at 1,400 metres altitude in the Swiss Alps, each with a private pellet stove, organic bedding, and a terrace facing the Dents-du-Midi peaks. White in winter, green in summer for seasonal camouflage. Open since 2004; won the World Prize for Sustainable Tourism in 2005.

A three-storey floating suite moored 250 metres offshore in a marine conservation area. The bedroom sits 4 metres below the ocean surface, encased in near-360-degree glass panels. Spotlights illuminate the reef through the night; guests fall asleep watching fish they cannot name.

A 38-villa resort with four villa typologies; the signature Bird's Nest Pool Villas are woven-wood cocoons suspended in the rainforest canopy with a glass facade opening to floor-to-ceiling Andaman Sea views. Each 185-square-metre nest has its own private infinity pool.

Set on the site of a 2,000-year-old monastery with 71 rooms across seven buildings and caves, connected by 5.5 miles of underground tunnel. Two enormous underground acoustic halls — the Bezirhane — are used for wine tastings and live music recitals. The restaurant sources all produce within 60 kilometres.

A five-star hotel comprising six 5th- and 6th-century cave dwellings plus a 19th-century Greek mansion, converted into 46 individually designed rooms cut into the volcanic tufa cliffs above Ürgüp. Near the UNESCO-listed Göreme Open-Air Museum.

A single-unit cave dwelling blasted out of Tertiary Ojo Alamo sandstone cliffs in the 1980s for a geologist, now a bed and breakfast. Entered 70 feet below the cliff top; 1,700 square metres of interior space with a rock waterfall shower and Jacuzzi, and views 300 feet down to the La Plata River valley.

Converted from the Charles Street Jail (built 1851), one of the finest examples of Boston Granite School architecture. The original rotunda and cell block structure are preserved and visible throughout the 300-room luxury hotel. Former inmates include Whitey Bulger and Frank Abagnale. Reopened as a hotel in 2007.

A 113-acre Relais & Châteaux resort with 18 cottages each designed by a different architect with a completely different concept. The Helicopter Cottage houses a real decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican rescue helicopter as the room's centrepiece. The Treehouse Cottage is 35 feet off the ground.