Quirky stays from California to Cairns

The new Volkswagen Grand California camper van elevates the caravanning experience with double beds, an extra-high fibreglass roof section and a shower stall with a built-in cassette toilet. For another option to explore the Golden State, Cabin takes millennials between San Francisco and Los Angeles via custom-designed double-decker buses with private sleep cabins and a communal lounge. Still in the works, the Autonomous Travel Suite by Aprilli Design Studio, is a driverless pod set up like a mini hotel suite to transport you to your destination in style.

London’s cutting-edge fashion and design store Hostem recently debuted a tiny guesthouse – a restored 1797 linen draper’s lodging in the Whitechapel conservation area of the city – where all the furniture and accessories are for sale. Danish homeware brand Vipp has also opened three single showrooms where paying guests can spend the night, and purchase any of the products they enjoy. One of these is in a remote forest in Sweden, the other two are located in Copenhagen.

The Desert Cave Hotel in the Australian Outback’s Coober Pedy is a unique dugout pad, with eco-friendly underground rooms decorated using rocks. Other subterranean lodgings include Sala Silvergruva hostel, which has 15 guest rooms housed in an old silver mine a 90-minute drive from Stockholm. Meanwhile, the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland hotel is located within a quarry around 50km from downtown Shanghai. Of the hotel’s 18 floors, 16 are underground, with two floors located underwater.

Bangkok Tree House rises above the treehouse lodging trend with a surprising location – 12 “nests”, dispersed over three levels, overlook the fruit plantations and marshlands of Phra Pradaeng across the river from the Thai capital. In Santa Cruz County, California, Pinecone Treehouse, floating high in the forests of Bonny Doon, is for rent via Airbnb. For heightened luxury, Woodsman’s Treehouse in Dorset, three-hours from London, is set in the canopy of an old oak tree and can be reached by a rope bridge.

Many entrepreneurs are now following Airbnb’s lead by encouraging guests to integrate deeper with local communities.One of the first “dispersed” hotels is Beijing’s The Orchid, a once-derelict hutong (narrow street) courtyard in a residential area now turned into 10 separate guest quarters. In Osaka, Japan, an entire street has been redeveloped as the SEKAI HOTEL FUSE, with empty homes enjoying a new life as guest rooms, restaurants and bars. And in Switzerland, almost half of the 70 stone cottages in the mountain village of Corippo are being turned into a “scattered hotel”.

From April 2020, you can bed down beneath the waves in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on a three-level floating pontoon, situated just off Lady Musgrave Island. The overnight accommodation will include floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s also The Muraka at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island – an all-glass, two-tier villa sat about five metres below sea level with service staff on hand around the clock. On the other side of the world, you can check into Utter Inn, a floating platform in the middle of Mälaren Lake, an hour from Stockholm.

To book a flight, visit singaporeair.com

SEE ALSO: 4 quirky hotels on the SilkAir network

This article was originally published in the September 2019 issue of SilverKris magazine