When we call a hotel “unusual” it’s our highest form of praise. It means there are no other hotels quite like it. It’s singular, and it stands above the status quo. That’s the kind of hotel we live for.
We describe hotels sometimes with adjectives that might sound hyperbolic even though we mean them in the humblest, most literal way possible. For example, it might seem like stretching reality to call a hotel extraordinary, but we don’t mean extraordinary like the Grand Canyon or the aurora borealis. We mean it in the sense that there are a lot of hotels out there that are ordinary, and a lot of hotels on Tablet tend to go beyond that — they tend to be extra-ordinary.
So it is also with unusual. An unusual hotel doesn’t have to be strange or odd or have upside-down rooms or float in the middle of the ocean — it just has to be uncommon, unorthodox, unconventional. It should feel like a singular experience, and a product of its unique environment. Those are the hotels that get us the most excited.
It’s not unusual to want every hotel to be a little unusual — like the fourteen examples featured below.
Tainaron Blue Retreat
Vathia, Greece
The location of Tainaron Blue Retreat is a pretty idyllic spot: perfectly positioned at the southernmost point of the Greek mainland, undiscovered by the tourist crowds, boasting spectacular sea views to match any Aegean island. Housed in a centuries-old tower that was designed to keep intruders out, the fully restored guesthouse now welcomes visitors from around the globe, but not too many of them — there are just three suites, one at the base of the tower, another in its upper section, and a third in the adjoining tower house.
Gold Diggers
Los Angeles, California
Its name might not be its most unusual feature. The original Gold Diggers was a bikini bar, above which was a small residential hotel, and behind it was a rehearsal space where all manner of L.A. rock royalty is rumored to have practiced. Today, not only is it a richly textured and eclectic boutique hotel — one perfectly in tune with the tastes of the Los Angeles creative class — but it’s also a recording studio and a cocktail bar complete with a stage for live performances.
The Caves
Negril, Jamaica
The Caves is a collection of twelve private cottages atop a cliff, overlooking the ocean, with plenty of jumping-off points to impress one’s companion and other guests. The sea looks better from higher up, and at The Caves it becomes your own private pool. Below, in the cliffside, are natural volcanic caves and grottos which can be explored whilst swimming, or set up for private candlelight dinners. The cottages themselves are after the style of a tropical hut, with thatched roofs and construction of wood and stone.
Titilaka
Lake Titicaca, Peru
The magnificent Lake Titicaca, considered by Incas to be the sacred birthplace of human civilization, is one of the largest, deepest, and highest bodies of water on the globe. Backpackers have long made the pilgrimage to the water’s edge; this, by contrast, is a high-end luxury boutique hotel that’s set to bring a whole new audience to these shores. The simple structure, standing solitary on the grassy edge of the lake, is a forward-looking and eco-friendly hotel, with 18 plush suites decorated in earthy hues.
Sundance Resort
Provo, Utah
Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort is hardly a typical ski resort. Here, at the foot of Mount Timpanogos, conservation is paramount, and you’ll find the development has been as sensitive as possible. It’s part eco-lodge, part artists’ community, which is not just ethically correct but also quite aesthetically satisfying; the lofts and suites are understated, with a certain hand-crafted quality, and the freestanding cottages are immersed in the landscape, surrounded by picture-perfect Rocky Mountain pine forest.
Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita
Matera, Italy
The village of Matera, in far southern Italy, is famous for the houses carved into the volcanic hillsides, some of them dating back to Paleolithic times. An ordinary hotelier might have built a traditional inn somewhere in town, to offer some proximity to the village’s famous sights. Not Daniele Kihlgren, whose “distributed hotel” concept — the albergo diffuso — is one of total immersion. At Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita the hotel rooms, spread throughout the town, occupy the caves themselves — needless to say the décor is untraditional.
Emerson Spice
Zanzibar, Tanzania
You know we’re sincere in our love for contemporary design, but you don’t go all the way to Zanzibar for pan-global modernism — you go there for its utterly unique blend of Swahili and Arab cultures, and for the riotously eclectic architecture and design that’s created by this collision of traditions. Or, to put it more simply: you go to Emerson Spice. Once an aristocratic home, it comprises three landmark buildings set on a picturesque pedestrian-only street in the Kasbah, and is divided into a mere 11 rooms, each one lavishly decorated with a lifetime’s worth of antiques under high timbered ceilings.
Six Senses Bhutan
Thimphu, Bhutan
Bhutan is one of the world’s most unique destinations, and the Six Senses Bhutan is not just a single luxury hotel, but five of them, each one in a different location, with a different landscape and a different aesthetic: Bumthang in the forest, Gangtey for a bird’s-eye-view, Punakha for a pastoral, agricultural atmosphere, Thimphu for hilltop views of the capital, and Paro for an impressive re-creation of the ancient stonework of the nearby monasteries.
Aethos Monterosa
Champoluc, Italy
Aethos Monterosa is a hotel whose mission is to place as few obstacles as possible between you and the adventure you’ve come to the Alps to experience. That’s why there’s a rock-climbing wall in the lobby, and, in winter, an ice-climbing wall on the exterior of the hotel. Clearly, this is not your grandfather’s Alpine lodge — its contemporary architecture and its modern construction, in concrete, wood, and weathered metal, see to that.
The Kumaon
Almora, India
Originally intended as a private estate, this parcel of land in the Indian Himalayas would have been quite simply too stunning not to share. Sri Lankan architects Pradeep Kodikara and Jineshi Samaraweera, disciples of the modernist master Geoffrey Bawa, have built something absolutely extraordinary. “Tropical modernism” looks different at the top of a mountain. Here vast floor-to-ceiling windows frame unforgettable views, and materials like stone walls and raw concrete beams are warmed by bamboo cladding and hardwood floors and ceilings.
Freycinet Lodge
Coles Bay, Australia
The utterly unique Freycinet Peninsula is a tiny appendage sticking off the sparsely populated east side of the island of Tasmania, which is itself set a hundred miles off the south coast of the not exactly crowded nation of Australia. So suffice it to say, if you make it as far as Coles Bay, you’ve really gotten somewhere. You won’t likely find yourself just passing through — and the Freycinet Lodge is a worthy destination. In keeping with the rugged realities of the landscape, Freycinet Lodge is something like a luxury rethink of the classic camp cabin.
Hotel Viura
Villabuena de Alava, Spain
Yes, those photos are real. Hotel Viura really is a precarious-looking cubist stack, an audacious modernist boutique planted in the soil of a traditional Spanish wine village in the Rioja Alavesa region. The contrast is only heightened by the fact that its next-door neighbor is an 18th-century church. Needless to say, the place has received some attention since its 2010 grand opening, but we’re happy to report that it’s more than just a pretty picture.
Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà
Verona, Italy
We’ve seen design hotels, and we’ve seen fashion hotels, but the Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà is something slightly different. Though it’s owned by the family that owns the Byblos fashion house, it’s far from just an exercise in cross-branding — instead it’s something more like a museum, a showcase for the family’s impressive collection of 20th-century design objects and contemporary artworks, right down to the gallery-style placards in every room listing the pieces contained within.
Shipwreck Lodge
Möwebaai, Namibia
Designed in tribute to the numerous shipwrecks on the so-called Skeleton Coast of Namibia, the Shipwreck Lodge is nothing if not unique: its cabins lie in a row a mile inland, surrounded by picturesque dunes, looking out towards the Atlantic. They’re designed in a contemporary style that refers to shipwrecks without lapsing into imitation, and the interiors are as plush as the desert environment is unforgiving.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.