Joan Rattner Heilman
Joan Rattner Heilman, an inveterate traveler and seasoned journalist based in Mamaroneck, New York, is author of more than a dozen books. She specializes in 50-plus travel.
Been there, done that? Looking for something different? Try reserving a cave or a tree house. You can find accommodations in the strangest places these days, and we’re going to tell you about some of the most interesting ones on the continent, many of them surprisingly affordable. All of these unusual hostelries are guaranteed to give you a thrill while you’re there and plenty to talk about when you get home.
The Hôtel de Glace (Ice Hotel) just outside Quebec City comes and goes. Made entirely of 15,000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice, it is built every winter and melts in the spring. Meanwhile, from January 4 to March 1, you can sleep on a bed carved from ice in a guest room with a temperature of 23°F to 26°F. You’ll be toasty enough, however, in your insulated sleeping bag atop a special mattress.
Visit the Ice Café or the Ice Bar for a drink in an ice glass, or even hold your wedding in the Ice Chapel. Warm up in three outdoor hot tubs and a sauna, or escape to the warmth of a “regular” hotel just next door, all part of the Station Touristic Resort that also offers dog sledding, snowmobiling, ice slides, skating and other outdoor activities. Before you’re shown to your room, you’ll get a 40-minute information session about what you need to know for a frigid night. Restaurants and bathroom facilities are heated.
Cost: $530 to $815 (double occupancy), including breakfast and cocktails.
Information: Hôtel de Glace, Quebec City (877-505-0423, www.icehotel-canada.com). Day visits and tours are also available.
The elegant Queen Mary, built in the 1930s, sailed back and forth across the Atlantic for 31 years, serving first as a luxury ocean liner, then as a troop transport ship in World War II and, finally, as a royal mail ship. For the last 40 years, she has been permanently docked in Long Beach, California. The 307 first-class staterooms on three decks are hotel rooms and suites (including the Royalty Suites, which were once reserved for nobility and heads of state) with their original wood panels, Art Deco style and artwork. The second- and third-class staterooms have been converted into meeting and exhibit space.
Take a few turns around the sundeck, eat in your choice of three restaurants, use the business center and fitness rooms, and take tours of this historic ship. In the evenings, live entertainment in the cabaret will keep you busy. Day visits and tours are also available.
Cost: $119 to $809 (double occupancy) per night, depending on stateroom level.
Information: Queen Mary Hotel, Long Beach, California (562-435-3511, www.queenmary.com).
The former Charles Street Jail, a national historic landmark built in 1851 in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood overlooking the Charles River, was recently transformed into a plush 300-room hotel that retains some of its original ambience. Once home to the Boston Strangler and other legendary inmates, the jail was considered a model of prison architecture in the 19th century. An octagonal central building featuring circular wood “ocular” windows and four radiating wings, its Romanesque granite exterior and central atrium have been retained. So have some of the original catwalks and an old cellblock with iron-bar doors and bluestone flooring that has become the Alibi Bar. There’s plenty of prison ambience, but this is still an upscale hotel in an upscale neighborhood.
Cost: $295 to $1,950 (double occupancy) per night.
Information: The Liberty Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts (866-507-5245, www.libertyhotel.com).
You can be a cave dweller without having to carry a club or hunt for your food when you book into this luxurious cliff dwelling carved from 65-million-year-old rock. Located in the Four Corners area where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah meet, Kokopelli’s Cave Bed & Breakfast is 70 feet below the surface, with its entrance in a vertical cliff accessible by a series of trails and paths and a short ladder.
What you’ll find is a one-bedroom dwelling that consists of a living room with a couch that sleeps two, a den, plush carpeting, Southwestern-style decor, a full kitchen, a flagstone hot tub, TV, a cascading waterfall shower and a balcony overlooking the Plata River Valley 280 feet below. The refrigerator and cabinets are stocked with basic groceries, but you can shop for more and cook your own meals indoors or out on the gas grill, or take advantage of a variety of restaurants in nearby Farmington, New Mexico. The temperature underground remains at about 65°F to 70°F.
Cost: $260 (double occupancy) per night… $300 per night for three to four guests… $50 for each additional person. Closed in December, January and February. No children under 12. No pets.
Information: Kokopelli’s Cave Bed & Breakfast, Farmington, New Mexico (505-326-2461, www.bbonline.com/nm/kokopelli).
If you’re not intimidated by heights, and especially if you are accompanied by your kids or grandkids, consider sleeping in a tree. At the Out’n’About Treehouse Treesort in Cave Junction, Oregon, right next to the Siskiyou National Forest, you have a choice of 18 different hand-built tree houses scattered around 36 acres of land, with the tallest perched almost 40 feet off the ground.
The houses, some connected by bridges, are reached by ladders, swinging bridges or winding stairs, and have heat, electricity and comfortable beds. Some have running water (with toilets and showers at ground level nearby), while others have full bathrooms or even kitchens.
On the grounds are seven swinging bridges (12 to 90 feet long), 20 flights of stairs, platforms, forts, rope courses, swings, riding horses, swimming pool and more than a mile of zip lines that can carry you flying through the trees at 35 miles an hour. Day visits are also available.
Cost: Depending on the house, rates range from $120 a night for two occupants to $250 per night for four. Additional guests are $20 per night per person. Full breakfasts are included. Two nights minimum on weekdays in the summer months, three nights on weekends.
Information: Out’n’About Treehouse Treesort, Cave Junction, Oregon (541-592-2208, www.treehouses.com).
