Unique Hotels Selected for Their Architecture

Unique Hotels Selected for Their Unusual Design

Hotels that break the mold. Built in shapes you wouldn’t expect — and can’t

ONDA Boquete cylinder rooms surrounded by tropical greenery in Panama
Central America & Caribbean

ONDA Boquete: A Tropical Mountain Stay in Panama

At first glance, ONDA Boquete looks very different from a traditional hotel in Panama. Set among the green mountains of Boquete, its unusual concrete cylinder rooms immediately give the property its own character.   The most memorable part of the property is undoubtedly its cylinder-shaped rooms. Large concrete tubes have been turned into compact accommodation, with circular openings, warm wooden details and dark metal frames. Some are stacked across two levels, connected by elevated walkways and stairs.       It is an unusual idea, but the result does not feel overly futuristic. The raw concrete is softened by wood,

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Mushrooms Inn exterior — eight giant mushroom-shaped houses in Semporna, Sabah
Asia

Mushroom Inn Semporna: Giant Mushroom Houses in Malaysia

Some hotels borrow from architecture. This one is the architecture.   Mushrooms Inn in Semporna, Sabah, is built as eight separate mushroom-cap houses — full, rounded caps sitting low over a garden. The shape is not decorative. It defines every room inside.     Built Around an Idea   The concept is literal. Each structure takes the form of a large mushroom, cap and all, with loft-style rooms inside the curved interior. The proportions are precise — wide enough to feel open, low enough to feel held.   On the exterior facade, a hand-painted mural of Mario, Luigi, and other

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Shebara Resort: A Floating Hotel on the Red Sea
Asia

Shebara Resort: Futuristic Villas Above the Red Sea

Built Above the Red Sea   Shebara Resort sits in Umluj, on Saudi Arabia’s northwest coast, where the Red Sea is still relatively untouched. The property is built on and over the water — 73 overwater bungalows extending out from the shore, each with a private pool and direct sea access below.   The architecture here doesn’t compete with the setting. It gives in to it.       What the Architecture Does   Each bungalow is placed to keep the horizon uninterrupted. The structure lifts you off land completely — the floor, the deck, the sound of water underneath.

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Asia

Crazy House Da Lat: Vietnam’s Extraordinary Fantasy Hotel

Some buildings follow rules. This one ignored all of them.   Da Lat’s Crazy House — formally known as Hằng Nga Guesthouse — is a five-story structure that looks less like a hotel and more like a forest that decided to become a building. No straight lines. No right angles. No standard blueprints. Just organic forms, cave-like corridors, and rooms that spiral outward from a central structure resembling a giant banyan tree.   You can sleep here. That’s the part that stays with you.     The Architect Behind It   Đặng Việt Nga designed this building as a personal

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Boeing 727 fuselage converted into a luxury jungle suite at Hotel Costa Verde, Quepos Costa Rica
Central America & Caribbean

Hotel Costa Verde: Sleep in a Boeing 727 in Costa Rica

A 1965 Boeing 727 sits in the jungle canopy above Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. It never took off again. It became a home. That is the starting point for Hotel Costa Verde in Quepos — one of those rare places where the architecture is not decoration. It is the story.     A 727 Grounded in the Jungle   The plane spent years abandoned before someone asked a different question: what if it stayed?   The fuselage was disassembled, transported to the hillside above Manuel Antonio National Park, and rebuilt among the trees. Today it juts from the canopy at

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Aerial view of Keemala Phuket forest resort with jungle canopy and pool villas
Asia

Keemala Phuket: Extraordinary Villas in the Rainforest

Some hotels sit in nature. Keemala was designed to disappear into it. Perched on a forested hillside in Kamala, Phuket, Keemala is a resort where the architecture tells a story before you even unpack. Every structure is inspired by four mythical forest clans — each with its own building language, materials, and spatial logic. You don’t just choose a room here. You choose a world.     Four Clans, Four Ways to Live   The resort is organized around the Wa Kiri, Pa Sa Ri, Khon Jorn, and Mala Khit clans — fictional communities invented specifically to give each villa

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Unique Hotels
Europe

Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Zaandam: Iconic Dutch Design

What if a neighborhood could become a building? That’s the question architect Wilfried van Winden answered in 2010. The result is a 12-story hotel tower in Zaandam that looks like someone carefully stacked an entire Dutch village — roof by roof, window by window — until it touched the sky.     The Architecture   The Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Zaandam is not trying to blend in. It was never meant to. WAM Architecten designed the exterior as a collage of nearly 70 traditional Zaanse house facades, each one different. Green wooden cladding. Steep pitched rooftops. Small-paned windows arranged in patterns

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Asia

Private Jet Villa Uluwatu: A Boeing 737 Above Bali

Some buildings ask you to slow down. This one asks you to look twice. The Private Jet Villa in Uluwatu, Bali, is exactly what it sounds like — a decommissioned Boeing 737 converted into a private villa. Parked on a clifftop above the Indian Ocean, it’s one of those stays where the building is the experience.     The Architecture   The fuselage serves as the main living and sleeping space. The cockpit becomes a sitting area with a view most pilots only see from altitude. The wings stretch outward, no longer carrying anything through the air — just holding

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Asia

Nuanu Suites Bali: Unique Dome Stay in Indonesia

The suites here are domes. Round, small, nestled into the green. They don’t look like hotel rooms. They look like they grew here.     Where a City Lets Nature Lead   Nuanu isn’t a hotel with a garden. It’s a 44-hectare creative city in Tabanan, west Bali. Architecture, art, and nature built to coexist from the start. The Suites sit at the centre of it. 70% of the land stays untouched. The buildings don’t clear the green. They settle into it. Everything you experience here — the air, the sounds at night, the way morning arrives — comes from

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North America

Queen Mary Long Beach Hotel: Sleep on a Legend

The Queen Mary is a hotel you don’t just check into. You board it.   Moored in Long Beach, this retired ocean liner still feels like it’s in motion — long corridors, low ceilings, and that steady rhythm of spaces designed for travel. The architecture is not about views from a tower or a perfect lobby shot. It’s about a ship built as a complete world: cabins, decks, dining rooms, staircases, and hidden service routes that once kept thousands of people moving smoothly across the Atlantic.   Outside, the silhouette is pure ship logic — a long, clean body, stacked

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