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Travel writer and photographer Lola Akinmade rounds up some exciting lodging options for hobbyists.
 
These days, bedding down on sterile white cotton sheets in a typical hotel room doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Our insatiable need for peculiar lodging alternatives that cater to specific hobbies and personal interests means more fanatical and themed hotels keep popping up across the country. From "Choo choo" trains to pirate-themed digs and "Wild Wild West" villas, here are some of the most fanatical hotels from around the country.

Adobe Grand Villas, Sedona, Arizona
Travel back in time to the Wild Wild West with a stay at the Adobe Grand Villas. This boutique bed & breakfast resort offers a "Wagon Wheel Villa" with elaborate beds built out of wooden wagons and white canopy covers complete with wheels. Other themes include a "Cactus Flower Villa" and a "Silver Spur Villa."

Vision Quest Ranch, Salinas, California
Welcome to the jungle...literally, at this safari-style bed and breakfast. You'll share the grounds with real lions and tigers and giraffes along with a host of other wild animals. Apparently, daily continental breakfasts are delivered to your bungalow by elephants.

The Vick, Los Alamos, California
This Victorian Mansion Bed & Breakfast offers you six different themes--a 1950s Cadillac; an Egyptian room complete with a chariot; Pirate, French, Roman rooms; and a special Gypsy-themed room that sports a repurposed caravan for a bed.

Wigwam Village, Cave City, Kentucky
Have you ever wanted to sleep in an authentic wigwam? Now you can. This village has actually been around for awhile, since 1937, and has been designated a historic landmark. It is also located close to Mammoth Cave National Park. Though usually open year round, the village will shut down on November 15 and is scheduled to reopen on February 25, 2010.

For most of us, hotel stays come with check-in and check-out dates. But many lodgings claim to have guests that refuse to leave, lingering in the rooms or on the grounds long after their scheduled stay. Check in to one of these hotels if you want to spend Halloween with real ghosts. And why limit it to Halloween? Since the spirits in these establishments are not staged seasonal events, ghost hunters can spend the night with specters year-round. In case you missed it: check out our list of Haunted Hotels of the East.

Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
The Stanley Hotel (above) was made famous in 1977 by Stephen King's The Shining, but legend has it that the hotel was home to spirits long before King modeled his "Overlook Hotel" after the property.

The building sits on land originally owned by the British fourth earl of Dunraven, who used it as private hunting reserve. Angry locals drove the earl out and automaker F.O. Stanley bought the property in 1909 and opened the Georgian-style hotel. Some claim that the bitter Lord Dunraven haunts the 4th floor, where lights switch on and off mysteriously and furniture moves around by itself. In Room 412, one guest claims that he was possessed by an evil entity that drove him to speak in tongues.

In the 1970s, King stayed in Room 217 of the almost deserted hotel just before it closed for the season. While it is uncertain whether or not King experienced paranormal activity, The Shining generated a flurry of ghost sightings and other eerie events.                                                                                    

Guests who have stayed in Room 408 have reported hearing children playing and laughing loudly outside their door but finding nothing when getting up to investigate. They also claim to have left the room for a few seconds only to return and find the entire room in disarray and handprints of small children on the mirrors. Too scared to stay overnight? The hotel also offers daily ghost tours.

Crescent Hotel and Spa, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Legend has it that several ghosts reside at the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa; eerie sightings have been reported in guest rooms, the lobby, the dining room and on the grounds. The most haunted room, 218, is home to the spirit of Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death from the roof during the hotel's construction and landed on the future site of the room. It is reported that he bangs on walls and turns the television and lights on and off. 

For most of us, hotel stays come with check-in and check-out dates. But many lodgings claim to have guests who refuse to leave, lingering in the rooms or on the grounds long after their scheduled stay. Check in to one of these hotels if you want to spend Halloween with real ghosts. And why limit it to Halloween? Since the spirits in these establishments are not staged seasonal events, ghost hunters can spend the night with specters year-round.

Logan Inn, New Hope, Pennsylvania
This 18th century tavern-turned-inn has a reputation for hosting numerous colonial-era spirits. The restless ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier has been spotted marching around the grounds.  Guests also frequently see the specter of a little girl wandering the parking lot, but no one is sure who she is. Glowing orbs hovering in the lobby and hallways are also reported.

Richard Morgan looks down on the world from his perch in the Peruvian jungle.

If you're going to go so far as to have a private luxury treehouse in the Peruvian Amazon accessible only by Ewok-inspired treetop canopy wooden bridges, it makes sense to have an on-call jungle butler on the ground. For emergencies. Or for more towels.

That's the idea behind the recent expansion at Inkaterra's Reserva Amazonica, about an hour down the river from Puerto Maldonado. The treehouse suite hopes to ameloriate a particular thorny problem Peru has: how to get tourists to enjoy its spectacular environmental splendor - the jungles, the rivers, the mountains, the World Wonder of Machu Picchu, etc. - without having the whole country look like the last day of spring break in Acapulco, all cigarette butts and crushed beer cans and regret.

Much has been written about this dangerous game. There's the fratty party town at the bottom of Mount Everest. The trashing of the national parks. The concerns about preserving ruins. It's an especially weird problem for luxury travel; the Grand Canyon gets too touristy, so people head to Arches National Park, which gets too touristy so people head to Denali, and on and on. Like locusts with fannypacks.

So, opposable thumbs aside, we have more in common with the Japanese Snow Monkey than previously thought.

Perched high in the Japanese Alps, in the village of Jigokudani, is a tranquil retreat for anyone needing some well-deserved R&R. At the Korakukan Inn, visitors can ease into natural hot springs and let the curing waters do wonders - the benefits of which are no longer strictly limited to the human race.

The Korakukan hot springs, originally for the inn's paying guests, also have a regular following of local snow monkeys who often trek from the nearby Jigokudani Monkey Park for a delightful warm-water dip. They're seen here year-round grooming each other or carelessly sprawled out with their arms over the spring's edge. It's during the winter months that their spa rendezvous becomes a notorious habit.

[via Spot Cool Stuff Travel]

With the struggling economy, hotels have been scaling back their amenities in an effort to save cash. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that large chains have been removing hand lotion, sewing kits, and other former freebies from their rooms, and limiting their hours for restaurants and bars. But some hotels are celebrating their frugality: Introducing the world's first zero-star hotels. Switzerland's Null Stern Hotel for example, occupies a 1980s nuclear fallout shelter. It's more of a hostel, really, with four double beds and six single beds arranged in two large open rooms that are adorned with antique beds and furniture. Says one of the hotel's designers, "We wanted to create a space of contrasts... Like sugar and fish. They are two things that naturally don't go together, but matched up they make people think, for good or bad. For us it's an art installation before it's a hotel--a place where people can think about their surroundings."

San Diego's Rancho Bernardo Inn--normally a swank hotel and spa--offered a similar deal last month. The "Survivor Package" ranged from $19 to $219, offering a progressively lower rate depending on which amenities you decided you could live without. Can you skip breakfast? Your rate is $199. No breakfast or A/C? That'll be $159. No breakfast, A/C, linens, lights, toiletries, or a bed? A night in an empty room will only cost $19. The promotion seemed popular (though I haven't quite figured out why), as reservations were completely sold out. But it begs the question: What are hotels willing to (not) offer to lure guests to their property?

Photo: Null Stern Hotel

In conjunction with his upcoming book, Here Is Where: In Search of America's Great Forgotten History, we're following historian and Legacy Project founder Andrew Carroll as he drives, flies, walks, boats, buses, bikes, and hikes to seek out little-known historic sites in all 50 states. Bookmark all of his posts here.


While researching hotels in Denver, however, I came across the Brown Palace Hotel & Spa in a terrific hotel guide put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (it was also featured in National Geographic Traveler's annual Stay List in 2008). Built by Henry Brown in the last 1800s, the name jumped out at me and I immediately made a reservation.

When I began preparing for this trip more than a year ago I did extensive reading on the Underground Railroad, and while its existence is hardly unknown--I think most of us have at least a vague awareness of its significance in our nation's past--the specific stories have been mostly forgotten.

One of the most extraordinary involves a crate shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to 131 Arch Street, Philadelphia, at 4:00 am on March 29, 1849. When the wooden box arrived at 6:00 am at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society more than a day later, members of the abolitionist Vigilance Committee were there to receive it but, knowing its supposed contents, dreaded opening it for fear of what they might find. One of the members tapped on the crate and  asked if everything was "all right within?" A muffled voice replied in the affirmative, and the members
quickly pried open the box and let an escaped slave named Henry Brown experience his first breath of freedom. Brown had survived an excruciating almost 27-hour journey, and despite bold lettering on the box directing that it be kept "This Side Up," the crate was repeatedly dropped upside down, putting almost fatal pressure on Brown's neck and head.

I had read that Brown became a successful businessman and moved to Colorado, where he opened one of the most elegant hotels in the city. After I made my reservation, I was shocked that although the hotel's own website repeatedly mentioned how historic the building was, there was no picture of Brown and no mention of his daring escape--just a brief description that he was a "Denver carpenter-turned-entrepreneur." Which is a little like referring to Beethoven as a piano tuner.

Hacienda San Agustín de Callo, nestled in Ecuador's "Avenue of the Volcanoes" (and featured in a story of the same name by Charles Kulander in our April 2009 issue), calls itself an "archaeological estancia" and there's good reason for that. The hacienda's formal dining room and chapel were built in the 15th-century possibly by one of the last Incan emperors, Huayna-Cápac, out of intricately carved volcanic stone. Eighteenth-century Spanish colonial additions and 19th-century republican styles were piled over top of the Incan imperial architecture. Layer upon layer of Ecuadorian pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary history co-mingle and captivate at site.

Archaeologist Dr. David Brown of the University of Texas at Austin has been excavating at Callo for close to 15 years, with the help, we're proud to add, of two National Geographic Society grants. Brown told me that the quality of the stonework at Callo, the finely fitted wall blocks and the hulking double-jamb doors, suggest that it was no ordinary site during Inca times and was quite probably a temple or shrine dedicated to the even now still-active Cotopaxi volcano that rises above it to the site's east. In addition to the two extant rooms that are now part of the hacienda, Brown has unearthed the foundations and low walls of six other buildings that might have once formed a symmetrical compound.

If you like this bargain with a cause, the package, offered through Sept. 7, comes with a few rules: the reservations cannot be refunded or canceled, and must be made 72 hours before you check in. It also requires a minimum stay of two nights.

Ok, so maybe sleeping in a zoo isn't your thing. Want to camp out in a museum instead? Then head to Copenhagen.

The Kunsthal Charlottenborg museum of contemporary art just opened a new exhibit this weekend featuring a work by artists Bosch & Fjord that is, in essence, a group of beds in a gallery space. Culture Camping is social experiment created to challenge your senses, and asks what happens when eight people are picked to live in a museum (overnight) and see what happens... (We can only guess that the guests will stop being polite, and start getting real.)

Those who are lucky enough to snag a bed will experience vertigo, thanks to the six-meter-long cords that are suspended from the ceiling above them, and there are other "nocturnal surprises" like bedtime stores and lullabies planned for the evening. Guests are able to walk through the exhibit, built art installations, record sounds, and play in an adult-sized sandbox. The following morning, the visitors will have a roundtable discussion over breakfast about their experiences.

Our colleague Lynn Ackerson recently flew through the Munich airport, where she encountered two odd, futuristic-looking cubes in Terminal 2. Intrigued but exhausted, she curled up across a few chairs in the waiting area during her layover and said she'd investigate after her nap. Too bad she didn't look first.

The gleaming white boxes are in fact Napcabs, and have been installed in the airport for about a year now. The winning design from the Technical University of Munich's 2007 Innovation competition, these two cubes let you have a private nook to yourself for awhile, where you can sleep, check email, and escape the stresses of the airport. They're outfitted with Wi-Fi (though some reports have said it can be spotty), a bed, electrical outlets, and ambient lighting. They cost about 15 Euros an hour and you can use your credit card to swipe yourself in and out.

Um, we want one?

Molly Feltner is traveling through Africa, and got the chance to experience a model sustainable hotel in Rwanda.

In my travels to various destinations in the developing world, I've often been disappointed by how some upscale resorts and hotels go out of their way to separate their businesses and guests from the local population. So I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, located in a farming community right outside Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

Set on the slopes of the volcano Sabyinyo, this luxury lodge caters to well-heeled tourists coming to track the park's mountain gorillas and it supports some of the neediest members of the surrounding community. It's managed by Governors' Camp, which operates several high-end lodges and safari camps in East Africa, but is owned by SACOLA, an association of about 18,000 local Rwandans that is sponsored by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, African Wildlife Foundation, and USAID.

When guests stay at the lodge, $50 per person per night goes to SACOLA. Since the lodge opened in 2007, SACOLA has earned enough to build more than 1,200 houses for survivors of the Rwandan genocide and other needy families, and fund sustainable agriculture projects as well. Sabyinyo also employs locals--90 percent of the staff members are Rwandan--and most of the food and all of the flowers used on the property are grown by community members.

Contributing Editor Andrew Nelson is back from a long weekend along Florida's Gold Coast, where he found the economic downturn has had an impact on the high life.

More posh. Less dosh. For travelers looking for resort bargains, these are, as Natalie Merchant said, the days. No more so than the Sunshine State. Last winter tourism fell off the stove along with the stock market. "There was no season this year," complained one taxi driver heading up the Gold Coast from the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. "I've never seen it like that."

The recession combined with the traditional slow season - the humid Florida summer - offers bargains for the traveler. Even Boca Raton, one of East Coast's glossier destinations, is discounted this year.

Exhibit A is the august 1047-room Boca Raton Resort and Beach Club, now part of the Waldorf-Astoria collection. The resort, which started life as the aristocratic Cloister Inn (more on that later), just dropped $110 million on rejuvenating its Beach Club, a swankienda rising like a mid-mod Phoenix from the Atlantic sands. Despite the new pool and a terrific, South Beach-style lobby that makes even the knobbiest-knee-ed schlump feel himself George Clooney, the Club and the Cloister are lopping their rates during the summer with prices starting at $99 a night. Some deals offer a third or fourth night free.

Ironically, Boca Raton has been at this rodeo before. Founded by Florida's own Great Gatsby, the Jazz Age architect and shameless self-promoter Addison Mizner (1872-1933), the town owes its very existence to real estate speculation. The roly-poly Mizner, who was often accompanied by a pet monkey on his shoulder and a gaggle of swells in tow, was a driving force behind the creation of Palm Beach in the early 1920s. Looking to replicate his success further south, he began purchasing land in Boca Raton, first building the preppie-pink Spanish Revival Cloister Inn in 1926 with the hopes of attracting Northern investors. It all worked like a charm until it didn't. Mizner sold $26 million worth of real estate in 24 weeks, but then speculation and the infamous Miami hurricane that year popped the state's property bubble. Boca was "nixed by nature" observed Addison's brother, Wilson. Mizner's Boca holdings were finally sold for $71,500. He died broke in 1933.

Q: I am a faithful subscriber to Traveler and need some direction. We will be attending some performances in Tanglewood in July 2009. We're looking for accommodation "with heart" at $200-300 per night, near sights and restaurants. Sincere thanks. -- Joy

A: Thanks for your support. Hoping that Traveler has steered you to some world-class experiences. Lucky you: The Berkshires is one of my favorite places on Earth! Gorgeous scenery, great folks, intriguing shops and cafés, plus seriously memorable culture. If you are a fan of the dance, look into the offerings at Jacob's Pillow.

I am going to recommend two widely different places to stay--both on Traveler's 2008 STAY LIST of hotels. I suggest that you depend on their tremendous hotel staffs to steer you to see/do/eat options.

For a trendy mix of old and new try The Porches Inn in North Adams, MA (www.porches.com). Or for pure New England quaint opt for the Red Lion Inn, in Stockbridge, MA (www.redlioninn.com).

Wishing you happy trails,

Sheila Buckmaster
Senior Editor, National Geographic Traveler

Have a question for Traveler? Feel free to Ask IT. 

Photo: The Tavern at the Red Lion Inn, by Kristian Septimius Krogh

Senior editor Norie Quintos recently visited New York City with her teenage sons, trying to go as green as possible. Here's her report:

Getting there: The train, the most eco (as well as the most comfortable) way to go, was too expensive, so we took one of the many inter-city buses that ply the busy DC-New York corridor. Public buses are an excellent green option, and the one we booked, a double-decker Megabus, was modern, clean, and offered free Wi-Fi. Promotional rates start at $1 (good luck getting that rate) but typically go for about $20 one-way. On a five-hour ride, you'll likely get hungry; pack a sandwich and bottled water. We saw someone get on with a large takeout pizza.

In his new memoir, "Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy," Isadore Sharp describes how he built one of the hotel industry's most successful and respected brands. But the book ends just as things start to get interesting: with a historic downturn in the lodging industry. National Geographic Traveler Contributing Editor Christopher Elliott asked Sharp to pick up where the book left off.

Q: In your book, you talk about how Four Seasons survived -- and even prospered -- during two recessions. But by most accounts they weren't as severe as the current economic downturn. How is the company holding up?

Sharp: There's no question that our industry as a whole has been affected by the current economic environment. Our approach to business at this time is the same as always -- to provide our guests with the consistency and excellence they have come to expect of Four Seasons. Providing exceptional experiences to our guests is a fundamental part of our business model and has been the foundation for our success, through good times and bad. In times of uncertainly, our guests value the reliability and care that we provide. It's a relationship of trust that is more important than ever.

In the last year, we've seen a lot of hotels reduce amenities and cut staff in order to save money. Of course, rates have also dropped pretty dramatically. Could you talk a little about what differences, if any, a customer might notice between a Four Seasons experience in 2008 versus now?

It's been reported that many hotel companies are cutting services and amenities to cope with this challenging business environment. This is something we will never do. It is the promise behind our brand name. Our focus continues to be on providing the services our guests need to be productive when they stay with us on business, and to focus on family and loved ones when on vacation. Whether it's 24-hour room service, one hour pressing, complimentary shoe shine, overnight laundry, exceptional complimentary children's programs -- all of the services we provide add up to a tremendous support system for our guests, allowing them to spend their time with us effectively. These services represent a tremendous value to our guests, especially when every travel experience matters and nothing can be left to chance.

Eco-friendly 9 Beaches resort, on the far western tip of Bermuda, practices what it preaches. A laid-back group of cabanas, some of them on stilts over water, uses solar-powered lighting and hot water, xeriscaping (dry landscaping) with native plants, battery-operated transportation around the resort, motion sensors on exterior lights, local produce when available and, like most houses in Bermuda, they catch and use their own rainwater. To encourage the national bird of Bermuda, the longtail, the resort has built artificial nesting sites around the property. There are nine (I counted them when I was there) small pink beaches, and yes, the water really is that color. 

A special incentive to stay at 9 Beaches in April: on any and all days that the air temperature does not reach 68F during your stay in April, you will receive a $68 refund on your bill.

Photo courtesy 9 Beaches

Eco-boutique Hotel Terra is giving guests one more reason to stay in Yellowstone this summer. From May 1 September 30, the Jackson Hole hotel is offering the new "Eco Adventure" summer package, which includes a wildlife tour (hosted by wildlife biologist Taylor Phillips) and free Flip video camera to keep. The rates for the package start at $348 per night for two, or $570 per night for a family of four. On the wildlife tour, guests will ride in a bio-diesel-fueled vehicle (the tour also includes an organic lunch).

The hotel--Jackson Hole's only LEED-certified digs--is located just outside the entrance to Grand Teton National Park and offers a variety of green features, from eco-shake roof shingles, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems (100% of their electric power is offset), energy recovery technology, natural water runoff mitigation, as well as sophisticated recycling programs.

For reservation information, check out www.hotelterrajacksonhole.com or call +1 800 631 6281.

Photo: Hotel Terra

While fact-checking one of Traveler's April features, "Avenue of the Volcanoes," senior researcher Meg Weaver was transported (through cyberspace) to Ecuador's scenic haciendas nestled high in the Andes. And thanks to a great deal that the hacienda is offering, she might be able to get there in reality. Details after the jump.

Hacienda Zuleta is alluring not merely for its idyllic 5,218 acres that guests can explore on horseback and its picturesque colonial buildings dating back to 1691. Hacienda Zuleta, home to former Ecuadorian president Galo Plaza Lasso, provides guests a home-away-from home among the volcanoes, and it funds the Galo Plaza Lasso Foundation.

The foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization formed in 1995, seeks to empower and educate the local, primarily indigenous, people of Zuleta and the surrounding Ibarra region. The foundation also aims to protect the environment and culture of the area.

It works toward these goals through two major projects: the Embroidery Project and the Condor Huasi Rehabilitation Project. The Embroidery Project began with Doña Rosario, wife of the former president, who was inspired by her travels to Spain and Italy in the 1940s and the embroidery she saw women doing there on their doorsteps. She thought of the intricate brocades, tapestries, and gauze work the Andean women of Zuleta had been doing since pre-Columbian times. Upon her return from Europe, Doña Rosario established a workshop for the local women as well as a shop, El Taller, at the hacienda where they could sell their wares to supplement their families' primarily agrarian income. Zuleta embroidery is now part of the region's cultural heritage and the sale of the product and perpetuation of the art form clearly benefit from increased tourism to the hacienda and the region in general.

The question isn't whether or not to travel in this economy, it's how to travel smart and get the most value out of your trip. Hotel Central editor Susan O'Keefe begins a series of posts that will feature affordable lodgings that don't break the bank, but are also worthwhile for their location, amenities, and unique character--real gems you should know about. Along with great hotels, she'll share strategies, deals, and insider tips on the destinations. And we encourage you to share your own lodging finds and recommendations for things to do in the city featured.