Underwater, Underground & Off-Grid: More Hotels Worth Booking For Themselves

The Quick Answer

This round spans roughly $140/night (Bolivia's salt hotel) to $1,700+/night (Zanzibar's underwater room), with most properties clustering around $150–400/night for standard rooms. As always: the entry-level room at a famous property is often reasonably priced — it's the signature suites and rare experiences (an underwater room, a treehouse villa) that push the number into four figures.

5 More Real Hotels Worth Booking For Themselves

• Azulik, Tulum, Mexico — Hand-built treehouse villas rising through the jungle canopy, no electric lighting, no standard bathrooms in the signature villas. Entry rooms run ~$150–300/night; signature jungle villas climb to $600–8,000+. Best for couples wanting a genuine "disconnect" experience — go in knowing this is rustic-luxury, not five-star-amenities luxury.
• The Manta Resort Underwater Room, Pemba Island, Zanzibar — A three-level floating structure with a bedroom fully submerged below the surface, windows onto the reef, and a rooftop deck for stargazing. From ~$1,700+/night for two, all-inclusive. The rarest booking on this list — reserve months ahead.
• Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, Matera, Italy — Eighteen rooms carved into ancient cave dwellings in a UNESCO World Heritage old town, candlelit, minimal, genuinely centuries old. From ~$305/night.
• Palacio de Sal, Uyuni, Bolivia — The world's first hotel built from salt bricks, on the edge of the vast Salar de Uyuni salt flats. From ~$140–400/night. Best for travellers already doing the Uyuni salt-flat circuit who want the stay to match the scenery.
• Hotel Ještěd, Liberec, Czech Republic — A 1960s UFO-shaped tower perched on a mountain summit, part hotel, part broadcast tower, entirely strange. Mid-range pricing for the region — one of the more affordable entries in this whole series.

How to Choose One Without Regretting It

• Check what "unique" costs you in comfort. Azulik's signature villas skip air conditioning and in-room showers by design — wonderful for some travellers, a dealbreaker for others. Read reviews for your specific room type, not the property in general.
• Book rare experiences (like the Manta Resort's underwater room) as early as possible. There's only one of it — availability disappears fast, especially in peak season.
• Pair remote or intense stays with something more conventional. Two nights at Azulik or the Manta Resort, then a standard hotel for the rest of the trip, tends to work better than the whole holiday in "experience mode."
• Ask about access and transfers before booking. Properties like Palacio de Sal and the Manta Resort are genuinely remote — factor transfer time and cost into your total budget, not just the nightly rate.

The Bottom Line

The strangest hotels on this list aren't strange for the sake of it — a cave dwelling, a salt palace, a room under the sea, all connect you to something about the place itself that a normal hotel room never could. That's the whole appeal.

Next up: Part 3 covers mountain pools, museum suites, and desert luxury — Vietnam, Japan, Finland, and Australia.