Check-In to the Unexpected: Historic, Hidden & Extreme Places

The deep dive explores unique accommodations that offer extreme adventures and unforgettable experiences. From whimsical hobbit houses to transformed industrial objects like aircraft conversions, these stays push boundaries of luxury and isolation. Examples include sleeping in a Boeing 727 in Costa Rica and a decommissioned 747 in Stockholm. Other extreme locations include a mountain pod in the Italian Alps and a deep sleep hotel in a Welsh slate mine. The contrast continues with luxurious historical stays like Ashford Castle in Ireland and minimalist, spiritual monastic stays offering peace and simplicity. Welcome to the deep dive. You know when you book a hotel. It's pretty standard Lobby elevator keycard two beds It's all about standardized comfort right the room is just where you sleep exactly, but today we are Tearing up those reservations. We're looking at places where the accommodation is the Adventure extreme sleep extreme sleep. Yeah, we're talking about spaces where the building itself Or you know the location was never ever meant for people to live in so our mission for this deep dive is to take all This incredible source material. We've got everything from old military forts to Rooms deep underground and really unpack. What makes these stays so Unforgettable it's about the why isn't it the engineering behind it, but also why people are seeking out this maximum novelty Okay, so let's jump right in we should start with a purely whimsical stuff the places that are less about say survival And more about just diving into a family get like the hobbit house. Yes the one in trout Creek, Montana It's an adult only retreat. It's on 15 secluded acres and the dedication to the theme is just it's absolute I saw that handcrafted round doors those iconic circular windows It's the real deal and get this they greet you with a massive Homemade troll house cookie see that speaks to that that deep desire to actually live inside a story You know and if you go from that Montana whimsy to Belgian Bazaar you get love a lot to know that place is wild it's famous for a themed room, but they're just decorated They're fundamentally rebuilt like the Trojan horse room. You don't just sleep next to a Trojan Well, you have to get inside it right you enter through its belly just incredible architectural theater. It really is, but I think the real structural innovation for me happens when people start repurposing Massive industrial things stuff that was designed for pure utility not luxury exactly and that's the whole contrast right you're taking this Rigid functional object and layering on the demands of you know luxury clientele the aircraft conversions are the perfect example 727 fuselage home in Costa Rica. That's the one this isn't just some quirky room. It's a real 1965 Boeing 727 they rescued it from an airport graveyard Completely refurbished it and then they stood at 50 feet up into the air 50 feet up onto these custom-built platforms in the jungle That's insane the engineering for that alone. Just to handle the weight and keep it stable, so what's the payoff for the guest? It's all about the perspective the wings they become these huge observation decks You're literally at eye level with a rainforest canopy so instead of watching baggage handlers. You're spotting Floss floss Toucans monkeys the structure gives you this unique elevated view of the whole ecosystem It's brilliant, and it's the same idea with the jumbo stay in Stockholm right sleeping inside a decommissioned 747 You can even get a suite in the old cockpit it is But if that shift from air travel to a static hotel is impressive the move from Active maritime duty to hospitality is even more extreme you're talking about the frying pan tower the frying pan tower Yeah, yeah off the coast of North Carolina This is a hundred and thirty five foot Coast Guard light station from 1964 It's just out there sitting on these four huge legs in the middle of the Atlantic and our sources said it survived multiple category four hurricanes Logistics of even getting guests out there must be a nightmare They are you have to helicopter in and once you're there you are completely at the mercy of the elements You're sharing the water with sand tiger sharks. They're just cruising around the base So the experience is the isolation it's the isolation and that proximity to just raw nature it's amazing structures built for navigation or defense now marketed purely for the experience and Speaking of functional architecture for a totally different purpose that hotel in Amsterdam the Intel Zandam Oh, right the one that looks like a giant puzzle a 3d puzzle exactly It's made of what 70 traditional Zanzi houses all just stacked on top of each other and all those different shades of green And there's that one blue one in the corner, which is a reference to a Claude Monet painting La Maison Bleue So that shows the demand for architectural storytelling But while those places transform the form we should probably shift to stays that push the boundaries of location where it's all about Isolation and spectacle exactly and we have to start at extreme altitude the Vaco Gervasudi in the Italian Alps high up in the Italian Alps at 9,301 feet and this is not a ski lodge It's a pre-fabricated capsule aluminum and wood that was installed by helicopter on a glacier a helicopter Wow So what's the catch the catch is access to get to it? You have to complete a technical rock and ice climb Wait, what you have to be an actual mountaineer just to check in you literally do the effort is the price of admission It completely weeds out the casual traveler So that's one extreme contrast that with the sky lodged adventure suites in Peru, right? Those transparent pods clinging to the side of a mountain clinging 1,312 feet of a sheer cliff face and to check in you hike up you rock climb and then you zip line out It's not the hotel and more an extreme sports package and the key word there is transparent You're giving up all privacy and insulation for this terrifying 360 degree view now if that's the spectacle of height the opposite extreme It's the spectacle of depth and silence precisely and the deepest we found is the deep sleep hotel in Wales It's one thousand three hundred seventy-five feet down and abandoned Victorian slate mine That is seriously deep it runs weekly and guests get fully kitted out Helmet harness boots the works you get a guide for the hour-long descent down into the mine I mean imagine signing a liability waiver just to go to bed That kind of commitment really defines this whole category of travel doesn't it? It does and it's a paid engineered isolation Which is a fascinating contrast to how some communities use the underground at a pure necessity like the White Cliffs underground motel in Australia Exactly. It's carved into these opal rich hillsides and when the surface temperature hits a brutal 119 degrees Fahrenheit Which does the underground rooms stay at a constant comfortable 72 degrees no air conditioning needed It's a perfect contrast One is a bucket list spectacle. The other is a deeply practical solution for survival. And then finally you have the submerged stays Total isolation from the surface the man to resort in Tanzania has this floating structure, right? But the bedroom is anchored 13 feet underwater with 360 degree windows So you can watch angelfish and parrotfish swim by your bed It's incredible and the other in in Sweden is the same idea just a bit different freshwater Right a lake. Yeah in Lake Malloran. It's a little floating cabin with a submarine style bedroom underneath So instead of tropical fish, you're watching pike and perch a very different vibe, but the same core principle isolation by submersion So now let's step back into history I think it's interesting to contrast two very different ways people repurpose old buildings on one side You have the absolute hyper luxury of say a castle Ashford Castle in Ireland being the prime example, right? and what's fascinating about Ashford is that it's this Living document of power and change It started as a defensive Norman Castle way back in 1228, but the look we all recognize today That's mostly Victorian. So is the Guinness family who did that? It was Specifically Arthur Guinness the first Baron Ardalan. He expanded the estate to a mind-boggling 26,000 acres and rebuilt the West Wing in this super Romantic neo-gothic style he added all those battlements that we think of when we imagine a fantasy castle So it wasn't just preserved It was actively deliberately themed to fit a specific vision of grandeur and that's still happening, right? It became a hotel in 1939 Hosted everyone from John Lennon to President Reagan and the investment never stops when red carnation hotels bought it in 2013 They launched a 47 million euro refurbishment 47 million. Yeah, and that wasn't just a paint job They replaced all 820 windows. They meticulously repointed all the stonework It was a massive undertaking and our sources say that 60% of their guests today are from the US mostly from California, right? Mostly from California. Yeah, so it's a very calculated move to make sure that historic vibe meets modern five-star Expectations for a very specific type of traveler and if Ashford is the maximalist luxury version of history Then monetary stays are the total opposite. They're minimalist. They're spiritual and they're frugal. I mean, are we talking genuinely cheap here often? Yeah Significantly cheaper than a hostel finding a truly free one is rare these days, but it happens but the trade-off is this profound quiet and a Kind of spiritual reduction Spartan is the word that comes to mind very Spartan Single beds often to shared bathroom and just a total absence of modern distractions. No TV. No Wi-Fi So it's a deliberate unplugging, but I'm guessing there's some pretty strict rules that come with that Oh, absolutely You have a live by the rhythm of the monastery that can mean very early mornings like 4 or 5 a.m And strict curfews the doors are locked at night. You're trading your autonomy for peace and food is probably similar Simple right exactly. It's wholesome often organic and homemade Many of these places grow their own food and make their own cheese their own wine The hardest part is actually finding and booking them. They're not on the big websites No You need special guidebooks or dedicated sites like monastery stays for Italy and often you still have to just pick up the phone and pay In cash, it's very old school. Okay, so moving from just staying somewhere historic to fully immersing in an event There we looked at Lumley Castle in County Durham They've really focused on hyper customization they have their whole philosophy is Rejecting the off-the-shelf wedding package. It's all about creating these unique tailored experiences They even use this cloud-based dream wedding planner to manage it all Maximum service layered on top of that history and they have these incredibly specific pre wedding party packages, right? It's not just a generic party No, you can pick the adventurous hen which has an escape room in a cocktail class or you can go for the composed stag with Clay pigeon shooting and archery They're matching the activity to the mood and the ultimate version of this is their keys to the kingdom package That's where you get the whole place to yourself the entire castle exclusive use for two nights For up to 150 guests It includes all the meals afternoon tea everything total control of the space and for that full theatrical flair They include a historic Castle Chamberlain in a full costume costume. Yeah to act as the master of ceremonies It basically turns your two-day stay into a fully produced historical drama where you're the star and that theater extends to their banquets Doesn't it? Oh, yeah, the Elizabethan banquets. It's a total throwback They serve you need red wine pottage rustic game pie all with a harpsichord playing in the background It's sensory time travel So if we tie all of these threads together from the 727 in the jungle to the castle banquets the real takeaway seems to be this trend toward Transformation and immersion it is it's a demand for structures that have completely challenged their original purpose I mean we saw military defense boards like the spick-and-spank hotel. That's a concrete fort from 1878 now It's a nine-room luxury hotel Imagine the logistics of getting plumbing and power out there and then you have the other end of the spectrum Dauphin Park Hotel, which turns these massive Concrete sewer pipes concrete pipes into these minimalist pay-as-you-wish rooms. It's the ultimate in minimalist transformation So the essential question this presents to you The listener is really pretty simple every single one of these unusual stays offers a unique perspective on history on engineering on survival or just Minimalism it challenges your whole idea of what a bed and four walls should even be right So what does this mean for the future of travel if the whole point of traveling is to break your routine and see the world In a new way what essential part of your daily life your view your walls the bed itself Are you willing to give up for an experience? You'll never forget That's a great question and consider this if the drive is towards this maximalist efficiency the model for that already exists Japan's nine hours capsule hotel concept breaks down a stay to its absolute core One hour to prep seven hours to sleep one hour for your morning routine Pure function a perfect formula. So you have to wonder how long this quest for maximalist unique experiences can coexist with this drive for minimalist efficiency Before the ultimate goal for a lot of travelers just becomes optimized rest something to think about we'll catch you on the next deep dive