Unusual Hotels: Treehouses, Bubbles and Ice, Ten Verified Addresses
Almost every list of unusual accommodation circulating online contains addresses that do not exist, or no longer do. We checked each of the following at the operator’s own site. Ten hold up. Four others, frequently cited, turned out to be untraceable and are not listed here.
One thing matters with this kind of accommodation: it becomes the heart of the trip rather than its backdrop. You do not go to Lapland to see Lapland and sleep somewhere. You go to sleep under a glass dome, and the rest arranges itself around that.
Treehouses
The Treehotel, at Harads in northern Sweden, on the Lule River. Nine cabins, suspended four to ten metres up, each designed by a different architect: the fully mirrored Mirrorcube, the Bird’s Nest camouflaged as a nest, the UFO, the 7th Room with its netted terrace, plus the two most recent, the Oasis and the Biosphere. Harads sits about fifty kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, and roughly seventy-five kilometres from Luleå.
One useful correction, because it circulates and would break an itinerary: the Treehotel is not forty-five minutes from the Icehotel. Harads and Jukkasjärvi are about two hundred and fifty kilometres apart, three hours by road.
Free Spirit Spheres, at Errington on Vancouver Island. Three wooden spheres suspended in the canopy, Eve, Eryn and Melody, the last being the largest and most recent. A loft bed, portholes, heating. It is the only address on this list priced in Canadian dollars, with no passport and no time change. You reach it by road from Victoria in a little under two hours, or by ferry from the mainland to Nanaimo. There is no passenger rail service on the island.
Cabanes als Arbres, at Sant Hilari Sacalm in the province of Girona. Mind the geography, which is often wrong: this is not on the Costa Brava, it is inland, in the Guilleries massif, an hour and a quarter from Barcelona. You climb up by suspended walkway, with no electricity, using candles and an oil lamp.
Bubbles and domes
Attrap’Rêves, at Allauch, twenty minutes from Marseille, open since 2010. Permanently inflated transparent bubbles set into the garrigue: Zenith, Papillon, Rêve d’Enfant, Plumes. You fall asleep under the stars and wake to cicadas and the smell of lavender and thyme. Breakfast is left discreetly outside, without anyone knocking.
The same operator runs elevated cabins on the same site, which allows both formats in one stay.
Three rules apply to all bubbles. A transparent bubble offers no visual privacy: check the distance to the next one before booking. It performs poorly in high heat, so avoid July and August in Provence. And the bathroom is almost always in a separate structure a few metres away.
Nothofagus Hotel, in Chile, in the Huilo Huilo biological reserve between Neltume and Puerto Fuy. One clarification changes everything: it is neither a treehouse nor a stilted building, it is a single tree-shaped structure built around a preserved tree, with views of Lake Pirehueico and the Mocho-Choshuenco volcano. This is the lake district, north of Patagonia proper.
Glass igloos and ice hotels
Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, at Saariselkä in Finnish Lapland. Two villages four kilometres apart, East and West, and three formats: small glass igloos, large glass igloos, and Kelo-Glass, which combines a log cabin with a glass dome. The glass is thermal and anti-fog, which is the precondition for seeing anything at thirty below. Three smoke saunas on the property, one of them wood-fired for hours before opening.
Icehotel, at Jukkasjärvi in Sweden, on the Torne River. Rebuilt every winter since the winter of 1989-1990, it holds fifteen to twenty ice rooms and twelve art suites, each designed by different artists, at about minus five degrees. You sleep in an arctic sleeping bag on a reindeer hide. Since 2016, Icehotel 365 has made the experience available year-round, including in high summer. Jukkasjärvi is roughly one hundred and forty-five kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.
Arctic TreeHouse Hotel, at Rovaniemi, beside the Santa Claus village. Four categories, including the Arctic TreeHouse Suites and the Arctic GlassHouse. The actual concept is not a roof window, it is a floor-to-ceiling glass wall facing the forest, watched from the bed. Only the GlassHouses have their own fireplace and private sauna: check the category before paying, the difference is considerable.
Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel, at Alta in Norwegian Finnmark, beside the fjord. Rebuilt every winter and open from 20 December to 31 March. Alta lies beneath the auroral oval, the belt where the northern lights form most often, which is the real reason to go. Allow forty-five minutes by air to Tromsø, and six to seven hours by road.
Arctic Hilltop Boutique Hotel Iso-Syöte, in North Ostrobothnia. Formerly known as Iso Syöte, it has been renamed. Its Eagle View and Aurora View suites overlook the forest from a hilltop, which is rare in a flat country.
The only ice hotel in the Americas is three hours from Montreal
The Hôtel de Glace, at Village Vacances Valcartier in Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier near Quebec City, has been rebuilt every winter since 2001. It is the only one on the American continent.
Why say so in an article selling Lapland: because a night in ice does not suit everyone, and it is better to find that out three hours from home than after a transatlantic flight and two connections. Those who love it come back for the Icehotel or Sorrisniva; those who do not have saved themselves a trip.
The comfort question, honestly
Three levels, and you should know which one you are buying.
The first is comfortable in the ordinary sense: the Treehotel, the Arctic TreeHouse, Kakslauttanen in its larger categories. Heating, bathroom, service. It is a hotel with an unusual shape.
The second is deliberately rustic: Cabanes als Arbres without electricity, bubbles with the bathroom outside, the Vancouver Island spheres whose bathroom is at ground level. You gain silence and lose conveniences.
The third is a cheerful ordeal: sleeping at minus five degrees in an arctic sleeping bag. Nobody sleeps deeply the first night. It is an experience, not a rest, and that is precisely why people tell the story for ten years.
How to book, and the smartest format
Twelve to eighteen months ahead for Nordic glass igloos in high season, which runs December to March and coincides exactly with the Quebec holiday break and March break. Three to six months for European bubbles and treehouses, and considerably less if you accept a weeknight rather than a Saturday.
The smartest format is the same everywhere: one unusual night, then three or four ordinary ones. The suspended cabin is extraordinary on the first evening, pleasant on the second, and tiring on the third. Budgets behave the same way.
One last habit: join the waiting lists. Cancellations are frequent with this kind of accommodation, and operators redistribute them by email, often a few weeks out.
The real journey from Montreal
For Lapland, there is no nonstop service between Montreal and Helsinki or Stockholm. The usual Nordic gateway from Montreal is Copenhagen, from which domestic flights run to Ivalo, Rovaniemi, Kiruna or Alta. Allow a full day of travel, and one recovery night before the unusual one: nobody appreciates a glass dome after twenty hours in transit.
For Provence, the nonstop flight to Marseille is seasonal. In February, exactly when a bubble is at its best, you route through Paris.
To go further: our article on the northern lights explains when they are actually visible, the thermal baths of the world covers the other great Nordic experience, and our honeymoon selection features several of these addresses.
Talk to an advisor
These properties have three to twenty rooms, sell a year ahead, and change name, category and ownership more often than an ordinary hotel. Our advisors verify before booking. Call 1-866-628-6241 or write to us.
