The Swiss Family Robinson meets Cocoon on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

There, on the island’s western coast, is a a gem of an eco-resort where guests sleep in round pods suspended by ropes in the trees: the Free Spirit Spheres.

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A housing bubble eventually brings about an economic collapse. But an unusual hotel bubble? Now that’s just cool.

So it is at the Museumotel in northwest France.

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The Bamboo Treehouse is not the only place to sleep at the Rosalie Forest Eco-Lodge on the Caribbean island-country of “>Dominica. Guests can also choose to stay in a self contained cottage or in one of several cabins. There’s a secluded area where campers can pitch a tent. The lodge can arrange a local home stay too.

But of all those accommodations options the Bamboo Treehouse is the coolest.

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Spending the night in drainage pipe in a public park is a bad thing . . . usually

It’s almost like being homeless

All the charm and safety of a bomb shelter

Our rooms are no longer full of crap

We like to imagine that those were among the tag lines rejected by the Dasparkhotel, the accommodations in a suburb of Linz, Austria where guests spend the night in a recycled drainage pipe.

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Take a modern, stylish boutique hotel. Then automate its check-in process. Then shrink down its rooms. Then place this hotel inside the terminal of a busy airport. What you’ll get as your result is Yotel—Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite chain of airport-only accommodations.

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For a world-class city that gets more than its share of backpack and flashpack travelers Vancouver has a surprising dearth of interesting budget accommodations. Yeah, there’s the big party-oriented youth hostel, but it’s nothing especially remarkable save for an excellent central location. Choice Hotels has seven properties in the greater Vancouver area that provide good value but there’s nothing particularly memorable about a stay in any of them.

After some sleuthing Spot Cool Stuff managed to find three lodgings that were both high in character and low in price. Each has something superlative about it. And each has a name that fits what it is:

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Yes, Virginia (and Mara and Wei and Dev and Ashley), there IS a Santa Claus. And contrary to popular belief, Santa only winters at the North Pole with the Missus! But he’d love to have you visit his permanent residence—in Osaka, Japan—if you have a little time, and mischief, on your hands.

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We’re not sure what the antithesis of a freewheeling Caribbean beach experience would be, but a faux European castle has to come close. Yet, somehow, those two opposites successfully come together in the unlikely Blue Cave Castle Resort.

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