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Sleep amid prowling wildlife in rural India at Jamatra Wilderness Camp. Pitched right by a forest, this luxury glamping lodge gives guests the chance to get up close to nature with its array of shut-eye options.
Sink into bed in one of 10 luxury tents, snuggle up on your private patio with a hot water bottle to keep you cosy or, best of all, snooze in an alfresco suite. Set on a platform high on stilts, these four-poster beds, known as machaan, offer guests unbeatable star-gazing opportunities under a clear night sky and prime animal viewing come the crack of dawn. Spot deer, leopards and, if you’re lucky, tigers roaming from nearby Pench National Park. After a night out in nature enjoy breakfast back at camp, a daytime safari and afternoon cocktails in the shade of a huge banyan tree.
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Chhatra Sagar
Far from the maddening crowds of Delhi and Jaipur is this exotic getaway in Marwar, a south-western region of rural Rajasthan, and the perfect mid-trip stopover for anyone suffering fort fatigue. This is desert country, but at the end of the 19th century a local noble, Thakur Chhatra Singh of Nimaj, created a dam on a seasonal stream so that farmers would have water all year round. On his new oasis, he built a hunting camp where dignitaries would come for sport and socialisation. Now his great-grandchildren have recreated the estate, with 11 luxurious hand-stitched and hand-painted traditional tents overlooking the dam, and two more private pavilions high on the hill.
Each has locally crafted furnishings, a private bathroom and its own peaceful sitting area overlooking the landscape. During the day you can explore the area with a jeep safari to rural Bishnoi villages. The Bishnoi people are nature-lovers who enjoy a rich cultural life, with their villages often home to potters, weavers, farmers and shepherds. There’s also the option of doing a wildlife safari.
Sample Icelandic beer at Kex Drinx
Iceland braved a beer ban until 1989, but boy oh boy, have they made up for it in the years since. The cool, vintage-styled Kex Drinx, tucked away in a former biscuit factory in downtown Reykjavik, is the place to go for frosty pints of local beer. Find your inner Rocky and get a good ol’ workout with the boxing bag, browse a wine crate stacked with well-loved books, or go for some Jack Daniel’s in a serving of chocolate mousse.
The bar is part of a hostel right by the sea, so you won’t have far to travel if you down a few too many brews to brave the outside chill. And don’t let the hostel part put you off – locals drink here too. Besides, any backpacker who has travelled this far is sure to have a bevy of tales to tell.
Beach bar bliss at UXUA Praia
Serving drinks from the bow of an abandoned fishing boat, this bar blends traditional with sustainable, shabby with chic, and seaside with signature cocktails. UXUA is sprawled across spotless sand and nestled between the ocean and heritage-protected mangroves.
Lounge on a day bed with an ocean view or beneath a flat-roofed pergola. The open bar is far from crowded, and it’s relaxed enough for locals to drop by for a cold beer. There’s beach volleyball and the sandy banks are used for training in capoeira – a Brazilian martial art.
Leap from Stari Most
Free falling with cables and parachutes is for wimps. Take the 24-metre plunge into the icy Neretva River with nothing but your Speedos for comfort. Leaping off Stari Most (it translates to Old Bridge) in the city of Mostar gives thrill-seekers the ultimate chance to prove what they’re really made of.
And there’s a lot more at stake than your average adrenaline rush. Your life – not to mention your ego – is on the line as you plummet head or feet first into the teal-blue water with bone-shattering force. The dive has been a rite of passage for young local boys seeking to impress the ladies for generations, and every July the bravest – or stupidest – face off in the Ikari bridge-jumping competition. Tourists can take part, but be warned, deaths do happen.
Belize Adventure Week
Kayak through villages and navigate caverns lit only by your headlamp, then explore ancient Mayan ruins and clamber through tropical jungle to the song of howler monkeys and squawking macaws. On your Belize Adventure Week, you’ll do all this and more, like examining shaman offerings in the Che Chem Ha Mayan cave – a ceremonial centre used for blood-letting rituals – then taking a boat to Long Caye, a private Caribbean island.
Continuing with the aquatic them, you’ll snorkel and dive through reefs before testing your windsurfing skills. Finish off they day by fishing for your dinner and retiring to your beachside cabana, where the sounds of the sea will lull you to sleep.
Sleeping around Antwerp
Saved from abandonment on Antwerp’s docks, this collection of shipping containers has been revamped and artfully furnished for a new life as a roaming hotel. The four-room pop-up container village boasts everything you’d find in a traditional guesthouse – a comfy bed with luxury linen, air-conditioning, iPod docking station and a bathroom complete with a rain shower – all squeezed into a 20-metre box.
There’s a separate lounge container for breakfast in the morning and a glass of red before you slip off to bed, and plans for a sauna are hot in the works. So far the hotel has graced the city’s riverfront and partnered with a pop-up restaurant called Glow, but its future destinations are at the behest of public votes.
La Balade des Gnomes
Be swept up in your own magical fairytale at this Hobbit-meets-Game of Thrones-meets-Star Trek oddball. At La Balade Des Gnomes (the Walk of Gnomes) you can throw yourself into the narrative of your choice in one of 10 peculiar handcrafted rooms. Each is made from natural materials – think mud, lime and straw – and sculpted into an otherworldly masterpiece.
Nab the Trojan Horse suite, complete with a drawbridge entrance and built within (you guessed it) a giant wooden horse, bunk down in the troll’s lair – with running stream and goldfish – or beam yourself up into a spaceship odyssey. One of the rooms even has a mermaid to keep you company.
CasAnus
Add a little quirk to your holiday album and squeeze in a night in a colossal colon at CasAnus. Reminiscent of an oversized slug, this distal digestive tract is plonked on an island in the 30-acre Verbeke Foundation Sculpture Park. Windows illuminate the anatomically correct intestine, while the puckered rear boasts a porthole view.
The bowels of the polyester apartment house a double bed, shower and toilet, as well as a heater to keep you toasty warm. If you’re feeling social, the onsite bar-cum-cafe is full of art lovers looking for a gasbag. While other accommodation options might give you the arse, we’ve got a great gut feeling about this place.
Wiesergut
This alpine hideaway blends traditional Austrian charm with minimalist design – think untreated wood, natural stone, exposed concrete and vast panes of glass. Located two hours outside of Salzburg, owners Sepp and Martina Kröll have transformed what was Sepp’s great-grandmother’s guest house into a chic mountainside retreat.
Tumble from the huge, freestanding tub to a cozy spot by the fire then into bed, without ever losing sight of the mountains outside. Devour a book under the warm glow of hand-blown glass chandeliers or share a glass of wine in the hot tub on the terrace (if you’re in one of the garden suites). The restaurant has several intimate dining areas and much of the produce – meat, eggs, herbs and vegetables – is grown on the hotel’s farm, which will come as a deserved reward after a day of biking, hiking or skiing in the mountains.
