READ MORE: Who needs Montecito? The VERY starry Cotswolds pubs where Meghan and Harry can still hobnob with HollywoodSee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy JOANNA TWEEDY, ASSISTANT EDITOR, LIFESTYLE & TRAVEL Published: 13:03 BST, 22 August 2026 | Updated: 13:07 BST, 22 August 2026
Remember yesteryear, when what constituted a good hotel stay was a comfy bed, a decent breakfast and an amiable host who didn’t stomp around like Basil Fawlty?Budget always played its part, of course. Décor and facilities would be grander according to how much you could afford to pay but mostly, whether it was a four-star in Torremolinos or a Torquay B&B, booking a hotel was a simple transaction centred around letting a location (and hopefully the sun) shine.Increasingly though, accommodation is the destination. Travel has truly entered its ‘experiential’ era, with many of us seeking out holiday digs that knock our socks off with their creativity.According to Host Unusual, a UK-based global travel directory that counts UFO-inspired glamping pods, converted cranes and cave dwellings amongst its offerings, there’s been a huge rise in interest in quirkier places to stay in recent years. Apple Camping in Tenby, Wales, offers a UFO stay for those who really want to escapeWhat’s firing this trend for immersive, story-driven getaways perhaps says more about modern life than the tourism industry.Escapism is apparently one of the biggest factors driving us to seek out wild and wacky places to spend precious time off.Who has time to angst over office politics or school run logistics when you’re cosplaying at being an astronaut or waking up in the world’s only potato-shaped hotel (in Idaho, in case you were wondering…)?Then there’s the bragging rights that these razzle dazzle ‘em abodes bring. If your holiday snaps look aesthetically exuberant on Facebook or Instagram, it’s a reflection of your own magnetic personality. At least that’s the idea.Join the discussionHave hotels got too wacky? What's your view?Theming has become so lucrative that accommodation owners big and small have worked out that hospitality with a side-portion of Hollywood can often grab them a bigger slice of the tourism pie.What’s telling though is that not many of the world’s most exclusive hotel brands go in for it, knowing outstanding service and understated elegance is much more likely to invite loyalty.High-octane, technicolour hotels can leave you feeling a little hollow once the initial bump of dopamine ebbs: they’re the travel equivalent of a one-hit wonder. Once you’ve bedded down in a former sewage pipe (possible in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands), you probably won’t be back next year to do it all over again.The one obvious caveat is if there are kids in the mix, because novelty hits their holiday jackpot every time. The Big Idaho Potato Hotel – this six-ton spud in Boise, Idaho, sleeps two people Inside, the hollowed out potato boasts surprisingly calming decorStepping into the Christmas-All-Year room at Chessington World Of Adventures last summer, any ‘bah humbug’ at the prospect of December 25th in the middle of May quickly evaporated at the sight of a room brimming with festive cheer.A playful nod to a fascinating past can make a stay memorable too. I checked into The Liberty in Boston a few years ago, the site of Massachusetts’ former Charles Street Jail, where inmates have included Malcolm X and Frank ‘Catch Me if you Can’ Abagnale Jr. Room cards look like prison keys, there’s a restaurant named Clink and the curious can peer into a former cell. It successfully walks the tightrope of good taste without over-egging the building’s felonious history.So, let’s not be too sniffy because we’ve all likely enjoyed a version of the ‘experiential’ trend. Vegas has been dressing up its Strip for decades and, if you’ve ever retreated to a historic hotel on our own shores, you’re also buying into a story-telling stay, albeit a more authentic one.In a world of identikit hotels, booking a faux UFO, a fairy grotto or an ex-Routemaster with beds is a great way to inject a little colour into the everyday grey. And if a change is as good as a rest, then themed stays tick both boxes.Now, pass me the moon boots, won’t you? I’ve got a date with Mars.
