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YHA Freemantle Prison is an option
Holidaymakers are spoilt for choice when it comes to quirky accommodation options this summer, from backpacker-style accommodation in a former prison to luxury ‘reef suites’, an underground cave, even a ‘bubble’.
With the help of booking website Booking.com, and through our own searches of unique stays and short-term accommodation portals, here is a bit of inspo to take your holiday home up a notch this summer.
QUEENSLAND
1. Sleep with the fishes at Reefsuites, Australia’s first underwater accommodation on the Great Barrier Reef. With just two underwater rooms available, competition is fierce and they have a price to match, starting from $1095 per person for a double room with all meals and beverages and reef activities included.
2. If vino is your thing, here is your to chance to literally sleep in the wine barrel. Adults only Barrel View Luxury Cabins is located in Ballandean and features three barrel cabins set on 40 acres starting from $475.
3. The Polish Place at Mount Tamborine has been rated “superb” by guests on Booking.com and features self-contained European-style chalets set on the escarpment with 180-degree views. Sanctuary by Sirromet at Mount Cotton was also a top pick by the booking website for holidaymakers escaping to the Sunshine State.
VICTORIA
1. Say yes to HOTEL NO in Melbourne, which features six 1970s Airstream trailers decked out as designer accommodation on top of a city carpark. One of those trailers even includes a spa overlooking Flinders Lane. One night will set you back north of $350.
2. For the adults only travellers, glamping is on offer at Goldfield Camping in Clydesdale in Victoria.
3. Not for the faint-hearted, the recently redesigned The Pole House on the Great Ocean Road is suspended 40m above Fairhaven Beach.
Stay away, Antarctic storms. The Pole House, Victoria
4. Forget the old saying, get out of your bubble. At Bubble Retreats, you get to sleep in one at Wilsons Promontory. The winner of Airbnb’s Global ‘OMG’ category for its award-winning star gazing bubbles, it is adults only.
Bubble Retreats lets you sleep under the stars
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
1. Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy is the only international underground hotel, and includes both above and below ground stays, a cafe, opal interpretive centre and an undreground bar and gaming room. It has featured on bucket list must-do places to visit.
Pretty sure this is not what opal miners had
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
1. One of Booking.com’s top picks is backpacker-style YHA Fremantle Prison in Perth, where four nights for two adults and a child costs around $1000.
“Built in the 1850s, with the first convicts occupying it in 1855, all the way up until 1991, YHA Fremantle Prison has rooms with private bathrooms or access to shared bathroom facilities. Most rooms have air-conditioning. Linen is provided,” the listing says.
Despite its dark history, the experience has been rated “very good” by those who have dared to sleep in its confines, which is rumoured to be haunted.
YHA Freemantle Prison is, umm, cosy?
According to The Little House of Horrors, the sound of rattling keychains, disembodied footsteps, voices and visitors who take pictures with the gallows tend to appear headless when they look at it later.
2. At The Lily Dutch Windmill Stirling Range there is a range of unique accommodation to choose from. These include the windmill and an converted yet original 1944 Dakota plane, which costs from $315 a night.
The Lily Dutch Windmill Stirling Range has a plane you can stay in
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
1. If you want to get your blue blood flowing, Thorngrove Manor is more fairytale castle than Frogmore Cottage. Located in Stirling, it features a selection of unique rooms but is only suitable for those who can climb stairs. Rates start from $1599 a night.