1. Hotels You Won’t Believe Provided by: Budget Travel By Jason Cochran From the annals of the wacky, the odd, and the inspired – these unusual lodgings will make you look twice. Part I

2. Giraffe Manor in Langata, Kenya Without sacrificing its estate-in-the-country dignity—or all of it, anyway—Giraffe Manor in Langata, Kenya , is arranged so that roaming giraffes can poke their heads into any open window or doorway with impunity and lather guests with their sticky, prehensile tongues. Your guesthouse is their guesthouse, so the silly creatures pop up everywhere, including over the breakfast table, in the lobby, and through the curtains of the five guest rooms for adults. Regrettably, as of this writing, the U.S. government had issued a travel warning for Kenya.

3. Harbour Crane , Netherlands For savoring the windswept Dutch landscape, nothing will lift you higher than the Harbour Crane, which for almost 30 years toiled at unloading timber at Harlingen, a port city an hour outside of Amsterdam , Netherlands. Since 2003, the massive crane has housed a luxury hotel room for two, roughly 60 feet above the harbor docks. Don't expect to sleep in an oily industrial hutch—the hotel's lighting system is touch-screen operated, the chairs are Eames Lounges, and the spindle of structural steel around you has a certain sculptural elegance. But the big payoff: You and your guest can jump into the cockpit and seize the controls, swinging the 143,000-pound crane a full 360 degrees.

6. Wagon Stays, Christchurch, New Zealand In Christchurch , New Zealand, the two-year-old Wagon Stays company has come up with a marketing slogan for its tricked-out, ecofriendly, mock Conestoga: "Where luxury meets history." The settlers of New Zealand would have considered themselves lucky to bunk down in these bad boys, which features queen-size beds, computer-controlled showers, flush toilets, fully equipped kitchens, and satellite TV. Most absurdly, the carriages have glass doors that open to balconies, which are perfect for kicking back with a pint of ale after a long day of going absolutely nowhere.