Unusual Lodging

Looking for something more offbeat than standard lodging choices for your next trip? We’ve searched the treetops, ocean floor and coast-to-coast and found eight unforgettable, out-of-the-ordinary options.

Among the trees

Experience life as the Swiss Family Robinson (without the shipwreck) in one of the 20 sprawling treehouses created by Michael Garnier at Out’n’About Treesort in Takilma, Ore.

Garnier says that a parent or spouse often keeps the destination secret until they drive into the fanciful village built among tall oaks and Douglas firs. “Kids are totally amazed. Their jaws drop, then they take off running,” he says.

Each structure is a lesson in imaginative utilization of space. “You want to make use of every space, take advantage of all the nooks and crannies,” he says.

Far beyond the tree-mounted clubhouse you built as a child, the largest of the 10 models available for overnight rental even have queen-sized beds, toilets, and refrigerators. One unit is poised 52 feet above ground and requires use of a ropes course to get to it. Rates range from $90 to $170 per night and include a full breakfast. For details, call (541) 592-2208 or log on to www.treehouses.com.

Singing the blues

If you want something more down to earth, try digging up the roots of the blues in Clarksdale, Miss., home of the Delta Blues Museum. “Here in Coahoma County, we have a rich history with musicians like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, who were born or lived here,” says Bill Talbot, innkeeper and co-owner of the wryly named Shack Up Inn.

Accommodations are a “six-pack” of shotgun shacks slightly renovated and furnished with mismatched furniture and a potent dose of memorabilia. Once tenements for sharecroppers, today’s tenants are more likely to be blues-minded tourists from far-flung places such as Japan, South Africa, and Latvia.

In addition to soaking up history, tourists can drink in live music at the Commissary, the on-site club that’s a remnant of its former identity as a plantation, and at actor Morgan Freeman’s juke joint called Ground Zero.

Rates start at $50 and, in a true show of Southern charm, you’ll find a Moon Pie on your pillow when you check in. For details, call (662) 624-8329 or log on to www.shackupinn.com.

Underwater adventure

You’d better pack your swimsuit if you expect to enter Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Fla. That’s because the front door of this one-of-a-kind, two-bedroom subterranean apartment is 30 feet underwater. Submerged in a mandrake lagoon along the Atlantic coastline, the place is a real dive in the truest sense.

Guests enter through a diving well beneath the facility and emerge to find modern conveniences of a typical condo, including a bathroom, television, VCR, and stocked kitchen. Unlike the typical condo, the windows provide mesmerizing views of angelfish, parrotfish, and barracuda.

“We’ve been advertising as the world’s only underwater hotel for 16 years and no one has disputed our claim,” notes general manager Rick Ford, who has welcomed lodgers from 12 to 94 years old. About 25 percent of their guests are not certified scuba divers but, with a little instruction, they’re prepared to take the plunge to their dwelling.

With rates starting at $250 per person for groups of four to six, it’s not for everyone, although it has hosted an eclectic group of notables ranging from former Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. For details, call (305) 451-2353 or log on to www.jul.com.

Sleeping on the railroad

Walter Gosciminski was born between two train lines in Catawissa, Pa., and he’s still tracking railroad nostalgia at Rent-A-Caboose.

“We try to keep them as original as possible with knotty pine and tongue-in-groove boards,” he says of his growing passion, which currently includes seven vintage cabooses which rent for $95 per night for up to four guests. “We didn’t want to make them into mobile homes. About 80 percent of the guests prefer our cabooses that don’t have bathrooms because they really want an experience that’s as authentic as possible.

“Just to see the people’s faces—old and young—when they come is worth it,” Gosciminski says. For details, call (570) 356-2345 or log on to www.caboosenut.com.

A spiritual retreat

If you need to slow down and reflect, consider visiting one of nearly a dozen monasteries across the nation that welcome people seeking a serious spiritual retreat.

“Unlike many monasteries, we allow retreatants more access to the monastic activities. Guests are invited to participate in all the prayer services at the church,” says Mary Jeffcoat, director of development at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, S.C. “They eat in a room adjacent to the refectory where the monks eat. ”

Overlooking the Cooper River, the abbey grounds afford a pastoral setting for meditation and reflection. Half of the day, 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., is spent in silence. For details, call (843) 761-8509 or log on to www.mepkinabbey.org.

More to explore

Wigwam Village #2, Cave City, Ky.

Built in 1937, this semi-circle of 15 concrete teepees was the second of six such accommodations in the nation. The other remaining operation is on Route 66 in Holbrook, Ariz. All units maintain their original furnishings and are affordably priced at $25 to $65 per night. For details, call (270) 773-3381 or log on to www.wigwamvillage.com.

Shady Dell, Bisbee, Ariz.

If you long for the days of shiny aluminum travel trailers, step back in time where the ’50s are still very much alive. With snazzy appointments such as leopard-print carpeting and glorious black-and-white televisions, you can catch the kitsch that may be missing from your life. Rates start at $35. For details, call (520) 432-3567 or log on to www.theshadydell.com.

Kokopelli’s Cave Bed & Breakfast,

Farmington, N.M.

Become a modern-day cave dweller in this 1,650-square-foot condo hewn 70 feet underground on a cliff overlooking the La Plata River near Mesa Verde National Monument. The one-bedroom digs include a phone. For details, call (505) 326-2461 or log on to www.bbonline.com/nm/kokopelli.

Michael Nolan is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.

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