In search of the strangest places to spend the night, I’ve contacted a few fellow bloggers and friends and asked them to share with us their most adventurous night’s sleep.

On the rim of an active volcano in Ethiopia

A night by an active volcano, Ethiopia | © Trains, Plains and Tuktuks

The strangest place I’ve spent the night is on the rim of Erta Ale, a volcano in Ethiopia. I hiked up the volcano in the dark. When I got to the crater, my guide said the lava had overflowed three days earlier. I asked, “What happens if it spills again?” His answer: “Run.”

We walked across the newly hardened lava. We watched waves of molten rock crash against the rim. Our shoes melted underneath us. We were close enough that the sparks hit our feet.

All night long, we watched the volcano belch out fire under the starriest sky I’ve ever seen.

Carrie from Trains, Plains and Tuktuks (Facebook/Instagram)

Snowcastle in Finland

Snowcastle in Lapland, Finland | © Worldwide Wendy

My most memorable night in a hotel room goes way back to February 2000. My husband and I stayed in the LumiLinna Snowcastle in Kemi (Finnish Lapland). We booked one night in this magnificent castle where everything is made of ice and snow, even the beds. Two hours before you want to go to bed, you have to contact the reception because it takes some time to heat your reindeer-skin sleeping bag. At night a ‘guard’ checks all the bedrooms every hour to make sure everyone is covered well, because you could freeze to death without your sleeping bag.

The hotel offers a snow restaurant, an art gallery, and even a chapel. If you are looking for a special wedding location, this is the place to be.

I can’t say we slept very well, but it was by far the most special place we ever stayed.

Wendy Maes from Worldwide Wendy (Facebook/Instagram)

Treehouse in Thailand

Treehouse in Thailand | © Positive Impact Journey

With AirBnB launching an entire campaign on treehouses around the globe, I found myself vying to spend a night suspended above the ground and intermingled with trees. Luckily Pai in Northern Thailand gave me the prefect launching point to sleeping in a treehouse.

Nestled into the center of the Pai Treehouse Resort was a gigantic tree housing three private rooms. This was a focal attraction, although most guests chose to stay in the more luxurious villas. After making the rocky climb up with backpacks, the villas seemed fairly appealing. But we were here for the experience. And it’s novel.

While I completely recommend it, the novelty wears off after your first night. It’s similar to wanting to stay on the top bunk when you’re a kid, but dreading maundering up once you’re an adult. Eventually the charm of stunning views and enjoying a unique experience succumbs to the hurdles of climbing a small staircase up a tree and using the toilet wedged between a few branches.

Alexandra Black Paulick from Positive Impact Journey (twitter/Facebook)

Homeless in Luxembourg

Homeless in Luxembourg

“This is happening,” I think to myself, looking for a patch of grass that’s both dry and out of sight of passing cars. I’m in the old town of Luxembourg, and I’m about to become the city’s only homeless person.

This shouldn’t be happening. When I asked for a bed at the city’s only hostel, the grumpy bastard at the desk told me to “Go and do the fucking of oneself” in terrible French. I decided instead to go and do the fucking of someone else, confident that I could charm a local lass into taking me home from a bar. How wrong I was…

Now I’m huddled under a tree in a small park, wrapped in all my clothes to protect against the late-September chill. Using my bag is a pillow I lie dead still, feeling as optimistic as a corpse in a morgue. But as the fitful night passes and I flicker in and out of the dream world, my despair turns into an inexplicable thrill. Somehow I feel free.

Finally the sun rises, warming my shivering bones and revealing the spectacular, fog-shrouded castle looming over the valley below. The view is spectacular, and it’s just for me.

Nick Johns-Wickberg from the Tragic Traveller (Facebook)

The Orangutan Stilt House in the jungle of Indonesia

Courtesy of Liya Panayotova

Spending two months on the islands of Indonesia was a real treat. Among all of the unique places that Indonesia harbors, the island of Kalimantan (also known as Borneo) is the most special. Its dense tropical jungle is one of just two places in the world, inhabited by the mighty orangutan, with whom we share 97% of our DNA. Getting to see wild orangutans is a rare and special experience. One that requires you to venture deep into the jungle, travel down narrow rivers and swampy trails. In the village of Pematang Gedung, an organization called International Animal Rescue, offers this opportunity. I got to spend a night in their stilt house, hidden deep in the jungle, as part of my exploration of Borneo.

We did sleep on the floor, but the hosts provided comfy mats, mosquito nets, and even Hello Kitty pillows, to keep us snug. As a tropical rainstorm poured over the jungle, we went to our stilt-home paradise, and found a few local women preparing a traditional feast. As I drifted off to sleep, hundreds of frogs sung me a lullaby. No party hostel, gorgeous campsite, or lavish hotel could ever compare to becoming one with Borneo, even if it’s for a single evening. And so, my one-night stand with the jungle, turned into love for a lifetime. Hopefully, this story will inspire you to live out your own love affair with Indonesia!

Liya Panayotova from Contrabond Blog (Facebook/Instagram)

Floating bungalow in Thailand

Floating bungalows in Khao Sok National Park, Thailand | ©Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

Since I heard there were floating bungalows in the middle of the jungle in Thailand, I knew a night there would be the highlight of my trip.

It takes more than an hour by boat to get to the bungalows, and I got this ‘end-of-the-world feeling’ when we finally arrived. The surroundings were bursting with life (birds, monkeys, fish) and the sky at night looked like it had been Photoshopped, with ten times more stars than the usual sky. It was very basic inside – only a mattress, two pillows, and a mosquito net. The bungalow kept floating gently in a soothing way… until all those beautiful creatures started their night activities, jumping into the water, chirping and uttering mating cries all night (according to our guide, every weird beast-like sound was insects mating).

Maria from 203challenges.com

Neolithic house in Bulgaria

Neolithic house in Chavdar village, Bulgaria | ©Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

Take a one–hour drive out of the capital, Sofia, and you can travel back 7,000 years in history. The five reconstructed neolithic houses near Chavdar village are not only a museum, but you can actually spend the night in three of them.

They were built with natural materials only (okay, you have one power socket hidden beneath a wooden plank) and you need a ladder to get up to your bed right under the roof. You can mill your own grains in the neolithic installation and you can light a fire in the fireplace, although I didn’t do that because it was a very hot summer night.

Maria from 203challenges.com

Read more: Champing: Sleep in a medieval church in England

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#1 Explore the Viennese coffee culture

Coffee is an inseparable part of the lifestyle in Vienna. The city’s coffee culture has even been added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, where Viennese coffee houses are described as places

“where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill”.

There are some cafés in the city that, aside from serving amazing coffee, can also tell some interesting stories. One of them is Bräunerhof café (Stallburggasse 2). In the last century, it was a literary café whose bohemian spirit attracted many young writers and artists – including the famous Austrian poet and novelist Thomas Bernhard. It is also home to one of the biggest collections of old newspapers in the country.

Another one worth visiting is Café Frauenhuber – the oldest coffee house in Vienna, as well as the place where Mozart had his last public performance. The café, located in Himmelpfortgasse 6, was actually a favorite haunt of the legendary Austrian composer.

Café Frauenhuber

#2 Drink coffee like an Italian

Nowhere is coffee as much of a cult as it is in Italy. As such, there are certain rules that must be followed, which should be well examined before setting off on the adventure of drinking coffee like a local. Here are the basics:

1. Espresso is simply a technical term – not your order. Neither is anything consisting of more than the one simple word – caffè (a strong shot of espresso).
2. Drink it fast (not more than three gulps) while standing at the bar, having a small chat with the barista.
3. Never order a cappuccino after 10 am.

#3 Take part in a Buna coffee ceremony in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is famous for being the birthplace of coffee and the ceremony of coffee preparation is an important part of its culture. An invitation for such a ceremony is a way to show respect towards the guest. The ceremony itself can last hours, since it includes roasting, grinding and brewing the beans. For brewing, Ethiopians use a special clay pot called a jebena. When the brewing is over, you are served with three cups of dark, bitter coffee.  The ceremony is a social ritual, where sharing and communicating with the people around is as important as the beverage itself.

Coffee beans roasting as part of the Buna ceremony

#4 Visit coffee plantations in Brazil

Brazil is the biggest coffee producer and exporter in the world. Coffee is one of the main sources of income for the country, so it is easy to understand why here the beverage is a lot more than just a drink to wake you up. The most common type of coffee in Brazil is cafezinho – a small cup of filtered black coffee – and is drunk frequently throughout the day, at any possible moment.

While here, you have the unique opportunity to visit one of the many Brazilian plantations and coffee farms. Here you can learn about the coffee-making process from A to Z, from planting to brewing the beans. Many of the big cities like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte offer guided one-day tours to nearby plantations.

#5 Have street coffee in Cambodia

From sidecars on motorbikes and rickshaws, people in Cambodia sell coffee in tied-up plastic bags. Drinking this coffee through a straw is an experience all the coffee lovers out there should try at least once. The coffee is served with ice to create a fresh start to the day for locals, who can often be seen carrying bags of coffee on their motorbikes on the way to work or back home.

#6 Drink coffee brewed on hot sand in Turkey

Coffee plays a big part in everyday life in Turkey, as well as on some special occasions like engagement and marriage. Turkish coffee is unfiltered, thick and strong. The best way to drink it is with some Turkish delight on the side, and the best way to prepare it is on hot sand. That gives the coffee-brewer perfect control over the temperature and is, moreover, spectacular to behold. Some skilled coffee-makers can make the coffee-preparation process into a real show, and turn something as simple as having your morning coffee into the highlight of your day.

#7 Master the skills of frappe-making in Greece

The foam-covered iced drink is a life-saver during the hot summer days in Greece and Cyprus. The drink was invented in 1957 and became a symbol of post-war Greek outdoor coffee culture. Frappe comes from the French word for ‘shaken’ and is best consumed either right on the beach or in a beach bar on a Greek Island. Though the ingredients are only instant coffee, ice cubes and sugar, and the preparation process is quite easy, a few sneak-peeks of how exactly the bartender is doing it might help you master some techniques and come back home with something better than a souvenir – an instant memento in the form of an authentic frappe recipe.

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In 2008, one of her biggest dreams came true when she backpacked from Cape Town to Cairo using public transport, hitchhiking, and couchsurfing for nine months. This adventure is described in her book, Abyssinian Nomad, which inspired us to contact Maski and ask her to tell us about her incredible story. 

>>> Read an excerpt from Maski’s book here. 

– Who is Maskarm and what are her dreams?

Maskarm Haile is a dreamer, a travel junkie, a seeker, a lover of world cultures, people, food, self-discovery, and captivating stories. My dream is to always travel the world to learn and give back along the way.

– As an African traveler in Africa, how is your perspective different?

There have been a few travel books written on Cape to Cairo by non-Africans. And so far only one travel log by South African writer Sihle Khumalo, but none by an African woman traveler. My experience as an African and a woman was totally different from the books and most of the time it was considered wrong and unacceptable.

– What was one thing you didn’t expect to happen during your trip – but it did?

I thought since I’m Ethiopian and spoke Amharic traveling in Ethiopia would be a lot easier, but I was proven wrong. The customs agents thought I was a spy, the only thing that saved me was my tampon that they thought was my spy device.

– Many people dream of crossing Africa overland. What’s your most important piece of advice for them?

If you have a dream to cross Africa, I say you do it. But that dream has to be yours because traveling in Africa tests your faith in your dream. Africa will demand your integrity, by confronting your belief system, physical and emotional strength on a daily basis – sometimes every minute – but reward you with overwhelming untouched natural beauty, wildlife, mountains, vibrant and alive culture, and generous people. But not only that – it also transforms your life.

– What’s your next challenge?

At this point in my life, I’m also trying to check off some of the things I have on my bucket list. One of them is the Trans-Siberian Railway. I hope to learn more about the countries I’ll be crossing (Russia, Mongolia and China) while I make local friends.

– Share something inspiring with everyone reading this!

Trust your dream, nurture it, listen to it – when it whispers, it will become your guiding star.

All photos courtesy of Maskarm Haile.

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