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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Here is what each zodiac sign would act like:

Aries would constantly change the music and keep hawk-like eyes on whether the driver is observing the speed limit, especially at those sharp turns, while talking all the time. However, if Aries gets the opportunity to sit behind the wheel, they would step on the gas every time a traffic light turns yellow and peek in the rear view mirror to mutter “Suckers!” to all the cars, left behind waiting out the red light.

Taurus is taking a nap in the back, because they have taken care of everything before leaving the house. Taurus gets anxious if someone is late and is brought to tears of horror if the guide book happens to be forgotten. Of course, this would never happen to the neat and efficient Taurus.

Gemini is sitting behind Aries, trying to change the radio station, to get the party started with a favorite track. Long before arriving at the destination, friendly Gemini has managed to find a friend of a friend of a friend to meet up once there. For the duration of the entire trip, Gemini is talking to everybody (often simultaneously) and is actively participating in everything that is happening in the car.

10 minutes after departure is the longest Cancer can hold off before breaking out a bag of sandwiches and devouring some. They are happy to tell everyone in the car about their new romance, while handing out homemade food. Cancer’s mood is like clockwork – changing precisely every six minutes.

Leo is talking away and over Aries, while trying to tell the story of his last epic road trip. They watch over everyone’s good time and gracefully guide the conversation to their own favorite topics, if one of the other zodiac signs happens to deviate. Leo insists on sitting behind the wheel and decides when the breaks should be because who could possibly know better?!

Capricorn and Virgo have their noses stuck in the map and are trying to calculate the most efficient route. They are taking turns behind the wheel, and whoever is not driving, takes the place of a scrutinous observer. As Virgo is taking a break from driving, he/she is busy wondering what has been forgotten at home, while picking up all the empty beer bottles and twinkie wrappers that are rolling around the floor of the car. Order must be restored!

Libra is chatting up everyone in the car, while using their phone to find fun places to visit at the group’s destination. Libra can also be spotted decorating the car, if they haven’t already taken care of that before departure.

Scorpio has a hat and sunglasses on and is enjoying some blissful relaxation. When they grow bored with that, they whip out a humongous camera and take portraits of everyone in the car.

Sagittarius is simultaneously talking into a phone and chatting up Gemini. Of course that cannot stop them from gawking out the window and insisting on a break every time something on the road seems even remotely interesting.

Capricorn insists on driving, taking control over the music and stopping for stretch breaks. Every now and then they provide the other passengers with “fun facts”, such as how long they have been driving for, how many hours they have left and the location of the next gas station along the way.

Aquarius keeps coming up with games to pass the time, or provides their companions with a painfully detailed review of the last book they have read. If Aquarius happens to hear a favorite track on the radio, they attempt to burst everyone’s eardrums by turning up the music, and starts dancing in the car.

Pisces are quietly sitting in the backseat, with headphones and a stare buried deep into the scenery. Pisces might also take a nap if they feel like it. But once awake, nothing can stop the entire car from bowling over with laughter – Pisces are stand-up comedy talents! Still, half the zodiac signs are unsure whether they should laugh at the jokes or take them personally. Pisces has forgotten half their things at home, but that’s perfectly fine, because everyone has already agreed to lend them something.

The post If the 12 zodiac signs travel in the same car… appeared first on 203Challenges.

A friendship forged on the road

Courtesy of The Tragic Traveller

I expected my first ever hitchhiking trip to be fun and provide an interesting story, but I didn’t expect it to be life-changing. It was.

My plan was to thumb it directly from Guča festival in southern Serbia to Sofia, Bulgaria, where I was hoping to buy a cheap car and embark on a European road trip. After two luckless hours in the baking sun my patience was waning, until an unassuming hero named Vesko picked me up in his trusty (air-conditioned!) Mitsubishi steed. Vesko not only drove me all the way to Sofia, but then invited me to stay with him and his family in their beautiful house. The family fed, boozed and sheltered me, and even helped me buy the Citroen that would eventually take me to England and back.

Fast-forward seven months and I found myself standing outside the Bulgarian embassy in London, dressed in a borrowed suit and preparing to perform the best man duties at Vesko’s wedding. Now, several years on, I’ve visited Vesko and his family in Sofia too many times to count and, exactly a year from now, will become godfather to his first-born son on the day little Lubtcho turns three.

Nick Johns-Wickberg from The Tragic Traveller (Facebook)

Puppy with a catch in Slovakia

Courtesy of Girl Astray

In the summer of 2016, I was hitchhiking to a hippie festival in Slovakia when a car pulled over and offered to drive me to the next city. It was a man with the cutest puppy ever, which I got to hold on my knees for the ride. It was one of those huge white shepherd breeds – the dog was about three months old, but was growing fast! He was white and fluffy and was destined to guard his owners’ workshop when he was fully grown. There was, however, a catch to his cuteness. It was the first solo trip for the puppy and he was obviously feeling car sick: after a few hairpin bends on the road, the car filled with a putrid smell. We stopped and examined the snow-white fur, but fortunately, they were just farts. We rode the rest of the way with the windows down while the pup whined a little each time he let his noxious gas escape.

Karin from Girl Astray (Facebook/Instagram) 

Getting from Tripiti port to Ouranoupolis, Greece

Courtesy of The Magic of Traveling

Fruit and fish pick-up truck in Belize

Courtesy of Becky the Traveller

Whilst in Belize, I stayed in a cute (although a bit strange) little town called Crooked Tree. The town was 3 miles from the main bus route down a dirt track. My guesthouse had offered to drop me at the bus stop but as we were leaving decided to charge me $15 for the short journey. Since they overcharged me a kayak hire on a lake with no water, I declined to give them any extra money.

So with my heavy backpack in the middle of the day (it was about 40C/104F), I started walking to find a good hitchhiking spot. I was now thinking maybe I should have just paid! But after 10 minutes I reached the main road out of town and saw a pick-up truck. He stopped and I jumped into the back. There wasn’t much room as it was full of boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables – and some fish! But hey, it was a free lift. And the breeze was amazing as we whizzed along the bumpy dirt road.

Becky Angell from Becky the Traveller (Facebook/Instagram) 

A truck roller coaster experience in Cambodia

Courtesy of Curls and Coconuts Blog

A hot summer day. Or since it is Cambodia and the summer is eternal I should just say: a regular tropical day. Me and him standing on the road – sunburned faces licked by the heat, scarfs around heads, a big sign reading “Rattanakiri” in my hands. We drew it 5 minutes ago with the watercolor pencils whose main purpose is always the same – to create hitchhiking signs.

15 minutes on the side of the quiet road and there it is – the first vehicle. A huge, roaring truck. As trucks usually do, it stops in the middle of the Cambodian heat to take the weird looking boy and girl. On the front seats – three men and a woman. Wide smiley faces. They know no English and we know no Khmer. But one thing is clear – they like the watercolor sign and they are going to our destination. Moreover, they have space for 30 hitchhikers in the carriage on the back of the truck. Before we know it we are enjoying a free roller coaster experience, conveniently hidden from the noon sun.

This hitchhiking trip was one to remember – starting with travelling in an open-air carriage and ending with a lunch stop with our friendly hosts at a local restaurant. A fresh coconut, please!

Maria from Curls and Coconuts (Facebook)

Canada is not as big as you think

Hitchhiking in the Rockies | Courtesy of A Broken Backpack

I’ve accumulated many cool hitchhiking stories over the years! But my favorite by far was in the Canadian Rockies. My friend and I were pretty keen on going to Calgary Stampede. An old man picked us up. He was going all the way to Calgary, so it was a win-win. He told us about his wife and how they fell in love. This man was lovely and super interesting. He asked us what was our plan in Calgary and we told him about the stampede, which is a big rodeo event. It turned out his wife had free tickets that she wasn’t planning on using. He said he could actually go home to pick up the tickets and then drive us to the stampede.

Normally I would have said no, but we had a good feeling about this. We met his wife, we had a snack at their place and then we left for the stampede with free tickets in our hands. He was a bit worried we wouldn’t be able to find a ride back later on that night and gave us his business card so we could call him if we were desperate for a lift later, but in the end we didn’t need to call him. However, the best part of this experience was still to come!

Two weeks later, we were hitchhiking in another direction altogether. We were in the middle of a pretty remote town in British Columbia when an old lady started yelling at us. We were wondering what was going on and then she ran in our direction to talk to us. It was his wife. She recognized us and they invited us for lunch. What were the chances of seeing them again in another Canadian province! Bless them!

Melissa Giroux from A Broken Backpack (Facebook/Instagram)

The hitchhiking grannies in Bulgaria

Hitchhiking in the mountains of Bulgaria | ©Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

As much as I love hitchhiking, I also enjoy earning good karma by picking up hitchhikers when I’m driving. One of my favorite such stories happened when I was in a small town in the mountains of Bulgaria, struggling to find the road to a nearby mountain lodge.

While I was wondering whom to ask for directions, I saw three grannies waving by the roadside. I stopped to ask them, only to realize that they were actually hitchhiking, not waving, and in mere seconds all of them had already crammed into my car. It turned out they owned potato fields high in the mountains and they hitchhiked every single day to get there and take care of the crop. One of them took a particular shining to me and spent the whole journey trying to set me up with her grandson – with the aim of marrying me off to him, of course!

When I stopped to let them out, another threw a banknote into the car and dashed away. At my perplexed look, the third granny explained that the runaway hitchhiker had just received news of a newborn grand-grandson that morning and wanted me to drink a coffee to his health. So I did. Then I called my mom and told her that obviously hitchhiking is not as dangerous as she thinks – after all, these three ladies do it every day and they’ve reached a ripe old age!

Maria from 203challenges.com (Facebook/Pinterest)

Warm meeting during the cold winter in Sorrento

Winter. It was getting dark. My husband and I were near the railway station of Sorrento, Italy, not even on the outskirts of the city, trying to catch a ride to Naples. My hands were buried in warm black gloves and nobody could see I was hitchhiking, so I decided to take them off. But then my hands turned blue from the cold, like a real-life Facebook “like” button. We spent more than an hour waiting in the cold, until finally an elderly couple stopped and picked us and immediately offered us some candies. They spoke only Italian, while we didn’t speak a word, so our conversation consisted entirely of gestures and mimicry. When we reached our destination, we took their address and later sent a small present to our saviors.

Ivalina from 203challenges.com (Facebook/Pinterest)

Hitchhiking with my mom

Hitchhiking with my mom | 203challenges.com

My mom and I were on a vacation in a small village in the Rhodopes Mountains in Bulgaria and had to get to a bigger town, Smolyan, 30 mi (50 km away). It was Saturday and there were no public buses running to our destination, so we hopped on a bus to the next village where, the locals swore, there was some kind of transport going to our destination. After having arrived in this other village, we were approached by a local elderly man who informed us that there were actually no buses for the next few hours. “So, let’s hitchhike,” my mom said (my mom is not the kind of person who would usually say this, so I was pretty surprised and amused). She raised a thumb by the road while I was taking photos of her. No car stopped. Then we swapped roles and I managed to stop the local bread delivery truck. It turned out that the driver had seen us in the first village and, with a slightly offended tone, asked us why we didn’t ask him to give us a lift. All the way I was holding a box of eggs so they didn’t break. The best part: when we hopped out of the truck, our suitcases smelled like freshly baked bread!

Marina from 203challenges.com (Facebook/Pinterest)

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Here’s a list of funny quotes from both sides – see in which one you’ll recognize yourself

Camping-hating quotes

1. Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business. – Dave Barry

2. It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent. – Dave Barry

3. Is that weird, taking my Louis Vuitton bag camping? – Jessica Simpson

4. In a well-ordered universe… camping would take place indoors. – Morgan Matson

5. The normal storyline of a horror film or a slasher film is the young, beautiful college folks go camping and get systematically killed by the person in a mask. So that’s how it normally is. – John Schneider

6. Anna had read books about people in the cities going camping. They would leave their comfortable homes and beds and deliberately sleep in tents, on the ground, then cook their food outside over an open fire instead of in a well-stocked kitchen. She couldn’t imagine something so ridiculous. – Gail Sattler

7. How is it that one match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire? – Christy Whitehead

8. I got into an argument with a girlfriend inside of a tent. That’s a bad place for an argument, because then I tried to walk out and slammed the flap. How are you supposed to express your anger in this situation? Zipper it up really quick? – Mitch Hedberg

9. Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong. – George Carlin

10. Donating blood, one mosquito at a time. – Unknown

11. Camping: the art of getting closer to nature while getting farther away from the nearest cold beverage, hot shower, and flush toilet. – Unknown

12. I don’t always move to the other side of the campfire but when I do, the smoke follows me. – Unknown

Camping-loving quotes

13. Camping is not a date; it’s an endurance test. If you can survive camping with someone, you should marry them on the way home. – Yvonne Prinz

14. Whatever form it takes, camping is earthy, soul enriching and character building, and there can be few such satisfying moments as having your tent pitched and the smoke rising from your campfire as the golden sun sets on the horizon – even if it’s just for a fleeting moment before the rain spoils everything. – Pippa Middleton

15. The stars were better company anyway. They were very beautiful, and they almost never snored. – David Eddings

16. Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. – Edward Abbey

17. And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling. – Shanti

18. Of all the paths you take in life make sure a few of them are dirt – John Muir

19. A great many people, and more all the time, live their entire lives without ever once sleeping out under the stars. – Alan S. Kesselheim

20. Time camping is not spent, it’s invested. – Unknown

21. Life begins when you start saying “Yes”. – Unknown

22. There’s no wi-fi in the mountain but you’ll find a better connection. – Unknown

23. I don’t need a therapist. I go camping often. – Unknown

>>> Discover more thematic collections of travel quotes.

>>> Read our favorite 7 camping recipes ready in under 10 minutes

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On the other hand, if you plan to hitchhike in Sicily you’re in for a few helpful hints!

#1 Sometimes, hitchhiking is your only choice

As two girls, we weren’t planning to hitchhike in Sicily. Of course, we hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that in Italy, the term “national holiday” usually means “no trains”*. If you don’t have a car but you have an overwhelming desire to get from the town of Noto to Modica – the chocolate capital of Sicily – your fate is predestined and you’ll soon find yourself by the roadside.

* “No trains” is a collective term for “no trains, no buses, and nowhere to even rent a motorbike”.

#2 Nobody hitchhikes in Sicily, but that shouldn’t put you off

The first thing you’ll realize is that there aren’t any other hitchhikers on the side of the road in Sicily. In fact, many locals told us not to hitchhike because it was dangerous. This was perfect. On one hand, we are fearless in the face of the danger. On the other hand, our livers are already damaged beyond repair, so we doubted that anyone would risk much to take them from us…

#3 Sicilian roads aren’t as direct as you might expect

Sicily has just a few major roads, and many of the island’s towns are connected only by a spiderweb of secondary roads. That means instead of straight stretches, you’ll probably have to hitchhike in sections. We were standing by the road, the epitome of perfect hitchhikers (wide smiles, freshly showered etc.), and every fifth car stopped, but unfortunately nobody was going to our destination (only 25 miles away). Some cars even broke traffic rules to come and see if they could help. Others offered to take us to other destinations, but there’s not much you can say to take a woman’s mind off chocolate!

#4 Sometimes you have to change your plan

At the end of the day, hitchhiking is all about luck. After 30 minutes baking in the sun, we finally decided that we would swim naked in chocolate fountains some other time. Instead, we decided to head for the beach 6 miles away and swim there, rather than spending the day by the road.

#5 (For hitchhiking girls) Sicilian men may seem pushy, but they aren’t disrespectful

Two lads – local lemon farmers – picked us up and drove us to the beach. They went out of their way to take us there, even though it was a work day for them and they were heading to the plantation. One of them was happy to socialize (Why are you in Sicily? Why do you hitchhike? Where do you sleep? Don’t you want me to host you – I have soooo much space and my mamma will cook a feast for you…). At the last offer my friend dialed the number of the police on her phone and prepared to call it if necessary. No, we have a hotel room and no, we don’t know if we’ll be free tonight. Although the guys tried their chances, they weren’t disrespectful or intimidating in any way. When we reached the coast they still offered to come and pick us up from the beach in the afternoon, seeing as there were no buses or taxis to take us home. We thanked them politely and got out of the car. But, of course, we told the boys to thank their hospitable mothers for their generous offers!

# Extra tip: stick to the basics

Sticking to the universal rules of hitchhiking works in Sicily: smile, be neat, and choose spots where the drivers can conveniently pull over. If you are girls in dresses, like us, don’t forget to bring your backpacks so you don’t get mistaken for ladies of, let’s say, another profession …

Read more: 9 real hitchhiking stories that will make you laugh and cry

7 unusual things to do in Sicily

Featured image: © Maria Angelova/ 203challenges

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