[imagesource: Bubble Tent]

We won’t be able to travel overseas for a while, so when you do get a chance to hop a plane and explore new lands, you may as well go all out.

If you aren’t backpacking (and those of us over the age of 30 probably won’t be), then finding a hotel is your first job after booking those plane tickets.

You have two options in that regard. Find somewhere with room service and a valet, or find something unique which comes complete with a great story to tell while you bore your friends with the snaps on your phone when you return.

When it comes to Instagram-worthy places to stay, Forbes has a list of some of the weirdest and most whimsical hotels in the world.

Here’s our pick of the top five:

Elewana Collection’s Tarangire Treetops – Tanzania

Image: Elewana Collection

Located above the trees, the Elewana Collection Tarangire Treetops allow guests to watch the wildlife, which includes giraffes and elephants, from above. The luxury treehouses are located in the sixth largest national park in Tanzania.

If you always wanted a treehouse as a kid, this is a great way to live out that fantasy in style.

Ice rooms at Hoshino Resorts’ Tomamu Ice Hotel – Japan 

Image: Hoshino Resorts

I am averse to the cold, so this wouldn’t be my first choice, but if you’d like to catch your shut-eye in a warming sleeping bag in a room created from ice, be my guest.

Just make sure that you have some slippers handy and a warm coat if you want to go to the bathroom.

Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort – Thailand

Image: Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort

This is pretty cool. You can watch elephants up close from the safety of your own personal bubble tent.

Bubble tents appear to be gaining popularity as a great way to experience nature.

If you find yourself in Australia, and enjoy looking up at the night sky, you can book into Bubble Tent in Capertee Valley (the world’s second-largest canyon), which comes complete with an ensuite bathroom plus outdoor terrace and fireplace.

Image: Bubble Tent

Natural Selection Shipwreck Lodge – Namibia

Image: Natural Selection

If you’re heading to Namibia (or ‘Nambia’ as Donald Trump calls it), you can sleep among the sand dunes at Natural Selection’s Shipwreck Lodge.

The accommodations are designed to look like one of the 20th-century shipwrecks that line the country’s Skeleton Coast.

Manta Resort – Tanzania

Image: African Travel Inc.

Sleeping under the ocean seems like a great way to explore without getting wet. Think of this place as your own private aquarium.

One more thing – don’t propose while underwater, outside of your room. The last person who tried that…well, let’s just say it didn’t end well.

Yosemite Pines RV Resort – America

Image: Yosemite Pines RV Resort

This isn’t my vibe, in the same way that staying in a Voortrekker wagon wouldn’t be my first pick of accommodation.

That said, if living your best American pioneer life is what you want to do, you might enjoy the stationary covered wagons in the Yosemite Pines RV Resort.

Each wagon is air-conditioned and can sleep up to six people, so you can take the family along.

Glamping at its most historical.

That’s a wrap. Who needs a hotel with room service when you can sleep in a wagon?

[source:forbes]