Not Your Average Bed and Breakfast

Plastic, green motel room keychain. The keychain has a whale's tail illustration at the top, the words "The Whale's Tail Inn" on it and the room number 328. There is also a circle stamp at the bottom that says "property of Whalebone B&B management".

A guide to some of the more out-there B&Bs on the planet

A place to sleep and a place to eat the most important meal of the day. No wonder they’ve been around for so long. Since the 1800s, people have been staying in B&Bs all over the globe, and they’re only getting wackier. Always wanted to sleep in a treehouse? Ever dreamed of waking up to llamas outside your window? These exist. Let’s take a tour of some of the zanier bed and breakfasts out there. Breakfast is served.

Kokopelli’s Cave

Farmington, New Mexico | $290-350 a night

Skip this one if you’re claustrophobic. Located in a cave cut into the side of a cliff 300 feet above a river valley, Kokopelli’s is one daredevil of a bed and breakfast. There’s just the one—what do we call it, an apartment?—but the bathroom has a Jacuzzi. A Jacuzzi in a cave.

Whalebone’s Rating: 1,700 (square feet of #cavelife)

A table setting in a fancy dinning room. The chairs pushed into the table have ornate carvings at the top, fancy drink glasses cover the table, and formal place settings are in front of each chair. The walls are covered in decorative wallpaper and decorative curtains adorn the windows in the back. The photo has been edited to have a white and pink color overlay.

Alexander Mansion

Winona, Minnesota | $150-200 a night

If you’re looking to take breakfast to the next level, this one’s for you. Not only does Alexander Mansion offer a four-course breakfast, but Winona is known as the “Miami of Minnesota.” From arts to historic sights, you will not be bored. Or hungry.

Whalebone’s Rating: 4 stars (one for each course)

Overhead shot of a table setting with fancy glasses filled with light colored liquids. A silver platter holds some glasses, a wine cork, and an open pomegranate.

Mont Rest Inn

Bellevue, Iowa | $179-230 a night

Themed dinner and a show, anyone? At Mont Rest Inn, the meals are themed and you are the character. With costumes, photo ops, champagne toasts, and four-course meals, would you like to be part of The Great Gatsby or an Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery? Break a leg and an egg.

Whalebone’s Rating: An encore

A cutout image of a lighthouse surrounded by rocks. A small path leads up to the lighthouse in between the piles on rocks. The photo has been edited to have a green and white colored overlay.

A Little Inn on Pleasant Bay

Cape Cod, Massachusetts | Around $400 a night

The name almost says it all. Since 1798, this inn has been little and pleasant. And for a while, it was a hiding place for those chasing freedom, traveling the Underground Railroad. A Little Inn with a significant impact.

Whalebone’s Rating: On a scale of unpleasant to pleasant, pleasant

A large dome house with a rectangular addition attached at it's side. The house has a large wooden staircase leading up to the second floor and a long wooden ramp lines the ground around the house. A tiny white dog lays in the grass outside surrounded by skinny trees.

Denali Dome Home

Healy, Alaska | $265-333

Next time you find yourself at Denali National Park in Alaska, pop on over to the Denali Dome Home, appropriately named due to its funky circular shape. Dare we say, like a dome. Family-owned and operated, they offer made-to-order breakfasts every morning. Fresh fruit, fresh eggs, and we hear Terry’s halibut is unmatched. P.S., if your goal in life is to see a moose, this is a solid option.

Whalebone’s Rating: 5 stars. But you’ll see more than that if you look up

Outdoor bathing area that has a row of claw-foot bathtubs and Adirondack chairs next to each other. There's a stone wall behind the tubs that has candles lining the bottom. Behind the short wall is a hill with a horse standing on it.

Two horses bending over to eat grass. The camera angle is on the ground looking up at the horses so their faces are very close to the camera and their bodies further away.

Cherry Wood Bed, Breakfast, and Barn

Zillah, Washington | $500/ 2 nights

Two nights in a teepee is more impactful than you’d think.Cherry Wood Bed, Breakfast and Barn is a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing horses. And when you stay, you can ride those horses, not just anywhere, but on an orchard and winery tour. Not to mention the Twilight Tubs—go ahead, take an end-of-day soak in a clawfoot tub under the stars. This one sounds pretty ideal.

Whalebone’s Rating: 30/30 (for all the horses saved)

Treehouses stacked between trees in the middle of a forest. There are cables and hanging bridges connecting the houses to others. On the ground you can see a large a-frame building, a shed, and patios.

Out ‘n’ About Treesort

Cave Junction, Oregon | $50-360 (depending on room and season)

Fulfill your childhood dreams of living in a treehouse. Swinging bridges 32 feet off the ground. Tire swings. Rope swings. Themed treehouses of all heights. Highly recommend listening to the Tarzan soundtrack whilst on this getaway. Scared of heights? There is one treehouse on the ground. Cabin. That one’s a cabin. You should probably still play Phil Collins’ greatest album.

Whalebone’s Rating: 47/50 (feet tall)

A ceramic bowl with a handle sticking off the side of it. Inside the bowl is a fried egg on top of pile of shredded food and squares of bread. The photo has been altered with a pink colored overlay.

Starlight Llama Bed and Breakfast

Cutout head and neck of a white llama. It's ears are sticking straight up and is staring straight ahead.

Northampton, Massachusetts | $120/night

The sun don’t shine in the shade. Starlight Llama is the first ever off-the-grid, solar-powered bed and breakfast. On conserved land, your breakfast is made entirely of fresh foods from the farm surrounding your stay. Along with the pleasant surprise of seeing a llama or donkey outside your window. In the morning, the donkey’s making waffles.

Whalebone’s Rating: 10/10 (for helping the environment)

The Boot

Tasman, New Zealand | $265/night (that’s New Zealand dollars)

Looking pretty damn similar to the one from the old English nursery rhyme, this B&B is, in fact, in the shape of a boot and just as cozy as you might be thinking. Fresh breakfast is delivered to your door each morning from the owners of Jester House Cafe—now a local Tasman icon. Judy and Steve serve breakfast upright, with their Portugese Tarts being a specialty. There was an old lady who lived in a shoe. That old lady could be you.

Whalebone’s Rating: A lot of sole

Large 1950's ship tied to posts along the bank of the water. The ship had port hols lining the sides and a tall metal tower in the middle of it with a light at the top. The photo has a pink colored overlay on top of it.

Lightship Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands | £290/night

If you’re staying in this one, don’t bring any bananas. Climb aboard the retired Lightship Amsterdam for a stay on the 1950s vessel. Better than the bunks of past sailors, the ship’s old storage room is now a rather luxurious and far more spacious room for two. You don’t have to walk far for a view: Head to the bow for some bubbly and a waterfront lookout. Breakfast is served daily, but they encourage you to explore the city for the rest of your meals. All aboard.

Whalebone’s Rating: Two, six, heave

Cutout image of a stone building; the left side is square shaped and has 4 windows on the outside and a chimney sticked out of it, on the right side is a stone archway leading to a driveway with a car parked underneath it. Overtop of the archway is a tangle of branches coming from a tree.

The Old Lockup

Matlock, England | £95/night

Ideal for the history buffs and Jane Austen fans, this bed and breakfast used to be the house of the town magistrate way back in the 1840s. Each room holds a vast amount of history no matter which you get—the magistrate’s, the solicitor’s, the hayloft or the coachman’s room. Tim knows his way around a meal, with breakfast and dinner options made fresh to order, but if you’re in the mood for something else, you’re a short walk from the countryside that inspired Pride and Prejudice. Distance is nothing when one has a motive.

Whalebone’s Rating: 182 (for the years it’s been standing)