Hi! Welcome to Complete City Guides!
My name is Patrick, I'm originally from Sydney (Australia) but grew up in England (my second home) - and I love exploring cities (and writing about it!)
I work online in marketing, which gives me the opportunity to travel around the world full time.
So while I am away, I keep this blog updated with full travel info. I tend to stay in a city for a few months at a time, to really get to know it - then I write guides on it.
Every big city has cool hostels with a good reputation - but here are hostels that are famous around the world for being very unusual or different. From sleeping in a boat, to converted prisons, these hostels will stay in your memory for a long time if you stay there!
Aydinli Cave Hotel a boutique, family-run guesthouse set in the heart of picturesque old town Goreme in Turkey.
The whole place is carved into a cave - a very unique experience indeed! If I am completely honest, I've never heard of Goreme before but this place makes me want to visit it. Look at the photos on their website!
Caveland is nested in an old 18th century winery. They are situated in the heart of Santorini island in a typical local village called Karterados.In the village you can find well-preserved cave houses, grandmothers sitting in their yards and grandfathers riding their donkeys!
Their complex consists of 8 traditional caves, one historic apartment and numerous sea view terraces with a big pool area and gardens.
It is a little hard to see in the photos, but it is a really cool cave hostel. Check it out!
Clink78 is set in a former courthouse in King’s Cross where Charles Dickens worked and The Clash stood trial!
Stay in one of their many dorm rooms, then hang out with fellow travelers in the TV / Film Lounge in one of the original courtrooms.
This is a lovely looking hostel in Colombia, and is listed here because it is an ex drugs cartel mansion owned by a Santa Marta drug kingpin.
It is something quite unique to stay in a hostel that was home to one of the biggest drug lords in Colombia - Pablo Escobar. Apparently he is known to have stayed in its secret safe house. You can check out some of the secret hiding places, all over the mansion.
Read more about its history here. Their actual website doesn't have much info about their history (maybe they want to move away from that image? But this history makes me want to fly out there to see it, especially after binge watching Narcos on Netflix recently...)
If you are visiting Berlin and want to stay somewhere quite cool, then check out the Eastern Comfort hostel - it is on a boat!
They offer free boat tours with the Capt’n on most weekends.
You can choose between dorm room, a first class, second class or a four bed cabin. Each has a couple of windows, but some have 'portholes' windows! Check out their website, they have many good photos of their hostel.
There are also several other boat hostels around the world (we won't list them all here).
This is a famous hostel in Ljubljana that I remember seeing in some national news articles in the past. It is a short walk from the train station and is set in a former prison.
They have a wide range of rooms (cells), and costs from €17 (ensuite dorm room) / €24 (cell)
Although their tag line on their website is 'Wake up to the best view in Manuel Antonio' (and that might be very true - check out their website for photos), the reason it is listed here is because you can sleep in a plane!
They salvaged a Boeing 727 airframe from its San Jose airport-resting place, which now rests on the edge of a National Park in Costa Rica. It is perched on a 50-foot pedestal where you can see the ocean and enjoy jungle views from the hard wood deck built atop the plane’s former right wing.
I really recommend you check out their website to see more photos if it, it looks beautiful.
This is the world's first Boeing 747-200 Jumbo Jet converted into a hostel - and it is honestly very impressive! It is 6 minutes away from Arlanda airport, and offers 29 rooms with single, two and three bed private rooms or two and four bed dormitories. Most luxurious is to be found on the planes upper deck which boasts an exclusive Cockpit suite with private shower and toilet
We have never stayed there, but it looks really interesting, and has good reviews on Hostelworld.
Kadir's Treehouse is situated in Turkey, and it is one of the coolest hostels you'll ever stay at. They have a few options, like camping. But obviously the reason that it is in this list is because you can stay in a real tree house - a dream for many kids, and now as an adult you can do this!
It costs from 50 Turkish Lira (10 or 11 euros) for a bed in the tree house dorm room.
This is another unique one - underground! It is tunnelled out of the sandstone that surrounds the area.
It is located in the center of the town, and was originally an opal mine from the 1960s, and was converted in the 1980s. Apparently 60% of the residents who live in the town of Coober Pedy also live underground, as it helps to avoid the boiling hot summer temperatures.
This is a really cool hostel in the middle of Sydney. It is in a converted railway carriage on Platform Zero of Central Station.
It is a modern hostel with all the facilities you could want from a HYA hostel. They have 280 beds, so this place is massive.
They have won multiple awards, and I think it would be a very memorable stay in this place.
On their hostelworld booking page they have a warning: "This is not a regular hostel, it's far from it.".
This hostel is run by a guy who calls himself "Zero One". He survived the war in Sarajevo, and decided to create the War Hostel to give a unique historically accurate simulation of war torn Sarajevo, full with authentic items from the war which serve as decorations and run by a small family which survived the war in Sarajevo and is willing to share their war experience and personal stories with you.
There are some prison hostels in this list, but they look like a bit of a novelty. This hostel seems pretty intense!
If you book a room there, you will sleep on a bomb shelter bed, covering yourself with a real military blanket used in the war. You will use candles in the bathroom and shower.
The hostel is designed for solo travelers, couples and small groups, because we organize many activities on a daily basis where you can easily meet other people, socialize and educate yourself.
Go check out their website to see some great photos of the hostel (or on Hostel World they also have lots of photos) - it looks really interesting! Rates for a dorm room bunk start at 10 Euros per person (and 30 Euros for 2 people in a double private room).
Have you stayed in an interesting hostel? Let us know, we will add it to the list!
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Hi! I'm Patrick! I love travelling, and has been travelling most of the year for over 10 years now. Now I share my trips, tricks and advice here on CompleteCityGuides.com.
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I'm an Australian who has lived in Europe for most of my life. I work online, travelling with my laptop, working online and exploring cities for months at a time.
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