7 Hotels That Truly Surprise

Note: The following descriptions are illustrative examples of accommodation types – not reviews of specific named properties. Owner details, room counts and occupancy claims are fictional. Bookable options of this kind are available via our travel partners.

A hotel is more than a place to sleep – it is the stage on which the holiday happens. Waking up and looking through the window at something remarkable means you've already won before the day has properly begun. These seven accommodation types have one thing in common: they make the act of arrival itself an experience. No interchangeable hotel architecture.

1. The Fortress Hotel – Mallorca

In the northeast of Mallorca, a former 17th-century defensive fort perches above a small fishing village. The thick stone walls that once withstood pirates now enclose a pool, garden terraces with olive trees and rooms with vaulted ceilings. The location away from the tourist trail makes it a refuge one is reluctant to leave.

2. The Olive Grove Finca – Andalusia

Between Córdoba and Seville, amid 800-year-old olive trees, lies this finca that has been in the same family for generations. Twelve rooms, an outdoor pool and a restaurant that cooks exclusively with its own oil – the breakfast alone justifies the journey. With luck you'll be there during the October harvest and can watch the pressing.

3. The Thatched Resort – Zanzibar

On the northeast coast of Zanzibar, where the coral reef begins just behind the beach, twenty bungalows with Makuti thatched roofs stand directly on the ocean. The resort operates without air conditioning – instead, sea breezes cool naturally through thoughtful architecture. The house's coral protection initiative is not a marketing phrase but lived daily practice: guests can help transplant seedlings into the house reef.

4. The Cliff Hotel – Santorini

Not on the overcrowded Oia cliff, but in the quieter Imerovigli: a boutique hotel carved into the rock with thirteen suites, each looking directly onto the caldera. The pools are set into the terraces so that swimming feels like floating directly above the sea. The owners deliberately forewent a large spa complex and invested instead in exceptional materials and silence.

5. The Lighthouse – Portugal

On Portugal's west coast, on a headland above the Atlantic, a disused 19th-century lighthouse has been converted into a four-room hotel. The owner was a marine biologist and has furnished the house with books, charts and instruments from his earlier career. Those who climb to the gallery in the early morning immediately understand why lighthouse keepers were considered people at peace with the sea.

6. The Mountain Chalet – Dolomites

Above Corvara at 1,800 metres stands this chalet, which in summer belongs to hikers and in winter to skiers – though the house, honestly, prefers summer. The terrace faces directly onto the sheer walls of the Geisler Group, dinner can be delivered as a picnic to one of the surrounding alpine meadows on request, and the wood-fired sauna after a long trail day is one of those things for which one feels genuinely grateful.

7. The Riad – Marrakech

Fifteen minutes' walk from the Djemaa el-Fna, behind an unassuming door in a narrow alley of the Medina: a courtyard with citrus trees, a small fountain and the sound of nothing but water. The best riads in Marrakech feature handcrafted Zellij tiles, furniture from local walnut wood and a personal atmosphere no chain hotel can replicate. Properties like this book up fast – and are easier to find via a specialist travel partner than on your own.