Yunak In The Media > THE NEW YORK TIMES - July 2006

If your idea of a vacation is staying in a Bedouin encampment in the Dubai desert, described by one guest as a "bit scary," or a converted jail in England, where one honeymoon couple said they happily began their "life sentence together," check out the TripAdvisor Web site (www.tripadivisor.com) for its list of the 10 quirkiest hotels in the world.

"We simply looked on the site for all the wackiest-themed, off-the-beaten-track hotels we could find," says Michele Perry, director of communications at TripAdvisor, who with the help of four other editors whittled down the list and then chose the best comments from the site.

No. i is the Ice Hotel in Quebec, which is rebuilt each winter from ice and snow. Last year, it had 34 rooms and themed suites, a bar, an art gallery, sculptures and a chapel.

Travelers with no fear of heights might want to stay at the Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel in Manaus, Brazil (No. 5). Guests sleep 70 feet up in the treetops of the Amazon in a complex connected by catwalks.

Tourists free of claustrophobia can try the Yunak Evleri in Cappadocia, Turkey (No. 8), which has six cave houses connected by a maze of narrow passageways and stone stairways. There's a more open feel at the Wigwam Motel, in Holbrook, Ariz. (No. 7), with its concrete tepees, above. It's a cheap night (average room is $45) set in a 1950's desert town, from the furniture to the vintage cars in the lot.