Sleep in a cave, a lighthouse or a tree, and know beforehand what the night will be like.

Some nights are the whole trip: a whitewashed cave in Guadix, a working lighthouse in Cudillero, the entire sky from a bed in La Mancha, or a Benedictine cloister once the day visitors have gone. This page brings together the unusual places to stay in Spain that we have checked one by one on their own websites: what they are, what it is really like to sleep in each, and what you should know before paying for a night that almost always costs more than an ordinary hotel.

Caves: cool in August, mild in January

The cave is the most comfortable unusual stay, and the one with the fewest surprises. On the Granada high plateau people have lived underground for centuries, and Guadix town council gives its caves a steady 18 to 20 °C all year. That means in July, with 38 °C outside, you step in and can breathe, and in winter a wood stove is enough. In Guadix you have Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, a short walk from the cathedral and from €69 a night; in Alcudia de Guadix, the nineteen caves of Tío Tobas, from €85; and in El Bejarín, Abuelo José, with a hammam and from €80, with a two-night minimum.

Further north, the Cuevas de Bardenas in Valtierra make a base for the Navarrese desert, and Las Colmenas Rurales rents four cave houses in the old town of Alcalá del Júcar. All are complete apartments with their own bathroom and kitchen. What you should know: light comes in only through the façade, so the back bedroom is dark even at midday, and in some villages the access streets are narrow for a car. They work very well for families, and several accept dogs for a supplement.

Bubbles and cubes: the sky above you, and the heat too

A bubble is a transparent plastic room inflated with air, with a double bed, climate control and a plot enclosed by hedges so that nobody can see you. You are paying for the sky, so the night depends on the moon and the clouds. In the province of Girona, Mil Estrelles has ten, each with its own bathroom, and sells the astronomy session separately. In Ciudad Real, Zielo Las Beatas starts at €160, and in Tírig, in the Maestrat, Zielo de Levante showed rates of €222 to €460 depending on the day in its booking engine. In the Bardenas, the Hotel Aire de Bardenas combines design cubes with a 25 m² bubble suite with an open-air bathtub.

Las Beatas itself warns that the temperature inside can swing on extreme nights. In high summer the sun comes in early and strong; Aire de Bardenas provides an eye mask and earplugs and offers an awning at dawn. The best dates are spring and autumn, around the new moon. Almost all are for two adults: children fit in little or not at all.

Treehouses: climbing up with your rucksack

You sleep four to seven metres up, in a cabin on a platform or hung from a trunk, and reach it by a walkway or a ladder. In the Montseny, the sixteen cabins of Cabanes als Arbres, from €159 with breakfast for two, have no electricity: battery light, a dry toilet and a shower in the farmhouse, and breakfast comes up in a basket on a rope. It only accepts children from 10 and does not accept dogs. In the Lozoya valley, an hour from Madrid, Monte Holiday has family cabins with a toilet and a minimal nest without a bathroom, and accepts dogs in one of them.

Think about the ladder at night and the shared bathroom: with children, a cabin with railings is an adventure; with a lot of luggage, a nuisance.

Lighthouses: two rooms and the sea

Habitable lighthouses are few and small, which is why they fill up before anything else. The Faro de Cudillero, still in service, has two lofts for two people, from €190 to €450 with breakfast; its calendar opens almost two years ahead, and weekends and August go fast. In Ribadeo, the Faro Isla Pancha rents two apartments for four on an islet joined by a bridge; by day its bar is open to the public and the islet fills up, at night it is yours. Pets are not allowed. At Cape Finisterre, the Hotel O Semáforo has six rooms, from €99 for the smallest; in fog the foghorn sounds.

Monasteries and castles: the monument after closing time

Here the oddity is not the room but the hour: when the monument closes to the public, you are still inside. At the Parador de Cardona, from €104 without breakfast, the courtyard and ramparts of the castle dating from AD 886 are left to guests from 17:30 in winter; Saturdays sell out weeks ahead and dogs are not allowed. In Ourense, the Parador de Santo Estevo sleeps you in the cells of a monastery with three cloisters, from €119, and closes from 3 January to 1 March 2027. The list is completed by the castle at Sigüenza, the guesthouse of Guadalupe monastery, with the 2026 to 2027 Jubilee Year filling the weekends, and the Castell de Vallgornera, ten rooms next to Peralada from €250, with dogs accepted in five of them.

Barrels and refuges: simplicity as the experience

In the Sierra de Aitana, Finca Seguró rents wooden barrels among the vines, from €124 a night for two. They have a 1.80 m bed, climate control and a terrace, but the toilet and shower are shared, a few steps away.

Mountain refuges are the opposite of luxury, which is why they are here. At Urriellu, at the foot of the Naranjo de Bulnes, a bunk costs from €15 for federation members, there are no showers and you can only get there on foot: three and a half hours from Sotres; it is staffed from 15 March to 15 December. Góriz, in Ordesa, is open all year and bookings for 2027 open on 6 January. Altavista, at 3,260 m on Teide, charges €71 a bed at the general rate, serves no meals and is cold even in August: a sleeping bag is compulsory, and bring a fleece.

When to go and how far ahead

Lighthouses and summer refuges: book as soon as the calendar opens. Bubbles: look for a new moon between April and June or in September and October, and avoid July because of the heat inside. Caves: any month, and especially in summer. Castles and monasteries: midweek you will find a price; Saturdays, no. Treehouses call for spring or autumn; in winter they open, but crossing the forest at night to the shower feels long.