# Unusual places to stay in Spain Caves, lighthouses, bubbles under the stars, treehouses, wine barrels, mountain refuges and castles in Spain: what the night is like, what it costs and when to go. Fuente: https://www.geocalia.com/en/themes/unusual-places-to-stay-in-spain · Revisado: 2026-11-13 Países: Spain ## Destinos de esta zona - [Cudillero](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/asturias/cudillero.md): Colourful houses hanging above a small harbour. You can see it in an afternoon and enjoy it at dusk. - [Cabrales](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/asturias/cabrales.md): What to do in Cabrales: the cheese cave at Arenas, the Bulnes funicular, cheese dairies with caves at Sotres, the route to Urriellu and where to sleep by the Cares. - [Ordesa Valley](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/aragon/ordesa-valley.md): A glacial canyon with thousand-metre walls, beech forests and waterfalls at every turn. You can see it in a day, enjoy it in two and it begs a return in autumn. - [Besalú](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/catalonia/besalu.md): A county town with the most photographed fortified Romanesque bridge in Catalonia, a Jewish quarter with a synagogue and ritual bath, and the volcanic Garrotxa twenty minutes away. Half a day for the town, a weekend with the surroundings. - [Cardona](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/catalonia/cardona.md): A town in the Bages with a mountain of salt you visit from the inside, 86 m underground, and a 9th-century castle turned Parador. One day for the two visits; a night if you sleep in the fortress. - [Montseny](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/catalonia/montseny.md): The highest massif of the pre-coastal range, a natural park and biosphere reserve, with beech and fir forests an hour and a half from Barcelona. Santa Fe is the best-known gateway. - [Peralada](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/catalonia/peralada.md): A medieval town in the Alt Empordà with a castle, a Carmelite convent turned into a wine and glass museum and a winery among the vines. Figueres is ten minutes away. - [Costa da Morte](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/galicia/costa-da-morte.md): Cape and lighthouse of Fisterra, the Muxía sanctuary, the O Ézaro waterfall and the Vilán lighthouse, an hour and a quarter from Santiago and A Coruña. - [Ribadeo and As Catedrais Beach](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/galicia/ribadeo-and-as-catedrais.md): How to book As Catedrais for free and what time to go according to the tide, boats on the Ribadeo estuary, Rinlo and its lobster rice, and where to sleep on the Mariña lucense. - [Ribeira Sacra and the Sil canyon](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/galicia/ribeira-sacra.md): A catamaran along the Sil canyon, tastings at Doade, the Balcones de Madrid and Monforte de Lemos, an hour from Lugo and Ourense. What to book and where to eat on Sunday. - [Lozoya Valley: Rascafría, El Paular and Peñalara](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/community-of-madrid/lozoya-valley.md): Rascafría, the El Paular monastery, the Purgatorio waterfall and the Laguna Grande de Peñalara, an hour and a quarter from Madrid. - [Sigüenza](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/castilla-la-mancha/siguenza.md): A medieval town of rust-coloured stone between a castle-parador and a fortress cathedral, an hour and a half from Madrid. What to see, where to eat on a Sunday and how to get there. - [Alcalá del Júcar](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/castilla-la-mancha/alcala-del-jucar.md): Whitewashed houses climbing a crag in a bend of the Júcar, caves running through it, a castle and canoes on the river. An hour from Albacete. - [Lagunas de Ruidera](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/castilla-la-mancha/lagunas-de-ruidera.md): Fifteen turquoise lagoons linked by waterfalls between Ciudad Real and Albacete: kayaking, walks, the Cueva de Montesinos and where to eat and sleep. - [Teide National Park](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/canary-islands/teide-national-park.md): The Las Cañadas caldera and the highest peak in Spain, an hour and ten minutes from Santa Cruz. Cable car, routes across lava flows, an observatory-quality sky and a Parador inside. - [Guadix](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/andalusia/guadix.md): More than two thousand inhabited caves surround the cathedral of Guadix. You can walk through them, visit them inside and sleep in them, at 18 or 20 degrees all year. - [Guadalupe](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/extremadura/guadalupe.md): What to see in Guadalupe: the Royal Monastery and its Zurbarán, the Puebla, the Villuercas Geopark trails, how to get there from Cáceres or Madrid and where to stay. - [Bardenas Reales](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/navarre/bardenas-reales.md): A desert of clay and gypsum in southern Navarre, with a 25 km track around the Bardena Blanca, Castildetierra and trips by 4x4, buggy or on horseback. - [Guadalest and the Guadalest Valley](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/valencian-community/guadalest-and-the-guadalest-valley.md): You enter El Castell de Guadalest through a tunnel in the rock: castle, Casa Orduña, quirky museums, kayaking on the reservoir and Les Fonts de l'Algar, 50 minutes from Alicante. - [Morella](https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/valencian-community/morella.md): What to see in Morella in a day or a weekend: castle, basilica and arcaded street, where to park, eat and sleep, 1 h 20 from Castellón. 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. ## Un consejo más ### Read what is not included Breakfast, dinner in the bubble, a stargazing session, a hot tub or firewood are often extras. Add them up before comparing with a hotel. ## Cuándo no ir ### A bubble with children, or in a heatwave They are designed for two, and with the July sun inside you sleep badly. For families, a cave gives the same surprise without the heat. ## Preguntas frecuentes ### What is the cheapest unusual place to stay in Spain? A refuge bunk: from €15 for federation members at Urriellu. Among private options, a cave in Guadix from €69 a night. ### Is it cold in a cave? No. Guadix has 18 to 20 °C all year and the houses have heating or a stove. ### Where can you sleep in a lighthouse in Spain? At the Faro de Cudillero, at the Faro Isla Pancha in Ribadeo and in the lighthouse building at Finisterre, the Hotel O Semáforo. ### Can you go with a dog? In several caves in Guadix and the Bardenas, at Mil Estrelles, at Aire de Bardenas and in one cabin at Monte Holiday, under the conditions on each sheet. Not at Cabanes als Arbres, Isla Pancha or the paradores of Cardona and Sigüenza.