Cave Hotels - An Unusual Accommodation

Imagine booking a hotel room in a cave. This conjures up a picture of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, right?

While this might sound like a joke or a cartoon suite at a kiddie theme park hotel, it isn't. Throughout the world, real underground caves have actually been converted into unusual hotels. Countries with such accommodations include France, Australia, Tunisia, and Turkey. While this may not sound appealing, especially if you're a luxury traveler, some of these hotels are first rate.

France

Les Hautes Roches is a former monastery that's now an elegant four-star hotel in France's Loire Valley region. The accommodations include twelve cave bedrooms complete with beautiful terraces overlooking the ocean. While one might think that these caves once served as catacombs for the monks, in truth, they were miner excavations for the region's stone that was once considered desirable for construction. For those prone to claustrophobia, two of the hotel's rooms are above ground in the former monastery.

Visitors can make their reservations on the Les Hautes Roches web site.

Australia

Another four-star hotel with cave accommodations is located in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. In fact, nearly half of Coober Pedy's residents live underground in caves dug into hillsides as opposed to inside opal mine shafts. Due to extreme outback temperatures, Coober Pedy is mostly an underground city complete with underground church, movie theater, and The Desert Cave, the world's only completely underground four-star hotel.

Since Coober Pedy proclaims itself to be the "Opal Capital of the World", accommodations include a full day's tour where visitors can go mining for opals.

Reservations for The Desert Cave can also be made online.

Tunisia

In Matmata, Tunisia, several ancient Berber tribal caves have been turned into hotels. In fact, the Hotel Sidi Driss was used for the famous alien bar scene in the film "Star Wars."

Turkey

Probably the most renowned cave hotels are located in the Cappadocia region of Central Anatolia in Turkey. Throughout the years, because there was very little timber or solid rock for construction, many generations had to burrow into the region's soft volcanic ash terrain to create housing. These also served as Byzantine Christian hideouts during invasions by Mongols and others.

Since the 1950's, some of these underground dwellings have been converted into tourist hotels, accommodations ranging from grungy to lavish. As for the local populace, most still live underground.

London's Guardian newspaper recommends booking your stay with Tapestry Holidays (020-8235-7777).