10 Rooms or Less: the Very Best of Tiny Hotels

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If visiting an old European lighthouse, going whale-watching and gazing up at the Northern Lights are on your bucket list, check into Norway’s Little Island Lighthouse, which lets you do all three in a single day. Upon arrival, the caretaker will lead you to the lighthouse’s separate residence. The accommodations come with a guest library and two bedrooms that can each sleep three. In addition to watching the pods of Orcas break the surface from the cliff, a trip in summer also means exploring the island’s super cool, underground cave.

Akin to vacationing in a curated art collection, this personal beach home was expanded and reimagined in 2013 by the biggest global names in art and design. It includes three villas and a penthouse option for rent.

From the Collectors Villa, where the Campana Brothers of Brazil created sculptures made of thousands of broken tea cups, to the Carpenter’s Chamber filled with its magnificently carved wooden bed by Irish artist Joseph Walsh, no two spaces are alike. However, every one comes with a spa treatment room and a personal infinity pool. Bonus: all of that furniture and art is for sale.

A few miles beyond the historic, mountain town of Blowing Rock, in the pristine nature of The Blue Ridge Mountains, the 10 rooms of The Gideon Ridge Inn feature four-poster beds, fine Swiss soaps, ultra-plush bedding, and French doors that beg to be opened to let the cool morning air flow in off the stone porches.

What’s better than sipping fine tequila at its source? Knowing you are only feet from your own personal hacienda for the night. Casa Noble has become synonymous with producing a great spirit, but they are quickly becoming as famous for their attention to design detail and warm hospitality at the adjoining four distillery villas. Expect terra cotta floors, rock-wall murals, hand-woven blankets and traditional artwork.

There’s a lot to love at this quirky B&B, which that celebrates a separate culture in every room. The Moroccan room at Topia Inn is the collaboration of a video producer and a costume designer. Featured: gleaming tile floors, rich tapestries and a massive spa tub with air-jets and chroma-therapy. Meanwhile, in the Aloha room, the floating bed, surrounded by immense clay flowers, is the focal piece. What’s more, down the road you’ll find Mass MoCA, America’s largest contemporary art museum, plus an 11-mile bike path along rivers, lakes and the mountain passes.

This fun retreat offers nine fully-restored Airstream trailers from the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, plus a funky little cabin to rent. Amenities include archery, a swimming pool, and Ping Pon. This year, there’s also The Sideshow, a newly acquired, vintage trailer that formerly served as a traveling one-man circus. Within: a ceiling that resembles a big top and compartments where the owner once kept his curios and potions.

A restored, 250-year-old colonial mansion in the heart of Cartagena features seven stately bedrooms, with designs curated by famed Colombian fashion designer Silva Tcherassi. She’s used original wood and stone alongside her modern fabrics, and added accents like the vertical, 3,000-plant garden, three swimming pools and an Italian-inspired restaurant. The 1,200-square-foot Gazar room in particular offers the ultimate in opulence, boasting a private rooftop pool, sun deck and sweeping views of Cartagena.

You’ll have to rent the entire island to stay in one of the five bedrooms in this 1920s mansion. The $2,200-a-night price comes with 360-degree ocean and shoreline views from sprawling porches, home-cooked Indian cuisine by a private chef and elephant rides on the beach sunset.

A new concept in travel, The 404 is an urban cross between renting an apartment and staying in a hotel. There’s no lobby, save the square footage surrounding an espresso machine, and you’ll likely never see the onsite manager unless you need him. Each of the five loft-style apartments off the lone hallway features a mix of modern and vintage furnishings, flatscreens, and rotating artwork. The adjoining 404 Kitchen offers some of the city’s best farm-to-table cuisine and craft cocktails.

Twenties-inspired Spanish design abounds at this five-room boutique property located above Bar Covell in East L.A. The rooms each depict a “chapter” in the life of a fictional character named George Covell. One is a nod to his childhood in Oklahoma, another his early years as a writer in New York City. One room even centers around his starving-artist days in Paris, which he shared with his beautiful lover Claudine.

The Royal Street Inn & Bar is a “Bed and Beverage” located just a block outside the French Quarter. It won’t feed you breakfast, but it will treat you to a round of welcome drinks when you check in at the R Bar, the inn’s neighborhood drinking institution that also serves as the hotel’s de facto lobby.

The Inn offers four single-bed suites: Storyville, La Sirena, Mississippi, and Marigny. The grandest option is the two-bed Royal Suite, with a living room, balcony, clawfoot tub, kitchen and reclaimed heart-of-pine wood bar.

Coming in at under $200 a night for a two-person room in Chicago’s bustling Logan Square, Longman & Eagle is as affordable as it is fun. The rooms come in various shapes and sizes, with several offering homages to the ‘80s in the form of tapes and cassette consoles. Your dose of Duran Duran comes alongside Apple TV, custom beds, and complementary Wi-Fi.

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