Treehouses, Glass Igloos and Other Out-of-This-World Spots to Lay Your Head

Your Instagram account will thank you. Gone are the days when a hotel meant simply a bed, a desk and perhaps a minibar. A new wave of accommodations has bumped traditional lodging out of the way by offering unique experiences that are endlessly, irresistibly Instagrammable. Want to cozy up in a glass igloo to watch the Northern Lights?

Or hang on for dear life from the side of a cliff in a transparent capsule? You can do all that these days — for a price, of course. Africa is dotted with luxurious safari lodges for guests who want to get as close as possible to the continent’s incredible animal life. But some get you closer than others.

At Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia, 18 chalets are arranged around two large lagoons, creating the perfect setting for watching elephants as they visit in the late afternoons. But Africa isn’t the only continent to offer such close encounters of the animal kind. The Jungle Bubbles, at the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort in Chiang Rai, Thailand, offers resort guests the chance to spend a night in a transparent bubble, witnessing elephants pass by. But if you live in the United States, you don’t have to travel far to get close to animal life.

At the Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N. Y. , guests can reserve one of a handful of tiny houses and mingle with some of the 800 farm animals rescued from abuse and mistreatment. Mfuwe Lodge, from $400 per person; Jungle Bubbles, doubles from $567 plus resort costs; Farm Sanctuary, doubles from $275 per night.

Regardless of where you are in the world, there’s a good chance you can stay in a treehouse-style accommodation. At Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge in the Amazon region of Brazil, guests can find themselves cocooned in the canopy of the Amazon, high above the Rio Negro river. Up in the tall trees of the pine forests of Northern Sweden, the Treehotel posits guests in mirrored cubes and cabins perched in the treetops, one of which is even shaped like a U. F.

O. On the edge of Kruger National Park in South Africa, the new &Beyond Ngala Treehouse opens this month, giving guests a chance to take a game drive out to the treehouse where they spend the night up high in the bush in a private tower. A different kind of treehouse greets guests in Costa Rica at Hotel Costa Verde, where a decommissioned airplane was reconstructed in the jungle canopy, so that guests actually sleep in a plane in the jungle canopy.