Instead of traditional hotel rooms, consider spending some travel nights in strange and exotic places. For some examples, try snoozing surrounded by ice, up a tree, under the sea, in a grounded jet or locked in a former political prison.

Canada: Snow Village Ice Hotel, 130 ch. Tour-de-l'Isle, Parc Jean Drapeau, Montreal, Quebec H3C 4G8, Canada, snowvillagecanada.com. Scheduled from December through March, the 30 guest rooms and ice-sculptured hallway tunnels include cozy blanketed beds, fireplaces, hot tubs, bar, sauna, restaurant and wedding chapel. Room rates start at $225, including welcome drinks and breakfast. Latvia: Karosta Prison, Invalidu St 4, Liepaja, Latvia 3402, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . When built in 1900, the prison and naval port base were within Imperial Russia. Then, from the 1920s it was operated by the Soviet Union until 1990. Those who book rooms overnight, experience dank cells equipped with bunks or floor matresses.

To add to the prison atmosphere, hotel employees are dressed in vintage Russian military uniforms. Arriving guests are marched to their cells. The museum features of the prison and naval base are open to visitors and tour groups throughout the year, with hotel stays available only from May 1 to September 30.

Rates are very reasonable at about $25 per person per night. However, those brave souls who want to spend the night should know that TV’s Ghost Hunters International calls this prison one of the most haunted places in the world.

Sweden: Jumbo Stay Hostel, Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Sweden, www.jumbostay.com. While you’re waiting for your flight out of Stockholm, you may choose to sleep in a hotel created from a retired Pan Am 747-200 passenger jet. It’s located next to the main entrance to the airport.

The Jumbo Hostel is sectioned off into 25 rooms and a four-bed dorm, all with shared bathrooms, refrigerators and microwave ovens. Each room has a flat-screen TV. Prices are from $75 per night, including continental breakfast.

Austria: Das Park Hotel, Linz, Austria, www.dasparkhotel.net. Spend a night in a giant cut-out chunk of cement drain pipe. The barrel-shaped interior of the pipe is large enough to contain a double bed, lamp and TV set. There’s a front door and several side windows to alieviate the feeling that your life is going down the tubes. Shared showers and toilets are a few steps outside.

From $60 a night, although hotel policy is quoted as “a night in dasparkhotel costs just as much as you can afford or want to pay.” Das Park Hotel is open from May through October.

Japan: Capsule Inn, 9-5 Doyamacho, Kita, Osaka, Japan, capsuleinn.com. Anyone who has bunked on Navy submarines and troop ships will find these sleeping quarters familiar. There are similar versions of the little slumber cages in Asian airports. However, the Capsule Inn has stacks and stacks of them, giving the hotel sleeping quarters the look of a large animal shelter.

The adult-men-only capsules are set two high, and inside each air-conditioned unit is a TV, bed and electrical outlets. Toilets, showers and a common room are nearby. Close to shopping and restaurants, as well as subway and train stations in the busy city of Osaka. Nightly rates start at $40.