Springing from a lush British trading colony to the bustling independent city-state it is today, Singapore is like a microcosm of Asia, where you can experience a variety of cultural influences that have melded into a distinct whole. These 13 hotels illustrate Singapore’s cultural richness, from hip modern urban hotels and renovated historic gems to traditional getaways and retreats in the rainforest.

Marina Bay Sands

(images via: marinabaysands.com)

Though it opened just last year, Marina Bay Sands has already become a Singapore icon with one of the most distinctive silhouettes in architecture. The $4 billion resort has an infinity pool located 55 stories above Marina Bay, three times the length of an Olympic swimming pool, which is nestled in the boat-shaped ‘Sky Park’ that spans the three towers of the hotel.

Capella Hotel

(images via: capellahotels.com)

Nestled on a 30-acre property within lush rainforests on Sentosa Island, the luxurious (and pet-friendly!) five-star Capella Hotel has three outdoor swimming pools and is located steps from Tanjong Beach. Close to the heart of Singapore and to the Thian Hock Keng Temple, Capella is a stunning way to experience the wild, natural side of Singapore rather than the orderly urban side. The hotel, designed by Foster + Partners, adds curving modern buildings to historic colonial structures including two bungalows dating back to the 1880s.

New Majestic Hotel

(images via: newmajestichotel.com)

Bold and beautiful in Chinatown, the New Majestic is practically a gallery of local art with 30 rooms – including 9 suites – individually decorated by some of Singapore’s most notable artists and creatives. For example, the ‘Wayang’ room, designed by theater director Glen Goel, features walls upholstered in burgundy silk inspired by the film Raise the Red Lantern. Another room, ‘Fluid’, takes a more modern tack, with fashion designer Wykidd Song embracing white minimalism.

Quincy Hotel

(images via: quincy.com)

Designed by Ong & Ong, the Quincy Hotel is an all-inclusive business and leisure boutique hotel with 108 slightly different rooms. Long and narrow to fit inside an unusually shaped parcel of land, the Quincy has a distinctive anodized steel facade punctuated with modular windows, a design motif that continues inside with creative lighting. A glass-enclosed pool cantilevered from the 12th floor, featuring a pool deck illuminated with color-changing LED lights, provides a cool and unusual way to experience the Singapore skyline.

Gallery Hotel

(images via: galleryhotel.com)

The Gallery Hotel terms itself ‘art-centric’, hence the name. A four-star boutique hotel situated right in the city center, the Gallery has a striking pluralistic facade including randomly placed, color-ringed windows, giving it a Pop Art effect. Inside, it’s just as bright and artistic, with lots of colored lighting and large murals. One interesting feature of the Gallery is a number of all-women guest floors, where men are not allowed – not even staff.

The Club Hotel

(images via: theclub.com)

Step through the threshold of this clean white colonial building in Singapore’s Club Street conservation area into a bold and graphic boutique hotel that’s easy on the eyes in a palette of black and white. Folds of white fabric buffer the lights in the common areas, and black graphics liven up vast expanses of white walls. The Club Hotel has 22 distinctly unique guest rooms, a rooftop skybar with an alfresco deck and a tapas bar on the ground floor.

Merlion Pop-Up Hotel for Biennale 2011

(images via: luxuo)

Singapore’s iconic ‘Merlion’ – a massive public statue with the head of a lion and the body of a fish – has been transformed into a temporary pop-up hotel for Singapore’s Biennale 2011, the largest contemporary arts gathering in Southeast Asia. Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi encased the statue in a small hotel that will be available for overnight stays until May 15th and will be disassembled by June 6th.

Hotel Re

(images via: hotelre.com)

Each floor of the retro-themed Hotel Re has its own bold assigned color, and guest rooms reflect the iconic pop culture of the 1960s and ’70s, including silhouetted wall murals of Marilyn Monroe and John Travolta. There’s definitely a disco vibe going on with all of the reflective surfaces, funky fonts and hot-pink lighting. Hotel Re has 140 rooms and 12 stories, located at the base of Pearl’s Hill along Chin Swee Road.

Wanderlust Hotel

(images via: design boom)

Celebrated as one of the world’s most interesting art hotels, the Wanderlust is located in a historic school building from the 1920’s and maintains the original facade – but step inside and it’s like you’re transported to another world. Each of the four-story boutique hotel’s 29 rooms is uniquely decorated including a floor of bright rooms with neon lights on the walls spelling out song titles with colors in them, like Weezer’s ‘Pink Triangle’ and The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’. Other levels feel like childhood fantasy with treehouse-themed rooms and even space-themed rooms with starry ceilings.

Scarlet Hotel

(images via: thescarlet.com)

The 121-room Scarlet Hotel, housed in a pre-war shophouse in Chinatown, was named by Luxury Travel Magazine as one of the world’s best 5-star city hotels. Decked out in rich reds, gold and platinum, the hotel speaks of luxury and splendor in a way that is sometimes perhaps a little over-the-top ($30,000 beds?) The décor calls to mind Singapore’s colonial past but is injected with plenty of modern details to keep it fresh.

Naumi Hotel

(images via: naumihotel.com)

With soothing modern aesthetics and some of the most spacious hotel rooms in the city, the Naumi Hotel is a place of relaxation and retreat. This 40-room boutique hotel in Singapore’s Central Business District has a rooftop pool, restaurant, yoga/fitness studio and an entire floor of women-only suites. Its origami-inspired facade, which incorporates vertical greenery, definitely stands out among the colonial shophouses of Seah Street.

Klapsons Boutique Hotel

(images via: klapsons.com)

This design-oriented hotel in the business district has just 17 rooms with a subtly futuristic flavor including lots of plexiglass and bright colors. In the lobby, a giant reflective dome holds the reception desk, and the guest rooms, though all different, each have an open bathroom with a cylindrical glass shower. Klapsons includes an alfresco bar and lounge as well as a first-floor restaurant serving Western cuisine.

The Raffles Hotel

(images via: raffles.com)

If you want traditional Singaporean luxury, there’s no better destination than The Raffles, one of the world’s most famous hotels with an extensive history dating back to 1887. Occupied by the Japanese during WWII and used as a transit camp for prisoners of war, the hotel was declared a national monument in 1987 and given an extensive makeover that restored it to its former glory. The Raffles is an all-suite hotel with restaurants and lounges, a luxury shopping arcade, a full-service spa, a 66-foot rooftop lap pool and a 388-seat Victorian theater.

From the pristine northern forests to the bustling streets of Stockholm, Sweden has a lot to offer – and plenty of cool, unusual and visually stunning places to stay while you’re visiting. In fact, if swanky art hotels with live glassblowing and painfully hip bars bursting with local patrons aren’t cool enough for you, you can literally sleep on ice at the world’s largest ice hotel. These 12 hotels range from the simplest hut in the woods to luxurious accommodations in historic buildings.

ICEHOTEL, Jukkasjärvi

(images via: icehotel.com)

Sweden is home to the world’s largest hotel made out of ice and snow. The ICEHOTEL began with a single igloo and now has 80 rooms, all made from over 10,000 tons of ice and 30,000 tons of snow. Available from mid-December to mid-April, the hotel is re-made and re-designed every year, with one-of-a-kind ‘art suites’, the world-famous Absolut Ice Bar, a restaurant and even an ice chapel.

TreeHotel, Harads

(images via: treehotel.se)

Stay in a stunning ‘Mirrorcube’ that reflects the surrounding forest, an oversized bird’s nest, a pod that resembles a UFO or a roomier cabin at the Treehotel, Sweden’s lofty new getaway in the pristine natural region of Harads. Each of the Treehotel’s six guest rooms are perched in the trees for unforgettable views, and they all have private bathrooms with incinerator toilets. (Good to note: the Mirrorcube has been specially treated to prevent bird collisions!)

Nobis Hotel, Stockholm

(images via: nobishotel.se)

Taking visual inspiration from Sweden’s wintry landscape, the crisp and elegant Nobis Hotel is not just a place to sleep – it’s been called ‘Stockholm’s living room’, with locals flocking to the cool contemporary bar and the hotel’s Southern Italian-style bistro. Located in a pair of historic 19th century buildings, the 201-room hotel is within walking distance of Stockholm’s best shopping and sightseeing.

Silvermine Suite, Sala

(images via: sophie andersson at salasilvergruva.se)

At the Sala Silvermine in Sweden, you can navigate dark winding underground passageways down to your own private cave. The Silvermine Suite is 155 meters under the surface of the earth in one of the world’s best-preserved historic mines, which once produced over 3 tons of silver every year. For travelers who aren’t claustrophobic and don’t mind the cold, this could definitely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Story Hotel, Stockholm

(images via: storyhotels.com)

The bohemian-chic Story Hotel is a favorite of stylish urbanites, combining modern glamor with a welcoming sense of coziness enhanced by plenty of purple velour. Clean, bright new elements are combined with strategically revealed remnants of the building’s former life as private residences including antique wallpaper, disused electric meters and reclaimed doors as headboards. Offering 82 guest rooms at affordable prices, the Story Hotel is ideally located right in the city center.

Kolarbyn Eco-Lodge, Skinnskatteberg

(images via: kolarbyn.se)

Set in a picturesque glade near the lake of Skärsjön, the Kolarbyn Eco-Lodge is Sweden’s most primitive hotel, offering twelve electricity-free ‘nature huts’ that put you as close to the Swedish landscape as you can get without actually camping. You’ll fall asleep on soft sheepskins by the glow of candles and the crackle of a warming fire, and enjoy an open-air breakfast when you awaken in the morning. Part of the proceeds of your stay will go toward protecting area wildlife.

Nordic Light Hotel, Stockholm

(images via: nordiclighthotel.se)

Voted Sweden’s leading boutique hotel two years in a row, the Nordic Light Hotel in Stockholm is burstling with personality yet soothing to the eyes of weary travelers. Carefully chosen accent colors and lighting installations invite relaxation in the guest rooms, inspired by the long dawns and sunsets in the region which give off a glow of rainbow colors. The 175 rooms are divided into three categories – ‘standard’ for those who aren’t keen on dramatic lighting effects, ‘superior’ for a little more character and ‘deluxe’ for a truly unique, almost otherwordly experience.

Utter Inn, Lake Mälaren

(images via: houseandhome.ie)

It looks almost like a joke – could you really stay in a space that small, the size of a garden shed? But the Utter Inn is bigger than it looks – its second story is located underwater. Floating in the middle of Lake Mälaren, Utter  Inn features two twin beds and a table in the bedroom and a small kitchenette in the upper room. Jump right off the hotel deck into the water, or just watch the fish from the windows in the bedroom.

Salt & Sill Floating Hotel, Klädesholmen

(image via: saltosill.se)

Like the lake idea, but want something slightly more conventional? Sweden has another floating hotel, the Salt & Sill, a minimalist 23-room barge that also serves as a top-notch seafood restaurant specializing in herring and fresh local produce. All 23 rooms have their own outdoor seating areas, but the hotel’s sole suite has an extra-enticing benefit: a private roof-top jacuzzi. The hotel’s location on the lake, by the way, is not a gimmick: the adjacent land simply didn’t have any room.

Jumbo Hostel Plane Hotel, Stockholm

(images via: jumbostay.se)

A junked 747-200 has a new life as a unique new hostel in Stockholm. Retrofitted with 25 guest rooms, from quad dormitories with bunk beds to private suites, the Jumbo Hostel retained the original lounge bar and first class seats, and some lucky visitors get to sleep in the cockpit, which has its own private bathroom.

Kosta Boda Art Hotel, Småland

(images via: kosta boda art hotel)

Located in the heart of Småland’s ‘The Kingdom of Crystal’, home to 13 glassworks, the eagerly anticipated Kosta Boda Art Hotel is a glittering showcase of glass art by the famed Kosta Boda. Each of the hotel’s 124 rooms has been individually designed by the glass artists, and their influence is particularly notable in the hotel bar and in the spa, where swimmers can put on goggles to view a glass exhibit at the bottom of the pool. Take a seat in the restaurant and you can even watch Kosta Boda glassblowers blow and sculpt glass on a stage.

Scandic Malmen, Stockholm

(images via: scandichotels.com)

Fun and budget-friendly, the 327-room Scandic Malmen is located within walking distance of some of Stockholm’s best live music venues in the trendy district of SoFo. A massive, blocky, unremarkable exterior gives way to interior design that matches the hipness of the hotel’s location. The hotel restaurant is a popular choice among Stockholm residents for brunch.

Ever had a hankering to sleep in a wine cask, or swim in an underground pool with a medieval vaulted ceiling? Hotel experiences in the Netherlands run from the royally posh to the painfully hip, with plenty of stunning modern design and quirky details to catch your eye. Whether you’re headed to Amsterdam – the unofficial party capital of Europe – or the peaceful tulip-covered countryside of Holland, these 14 hotels, hostels and inns will make you feel at home.

St. Christopher’s at The Winston, Amsterdam

(images via: winston.nl)

The Winston calls itself an “interactive museum of modern art”, where every room has its own quirky theme, the hallways are packed with paintings and even the bathrooms function as galleries. A budget hotel/hostel in the red light district, The Winston is vibrant and youthful. Guests can choose from eye-popping neon rooms with robot sculptures hanging from the wall, or tamer  black-and-white rooms filled with photography. In addition to the hotel’s restaurant and bar, there’s a private beer garden overlooking the red light alleyways and an ‘infamous’ nightclub right next door called Winston Kingdom.

Zenden, Maastricht

(images via: zenden.nl)

Once you walk through the ordinary-looking doorway of Maastricht’s Hotel Zenden, you leave the old world of brick and cobblestone behind and enter an angular all-white chamber of modernity. Located inside what was once three separate townhouses, the nine-room hotel was renovated to its current state in 2003 but retained its incredible underground swimming pool and its medieval vaulted ceiling. According to the architects, Zenden goes against the trend of hyper-unique artsy hotels “welcoming guests without any unnecessary expressiveness in the furnishings or the finishes of the surfaces and walls, so that they feel free to adapt this flexible space to their own personalities.”

Controversy Tram Inn, Hoogwoud

(images via: controversy.nl)

Despite the name, there’s nothing controversial about the trams-turned-guest-suites at the Controversy Tram Inn in Hoogwoud. Bright and playful, these lodgings – found on a farm – are comprised of two reclaimed trams and a full-sized railway car that have been converted into six guest rooms packed full of fun recycled objects like a tire sink basin and a table made of traffic signs.

Qbic Hotel, Amsterdam

(images via: qbichotels.com)

It may be ‘cheap chic & no frills’, but the Qbic Hotel doesn’t skimp on style. This budget hotel in the heart of Amsterdam is high tech but low cost, and the earlier you book, the cheaper the rates. It’s a ‘pod’ hotel, but unlike other pod hotels like those in Japan, it features full-sized rooms – the ‘pod’ is a freestanding aluminum unit in the center of each room containing a double bed with a workspace/dining table at one end and a bathroom at the other.

Citizen M, Amsterdam

(images via: citizenm.com)

Citizen M opened at the Amsterdam airport in 2008 and represents another stylish addition to the city’s roster of impressively designed budget hotels. A new, even trendier location opened in Amsterdam proper in 2010, offering 215 modular rooms that fit as much function as possible into 150 square feet. A high-tech handheld ‘MoodPad’ controls the lighting, television, temperature and window blinds and the shower and toilet are contained within separate plexiglass tubes (so unless you’re an exhibitionist, stay with someone you know really well).

Stayokay Hostel, Rotterdam

(images via: archdaily)

Rotterdam’s Cube Houses are so cool-looking that residents were pestered by tourists hoping for a glimpse of the interior on a daily basis. Now, those same tourists can stay in the units themselves, as the houses have been transformed into a ‘Stayokay Hostel’. The hostel has both dorm-style and private rooms. With the tilted design of the cubes, nabbing one of the top rooms would definitely be a memorable experience.

De Vrouwe Van Stavoren

(images via: inhabitat)

Is the De Vrouwe Van Stavoren every oenophile’s dream? The kind of wine lover that savors the smell of a full-bodied red wine would be in utter heaven at this unusual hotel made from salvaged wine casks. Each casks contains two narrow single-person beds, while an attached building contains the bathrooms. The small port town of Stavoren is located in the northern province of Friesland, which has its own language, and in the springtime its fields are abloom with infamous Dutch tulips.

Inntel Hotel, Zaandam

(images via: dezeen)

In a nod to the architecture of traditional houses in the region, Zaandam’s Inntel Hotel looks like a stack of homes with its overlapping green facades. The style of the ‘buildings’ featured in the facades ranges from a notary’s residence to a worker’s cottage. Eleven floors tall with 160 rooms, the Inntel features a swimming pool as well as a wellness center with a Finnish sauna and a Turkish bath.

Hotel V Frederiksplein, Amsterdam

(images via: hotelv.nl)

The stylish and budget-conscious ‘Hotel V’, as it’s known locally, is modern and minimalist but still cozy and warm. Each guest room is unique; design details include pebble stone bathroom walls and a rubber front desk . But perhaps the biggest draw to Hotel V is its central location, making it convenient to all of Amsterdam’s hottest spots.

Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam

(images via: lloydhotel.com)

First a hotel for immigrants and then a prison, the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam now hosts guests of a different sort: travelers, of course. Famed Netherlands architecture firm MVRDV outfitted the interior of this historic building for its 2005 re-opening as a showcase of contemporary design. Each of the 116 rooms is so unique that they’re individually rated, from one to five stars. Naturally, the five-star rooms are where the Lloyd really shines. One room even has a bed for eight!

The Dylan, Amsterdam

(images via: dylanamsterdam.com)

Often declared the most stylish hotel in Amsterdam, The Dylan is a converted 17th century theater with 40 individually designed rooms that come in five styles. Each theme – Kimono, Loft, Klassbol, Zensation Red and Zensation White, is elegant and understated with exposed beams and simple lines. It’s located right along the canal for a view that’s uniquely Amsterdam.

Capsule Hotel, The Hague

(images via: unusual hotels of the world)

If a flood hits The Hague, you’ll be safe in one of these wacky ‘survival pods’. But of course, the off chance of a disaster is hardly the only reason to stay at the Capsule Hotel, which consists of a series of 12-foot bright-orange  floating pods moored to a dock in the city center. Built for oil rigs in 1972, the capsules range from a super-simple one-person rig to a ‘luxury’ pod with sheepskins, champagne, a DVD player and a disco ball. Sounds like a party.

Hotel De l’Europe, Amsterdam

(image via: salva del saz)

Hotel De l’Europe is a five-star hotel with an impressive history and a classic look, located on prime waterfront property just under a kilometer from big tourist attractions like the Anne Frank house. It’s dignified to the point of being, perhaps, a bit old-fashioned – but anyone who pines for old world Amsterdam may prefer it to the bustling boutique hotels that cater to hip crowds. It’s home to one of Amsterdam’s most exclusive restaurants, Excelsior, and recently expanded to include high-dollar specialty suites.

Airplane Hotel, Teuge

(image via: hotelsuites.nl)

When you step off one airplane, especially after a long international flight, perhaps the last thing you want to do is to embark upon yet another aircraft. But for those who just can’t get enough of airplane interiors, the Airplane Hotel at the Teuge Airport is actually a pretty cool place to stay. The Cold War-era cockpit of this East German airplane has been preserved while the remainder was transformed into a modern guest suite with a kitchen. Sleeping in the bed at the tail of the plane and waking up to those little round windows will make you feel like you’re on a very pricey private jet.