Looking for something different, consider spending travel nights in strange and exotic places. Instead the traditional hotel and motel rooms, try snoozing surrounded by ice, high up a tree, in a grounded jet or locked in a former political prison.

Latvia: Karosta Prison is in Liepaja. When built in 1900, the prison and naval port base were in Imperial Russia. Then, from the 1920s it was operated by the Soviet Union until 1990. The imposing structure on the Baltic coast gives guests a taste of imprisonment.

Before going to luxury hotel rooms, they experience dank cells that are sparsely equipped with bunks or floor mattresses. Adding 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. However, hotel stays are available only from May 1 to September 30.

Canada: Snow Village Ice Hotel, Montreal, Quebec. Located in Montreal's Parc Jean Drapeau, the 30 guest rooms and ice-sculptured hallway tunnels include cozy beds and warm arctic sleeping bags. Montreal's Snow Village Ice Hotel is open January through the end of March.

Sweden: Jumbo Stay Hostel, Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Stay while waiting for your flight out of Stockholm or choose to sleep overnight in the hotel created from a retired Pan Am 747-200 passenger jet. This unique hotel is located next to the main entrance to the airport.

The Jumbo is sectioned off into 25 private rooms and a four-bed dorm, all with shared bathrooms, refrigerators and microwave ovens. Each room has a flat-screen TV. .

Austria: Das Park Hote, Linz. How about spending a night in a giant cut-out chunk of cement drain pipe? Of course, 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 alleviate the feeling that your life is going down the tubes. Shared showers and toilets are a few steps outside. Das Park Hotel is open from May through October.

Japan: Capsule Inn, Osaka. Anyone who has bunked on Navy submarines and troopships will find these sleeping quarters familiar. We've seen 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 outlets for computers. Toilets, showers and a common room are nearby. The building is close to shopping and restaurants, as well as subway and train stations in the busy city of Osaka.