Coolest place you've ever slept...

[jimsjazzz]

In all my travels around North America, I've slept in all kinds of interesting places... old barns, abandoned houses, caves, beaches, etc, but this had to be the most unique on-the-road lodging experience I've ever had.

Last month I took a hitching trip around Shikoku Island in Japan. One evening when I had just arrived in Kochi city I took a local bus out to the coast. I was planning to sleep on the beach when I spotted this old hotel with broken out windows and a fence around it. It appeared to have been abandoned for several years. As soon as it got dark, I went to investigate. With a scramble up a rock and a gap in the fence it was surprisingly easy to get in. I used my flashlight and explored several rooms. They were all trashed and smelled like mold but I couldn't resist this opportunity. I "checked myself in" to one of the top floor suites, and put my tarp down over the old dusty mattress and had a good sleep with the sound of the waves crashing below outside. I never did find out the story on that hotel, but it must have been a product of the economy boom in the '90s and the subsequent recession. I put up some pictures of it here. You gotta see this place:

http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/%7Ejmurray/oth ... /hotel.htm

What are some of the more interesting places you've crashed for the night?

[Bradyn]

I met up with a random fellow hitcher just East of Winnipeg last September. We both happened to have hennesy hammocks, so we set 'em up between some flag poles along the TransCanada. We slept under the maple leaf to the noise of trucks.

[walkoflife]

An abandoned grain silo proven to not only be a good shelter, but I was able to set a very small fire that, since I was surrounded by insulated metal and made a make-shift door cover, provided 8 hours of continuous heat.

[tripp]

the redwood forest made a cool place had a hole going through a moutain you can swim in like a little oasis down the moutain there

[wanderlust1984]

I dunno, beaches are always really really nice sleep spots, excepting for sand fleas and tourists. My favorite places to sleep, though, are when people invite you into their home, or their backyard, at least. A couple of times people have been like "okay, well, i'm going to work, make yourself some breakfast and this afternoon we'll hang out" or something like that. It's only happened like twice like that, actually, but man did it feel cool. Also when I was bumming around central america, being invited into an old man's one room shack in Guatemala felt like a pretty big honor.

[skypilot92]

A rooftop in New Orleans on Decatur street across from Cafe DuMond

[BluesTramp]

Just a couple of month ago I´ve been to a Blues Festival. Totally plastered I threw my sleeping bag in a close by little forest. I woke up with the most terrible hangover I´ve ever had and noticed a (quiet big) sign saying that at this place people used to "bury",rather stacked, all the plague-victims of the surrounding areas.

[Raus]

A 400 yr old, closed for renovations fort in Srebna Gora, Poland. Camped out there for a week.

[Coast-toCoast]

While roadtripping (busking for gas & food) with 3 girls that I know, we got to sleep in the back of a moving company truck. It was a tractor-trailer and we had the entire trailer. We made a bed out of flat moving boxes and about a dozen moving pads. Great nights sleep.

PS We had the trucker's permission.

[azenlunatic]

I know it's not exotic and I wish it was , but one of the finer places I have slept was last fall on a camping trip at the Outer Banks. The ocean just behind a 5 foot tall dune is pretty impressive and the sound of the sea is great to fall asleep to.