The short answer: the world's deepest hotel is the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, sunk into an 88-metre quarry with two floors underwater. The deepest single room you can still book is the Grand Canyon Caverns Cave Suite, 67 metres down in a limestone cave. Below them sit the great luxury cave hotels of Cappadocia, Matera and the Australian outback, where the kitchen, kept cool by the rock, is half the reason to descend.
By the Hotels for Kings Editorial Team · Last updated: June 9, 2026
We may earn a commission when you book through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Rankings are editorial; we never accept payment for placement. Depths are verified against each property and reputable reporting, and we have removed the famous Sala Silvermine suite from the ranking because it is no longer bookable.
Quick comparison
| Hotel | Where | Depth | Underground rooms | Claim to fame |
|---|
| InterContinental Wonderland | Shanghai, China | 88 m quarry | 16 of 18 floors | World's deepest hotel |
| Grand Canyon Caverns | Arizona, USA | 67 m (220 ft) | 1 cave suite | Deepest bookable room |
| Argos in Cappadocia | Uchisar, Turkey | Cave and tunnels | Cave rooms of 51 | 1,200-year wine cellar |
| Sextantio Le Grotte | Matera, Italy | Sassi caves | 18 cave rooms | UNESCO cave hotel |
| Desert Cave Hotel | Coober Pedy, Australia | Dugout | 19 underground | Underground opal town |
| Beckham Creek Cave Lodge | Arkansas, USA | Living cave | Whole lodge | Cave with a waterfall |
How we ranked and verified this
The top two rank by measured depth below ground, the 88-metre Shanghai quarry and the 67-metre Grand Canyon cave room, because both publish a real number. Cave and dugout hotels rarely state a depth, so we order the rest by how completely you are underground and by the strength of the stay, not by a guessed metre count we cannot verify. Every property here is open and taking bookings in 2026, checked against its own site and recent coverage. We deliberately left out the Sala Silvermine suite in Sweden, often called the world's deepest hotel room, because it stopped accepting overnight guests in 2024. See our full scoring and verification methodology.
The ranked list
1
Shanghai, China
88 m quarry · 16 of 18 floors below ground · 336 rooms
Why it's number one: this is the deepest hotel on earth, and the only one on the list built down rather than up. It clings to the wall of an 88-metre former quarry in Songjiang, with sixteen of its eighteen floors below ground level and the lowest two submerged in a 10-metre saltwater aquarium. It opened in November 2018 as the world's first quarry hotel and IHG's 200th InterContinental, with 336 rooms looking onto the cliff face, a waterfall and the flooded pit.
On the food: the underground setting makes the dining the showpiece. Restaurants step down the quarry wall, and the lowest dining room and the six underwater suites look straight into the aquarium, so you eat and sleep beside the fish. What to book: an underwater suite if budget allows, or a cliff-view room on a mid-level floor for the full quarry drama.
Honest note: the deep and underwater rooms have no opening windows and limited natural light, and the resort sits well outside central Shanghai, so treat it as a destination in itself rather than a city base. Browse alternatives in our Shanghai hotel guide.
Source: IHG; South China Morning Post.
Browse Shanghai luxury hotels →
2
Peach Springs, Arizona
Grand Canyon Caverns Cave Suite
67 m (220 ft) down · 1 suite · deepest bookable room
Why it's here: with the Swedish mine suite now closed, this is the deepest hotel room you can actually book. The Cavern Suite is a single 1,700-square-foot chamber 220 feet, about 67 metres, beneath the Arizona desert inside a 345-million-year-old dry limestone cave off Route 66. You descend by lift into total cave silence; it is marketed, fairly, as the deepest and darkest hotel room in the world.
On the food: the property runs a dining room deep inside the cavern, so you can eat a meal far below ground before retreating to the suite; the cave's bone-dry air and steady cool make it a genuinely odd and memorable table. What to book: the Cavern Suite itself, which sleeps up to six and runs around 1,000 US dollars a night for two.
Honest note: this is a Route 66 novelty, not a polished luxury resort, with an RV-style bathroom and no phone signal or cable below ground; the caverns also reopened only in June 2025 after a closure, so confirm tour and dining hours directly when you book.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine; Atlas Obscura.
See the most unusual places to stay →
3
Uchisar, Cappadocia, Turkey
Argos in Cappadocia
Restored caves and tunnels · 51 rooms and suites
Why it's here: the most complete luxury version of underground living. Argos is built into the ruins of a thousand-year-old monastery on the highest point of Uchisar, its 51 rooms threaded through restored caves, carved chambers and a network of underground tunnels, some rooms with private pools looking over Pigeon Valley.
On the food: this is the entry a wine lover descends for. The hotel keeps a 1,200-year-old underground cellar carved from the rock, and its Seki restaurant cooks regional Anatolian produce paired from that cave. What to book: a cave suite with a terrace facing the valley for sunrise, when the hot-air balloons go up. Pair it with our most unusual luxury hotels.
Honest note: the property climbs a steep hillside through tunnels and steps, so it is not an easy fit for limited mobility, and the cave rooms, by nature, are darker than a conventional suite.
Source: Argos in Cappadocia; Mr & Mrs Smith.
Explore more cave and rock stays →
4
Matera, Italy
Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita
18 candlelit cave rooms · UNESCO Sassi
Why it's here: the most atmospheric cave hotel in Europe, set in Matera's Sassi, the ancient cave-dwelling district that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Eighteen caves were restored over a decade into bedrooms that keep their bare tufa-rock walls, lit by candles rather than screens, with no televisions to break the spell.
On the food: breakfast is served in a deconsecrated rock-cut cave church, a candlelit room carved straight into the hillside, on local Lucanian bread, cheese and preserves; it is one of the more quietly memorable morning meals in Italy. What to book: a larger cave suite if you want a freestanding stone tub. It also appears in the MICHELIN Guide's hotel selection.
Honest note: the deliberate lack of bright light, screens and conventional windows is the point, but it will not suit travellers who want a slick, gadget-filled modern room.
Source: Design Hotels; MICHELIN Guide.
See more one-of-a-kind stays →
5
Coober Pedy, Australia
Desert Cave Hotel
19 underground dugout rooms · outback opal town
Why it's here: the world's only underground international hotel, in the opal-mining town of Coober Pedy, where the summer heat is so fierce that much of the town lives in dugouts cut into the rock. The hotel offers 19 underground rooms alongside 31 above ground, plus an underground bar and shops bored into the sandstone.
On the food: the appeal here is the underground bar and the novelty of a meal in the cool rock while the desert bakes above; the town itself is the experience, not a tasting menu. What to book: an underground room for the dead-silent, climate-stable night that draws people here in the first place.
Honest note: Coober Pedy is genuinely remote, a long drive or a small-plane hop from Adelaide, and this is a comfortable outback hotel rather than a five-star resort; come for the place, not the thread count.
Source: Desert Cave Hotel; UNIQ Hotels.
See the most remote luxury hotels →
6
Parthenon, Arkansas
Beckham Creek Cave Lodge
Whole-lodge cave · 4 bedrooms · Ozark Mountains
Why it's here: the most luxurious single cave you can rent, a 5,800-square-foot lodge built inside a living Ozark cave on 256 private acres in remote northwest Arkansas. The rock is the architecture: four bedrooms, stone walls throughout and a natural waterfall running through the living room.
On the food: this is a whole-property rental with a full kitchen, so dinner is yours to cook or to bring in a private chef; the draw is dining inside your own private cave, waterfall included, rather than a hotel restaurant. What to book: the entire lodge for a group, which is the only way it comes.
Honest note: you rent the whole cave, so it only makes sense for a group or a special occasion, and it is deep in the Ozarks, a real drive from the nearest airport with little nearby once you arrive.
Source: Beckham Creek Cave Lodge; Islands.
Browse more unusual luxury stays →
The record that closed: Sala Silvermine
For years the honest answer to "what is the world's deepest hotel room" was the Sala Silvermine suite in Sweden, a single bed chamber set 155 metres down in a 16th-century silver mine, reached by a long descent through the mine tunnels. It is the depth every listicle still quotes. But as of 2024 it stopped taking overnight guests: the part of the mine that held the suite is now used for storage, and only daytime mine tours continue. We have left it out of the ranking above because we will not present a room you cannot book as if you can, and a stale "world's deepest hotel" claim is exactly the kind of fact worth correcting.
Why go underground at all
The shared thread, from a flooded Shanghai quarry to an Arkansas cave, is that the rock does something no above-ground hotel can. A few metres down, temperature stops swinging: cave and dugout rooms sit cool and steady all year, which is why people in Coober Pedy chose to live below the desert in the first place. Sound drops away too, so deep rooms are some of the quietest beds you will ever sleep in.
For a food writer, the payoff is the underground table. Cool, stable air is exactly what a wine cellar wants, which is why the oldest of these places, like the cellar at Argos, were dug for storing and ageing in the first place. Eating below ground, whether beside an aquarium in Shanghai or by candlelight in a Matera cave church, turns a meal into the part of the trip you remember longest. Just go in clear-eyed: you trade daylight and a phone signal for the silence and the cool.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the deepest hotel in the world?
- The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, built into the wall of an 88-metre-deep former quarry in Songjiang. Of its 18 floors only two sit above ground, and the lowest two are submerged in a 10-metre-deep saltwater aquarium with underwater suites. It opened in November 2018 as the world's first quarry hotel and is the deepest hotel you can book.
- What was the world's deepest hotel room, and can you still book it?
- The Sala Silvermine suite in Sweden, a single room carved 155 metres down into a 16th-century silver mine, long held the title of the world's deepest hotel room. It is no longer bookable: since 2024 the mine area used for the suite has been closed to overnight guests and given over to storage. The mine still runs tours, but you can no longer sleep at the bottom.
- What is the deepest hotel room you can book today?
- The Cavern Suite at Grand Canyon Caverns in Arizona, a single 1,700-square-foot room set 220 feet, about 67 metres, below the surface inside a dry limestone cave. It is marketed as the deepest and darkest hotel room in the world and runs around 1,000 US dollars a night. The caverns reopened in June 2025 after a period of closure.
- Can you eat underground at these hotels?
- Yes, and the underground dining is often the best reason to go. The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland has restaurants down the quarry face and an aquarium-walled dining room; Grand Canyon Caverns runs a dining room deep inside the cave; Argos in Cappadocia keeps a 1,200-year-old underground wine cellar; and Sextantio in Matera serves breakfast in a candlelit former cave church. The temperature underground stays cool and steady year round.
- Are underground and cave hotels actually comfortable?
- Mostly yes, with caveats. Rock holds a stable, cool temperature, so cave rooms stay quiet and around the high teens Celsius all year, which many guests find restful. The trade-offs are real: little or no natural light, patchy phone signal deep underground, and on the lower floors of the Shanghai quarry, no opening windows. Light sleepers love the silence; anyone prone to claustrophobia should book a higher or window-lit room.
- Where are the best luxury cave hotels?
- Cappadocia in Turkey and Matera in Italy lead the field. Argos in Cappadocia threads 51 rooms through restored caves and tunnels beneath Uchisar, while Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita occupies 18 candlelit caves in Matera's UNESCO-listed Sassi. For something more remote, the Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, Australia, and the single-property Beckham Creek Cave Lodge in the Arkansas Ozarks both put you fully inside the rock.
- Why are underground hotels cool inside without air conditioning?
- Because rock and earth act as insulation. A few metres down, the ground holds a near-constant temperature regardless of the season, so dugout and cave rooms stay naturally cool in summer and mild in winter. In Coober Pedy, where summer surface heat is extreme, locals have lived in dugouts for exactly this reason, and the Desert Cave Hotel works on the same principle.