Hotels that are the trip.

The unique-hotel category is the most over-Instagrammed in travel. The list below filters hard for hotels where the unique element is structural — the hotel is built around the gimmick — versus hotels where the gimmick is decorative.

The Maldives overwater category alone contains perhaps thirty resorts; we list the ten we have stayed at and would return to. The non-Maldives unique category is global and small: Cappadocia caves, Lapland ice hotels, treehouse hotels in Costa Rica, ryokans built around hot springs.