When choosing a hotel, many are increasingly looking for an architecturally unique design — everything from a 13th-century fortress in Scotland to a floating home in Thailand or a giant log cabin in Québec.
For fans of planes, trains, and other forms of transportation, there are a number of hotels that let guests sleep inside such decommissioned vehicles.
The Jumbo Stay hotel and hostel inside a Boeing 747-200 in Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport (ARN) was closed down in March 2025 as the owner struggled with the cost of keeping it open.
The good news is that those who want to spend the night in a plane on the ground still have the chance to do so at the Hotel Costa Verde in Costa Rica’s Manuel Antonio National Park.
Hotel Costa Verda (Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica): a Boeing 727 suite
While most of the Costa Verde hotel is made up of studios and bungalows offering waterfront views of the Pacific Ocean, aviation geeks from the world over come to Costa Rica to stay in its premium suite and centerpiece: the fuselage of a 1965 Boeing 727 that was refurbished into a two-bedroom room jutting out into the jungle trees.
“We salvaged this airframe from its San Jose airport-resting place [and] carefully transported the pieces on five, big-rig trucks to the jungles of Manuel Antonio where they have been resurrected into a unique jumbo hotel suite,” the hotel owners write of the suite while promising that its position and views “will make you feel like you’re flying.”
Hotel Costa Verde
The Hotel Chalet (Chattanooga, Tennessee): A stay in a 1920s-era train carriage
As a major hub connecting the North and the South during the Civil War and terminus for several major rail lines throughout early American history, the city of Chattanooga in southeastern Tennessee leans fully into that history with The Hotel Chalet.
Along with 107 regular rooms in a Beaux-Arts-style building, the nostalgic boutique hotel has 25 standalone suites located inside refurbished Pullman carriages once used as sleeper trains between the 1920s and 1960s.
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Guests enter the room by stepping onto a gangway and then delving deeper into that vibe from an era of luxury train travel: original elongated train windows with sliding curtains, a spacious main hall with sections that were once used for luggage storage converted into seating areas and a bathroom, and countless interior design touches that recreate the feel of retro luxury.
That original site also sits on the site of the former Chattanooga Choo Choo train station that remains a landmark food and entertainment complex.
Hotel Chalet Chattanooga
TWA Hotel (JFK Airport, New York): Runway views and Jet Age glamour
Built on the site of the former TWA Flight Hub airport terminal that was closed after Trans World Airlines sold its assets to American Airlines in 2001, what is now the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport is connected to the Terminal 5 used by JetBlue Airways.
Since 2017, the former terminal has been used as an aviation-themed hotel that recreates the feel of the Jet Age with a space capsule-shaped lobby designed by famed Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, red carpets, and other touches of midcentury design, as well as sprawling runway views.
For aviation fans, there are countless other Easter eggs: retro TWA ads, retro luggage tugs in random places, and a cocktail bar inside a 1958 Lockheed Constellation plane.
TWA Hotel
Crowne Plaza Changi (Changi Airport in Singapore): a brand-new suite
An upscale accommodation option for those planning to spend the night before flying out from Changi Airport (SIG), the four-star Crowne Plaza Changi in Singapore opened the doors to three new aviation-themed family suites last summer.
Through the hotels’ partnership with Singaporean playground company Kitztopia, the suites were designed above all for the littlest aviation fans with plane-shaped bunk beds and runway-themed carpets, as well as a small kitchen area made to mirror a plane galley. Families who book the suites will also receive a gift bag of various plane-related plushies and toys.
“Kids can roleplay as pilots or cabin crew, while parents relax in the comfort of the world’s best airport hotel [a title that the property has won several times in a row],” Crowne Plaza Changi writes of the new suites.
Related: We got a peek inside the swanky new JetBlue lounge at JFK
