Overnight in the World's Most EXTREME Hotels

Hotels are boring. I mean, wouldn't this bed be so much cooler if it was hanging off the side of a cliff or in a room made entirely of ice or floating in the middle of shark-infested waters? If you're a shark, call that breakfast in bed. Well, you don't have to imagine because these extreme hotels actually exist and I'm gonna stay in all of them whether it kills me or I live to tell the tale. We're gonna be pushing the absolute limits of where humans can sleep and having some fun along the way. And our first extreme accommodation takes us to Cusco, Peru. This place is absolutely insane. It's at 11,000 feet elevation. That's high enough to even give a Wyoming boy altitude sickness. But we're gonna be gaining even more elevation because tonight's accommodation is on the edge of this here cliff. This looks like it's either gonna be the most epic experience of my life or the start of a Mr. Ballin video, but either way, I'm here for it. This is Sky Lodge, Peru, the worst hotel in the world for anyone who sleepwalks. These polycarbonate sleeping pods hang 1,200 feet above Peru's sacred valley and the only way up is by climbing a super steep Via Ferrata. So after a quick safety briefing with my guide, Ryan, we center on up. And while this climb might look horrifying, it also is horrifying. There's no if, ands, or buts about that, but it's totally safe because I have two carabiners on my harness, one of which is always connected to a steel cable. Good thing I'm not scared of heights. The only thing I'm scared of is elevators, which is why I've been taking steps to avoid them. There may not be any decent jokes on this cliffside, but there is a sky bridge, which was crazy. And looking at that drop down really got me thinking about how fragile and precious life is. It got me asking the important questions. Wonder what it would be like to drop a deuce off of this thing. I see it. That's where we're staying. We are so freaking high up right now. And our first stop was the big dome, which is not only what they called me in high school, but the Sky Lodge's kitchen. Whoa. It's like a Latin American igloo. So this one right here is the dining pod, and this is where we're gonna have all our meals and... And from the dining pod, you can see all three of the sleeping pods out there. And I do believe I'm in that top one. Yes, you're in the high one. So I made the climb over to my room where I'd be having the most suspenseful sleep of my life. All right, welcome home. We made it to our little glass bubble in the sky. Time for a room tour. First off, this thing's like 80% bed. How many people do they expect to sleep in this thing? Holy smokes. I could sleep here. I could sleep there. I could sleep near. I could sleep square. Bars. Watch out, Dr. Seuss. That is one heck of a drop right there. Goodness. We have these curtains all over the place that you can close, but I feel like that kind of defeats the whole purpose of this. I mean, you might as well just buy a greenhouse back home and cover it in bed sheets if that's what you're gonna do. We have a nice little fold-out desk here. I guess you could get some work done or do your taxes on the side of the cliff if that's your cup of tea. Or if your cup of tea is a cup of tea, there's a nice little tea station right here with a thermos full of hot water. Some kind of balls of tea. Interesting choice. And we have a walkie-talkie so we can radio Brian. And yes, there are some LED lights in here, and those are powered by some solar panels on the hill over yonder. And just through this door is the bathroom. We've got your pooper right here, which is literally just a garbage bag you pinch off a grumpy into. And all the solids, the next day the housekeeper has to pick it up to move it down. You got Alex Honnold housekeeping this place. Come join us. And this is where you pee. It's literally just a pipe that goes down and onto the rocks. Might as well just pee out the window. It's going to the same place. This toilet is so exposed. I feel like the birds flying by are going to judge me. Peekaboo. I actually got an injury while playing peekaboo once. They sent me straight to the ICU. And we can also climb up here onto the deck, which has an amazing view of the entire valley. And you better believe I spent the entire evening up here taking in the beautiful sunset until it was time for our next order of events. Just going to dinner on the side of a cliff in the dark as one does. Yeah, I had to traverse to dinner in the dark. The chef is on duty. Our boy Brian was cooking up some absolute heat. Gordon Ramsey has been real quiet since this dinner dropped. So tell me a little bit about how this place was built. So we carry all the pieces in backpacks, you know? Wait, you carry the pieces for this up in backpacks? Everything in backpacks, yeah. Oh my gosh. And then we assemble like a big Lego. That's why we have to be climbers to work here because we need to do everything, you know? Gotta say, this place is an inspiration. Definitely the best tiny home in the world during a zombie apocalypse. Man, let me tell you, I actually heard about a magician from Peru and he said he was going to make someone disappear. And so he said, uno, dos, and then poof, he disappeared. He vanished without a trace. So dumb. What a day. We climbed a mountain in the Peruvian Andes and now we're just chilling in a sleeping pod 1,200 feet off the side of a cliff. I feel like my brain isn't even processing what's going on here. Also, it is so windy up here. The glass is shaking. That doesn't make me feel great. You know those dreams where it feels like you're falling off a building but then you wake up mid-fall? Yeah, I feel like those dreams would hit a little different here. Now let's get some sleep because we have a big day ahead of us. Welcome to the big day ahead of us. It is an extremely rainy morning, but let me tell you, if there's one place to be during a rainstorm, it's here. It's an absolute vibe, so cozy. Now, have y'all heard of Scooby's cousin, Cock-a-doodle? Yeah, Cock-a-doodle-doo. Let's get this day started, y'all. I started off the morning by making myself a cup of tea. Then I drank it while looking into a rainy window like I was in a Lumineers music video. Then I poked my sleepy little head out of my cocoon and headed to breakfast. It's a lot easier making the climb over when it's light out. We got our fruit bowl. We got our coffee. It's about to be the most scenic breakfast of my life. Holy smokes. It looks like Switzerland out there. Breakfast was delicious, as expected, but I wasn't sure I'd be holding onto it after seeing how we were getting back down. This cable is the best. It's like half a mile. Half a mile? I can't even see him anymore. Yeah, the only way down is by taking a series of ziplines to the base. And I've gotta say, this is the coolest way I've ever finished a hike up a mountain. All right, where does this one go? All the way to Norway. To Norway? So then I took off and held on tight and ziplined all the way over to Norway. So what's your Australian friend will be saying when they come here and see how beautiful it is? Norway! Anyways, let me show you where we're sleeping tonight. This is Soresneva Igloo Hotel, the northernmost ice hotel on planet Earth. It has 28 rooms, an ice bar, a chapel, and over 26,000 square feet of usable space. And as someone who's been building igloos for over a decade, I couldn't wait to see what these crazy Norwegians were cooking up. Oh my gosh. Holy Moses. I mean, clearly the cameras inside, that was a reenactment. That's bad acting, that's what that was. But on a real note, walking into this igloo feels like walking into a whole other world. You enter a massive labyrinth of pillars and ice sculptures, each of which is so intricately sculpted it feels like some kind of Nordic wizard turned a bunch of real animals to ice. I don't think one did because that would be messed up, but it's impressive craftsmanship is what I'm trying to say. The amount of detail in each of these sculptures just shatters my mind. Probably shouldn't use the word shatter around here. And after admiring all this hard work, I got to chat with one of the builders responsible for it. So here in Norway, you put barcodes on the side of your Navy ships. It's that you can Scandinavian. I'm sorry. And thankfully, Frida has the same patience with the igloo build that she has with my nonsense because it's quite the process. We start the building process in November. We are around 20 people building and seven artists. We produce the snow from the Alta River with the snow cannon. And we take all the ice from the local lake. We cut it with a chainsaw and we drag it up. And all that snow gets packed around these wooden molds that get removed once the structures are set. And every year, the igloo has a different theme. This year's being Africa. I like how you captured all of Africa. You have like the Serengeti, all the animals, but you also have a bunch of Egyptian stuff going on. You got freaking King Tut back here. Kind of spooky, honestly. He wakes up in the night. It's like night at the museum. He just comes alive at night and haunts the place. Speaking of haunted hallways, let's go see the rooms. So this is what the standard rooms look like. It's really just a room made out of snow. And all the beds in these rooms are covered in reindeer hides. This is what Santa does with the reindeer that misbehave. And each of the five suites is totally unique. So I'm just gonna show you all five. This is the first of the five suites. It's like an African tribal suite. The second suite is the Egyptian suite. And it's actually my personal favorite. Did you guys hear about the two pharaohs who farted at the same time? They had a toot in common. You got the ghost of Cleopatra just lurking over you as you sleep. So I guess that's pretty hot. This is the African safari suite. It's a mama giraffe kissing its giraffe wing on the head. Is that what you call them? Okay, I don't really know what the theme in this one is, but I dig it. The last suite is the Mother Earth suite. That's her in the flesh right there. Mother Earth. That's how I'm gonna be sleeping in this place tonight. Like a baby. But first, I need to check out the ice bar. Hi, hi. I'll have one silly goose juice on the rocks. I mean, this entire bar is on the rocks, but they serve all the drinks here in glasses made of ice. So sick. Norway juice. This is also pretty cool. They have an entire church back here. Dude, if you want to go to church here, you got to get baptized in an ice bath by Wim Hof himself. And after a long day, I headed to my room for the night. You better watch out. I think Moto Moto likes you. It's time for bed, y'all. As you can see here, we have a really high security door. Now that nighttime has hit, this place is starting to feel really cold. I mean, at least half the problem is that I look like I'm dressed for the Bahamas, not Norway, but... So when you book a stay here, they actually give you a mummy bag to use, keeping with the Egyptian theme. We love to see it. And this thing is rated to negative 40, so I think it's safe to say we're gonna be sleeping toasty. Night-night. Sleep tight. Don't let the mummies bite. I mean, of course I'm already awake. It's not like I left the camera rolling all night just to get that moment. And now that we're all done in the Arctic, we're gonna head to our next destination in the most Norwegian way possible, which is on a pair of cross-country skis. Gotta say, cross-country skiing is gonna be much easier now that I'm in a smaller country. And like some kind of Scandinavian Forrest Gump, I just started skiing. And I didn't stop once until I was in... North Carolina, home of the Wright Brothers. And I must be the wrong brother, because it would take a certified lunatic to stay at this next place. Speaking of which, we have a boat to catch. And this one isn't even in the U.S. It's 30 miles off the coast in international waters. I can't even begin to describe this place we're going to right now, so I'll just let you see it for yourself once we're there. And after a two-hour-long ride on a fishing boat, we were there. There she is, our accommodation for the night. This is the Frying Pan Tower, a lighthouse built by the Coast Guard in the 1960s to warn ships of shallow water. Water's so treacherous that this stretch of ocean has caused hundreds of shipwrecks, nicknaming it the Graveyard of the Atlantic. These days, the tower is a restoration project where volunteers and guests can come out to get away, rebuild the tower, and hang out with the hordes of sharks that call this place home. My only question is, how the heck are we getting up on this thing? I'm gonna ride the chair. Ride the chair? Yeah. This is wild. That one unemployed friend on a Tuesday. What is up? You are! Come on in! You didn't see the shark side of you, right? Going, ha ha ha. And this is Richard, the frying man at the Frying Pan. After the lighthouse was retired, Richard bought the tower at a government auction in 2010 and has been its chief caretaker ever since, with a goal to preserve the tower and share it with others. And I don't know whether I'm most worried about the rusty walkways 70 feet above the water or the sharks that lurk below, but either ways, I'm here for it. Now it's time for a tour. So first off, we have our common area, and it's kind of like what you'd get if your kooky old grandpa and a middle schooler designed a room together. There's couches. Telescopes. Whatever this is. Holy smokes. This is actually the original pool table from the 1960s, and the Coast Guard who were stationed here played it to stay entertained. I got that on camera. And hanging all around here are some of the American flags that have flown up top. So we're actually out in international waters. We are so far off the coast that this is not America. But I gotta tell you, out of respect for the Coast Guard guys and all the effort that's been put into making this country just a country, we're proud to fly the American flag right here. We've got the pantry, complete with emergency drinking water. That'd have to be one heck of an emergency. This thing looks like it was canned by Thomas Jefferson. This here's the kitchen. The Frying Pan Tower. That won't make it through a hurricane. I just gotta tell you. Washer. Dryer. I hardly know her. Don't you even think for a minute we're about to get through this video without one of those. There's a ton of different rooms all up and down the hallways, including the original bunks the Coast Guard slept in. And this is my room. This feels way too bougie to be a bedroom in a rickety old C tower. And there actually is a bathroom with running water, all thanks to the tower's fresh water collection system. You know, out here on the tower, there's a bunch of salt water around us, but we need to drink fresh water. And rather than trying to treat it, we just capture the rainwater so you can see it. There it is, right there. It runs right down here, down into one of the tanks below that holds 14,000 gallons. We treat it, purify it, and I think tonight we'll have some sodas with ice in it that's made out of the rainwater. So how does the plumbing work out here? Gravity, man. You gotta watch out for them brown eels. Oh yeah. Speaking of what's lurking beneath the tower, let's take a look underwater. So it's hard to see anything under the water from up here. So Richard has this nice little rig where we're going to drop the Insta360 cam down into the water and see what we can see down there. We're going camera fishing. Fishing for cameras? I'm the one who's supposed to make the dad jokes around here. Gosh. Down she goes. So what kind of fish are you used to seeing down there? Wet ones. As I sank my camera into the water, it saw all kinds of beautiful fish. Little did I know it was about to encounter something that makes this barracuda look like a Slim Jim. That's right. The seafloor was absolutely swarming with these massive sand tiger sharks. Meanwhile, up top, we didn't have the slightest clue what was going on below. They're seagulls when they fly over the sea. But if they fly over the bay, they turn into bagels. They got curious about the camera and started giving it some playful boops. But at some point, they must have decided the camera looked like a tasty little treat because this is what happened next. Yeah, that's a POV I never hope to see in my lifetime. That's horrifying. But our sweet boy must have realized it's not food and spat it out. How nice of him. And that's how I captured the coolest 360 cam footage I'll probably ever get in my lifetime. I actually can't believe this happened. All right, we didn't lose the camera. I don't know what kind of cool footage we got. You guys already know. You know something I don't. Could have gotten a turtle. But if we were going to be catching dinner, we needed to be fishing with more than just cameras. So I sent down some bait. Gravity is fast. And we didn't have to wait long. And the crazy thing about fishing here is you have to reel the fish 70 feet up to the tower. My first catch of the day was a black sea bass. And this is actually the first fish I've ever caught in salt water. So that's pretty cool. But I wasn't the only one having luck today. We got a chonker on the line. Oh, we got one, bud. And call the fish Smash Mouth because they just kept coming and they didn't stop coming. I got a white grunt. That's what they used to call me in high school. Oh, that's a good fish. There we go. In the words of DJ Khaled, another one. How are those for eating? They're fantastic. Yum yums. And this is Dirk. Dirk's mayonnaise is awesome. You like mustard on your french fries too? We love Dirk. You'll be seeing a lot of him. What are you making there, Dirk? Oh, Dirk. Mayonnaise is of the devil. I didn't know mayonnaise was of the devil. Is that like Baptist or Methodist? Despite my absolute hatred of mayonnaise, I thought I'd give Dirk's recipe a try. And I knew just the place to eat it. Oh, yeah. We are going down. I saw this old dive chair in the shop and it looks exactly like a picnic table. So Richard suggested we should dangle it off the side of the tower and have lunch on it. The last time I had a lunch this sketchy was that time I ate the food at Arby's. Most extreme lunch in the history of the Atlantic, baby. People eating lunch in the Titanic dining hall might disagree, but it's up there. And having seen what's in the water below makes this an even crazier experience. Yeah. Well done. Phillips head? What's up with that? Well, yeah, you fill it up with orange juice and other particular condiments and it makes a Phillips head screwdriver. That's so dumb. And that's coming from me. Being out in the middle of the sea, there's quite a few things about the mainland I miss. But one thing I especially miss is being able to go on runs. But that gave me an idea. What if I run the first ever frying pan tower 5k? So I built a track around the top of the tower using a bunch of old junk that was laying around and I measured it out to be 60 meters for one lap around. Meaning to run five kilometers, I'd need to run 83 laps. So go. I was a running fool, Jenny. I think the altitude was getting to me. I mean, this is 80 feet above sea level. Running a 5k in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. To be honest, one of the hardest parts is just keeping count. But I was also recording the run on Strava to make double sure I did the full distance and it felt so good once I was done. Five kilometers. We ran it in 25 minutes. That is so bad. But hey, for being on a tower in the middle of the ocean and carrying a 360 cam for half of it, I'll take it. As long as we're up here on the helipad, let me show you some of the crazy things happening up top. Starting with the massive solar array that stores power in this entire room full of batteries. This powers things like the light tower, which is what Richard showed me next. Whoa, we are on top of everything up here. Is this safe? Yeah, 50-50. 50-50 what? 50-50 safe. You ever get pirates out here? Uh, I think they're too scared to climb up. Well, what'd the pirate say when he turned 80 years old? Aye, matey. That was so bad. How old are you again? That's a dad joke. Y'all ain't gonna believe what I just found. Richard just randomly happens to have a giraffe unicycle out here, and I just randomly happen to ride a giraffe unicycle. I'm slowly realizing that Richard is just me in 35 years. I mean, we even wear the same hat. You know, in all the years of doing this, I think you're the only one that's actually been able to ride this big tall thing. You think you could ride that, Dirk? No, but it's alright. I'd rather just ride with two wheels. I'll watch you do it. I'm not just a clown. I'm the entire circus. The reason that I adore this place is, I look outside and the sun is coming over the horizon over the ocean, which is incredible. In the evenings, the sun is going down over the ocean. It's amazing. And then we look out in the water and we see these enormous sharks and huge sunfish. I live on land, on dirt, in an ordinary place. But we come out here and everything is extraordinary here. If you're not doing what it is you think is the absolute best thing you can do with your time, you're wasting that day. You just never know. Love your family, care about people, be nice to others. That's really what the tower is all about. Never once in my life did I think I'd be enjoying a sunset on a giraffe unicycle from the top of a sea tower in the middle of the ocean. That was not on the bingo card for David's lifetime. But I'll tell you what is on the bingo card for David's lifetime. Cooking dinner. Rob here was trying to teach me culinary excellence and I was just trying my best. There's a little all over. No way I can mess that up. He says as he messes it up. Remember we're trying to eat some of this tonight. We have to eat some of this. There's got to be at least one green bean per person. There's four of us here, all right? Now that's perfection. Thank you, Lord. And welcome to David. Welcome to the frying pan tower, sir. Yeah, stoked to be here. This fish went straight from the water outside the frying pan to the sauce inside the frying pan. This is some of the best seafood I've ever had, which isn't saying much since I live in the middle of the mountains. And I did the dishes so I could at least be useful for something around here. Got dad jokes and I can do the dishes. One of y'all ladies husband me up. Is that a good one, Dirk? Yeah. You think they'll be coming for me? For our movie night, we watched Jaws because that seems like a great thing to watch out here. We voted between this and Castaway. Then I brushed my teeth with some tooth sauce, washed my hair with some shower sauce, and got ready for bedtime. I was supposed to look like a fish. This has been such a cool experience. You can just tell how much Richard loves this place. He wants this place to have a positive impact on everyone that comes here, and you can just tell his heart's in the right place. Sounds so cheesy, but it's true. For a fella named Richard, he's kind of the opposite of a dick. Been cooking up that one since the moment we got here. Anyways, it's time to go sleepy by. Okay, I don't sleep with the lights on like that. Come on now. Mmm, you know how I like my coffee. Lobotomized. Dirk, you might be the most southern person I've ever met, so I've got some southern jokes for you. Okay. What did the Buddhist southerner say? I don't know. What in reintarnation? And you know what? You can tell me as many southern jokes as you want, but civil war jokes, I generally don't find those funny. No. Is that southern? I thought southern jokes was like, how many southerners does it take to scramble an egg? How many does it take? It takes one to catch the chicken, one to get the egg, and another one to fry it in the pan. That's three. So one thing you got to know about the frying pan tower is getting on and off of this thing is so insanely unpredictable. The weather doesn't care about your schedule. There's supposed to be a boat coming out today to get us, but Richard always says not to get your hopes up, because you never know. And I know just the thing to keep us busy while we wait for the boat. So another fun thing you can do up here is hit golf balls off the top. And you can do this without being a terrible person, because these golf balls actually dissolve into fish food once they hit the water. And as always, when golfing, I brought an extra pair of socks, just in case I get a hole in one. That makes no sense up here. The only hole I'm going to be hitting this into is a fish's mouth hole. If you play golf, you might want to look away for a second. My swing is so bad, it will actually make you throw up. That was so bad, I got to keep the ball. The fish are eating good tonight. That's kind of fun. It's like hockey for rich suburban grandpas. And that's when I saw it. Our rescue was on the horizon. We were making it off this thing alive. Finally getting off of here. You wouldn't know it from this video, but we were actually stuck out here for eight days. Five more than planned. And to say I was burnt out is an understatement. Last time we'll be seeing that hunk of metal for a while. And as we rode back to shore, thoughts of the tower filled my mind. There were so many memories made. Dad jokes told. 360 cams eaten. But it's good to be back. Made it back to shore. I'm just glad I'm no longer on a tiny living space in the middle of a dark abyss.