Photograph to comeCortijada Los Gázquez
Almería · Sleeps 1 or more
A wholly off-grid farmhouse retreat in the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park, run on sun, wind and wood.
€
- Off-grid
- Solar-powered
- Dark skies
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Photographs by Rifugio Lagazuoi, used with permission.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, The Dolomites
A mountain refuge at 2,752 metres above the Falzarego Pass, with what may be the best terrace in the Alps.
You reach it by cable car from the Falzarego Pass, or on foot through the tunnels the Italian army dug into the mountain during the First World War — which is a strange and sobering way to arrive somewhere this beautiful. At 2,752 metres the refuge looks across at the Tofane, Marmolada and, on a clear evening, most of the eastern Dolomites turning pink.
There is a sauna, which at this altitude is a genuine luxury rather than a spa cliché. Half board is the norm in a rifugio: dinner and breakfast come with the bed.
Best for: watching the enrosadira from above, having walked up to it
By cable car from the Passo Falzarego, whose timetable and prices belong to the cable car company, or on foot. Check-in is between 2.30pm and 6.30pm.
Ugo — then the director of a butcher's shop, an Alpine guide, a former Scoiattolo and a member of the Alpine Rescue Service — and Alda, then a housewife, left their country life and built the inn at 2,752 m in 1965. Their sons, one of whom writes of forty years on the Lagazuoi summit, and their children run it now.
Checked August 2026 · We re-verify prices and opening every quarter.
Photograph to comeAlmería · Sleeps 1 or more
A wholly off-grid farmhouse retreat in the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park, run on sun, wind and wood.
€
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Skinnskatteberg · Sleeps 2–6
Turf-roofed charcoal-burners' huts by a forest lake, with no electricity, no shower and a floating sauna.
Check site for latest prices
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Thorncombe, Dorset · Sleeps 2
The only place in Britain to sleep in a RIBA award-winning treehouse.
££££
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€€
per night