See for yourself!

Did you ever hear the highly unusual stories of these 10 American hotels?

Some hotels don’t just offer a bed; they hide bunkers, tunnels, secret rooms, and architectural surprises that guests can still walk through. These 10 American hotels turn a stay into an exploration, rewarding curiosity with real, visitable places. Take a look at these incredible places and see if any of them are worth adding to your travel list!

Image: Adrian Hernandez

At first glance, The Greenbrier appears to be a classic luxury resort. Its grand interiors, manicured grounds, and formal atmosphere give no hint of anything unusual beneath the surface.

Below the hotel sits a massive Cold War–era bunker built to house the entire U.S. Congress. Today, guests can tour blast doors, dormitories, and control rooms, walking through one of the most elaborate secret facilities ever concealed under an American hotel.

Image: Steven Van Elk

This stylish Boston hotel openly displays its past rather than hiding it. The building’s soaring atrium still shows iron bars, stone walls, and catwalks from its original use.

Once the Charles Street Jail, the structure retains real jail cells and walkways integrated into lounges and corridors. Guests dine and relax inside a former cellblock, experiencing a space that never fully shed its original purpose.

Image: Padraig O'Flannery

Famous for its dramatic mountain setting, the Stanley offers far more than scenic views. Beneath the public spaces lies a network of service tunnels and mechanical rooms.

Guests can join guided tours that pass through underground corridors once used by staff, revealing boilers, passageways, and other hidden infrastructure. These spaces show how large early hotels functioned behind the scenes.

Image: Onkar Singh

Nothing about the Madonna is subtle. Each room is completely different, ranging from rock caves to exaggerated fantasy suites carved into stone.

The quirks extend beyond the guest rooms. Visitors encounter pink dining halls, dramatic staircases, and a men’s restroom featuring a full waterfall urinal. The oddities are public and impossible to miss.

Image: Jonathan Phillips

Above ground, this Victorian beachfront hotel feels bright and historic. Below, a lesser-known world exists beneath the floors.

The hotel preserves service tunnels, original mechanical areas, and hidden corridors once used to move staff and supplies unseen. Some of these spaces are viewable through tours and exhibits, offering guests a rare look at how massive resorts quietly operated behind the scenes.

Image: The Artwill .

From the outside, this Catskills hotel seems modest. Inside, many rooms are designed like interactive sets rather than standard accommodations.

Guests discover hidden doors, rotating walls, secret staircases, and puzzle-like layouts built directly into their suites. Exploring the rooms becomes part of the stay.

Image: Anil Baki Durmus

This hotel doubles as a contemporary art museum, but the experience goes beyond framed walls and quiet galleries.

Large-scale installations appear in hallways, stairwells, and unexpected rooms, many of them accessible at any hour. Guests freely explore spaces where art and architecture blend, often stumbling upon hidden or unexpected exhibits.

Image: Saul Macias

Built during Prohibition, this Midtown hotel quietly preserves pieces of its secretive past. At street level, it looks like a standard historic property.

Inside, guests can find concealed entrances and speakeasy-style spaces tied to the era of hidden bars and bootlegging routes. Some remain intentionally discreet, inviting visitors to discover them, as if by chance.

Image: John Ruddock

The Ahwahnee feels monumental, with soaring ceilings and massive stonework that appear ancient and natural.

What guests don’t immediately notice is the illusion at work. Steel beams are disguised as wood, acoustic tricks shape sound, and structural features are hidden in plain sight. Guided tours reveal how the building quietly manipulates perception while remaining fully functional.

Image: Strange Happenings

Opened in 1889, Hotel Jerome still contains original underground tunnels built to move people and supplies discreetly during Aspen’s mining boom. Portions of these passageways remain intact beneath the hotel.

While not all tunnels are freely accessible, the hotel actively incorporates them into tours and historical storytelling, and guests can see preserved subterranean spaces that reveal how the building once functioned behind the scenes.

Be amazed!

Would Washington approve this? 12 odd details of American State Capitols

One does not instantly associate State Capitols with out-of-the-ordinary things. These vast and solemn spaces are more often seen as rigid palaces where everything is designed to transmit continuity, trust, and a cold, statuesque calmness. And, for the most part, that is exactly the case. But, in some of these cases, the designers, architects, and builders have managed to introduce interesting details that you would not expect from these places. Take a look at the following 12 oddities and see if you can visit one near you!

Image: Trac Vu

Stand under the Texas State Capitol dome and try a quiet sentence. The circular rotunda acts like a whispering gallery, carrying sound along the curve so someone far away can hear you clearly.

It’s a fun low-tech science experiment built into the building’s architecture. Even a simple clap pops into a long echo, so tour groups often play a quick call-and-response game across the rotunda.

Image: Jasmeet Singh

Inside the Iowa State Capitol is a Victorian law library with ornate ironwork and stacked balconies of books. The matching wrought-iron staircases at each end are really impressive.

They climb through multiple levels like something from a period film, yet the library still functions as a real legal workspace. It’s a rare capitol room where the quiet, the smell of books, and the decoration work together as a whole.

Image: Nils Huenerfuerst

Arizona’s historic Capitol wears a copper-plated dome as a nod to the state’s mining identity. The building also bakes in practical desert ideas, not just decoration.

Look for thick masonry walls, skylights, and bullseye windows meant to vent heat. There’s even a winged-style weather vane you can spot through a skylight from inside the rotunda, if you know where to look up.

Image: Francisco de Frias

Hawaii’s State Capitol doesn’t copy the U.S. Capitol’s dome look. Instead, its "Hawaiian international" design is filled with meanings you can decode when you walk, like a built-in scavenger hunt.

A reflecting pool surrounds the structure to represent the Pacific Ocean, cone-shaped chambers suggest volcanoes, and palm-trunk columns echo the island's nature. Even repeated sets of eight elements nod to Hawaii’s main eight islands.

Image: Zach Lucero

Most capitols have lawns and statues. Not Oklahoma. Their State Capitol adds something stranger: oil wells on the Capitol grounds, sitting right over the Oklahoma City Oil Field and tying politics to the state’s geology.

One well is nicknamed "Petunia 1" because it was drilled in a flower bed. It’s a wonderfully Oklahoman detail: industry bubbling up beside government offices, and it’s also an easy "spot the rig" challenge for visitors.

Image: Pieter van de Sande

Look up at the Nebraska State Capitol, and you’ll spot "The Sower," a massive figure casting seeds to the wind from the 400-foot central tower.

The statue symbolizes agriculture’s role in Nebraska’s identity, replacing the usual dome with something more thematic and related to the state.

Image: David Anderson

Above the Minnesota State Capitol entrance sits a gilded quadriga (the four-horse chariot that the Romans used) called "Progress of the State." Its copper skin is covered in real gold leaf, making it flash like a trophy in sunlight.

Then comes the odd detail: the chariot wheels sprout pineapples, a long-time symbol of hospitality and welcome. It’s a little joke included on a monument that would be otherwise too solemn.

Image: Samuel Yongbo Kwon

High in the Massachusetts State House chamber hangs a painted wooden codfish, installed in 1784 as a reminder of how vital the cod fishery was to the colony and the state’s early economy.

It’s nicknamed the "Sacred Cod," and it has its own anecdote: it was briefly kidnapped more than once in the 1900s.

Image: Joshua Williams

In Albany’s New York State Capitol, the staircase isn’t just a common path upstairs; it’s a stone gallery. It is famous for dozens of carved portraits tucked into arches and corners.

The building has many weird carvings, like an ornamental spiderweb, among other things. The many profiles are hidden all over the building, making it a scavenger hunt of sorts.

Image: Pieter van de Sande

On the Kansas State Capitol’s second-floor rotunda level, the mural "Tragic Prelude" is as impressive as a movie poster: abolitionist John Brown stands front and center, framed by Civil War chaos scenes. It has over 31 feet across.

Behind him are Union and Confederate soldiers, plus a tornado and a prairie fire closing in (two important things in Kansas weather).

Image: Pete Alexopoulos

The Michigan State Capitol rotunda features a glass floor composed of 976 individual glass tiles set into an iron frame, installed in the 1870s. Visitors walk on a Victorian engineering feat.

Looking up, the oculus in the dome is painted like a starry night sky, with ring of eight muses below.

Image: Unma Desai

Utah State Capitol honors its nickname, the Beehive State. One standout is the pair of beehive sculptures placed on the south grand staircase. They are big, symbolic, and highly photogenic. They also include the word "Industry," which is Utah’s official motto.

The beehive motif can be found all over the grounds, turning any visit into a game of spotting beehives for visitors.