And thankfully there are plenty of hotel entrepreneurs out there looking to offer us a different setting in which to relax while exploring the globe.

Just take a browse through our features and compilations of many of the world's weirdest, wackiest yet most awe-inspiring forms of accommodation.

From ice hotels to tree houses, from top-deck beds to canine retreats and from converted prisons to plush planes, innovative hoteliers are constantly seeking to come up with an alternative to the Marriotts and Best Westerns that so many of us have to endure.

And these remarkable resorts are nothing if not alternative…