Beginner astronomers rejoice: In case your thought of the proper trip night time entails heading out into the darkness, gazing upward, and taking within the majesty of the constellation-filled sky, there are many stellar Airbnbs obtainable to lease around the globe. Some embody glass roofs for star-spotting from the consolation of your bed room, others include high-tech telescopes that give you a front-row view of distant planets, and some even embody full-on dome observatories that provide the expertise of a private planetarium. Within the Northern Hemisphere, these locations will are available particularly helpful through the August peak of the Perseid meteor bathe, when you possibly can spot 50 to 100 taking pictures stars each hour. Right here, 11 of essentially the most out-of-this-world leases on Airbnb to go stargazing.
California desert home with observatory
- Location: Yucca Valley, California
- Sleeps: 8
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
A couple of 20-minute drive from Joshua Tree Nationwide Park, Observatory Retreat payments itself because the world’s solely trip rental that provides company unique entry to an automatic dome observatory. In different phrases, stroll in, click on on a celestial physique on a display, and the dome and telescope will robotically rotate and focus to provide the greatest view. You’ll be spending the night time in a three-bedroom home with loads of excessive desert allure (like cactus wall artwork) and a slew of fun-loving facilities for the non-astronomically inclined, together with foosball, air hockey, billiards, skeeball, and extra.
Glass cottage with scorching tub in Iceland
- Location: Hella, Iceland
- Sleeps: 2
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
To identify Iceland’s famed aurora borealis, it’s important to go away behind the town lights. You’ll be able to’t do a lot better than at this southern Iceland cottage, surrounded by 1,200 acres of lava fields. From the heat of your glass-walled lodging, you possibly can look out towards the star-filled sky at night time or towards the encircling volcanoes of Hekla and Eyjafjallajökull through the day. The decor brings one of the best of Icelandic nature indoors: Suppose furnishings constructed from driftwood collected on the seashores of Ísafjörður, moss-based artwork within the kitchen, and naturally dyed cushions made with wool from a rescue sheep farm. When you’re not afraid to courageous the weather on a cold winter night time, there’s a scorching tub set to 102ºF year-round just a few steps out the door.
Design cabin close to Hawai‘i Volcanoes Nationwide Park
- Location: Volcano, Hawai‘i
- Sleeps: 4
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
Hawai‘i Volcanoes Nationwide Park stays open 24 hours a day, making it a terrific spot for stargazing, and the skies above the lava-scarred panorama stay as much as the promise of a spot nicknamed the “Massive” Island. Positioned a five-minute drive from the park entrance is Kūono at Volcano, a Norwegian-inspired design cabin surrounded by a forest of flowering ʻōhi‘a bushes and that includes minimalist interiors nonetheless designed for consolation (Casper mattress, Parachute sheets). Its 14-foot floor-to-ceiling home windows look out over a firepit and a cedar scorching tub, from which you’ll be able to gaze skyward and thank your fortunate stars that there’s no gentle air pollution out right here.
Off-grid bell tent close to Canyonlands Nationwide Park
- Location: Monticello, Utah
- Sleeps: 2
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
Husband-and-wife duo Keshia and Erik Joot opened the off-grid, solar-powered Glamping Canyonlands, about 40 minutes from Canyonlands Nationwide Park in southern Utah. Amongst its six lodging choices is that this distinctive bell tent with a sunroof for stargazing instantly out of your queen mattress. Communal areas, in the meantime, embody an outside kitchen, a barrel sauna, and a wildly spectacular Orion SkyQuest telescope. Oh, and one of many shared loos comes with a glass roof—proof optimistic that you just actually can stargaze from wherever. The campground additionally presents month-to-month astronomy excursions, which shall be free for company starting in 2024.
Eco-cabin above a New Zealand winery
- Location: Waipara, New Zealand
- Sleeps: 2
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
This wine nation eco-cabin, or PurePod, sits on a hillside above the natural Greystone Vineyard surrounded by regenerating bush, 45 minutes north of Christchurch, and it’s nearly solely product of glass. Sure, meaning the bed room, the kitchen, the lavatory, and even the ceiling, making it a cinch to identify the Milky Means and the constellations above the Southern Hemisphere. When you’re a fan of the living-without-walls PurePod expertise, you possibly can piece collectively an itinerary of different areas throughout New Zealand, together with the Tokoeka PurePod on Stewart Island, which is ready throughout the world’s southernmost Darkish Sky Reserve.
Learn extra >> New Zealand’s Finest Glamping Retreats
Midcentury desert home with non-public observatory
- Location: Morongo Valley, California
- Sleeps: 7
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
Lovingly restored and painted an eye catching bubblegum hue, this 1961 midcentury-modern homestead cabin sits about 18 miles from Joshua Tree Nationwide Park and is house to its personal $25,000 non-public telescope observatory. When you’re executed oohing and aahing over distant celestial our bodies, there are bean bag loungers and hammocks for naked-eye stargazing and an entire host of earthlier pleasures, together with a ping-pong desk, a scorching tub, out of doors swings, and a cowboy pool that sits within the shadow of the valley’s iconic Joshua bushes.
Colorado guesthouse with non-public observatory
- Location: Westcliffe, Colorado
- Sleeps: 6
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
Darkskies Holidays has a roster of almost a dozen rental properties in and round Westcliffe, Colorado, a licensed Darkish Sky Group due to its low humidity and 300-plus clear nights a 12 months. This three-bedroom guesthouse of a retired architect seems to be out over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Moist Mountain Valley and consists of such stress-free facilities as a wood-stove-heated meditation chapel, a labyrinth, and a greenhouse with orchids, water lilies, and self-pick greens and herbs. Friends also can join a tour of the on-property non-public observatory, a brief stroll from the home, or an astrophotography session for a advised donation of $200 to the native Darkish Skies group. Observe that slots replenish quick and that moon part performs a giant position in availability, as you possibly can solely seize images of area inside every week of the brand new moon.
Geodesic dome close to a Chilean nationwide park
- Location: Quebrada de Alvarado, Chile
- Sleeps: 2
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
An hour’s drive from Valparaíso and somewhat underneath 1.5 hours from Santiago, this geodesic dome is the mannequin of tranquil seclusion: It sits on an enormous property planted with lemon, apple, olive, avocado, and almond bushes and surrounded by native forest. Past that sits a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and La Campana Nationwide Park, the place Charles Darwin climbed the namesake mountain in 1834. We’re positive the daddy of evolution would agree: There are few sights as memorable as seeing a taking pictures star zipping throughout the southern sky.
Forty-foot-high Oregon commentary tower
- Location: Tiller, Oregon
- Sleeps: 4
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
Summit Prairie is ready deep inside Oregon’s Umpqua Nationwide Forest, however you don’t have to fret about its thick forests of Douglas fir blocking your view of the night time sky. That’s as a result of this rental property is modeled after a U.S. Forest Service fireplace lookout tower, perched 40 ft within the air. Among the many greatest spots to stargaze right here is from the Adirondack chairs on the elevated deck or the wood-fired, spring-fed scorching tub. Observe that the tower is open seasonally, from the top of March to mid-November, and reservations e-book up as shortly as a Taylor Swift live performance; plan a 12 months prematurely, and verify the reserving data for one of the best shot at success.
Mirrored glass cabin exterior of Oslo
- Location: Rælingen, Norway
- Sleeps: 4
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
When you’re not paying shut sufficient consideration, you might nearly miss this glossy tiny house: The floor of Norway’s first mirrored glass cabin operates as camouflage, reflecting again the serenity of the encircling Nordre Øyeren nature reserve. A couple of 25-minute drive from central Oslo, WonderInn occupies prime waterfront actual property, the place you’ll be sharing the area with moose, beavers, deer, and eagles. When the solar goes down, make your option to the firepit or scorching tub, which juts out over the delta, for a twin view of the celebs—up above and mirrored by the partitions of your momentary house.
Boho Welsh barn with a stargazing balcony
- Location: Carmarthenshire, Wales
- Sleeps: 2
- Ebook now: airbnb.com
Wales is rising as among the finest spots on the planet for stargazing, thanks to 2 designated Darkish Sky Reserves and, as of this February, Europe’s first Darkish Sky Sanctuary—a brand new designation launched in 2015 to rejoice the darkest and most distant areas and lift consciousness about their fragility. It’s additionally house to greater than 30 smaller Darkish Sky Discovery Websites, together with the Nationwide Botanic Backyard of Wales in Carmarthenshire, which is the place you’ll discover this cozy bohemian barn. The vibe right here is all about cwtch, an untranslatable Welsh phrase that roughly means a cuddle or a cubbyhole and is the native model of hygge. Right here, which may seem like wrapping your self in a blanket and plunking down on a cushion on the stargazing balcony, which is warmed by a log burner.
