Published this month by Lonely Planet, the book is small in size but big on promises, with the authors saying accommodation was included only if it “gives us a thrill, opens our eyes, makes us catch our breath and inspires us to see the world through different eyes”.

Kangaroo Island’s five-star Southern Ocean Lodge is extolled as a place where guests can take in the wilderness from their own “private piece of remote paradise”. It sits alongside three other Australian destinations: the Crocodile Hotel in Jabiru in the Northern Territory, Roar and Snore harbourside campsite at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and the luxurious cabins of Longitude 131, overlooking the desert at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the NT.

International accommodation featured in the book ranges from wooden spheres suspended in the treetops on Canada’s Vancouver Island and geodesic domes in the Patagonian wilderness, to an eccentric guesthouse in Vietnam where rooms are accessed by ladders and tunnels, and the restored Neemrana Fort Palace in Rajasthan, India.

Here’s a sample of some of the other “mind-blowing” destinations:

Berggasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli guesthouse in Switzerland backs into the cliff face of the Ebenalp Peak. Photo: Oscity © shutterstock

A junk cruise (with private cabins) on Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. Photo: Peter Stastny © Getty Images/Flickr

Glass igloos at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in Finland offer views of the Northern Lights above. Photo: Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort

A bathroom with a view at the Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island. Photo: Southern Ocean Lodge