Think you’ve been “off-grid” because your boutique retreat had patchy Wi-Fi? Cute. These places take getting away from it all to extremes your phone can’t even dream of reaching. Picture helicopter-only chalets balanced on glaciers, pods bolted to cliff faces and yurts so deep in the desert even Google Maps struggles…
They’re not easy to get to, think days of travel, ancient stone staircases and private ice runways. But what waits on the other side is utter silence, endless stars, primal landscapes and a brag so good it almost justifies the insta photos.
Here are the ten most isolated, hard-to-reach hotels on Earth…
1. WHITE DESERT, Antarctica
Imagine sipping champagne in a heated pod surrounded by endless blue-white wilderness. At White Desert’s Whichaway Camp, that’s daily life. Getting there means flying to Cape Town, then a private jet over the Southern Ocean to an ice runway that barely looks real. Days are spent exploring ice tunnels, scaling nunataks and marvelling at glaciers older than human memory. Nights? Crisp, biting silence broken only by the shifting groan of ancient ice. It’s an experience so surreal, it barely feels of this world—and that’s the point.
Price: ★★★★★ (ultra-luxury)
Remoteness: ★★★★★ (private jet to the ice, literally)
Novelty: ★★★★★ (how many people do you know who’ve slept in Antarctica?)
2. FOGO ISLAND INN, Newfoundland, Canada
Perched on a lonely rock in the North Atlantic, Fogo Island Inn is a modernist masterpiece balanced on stilts against wild seas and centuries of fog. Getting there? A flight to Newfoundland, a winding drive and a ferry crossing that often slices through drifting ice. Inside, it’s all wood stoves, handcrafted quilts and windows framing a restless, grey horizon. Outside, caribou roam and icebergs drift past like silent ghosts. It feels both ancient and entirely of the moment.
Price: ★★★★☆
Remoteness: ★★★★☆
Novelty: ★★★★☆
3. EXPLORA PATAGONIA, Chile
Hidden deep in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, Explora Patagonia feels like it sprouted straight from the rock beside a glassy fjord. You’ll fly south, then drive for hours across windswept plains and past surreal blue lakes until the lodge finally appears, dwarfed by spires of granite. Days mean glacier hikes and horse treks whilst nights bring hot tubs under star-heavy skies. Patagonia is raw, unpredictable and so vast it feels almost intimidating, but that’s what makes this one unique and unforgettable.
Price: ★★★★☆
Remoteness: ★★★★☆
Novelty: ★★★★☆
4. The Three Camel Lodge, Mongolia
A handful of traditional felt gers (yurts) scattered across Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, miles from anywhere paved. To get there: fly into Ulaanbaatar, then rattle across bone-dry steppe in a 4×4 for hours. You’ll sleep under painted domes, sip fermented mare’s milk at sunset, and wake to nothing but the howl of desert winds. Fossil sites, towering sand dunes and camel treks fill your days; nights belong to a galaxy so bright it almost seems close enough to touch.
Price: ★★★☆☆
Remoteness: ★★★★☆
Novelty: ★★★★★
5. Sheldon Chalet, Alaska, USA
Balanced on a ridge 6,000 feet up in Denali National Park, Sheldon Chalet isn’t just remote, it’s unreachable except by helicopter. Five plush rooms hover over a private amphitheatre of glaciers and rock, where aurora borealis ripples like living silk overhead. By day, explore snowfields and crevasses; by night, dine on chef-prepared meals paired with silence so absolute it feels physical. Civilisation? Miles and miles (and miles) away….
Price: ★★★★★
Remoteness: ★★★★★
Novelty: ★★★★★
6. Jade Screen Hotel, Mount Huangshan, China
Only 60 rooms, but a climb that will test your resolve…
Roughly 60,000 ancient stone steps winding up the legendary Yellow Mountain. Once there, the payoff is spectacular, jagged granite peaks twisting through drifting mist, twisted pines defying gravity and dawn views that look borrowed from a thousand-year-old scroll painting. The fatigue fades but those sunrise views stay etched in memory.
Price: ★★☆☆☆
Remoteness: ★★★☆☆
Novelty: ★★★★☆
7. Constance Tsarabanjina, Madagascar
A castaway-chic retreat on a tiny private island off Madagascar’s northwest coast. Fly to the mainland, then bounce across waves in a speedboat to reach your barefoot villa hidden under palms. Days blur into snorkelling over coral gardens, sipping sundowners on powdery sand and stargazing where city light never reaches. It’s luxury, yes, but filtered through wild remoteness that feels wonderfully unpolished too.
Price: ★★★★☆
Remoteness: ★★★★☆
Novelty: ★★★★☆
8. Skylodge Adventure Suites, Peru
Imagine a transparent capsule bolted to a sheer cliff high above the Sacred Valley. Getting there involves climbing 400 metres up a via ferrata or a hair-raising combo of hikes and ziplines. Once inside, floor-to-ceiling views turn vertigo into exhilaration. Dinner arrives by pulley and morning brings a sunrise you’ll watch suspended over a drop that would make your knees knock…if they weren’t already!
Price: ★★☆☆☆
Remoteness: ★★★☆☆
Novelty: ★★★★★
9. Svalbard Hotel | The Vault, Longyearbyen, Norway
Way above the Arctic Circle, in the world’s northernmost town, you’ll find the surprisingly stylish Svalbard Hotel. Getting there means flights via Oslo and Tromsø and a place where polar bears occasionally outnumber people. Midnight sun in summer, endless night in winter and the real possibility of spotting aurora from your window. Civilisation feels fragile this far north and that’s what makes it exhilarating.
Price: ★★★☆☆
Remoteness: ★★★★☆
Novelty: ★★★★☆
10. Hotel Everest View, Nepal
At nearly 13,000 feet, Hotel Everest View is exactly what it promises: breakfast on a terrace with Everest itself in the horizon. The journey? A nail-biting flight into Lukla or a helicopter ride to avoid the trek. The air is thin, but the view makes up for every breath. It’s not just a hotel stay; it’s a postcard come to life, one you had to conquer altitude and nerves to earn.
Price: ★★★★☆
Remoteness: ★★★★☆
Novelty: ★★★★★
