Ikea sleepover and other unusual accommodations

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

See recent posts by Christine Sarkis

For some, Ikea is more than a store, it’s a vacation destination. This according to World Hum’s Weblog, which has a funny post about the Ikea store in Oslo, Norway, that’s opening up a temporary and free hostel for enthusiastic shoppers. Swedish meatballs and Ikea bathrobes will be part of the package for up to 30 visitors per night.

The post also hits on something I tend to cover in bits and pieces during the year, but never before explored as a trend. The sleepover phenomenon mostly caters to families looking for an exciting and unusual camping destination. The listings in the blog post include sleepovers at Dodger Stadium and SeaWorld, but I know you can do the same at other museums and animal parks around the country, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

I like unusual accommodations, from lighthouses to old convents (speaking of which, if you’re looking for offbeat but charming places to stay in Holland, check out Erfgoed Logies), and if similar museum and park sleepovers had been around when I was young, you can bet I would have dragged my family to every last one of them.

We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.