A colleague turned me on to Unusual Hotels of the World, www.uhotw.com, where lodgings are a trip.
What's hot: Oh, the places to stay: The beagle-shaped Dog Bark Park Inn in Cottonwood, Idaho. Hotels are rated in five colored categories from "wow" to "different." The latter has less outrageous properties, such as the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley National Park.
