“Sometimes there’s an elephant in the room. In my case, the elephant is the room!”
So begins the Airbnb listing for Lucy the Elephant, the 138-year-old Jersey Shore landmark that is available on the home-sharing site for three nights only this March.
Located in Margate City, just south of Atlantic City, the wooden elephant is a National Historic Landmark and welcomes more than 130,000 visitors a year during daytime hours. But if you’re lucky, you can book a one-night stay for two people on Airbnb on March 17, 18, or 19, 2020. You’ll have to act quickly—the $138 listing opens up for bookings on March 5 and once those three nights are gone, it’s sold out forever on Airbnb.
Book on March 5: $138 per night (available for stays March 17, 18, and 19, 2020), airbnb.com
The elephant-top views of the Jersey Shore beach.
Courtesy of Airbnb
While this is the first time Lucy has been listed on Airbnb, it’s far from the first time the elephant has welcomed overnight guests. In fact, in 1902, a family of six stayed inside Lucy for an entire summer. Lucy has also served as a tavern in the past, but it was originally commissioned in 1881 by a Philadelphia land speculator, James V. Lafferty, Jr., in order to attract visitors and property buyers to land he bought in the area south of Atlantic City.
The host for these overnight stays will be Richard Helfant, who began volunteering at Lucy the Elephant over 50 years ago as a teenager. Today he is the executive director of the Save Lucy Committee, the organization that has been responsible for preserving Lucy over the years. (Airbnb will make a donation to the Save Lucy Committee in honor of this partnership.)
The interior apartment includes a queen-size bed.
Courtesy of Airbnb
Inside, you’ll find that the apartment interiors have been decorated with a nod to Lucy’s Victorian era origins and includes a queen-size bed, a separate sitting area with two couches, and a breakfast nook. At six stories tall, the views from Lucy the Elephant are nothing to turn up your nose (er, trunk) at. Once you climb up the staircase inside Lucy’s leg to the living area, you’ll find that the eyes are actually porthole windows that look directly out at the beach just steps away. Guests will also have access to the open-air deck located on Lucy’s back.
However, Lucy might not be for everyone.
“The interiors scream ‘someone was murdered here’ and the outside screams ‘It was me. I did it: Lucy the Elephant’,” says Ciera Velarde, AFAR’s newsletter engagement editor. “I will say it looks much roomier than I would have thought it would be.”
Don’t find the Victorian vibes and the glowing elephant eyes unsettling? Find more information about this limited Airbnb listing at airbnb.com/lucy.
The roomy interior includes a spacious sitting area.
Courtesy of Airbnb
If you’re unable to nab one of the Lucy bookings on Airbnb, there are plenty more unusual listings on Airbnb to consider for weekend getaways this spring. In fact, Airbnb says that searches for these types of unique listings have increased by 70 percent in the past year. Want additional unique inspirations? Consider booking an Airbnb that resembles a spaceship or one that looks like it was pulled straight from the pages of your favorite book.
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