Amateur astronomers rejoice: If your idea of the perfect vacation night involves heading out into the darkness, gazing upward, and taking in the majesty of the constellation-filled sky, there are plenty of stellar Airbnbs available to rent around the world. Some include glass roofs for star-spotting from the comfort of your bedroom, others come with high-tech telescopes that offer you a front-row view of distant planets, and a few even include full-on dome observatories that give you the experience of a personal planetarium. In the Northern Hemisphere, these places will come in especially handy during the August peak of the Perseid meteor shower, when you can spot 50 to 100 shooting stars every hour. Here, 11 of the most out-of-this-world rentals on Airbnb to go stargazing.
This three-bedroom Airbnb near Joshua Tree offers guests exclusive access to an automated dome observatory that’s located on the property.
Photo by June Choi
California desert house with observatory
- Location: Yucca Valley, California
- Sleeps: 8
- Book now: airbnb.com
About a 20-minute drive from Joshua Tree National Park, Observatory Retreat bills itself as the world’s only vacation rental that offers guests exclusive access to an automated dome observatory. In other words, walk in, click on a celestial body on a screen, and the dome and telescope will automatically rotate and focus to give you the best view. You’ll be spending the night in a three-bedroom house with plenty of high desert charm (like cactus wall art) and a slew of fun-loving amenities for the non-astronomically inclined, including foosball, air hockey, billiards, skeeball, and more.
The glass ceilings of this cottage in Iceland are made for stargazing—and northern lights viewing if the timing is right.
Courtesy of Glass Cottages Iceland
Glass cottage with hot tub in Iceland
- Location: Hella, Iceland
- Sleeps: 2
- Book now: airbnb.com
To spot Iceland’s famed aurora borealis, you have to leave behind the city lights. You can’t do much better than at this southern Iceland cottage, surrounded by 1,200 acres of lava fields. From the warmth of your glass-walled lodging, you can look out toward the star-filled sky at night or toward the surrounding volcanoes of Hekla and Eyjafjallajökull during the day. The decor brings the best of Icelandic nature indoors: Think furnishings made from driftwood collected on the beaches of Ísafjörður, moss-based art in the kitchen, and naturally dyed cushions made with wool from a rescue sheep farm. If you’re not afraid to brave the elements on a chilly winter night, there’s a hot tub set to 102ºF year-round a few steps out the door.
This cabin near Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park has a hot tub, firepit, and access to dark skies.
Courtesy of Airbnb host
Design cabin near Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
- Location: Volcano, Hawai‘i
- Sleeps: 4
- Book now: airbnb.com
Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park remains open 24 hours a day, making it a great spot for stargazing, and the skies above the lava-scarred landscape live up to the promise of a place nicknamed the “Big” Island. Located a five-minute drive from the park entrance is Kūono at Volcano, a Norwegian-inspired design cabin surrounded by a forest of flowering ʻōhi‘a trees and featuring minimalist interiors still designed for comfort (Casper mattress, Parachute sheets). Its 14-foot floor-to-ceiling windows look out over a firepit and a cedar hot tub, from which you can gaze skyward and thank your lucky stars that there’s no light pollution out here.
At Glamping Canyonlands, there is a bell tent with a sunroof for stargazing directly from bed.
Photo by Chris Tieu
Off-grid bell tent near Canyonlands National Park
- Location: Monticello, Utah
- Sleeps: 2
- Book now: airbnb.com
Husband-and-wife duo Keshia and Erik Joot opened the off-grid, solar-powered Glamping Canyonlands, about 40 minutes from Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah. Among its six lodging options is this unique bell tent with a sunroof for stargazing directly from your queen bed. Communal areas, meanwhile, include an outdoor kitchen, a barrel sauna, and a wildly impressive Orion SkyQuest telescope. Oh, and one of the shared bathrooms comes with a glass roof—proof positive that you truly can stargaze from anywhere. The campground also offers monthly astronomy tours, which will be free for guests beginning in 2024.
PurePods are a series of glass-walled cottages in New Zealand—this one is near the Greystone Winery.
Photo by Paul Wilson Images
Eco-cabin above a New Zealand vineyard
- Location: Waipara, New Zealand
- Sleeps: 2
- Book now: airbnb.com
This wine country eco-cabin, or PurePod, sits on a hillside above the organic Greystone Winery surrounded by regenerating bush, 45 minutes north of Christchurch, and it’s almost entirely made of glass. Yes, that means the bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, and even the ceiling, making it a cinch to spot the Milky Way and the constellations above the Southern Hemisphere. If you’re a fan of the living-without-walls PurePod experience, you can piece together an itinerary of other locations across New Zealand, including the Tokoeka PurePod on Stewart Island, which is set within the world’s southernmost Dark Sky Reserve.
Read more >> New Zealand’s Best Glamping Retreats
This Airbnb’s private telescope observatory is set back from the three-bedroom cabin near Joshua Tree.
Courtesy of Airbnb host
Midcentury desert house with private observatory
- Location: Morongo Valley, California
- Sleeps: 7
- Book now: airbnb.com
Lovingly restored and painted an eye-catching bubblegum hue, this 1961 midcentury-modern homestead cabin sits about 18 miles from Joshua Tree National Park and is home to its own $25,000 private telescope observatory. Once you’re done oohing and aahing over distant celestial bodies, there are bean bag loungers and hammocks for naked-eye stargazing and a whole host of earthlier pleasures, including a ping-pong table, a hot tub, outdoor swings, and a cowboy pool that sits in the shadow of the valley’s iconic Joshua trees.
This three-bedroom Airbnb guesthouse has an on-property private observatory, where guests can book a tour for a suggested donation to the local Dark Skies organization.
Photo by Greg Smith/imediasmith.com
Colorado guesthouse with private observatory
- Location: Westcliffe, Colorado
- Sleeps: 6
- Book now: airbnb.com
Darkskies Vacations has a roster of nearly a dozen rental properties in and around Westcliffe, Colorado, a certified Dark Sky Community thanks to its low humidity and 300-plus clear nights a year. This three-bedroom guesthouse of a retired architect looks out over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Wet Mountain Valley and includes such relaxing amenities as a wood-stove-heated meditation chapel, a labyrinth, and a greenhouse with orchids, water lilies, and self-pick vegetables and herbs. Guests can also sign up for a tour of the on-property private observatory, a short walk from the house, or an astrophotography session for a suggested donation of $200 to the local Dark Skies organization. Note that slots fill up fast and that moon phase plays a big role in availability, as you can only capture photos of space within a week of the new moon.
This dome Airbnb is located near Chile’s La Campana National Park.
Photo by Alejandra Nerche
Geodesic dome near a Chilean national park
- Location: Quebrada de Alvarado, Chile
- Sleeps: 2
- Book now: airbnb.com
An hour’s drive from Valparaíso and a little under 1.5 hours from Santiago, this geodesic dome is the model of tranquil seclusion: It sits on a massive property planted with lemon, apple, olive, avocado, and almond trees and surrounded by native forest. Beyond that sits a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and La Campana National Park, where Charles Darwin climbed the namesake mountain in 1834. We’re sure the father of evolution would agree: There are few sights as memorable as seeing a shooting star zipping across the southern sky.
This sky-high Airbnb in Oregon is so popular it books out a year in advance.
Photo by Joel Belmont Photography
Forty-foot-high Oregon observation tower
- Location: Tiller, Oregon
- Sleeps: 4
- Book now: airbnb.com
Summit Prairie is set deep within Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest, but you don’t have to worry about its thick forests of Douglas fir blocking your view of the night sky. That’s because this rental property is modeled after a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout tower, perched 40 feet in the air. Among the best spots to stargaze here is from the Adirondack chairs on the elevated deck or the wood-fired, spring-fed hot tub. Note that the tower is open seasonally, from the end of March to mid-November, and reservations book up as quickly as a Taylor Swift concert; plan a year in advance, and check the booking information for the best shot at success.
The WonderInn is in the Nordre Øyeren nature reserve in Norway.
Photo by Dani Purington Photography
Mirrored glass cabin outside of Oslo
- Location: Rælingen, Norway
- Sleeps: 4
- Book now: airbnb.com
If you’re not paying close enough attention, you could almost miss this sleek tiny home: The surface of Norway’s first mirrored glass cabin operates as camouflage, reflecting back the serenity of the surrounding Nordre Øyeren nature reserve. About a 25-minute drive from central Oslo, WonderInn occupies prime waterfront real estate, where you’ll be sharing the space with moose, beavers, deer, and eagles. When the sun goes down, make your way to the firepit or hot tub, which juts out over the delta, for a dual view of the stars—up above and reflected by the walls of your temporary home.
Before cuddling up in this cozy cubbyhole, take in the night sky from this Airbbn’s stargazing balcony, which is warmed by a log burner.
Photo by Polly Lovegrove
Boho Welsh barn with a stargazing balcony
- Location: Carmarthenshire, Wales
- Sleeps: 2
- Book now: airbnb.com
Wales is emerging as one of the best spots in the world for stargazing, thanks to two designated Dark Sky Reserves and, as of this February, Europe’s first Dark Sky Sanctuary—a new designation introduced in 2015 to celebrate the darkest and most remote locations and raise awareness about their fragility. It’s also home to more than 30 smaller Dark Sky Discovery Sites, including the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire, which is where you’ll find this cozy bohemian barn. The vibe here is all about cwtch, an untranslatable Welsh word that roughly means a cuddle or a cubbyhole and is the local version of hygge. Here, that might look like wrapping yourself in a blanket and plunking down on a cushion on the stargazing balcony, which is warmed by a log burner.
