positron

best was in a napoleonic watchtower on a peninsula in the north Atlantic in the county donegal in Ireland.

or maybe an abandoned CCC fire lookout tower atop a mountain near the border with Mexico. 6500 feet, and a wood burning stove in my own private cabin with 360 degree views...

Gordon P

Some of the more interesting places I slept in while traveling:

Monasteries in Spain, under bridges, in a fortress and next to another, on a Mayan pyramid in Mexico and yes I got caught, in a boxcar, at the Customs and Immigration office in the Shetlands - they told me to lock the door when I left in the morning, on a tall ship in Amsterdam, on boats, in a graveyard outside of Miami and in random shacks.

Neil_B

I've slept in commercial and free campgrounds, Warm Showers hosts, hotels, motels, hostels, etc.

Including some of my "trips with a bike" as well as "bike tours", the worst were:

a night in a leaky tent outside of Harrisburg, PA. The region got nearly an inch of rain that night. And the temps were in the 40s.

two campgrounds filled with hoons in Delaware and PA's Pine Creek Gorge. The Delaware campground was the worst - not enough toilets and showers, overbooked with homes on wheels, and a father who warned his son to tell him if "anything happens" when he went into the bathroom. He pointed in my direction as he said it - obviously a fat man in Lycra MUST be a pervert. The irony is that pedophilia horrifies me because I can't understand why anyone wants to spend time with a child. I dreamt of Herod that night as the neighboring family played children's DVDs loudly well after quiet hours.

philso

most unusual: graveyard in/near palenque in mexico

most convenient: behind convenience stores here in japan. hot coffee, food, alcohol, and clean bathroom only a 30 second walk away. and i've never been bothered by anyone!

worst: on an ant hill without tent or sleeping bag, again in mexico

scariest: under an overpass somewhere in south dakota. 3 tornadoes were visible at 1 point. the closest maybe a mile or less, the furthest at least maybe 3 or 4 we guessed. (technically, this shouldn't really go here, as i was just hitch-hiking at the time, not on tour.)

Cyclebum

Best: beside a 1000 ft drop off on a full moon night on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. Magical.

Worst: behind a truck stop near Trinidad CO where a head wind stopped my forward progress.

Most unusual: in an abandoned motor home at a ghost town in W. Texas.

Al Downie

In a tent, in a thunderstorm, at 15,580ft, and -11degC. Not the most comfortable night i've ever had!

Also in a tent, on a very foggy night in the north west of Scotland, right beside a lighthouse - that constant pulsing light on the flysheet was strangely comforting, but I could easily have done without the flippin' foghorn that went off every 30mins.

robow

I've really never considered it too bizarre but on more than one occasion I've slept with the dead, near or within a cemetery. Generally if you keep a low profile you won't bothered by the hoons or the ghouls

5kdad

The one odd place I stayed was a bed and breakfast on the Katy Trail in Missouri. I had a reservation, arrived and checked in. Was an older, two-story, historic home. When I checked in, they told me to lock the front door when I went to bed, as I was the only guest for the evening, and no one else lived in the house. Thinking of all the things that could go wrong...waking up smelling smoke....a water problem, etc. I asked, "How do I contact you if there is a problem?" Their reply, "Oh if there is an emergency, just contact a neighbor, they can get in touch with us."

Neil_B

While on the subject of B & Bs, the posters who rode in the GAP/C & O tour Spinnaker led last year should mention the Yough Shore Inn and its "theme" rooms. One of the posters was asked by the owner to pose for a photo in his underwear. (Don't worry, it wasn't me.)

Gordon P

It was in Palenque I got caught sleeping on the "Temple of the Count" we were forced to clime out of the ruins via the river and slept beside a building in the jungle. Oh the good old days!

naisme

Guess that leaves me out. What about loud obnoxious old guys, what do the Ausies call them?

cyclezealot

Tents or Hotels.. One interesting hotel I'll always remember, a Hotel that had been retrofitted from a County Jail.. That was fun.. The prison bars had been incorporated into the rooms decor.

Jscan

bad (behind a winn dixie)
worse (beach park in Fl, 100+ mosquito bites)
not so bad (abandoned Ford dealership in GA)
Not too shabby either (made some friends at a bar & grill)

Machka 

Bogan, perhaps ... that's basically another term for "white trash". Or drongo ... meaning an idiot.

bokerfest

Places I have slept.

Midwest - towns with less than 300 people usually have a park that are great to sleep in. Very peaceful and no one cares that you are staking down.

Twentynine Palms, CA - slept in the parking lot of a motel. I asked the lady at the desk of a place in the area where to pitch my tent. She suggested that I set up just in the parking lot so I did. Woke up next morning to cars parked all around me.

When I am not tenting it I use couchsurfing.org and warmshowers.org.

johnybutts

Ive slept so many places. from motels to the police station's holding cell to churches, backyards, city parks, national parks, state parks, under bridges, etc..

truman

I'm glad this topic was posted. Next tour, I'm going to try to remember to photograph each sleeping spot - or the view therefrom - whichever is more interesting.

Speaking of Twentynine Palms: I did spend a night (not on tour) in a portable shed on the lot of a portable shed dealership in Yucca Valley, right down the road. Brrrrr.

Erick L

The worse place I keep thing of is a pricey B&D with no air conditionned, a bed too soft, no tv and a general feel that I was squatting in a millionaire's kitsch home. Breakfast was excellent though.

The best are in isolated places where you can camp in the open and not be bothered by anyone, like on the endless beaches of the St-Lawrence North Coast or Anticosti island.

Also on designated campsite that are off the road, like on the Green Gardens trail in Gros Morne park (4.5km hike), or Quarry island in the Mingan Archipelago park (by boat only). I camped there before on a car trip and a whale spent days feeding in the little bay, sometimes right next to the dock.

kayakdiver

Under a bridge... No troll found.

axolotl

In an earlier post in this thread, I forgot about the night I spent in my sleeping bag on a beach along the Red Sea. Before I fell asleep, I perceived a large object moving rapidly toward me. A moment later, an enormous camel strode by, nearly trampling me.

Among the youth-hostels-from-hell that I stayed in was one night in a hostel in Switzerland. A big German guy (he said he was a hammer thrower) snored so loudly that nobody could sleep, and I always travel with earplugs. We would wake him up, and 10 seconds later he was as loud as ever. After an hour of this, I dragged my mattress to the hallway and closed the room door. The 3 or 4 other guys in the room soon did the same, leaving just the hammer thrower in the room. In the morning, the hammer thrower was the first guy up and he walked around us to get to the bathroom, and he didn't seem to find it strange we were all sleeping on the floor in the hallway.

I stayed in a hospedaje (B&B) from hell in Chile where the couple who ran it were screaming at each other all evening. When they finally shut up, I could hear rats running along the floors during the wee hours.

In southern Italy near Potenza, we wild camped in an olive grove. Tens of thousands of fireflies were twinkling all evening and the effect was absolutely enchanting. I don't recall seeing any fireflies anywhere else in Italy including the night before or night after.

While sleeping in a hut on the Routeburn Track in New Zealand during a tramp/hike (in the middle of what was mostly a bike trip), a women in the hut screamed in the middle of the night when a harmless Australian possum came through an open window. A few of us got it out and closed the window. Then before dawn, a kea (a native bird in the parrot family) was sliding down the corrugated metal roof of the hut for its own amusement. It would fly back to the top and do it over and over.

burtonridr

Not sure on my best, but worst was up here in Idaho, between emmett and horse shoe bend. We stopped for the night, it was raining all night, it was muddy, to wet to start a fire, and we slept between a major country road and train track..... I didnt sleep well that night in my tiny bivy sack below my tarp supported by my bike. Good memories

Does beat camping in the Arizona desert where its super hot even at night, and you have wild burros and coyotes making noise all night. Or when they think its funny to come into your camp site and start barking at you.

Machka 

I usually start doing that, and then give it up halfway through.

Doug64

Lots of places, but this is one of my favorite spots.

Gordon P

As a social worker I work with homeless people labelled: “the hardest to serve” – street workers, junkies, crack heads, criminals and street alcoholics - those who have few places to go but parks, woods, stairwells and under bridges. I have never told any of them that I have slept more then once under a bridge. Doing it for adventure seems so different then doing it for survival!
Gordon p

Pedaleur

Absolutely fantastic.