When it comes to romance, luxury and living a dream come true, it’s hard to top a night in a castle – well, unless it’s two nights. These 15 exquisite castle hotels offer us regular folks the chance to live like kings and queens; all it takes is a reservation. Best of all, checking out will only cost you the contents of your wallet – not your head.

Dating from the 12th century, Walworth Castle has witnessed the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses, the Elizabethan Era & William Shakespeare, and much, much more on down to the modern age. With all that history under its belt, the “Best Western” seems a bit incongruous. No matter though, Walworth is open for guests and offers 4-poster tower suites with double Jacuzzi baths. A “knight” to remember, indeed, but bear in mind: the Best Western Walworth Castle Hotel is a non-smoking property so please check your witches and heretics at the door.

If you think a castle is a cold, drafty, pile of stone more suited to vermin than humans, think again and remember, the Middle Ages are history. Fitzpatricks Castle Hotel Dublin was built in 1741 but updates have come fast & furious since it ceased fighting off conquerors and started accepting paying guests. Fitzpatricks offers a clean & cozy swimming pool, for example… what, you thought you’d be taking a dip in the moat?

Ireland is a land of castles and one of the finest offering lodging is the 16th century Waterford Castle Hotel. The huge, partly moss-covered stone edifice is situated on a 310-acre private island. It’s located near Waterford City in County Waterford and – you guessed it – close to the Waterford Crystal factory.

Denmark boasts a wide variety of beautiful castles, some of which have been turned into luxurious 5-star hotels. Hvedholm Slot, located in the southern Danish province of Funen, was originally built in 1570 and was extensively renovated and upgraded in the 19th century.

The spectacular Castle Alarcon dates back 1200 years to the time of the Visigoths, a tribe lost to history but who have left their mark in the form of castles, forts and early planned cities. Castle Alarcon has been refurbished and fitted out to meet the demands of tourists seeking an authentic castle experience without sacrificing any modern conveniences. Only 15 rooms are available but each one is expansive without being overly expensive.

There’s nothing gritty about the Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice, Italy. This outstanding hotel was built in the year 1525 for Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice. The Doge was the top dog in those days and the Gritti Palace shows off his wealth, status and preference for a view of the Grand Canal. Patronized by the world’s rich & famous for decades, the Gritti Palace Hotel swathes its guests in ornate furnishings old Andrea himself would find most comfortable.

Reszel Castle in northern Poland was built in the 14th century by the Teutonic Knights, an ultra-religious warrior organization charged by the Pope with conducting the Northern Crusade. The castle changed hands many times over the centuries, and for a time was used by Prussia as a prison. These days, Reszel Castle is hoping – like the rest of eastern Europe – to reap the rewards of capitalism. Only 12 rooms are available which ensures plenty of peace & quiet for guests seeking a teu-tonic from the rat race.

yle="text-align:center;">Slovenia: Mokrice Castle Hotel

Farther south lies the Mokrice Castle Hotel, set jewel-like in a century-old forest in eastern Slovenia. Mokrice Castle Hotel offers 29 guest rooms, thermal baths and even Internet access. It’s prime attraction, however, is an 18-hole golf course specially designed to incorporate the area’s natural beauty.

The Chateau Frontenac towers over Québec City, the only city in North America with old-style city walls. It overlooks The Citadelle, a 17th century star-shaped fort built to protect the capital of New France from foreign and native invaders. Built in 1893, the Chateau Frontenac is a five-star hotel that offers old world luxury in one of North America’s oldest and loveliest cities.

The Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA is a monumental achievement that can be credited to one man: Milton Hershey. The chocolate magnate had set out, in the depths of the Great Depression, to create a monument to extravagance, excellence and the pursuit of luxurious relaxation. Some have compared the hotel, which opened in 1933, to French King Louis XIV’s palace of Versailles. There’s one thing The Hotel Hershey can offer that Versailles cannot, however, and that is its famed Chocolate Spa.

China: Grand Castle Hotel Xian

China isn’t known for its castles and few outside of Beijing have stood the test of time, war and revolution. Modern China is looking to recapture both its ancient glory and along with it, some tourist dollars by going beyond steel and concrete to its imperial roots. The Grand Castle Hotel Xian is such an effort, designed to reflect the glory of the Ming Dynasty by styling itself after the city of Xian’s ancient Big Goose Pagoda. Inside, all mod cons are on tap for visitors who come for the history but stay for the luxury.

Larnach Castle was built by a wealthy rancher near Dunedin, New Zealand. While guests cannot stay in the restored castle itself, a separate outbuilding offers a dozen plus two themed rooms along with some unique views of the Southern Ocean.

The Lake Palace in Udaipur, India, rises out of beautiful blue Lake Pichola like something out of a romantic dream. One can’t imagine how a structure so large – the modern hotel has 84 rooms – was constructed in the middle of a lake 250 years ago but we may assume that whatever Maharajah Jagat Singh II asked for, he got. Today the ultra-luxurious Lake Palace Hotel asks that guests pay upwards of $540 per night for a deluxe room and the princely sum of $1,520 for the Grand Royal Suite.

Imagine living in a place so remote the mail only comes once a year. Or reaching the summit of the highest place on earth…which isn’t Mt. Everest. Read on to learn about some of the most extreme places on the planet.

At 29,029 feet (8848 meters), Mt. Everest is famed as the highest peak on earth. And that’s true. It’s also not true. It all depends on how one looks at it. Technically, Mt. Everest’s rocky peak is the highest bit of land from sea level. But because the earth isn’t a perfect sphere, certain lower points are in effect “higher” in space. Mt. Everest is less close to the moon and stars than another mountain which is relatively unknown. And that is Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador. It’s just over 20,000 feet high, so while it’s not as tall as Mt. Everest, it is actually closer to outer space due to the shape of the earth.

In Tibet, the stark Semo La road is over 20,000 feet high and takes you through hauntingly beautiful vistas and a treacherous mountain pass. Word has it that Marsimik La is the highest road on earth; but it all comes down to what one might consider an accessible road. Semo La can be used by vehicles. Authorities believe there may be other, higher roads, even more remote, but so far they have not been documented.

The most remote inhabited island group in the world, Tristan de Cunha in the southern Atlantic Ocean, is so tiny its main island has no airstrip. Home to 272 people sharing just 8 surnames, inhabitants suffer from hereditary complaints like asthma and glaucoma. Annexed by the United Kingdom in the 1800s, the island’s inhabitants have a British postal code and, while they can order things online, it takes a very long time for their orders to arrive. But then, that’s the trade off for having your own island settlement some 2,000 miles from the nearest continent.

The Marianas Trench, off of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, is the deepest point in the world’s oceans. It it over 7 miles – more than 36,000 feet – deep. If Mt. Everest were placed in the trench the summit would be more than a mile under the surface. The pressure at the bottom of the trench is more than 1,000 times stronger than at sea level. The United States Navy sent two naval officers to the bottom in a vessel called the Trieste in 1960. They observed fish, shrimp and other creatures living on the bottom of the sea floor.

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on land that’s below sea level, at 1,378 feet. On the border of Jordan and Israel, the road around the Dead Sea also happens to be the lowest road on earth. Famous for its salinity (over ten times that of the Mediterranean Sea), the Dead Sea is said to be home of the first health retreat. Because of the extreme salt content, no life can survive in the sea, hence the name.

Antarctica is a land of extremes. It’s not inhabited year round by humans because it’s simply too freezing cold. In 1983 scientists recorded extreme cold temperatures as low as -129 Fahrenheit. It’s also the wettest place on earth, but simultaneously the driest. The reason it’s the “wettest” is not because of rainfall; since Antarctica is covered by 98% ice, it’s technically very wet. However since it’s also the aforementioned coldest place in the world, it gets very little precipitation – less than 2 inches a year. Which makes Antarctica a desert. A brutally cold ice desert with a massive trench full of even more…ice. Three for the price of one!

Mount Thor, in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, presents a 4,100 foot pure vertical drop. Mt. Thor is Canada’s most famous peak, and it’s made of pure granite. It’s a favorite of thrill seekers and climbers. There have been a few recent rappel expeditions, with one fatality in 2006.

The Bentley Subglacial Trench in Antarctica is phenomenally thick ice, going 8,383 feet deep. It’s the lowest point on earth that isn’t covered by ocean, but the honor still goes to the Dead Sea for lowest point, as the Dead Sea is technically “on” land and the Bentley Trench is technically covered with water (ice). The trench is the same size as Mexico.

Death Valley is famously blistering hot, but the hottest place ever officially recorded to outdo Death Valley’s amazing heat is El Azizia in Libya. In 1922 the temperature reached 136 degrees. Death Valley’s hottest temperature on record is 134 degrees. When it’s that hot, what’s another two degrees really

She hasn’t quite expanded her family to 101, but Button has still produced a pretty impressive number of little dalmatians.

The three-year-old dog has given birth to a litter of 18, just a year after having 16 pups.

Her litter is thought to be the largest born to a dalmatian in the UK. The average is about eight or nine.

Taking almost eight hours to complete its journey, the Glacier Express has a reputation for being the slowest ‘express’ in the world – but it’s also one of the most beautiful. Linking the two mountain resorts of St. Moritz and Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, the journey covers 291 bridges and 91 tunnels.

At its highest point, the Glacier Express reaches 2,033 meters (6,670 feet) in altitude at the Oberalp Pass as it travel through some of the most stunning mountain scenery Europe has to offer: alpine meadows, mountain streams, snow peaked mountains and glacial valleys.

Situated in the Harz mountains of central Germany, this route connects the main cities of Wernigerode, Nordhausen and Quedlinburg, as well as several smaller towns in the region. It passes over 140 km (87 miles) of steep track, through stunning forest and mountain scenery.

Renowned for being the longest narrow gauge track in Germany and featuring only steam locomotives, the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen is a unique way to discover this relatively unexplored area of Germany.

What better way to reach the continent for a weekend break, or the start of longer travels? With the completion of the high-speed rail link and the opening of a new station at St. Pancras, only 2:15 hours separate central Paris and central London.

Eurostar now operates from three English terminals–London, Ashford, and Ebbsfleet–and offers direct services to northern France, Central Paris, Disneyland Paris, Brussels, and ‘Snow Train’ routes to southern France, all at a top speed of 300 KmH (186 mph).

The setting of mystery novels, dozens of films, and witness to countless romantic encounters, the original (and some would argue the best) ‘Great Rail Journey’ offers luxury from a bygone era while visiting some of the continent’s best cities: London, Venice, Rome, Budapest and Prague.

The West Highland Line, running from Glasgow to Fort William and Mallaig, is one of Britain’s top rail journeys, taking passengers back to a time when steam was the way to travel. It passes through the wild Rannoch Moor, and through hills and bogs within view of Ben Nevis – Scotland’s highest peak.

One of the highlights of the journey is passing over the Glenfinnan Viaduct- one of the largest concrete engineering feats of the late 19th century (and more popularly known for appearing in the Harry Potter films).

The Trans Siberian Railway is the ultimate rail journey, the longest in the world (and possibly the coldest if you go at the wrong time of year), a journey of almost mythical proportions that spans two continents while staying in a single country.

There are three routes that travelers can take to explore the Siberian expanse: The Moscow-to-Vladivostok route at over 9,000 km (6,000 miles), and two routes from Moscow to Beijing: one through Mongolia, taking six days and almost 8000km (5000 miles), or one which takes almost a week to complete and travels via Manchuria.

Without leaving your seat, you pass through the end of Europe and cross almost the width of Asia, clattering your way across nearly a third of the globe.

Jungfraubahn

At only 9km (5.5 miles), great railway journeys don’t get much shorter than the Jungfraubahn. Running from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch, this Swiss cog railway runs almost entirely though a tunnel built into the infamous Eiger.

Two stations in the middle of the tunnel allow passengers to disembark and look out over stunning mountain views. However, though it’s a short trip, this classic route does not come cheap.

The Flam Railway

The Flam Railway runs 20km (12 miles) between Myrdal, at 865 meters (2838 feet) above sea level, down to the fjords of Flam. This is an incredible feat of engineering, one of the steepest non-cog railways in the world and Norway’s most spectacular tourist attraction.

Boasting views over part of the world’s longest fjord – Sognefjord – as well as deep river valleys and airy peaks, the train seemingly clings to the side of the mountains in an unforgettable journey.

Explore the very best of Eastern Europe with luxury train travel on the ‘Hotel on Wheels’. From the mythical Transylvania and the fairy tale cities of Budapest and Prague to Sofia and Krakow, the Danube Express offers six classic journeys across the former Soviet states, combining rich history and beautiful cities with stunning scenery.

For those with a longing for the classic days of rail travel, there is even the option to combine voyages into an epic Central and Eastern Europe exploration.

Board in Paris in the evening and wake up in Venice the following morning. Saying goodbye to the City of Lights, the journey takes in picturesque French villages and the hills of southern France before taking the Simplon Tunnel under the Alps.

With a range of sleepers available- from six and four berth couchettes to one to three berth sleepers, the Stendhal doesn’t have the luxury or reputation of many other trains sharing the same track, but with tickets starting from around $60 one way, it is a timeless (and cheap) way to visit one of the greatest cities in Italy.