Wacky and Wonderful Places to Stay in Nevada

The Shady Lady offers remote desert vistas and extravagantly themed guest rooms. There’s the dramatic Asian room, the lilac-tinted Victorian suite, or, better yet, the Willow Tree cabin – a pioneer-style cabin with a kitchenette and a wooden washtub-style bathtub. If you’re wondering what inspired the heart-shaped tub in the paradise suite, note that the Lady functioned as a legal brothel until 2014. Lounge by the pool, listen to the desert songbirds, and watch the herd of peacocks meander by. Be warned, though, remote means remote – the nearby town of Beatty doesn’t even have a grocery store, so stock up before your arrival.

An unexpectedly gothic hideaway off the Vegas Strip, the Artisan is an adult hangout featuring everything from the topless pool to the tapas bar and every Toulouse-Lautrec painting in between. The dark hallways are decorated with hundreds of gilt-framed reproductions of works by artists such as Da Vinci, Dali, Botticelli, and Balthus – some hung in classic symmetry, others strewn at angles across walls and ceilings. Barcelona Tapas, off the lobby, serves a wide range of bites and cocktails, often with live music. Want to throw a really big party? The entire hotel is available for rent.

Colurophobics beware! Tonopah’s Clown Motel is home to nearly 3,000 clowns – paintings, photos, tapestries, dolls, figurines, and some unsettling life-sized statues. Many adorn the lobby, but each room also features its own collection of clowns, including artwork created by the hotel’s current owner. Want to go deeply creepy? Book one of the Exorcist, Halloween, or IT rooms, each of which comes with themed art and decor. The Clown Motel is easy to find: drive down the one main street in Tonopah and look for the fire-engine-red building covered in rainbow polka-dots, right next door to the Old Tonopah Cemetery.

The Boulder Dam Hotel dates back to when the dam was a newly built miracle of modern engineering and guests such as Bette Davis and Shirley Temple were hot young stars. The elegant, white-pillared hotel opened in 1933 and the wooden panelling and grand staircase in the lobby still impress. A hallway decorated with vintage murals of Boulder City leads to an art gallery, a spa, and the Boulder City & Hoover Dam Museum, a small yet intriguing collection of artefacts and anecdotes. There’s a restaurant open for breakfast and lunch and, during the nocturnal hours, Cleveland’s Lounge is a speakeasy-style basement bar that pours classic cocktails while live bands play.

The Jesse may be located in a historic building in Reno, but the vibe is definitely 21st-century. High-ceilinged rooms have a minimalist industrial/Scandinavian aesthetic, but also keep comfort in mind, with blackout drapes on the windows, Netflix on the TV, and the bathroom outfitted with robes and top-shelf toiletries. Downstairs, a bar and lounge offer in-house booze and caffeine options, while the on-site restaurant Estella serves tacos and mezcal.

“Adorable” and “haunted” is an unlikely combination, but it fits the Sugarloaf Mountain Motel in Virginia City historic district. The 140-year-old property resembles a row of fairy-tale cottages, with baby-blue paint and white gingerbread trim, surrounded by a picket fence. Modern updates include wifi, flatscreens, and an on-site mini-mart – should you suddenly need a toothbrush or an ice cream sandwich or both – without losing its historic charm. The dozen rooms are outfitted with vintage touches such as iron bedsteads and patchwork quilts, while several feature exposed stone walls or balconies; a few are even said to host spirits.