Unless otherwise stated, all prices are for a week in July excluding travel and are for the whole property
Pig sty
Tuscany, Italy
In Italian it sounds romantic... until you realise that 'Il Porcile' means 'the pig sty'. Mud and straw have been cleared out to make way for a simple but charming apartment. It is compact - the whitewashed living room with wood beams has an inbuilt kitchen and sofa bed - but there's a separate shower room and shared use of a swimming pool. A picturesque village is within walking distance, and Siena is 20 minutes away.
Price: £423 (sleeps two).
Contact: Invitation to Tuscany (020 7603 7111)
Lighthouse
Croatia
Staying in any lighthouse is different, but a lighthouse in Croatia, tipped as one of this year's hottest destinations, is truly special. There are 11 of them along the Croatian coast, some on their own private islands. The Plocica Lighthouse has two apartments, one sleeping six, the other sleeping eight.
Price: £490pp (sleeps six to eight) for seven nights in the lighthouse, two nights B&B in Mali Ston and one night B&B in Dubrovnik with flights and transfers.
Contact: Bond Tours (01372 745300)
Signal box
Co Kerry, Ireland
Don't worry... trains don't run through this stretch of countryside any more, so the quaint converted signal box on the edge of Glenbeigh village at the foot of Seefin Mountain is a peaceful spot. It's also within seven miles of a clean, sandy beach, and close to centres for many activities from horse riding to boat hire. The signal box has a spiral staircase leading from the kitchen to the bedroom/sitting area.
Price: £171 (sleeps two) or £450 including ferry crossing.
Contact: Shamrock Cottages (01823 660126)
Wine press
Andalucia, Spain
Round wine vats have been sunk into the raised floor and floodlit from within in this whitewashed eighteenth-century wine press. On a hill above the busy market town of Casabermeja and 15 miles from Malaga, the five-bedroomed property has high beamed ceilings and picture windows looking out over the surrounding scenery.
Price: £2,298 including hire car (sleeps 10).
Contact: Individual Travellers Company (08700 773773)
Chestnut drying building
Tuscany, Italy
On the edge of a chestnut wood 10 miles from Lucca and 25 miles from Pisa, this small stone property or metato was built for drying chestnuts. There is one double bedroom on the first floor above a living/ dining room, with the kitchen on the verandah. Simple rustic furniture makes for a cosy feel. The property shares a pool with other apartments 100 yards away, and there is a nearby restaurant, games park and tennis court.
Price: £918 (sleeps two).
Contact: Italian Life (08704 448811)
Glass gite
Normandy, France
This is a traditional Norman half-timbered cottage in Bernay but for one aspect - the plaster between the wood on the ground floor has been replaced by glass, giving a bright, airy feel as well as an interesting view when sitting on the loo! The timbers are also visible from within the converted nineteenth-century stable, which has a beautiful living room with beams. The gite is near both beaches and beautiful Norman countryside.
Price: £210 (sleeps six) or £472 for four with ferry crossing.
Contact: Brittany Ferries (08705 360360)
Fisherman's cottages
Lofoten Islands, Norway
These rust-coloured converted fisherman's cottages, known as rorbus , jut out over the water on stilts in the fishing hamlet of Morsund on the Lofoten Islands. Step out of the cottage into your own rowing boat or admire the view from the large windows in the living room. Brave visitors can swim in the Arctic Sea off beaches of silver sand, and at night you can listen to stories about life on the Lofotens told by Wenche Lesniac, who runs the rorbu centre, then see the Midnight Sun.
Price: £950 (sleeps four to six).
Contact: Inntravel (01653 629010)
Police station
Devon, England
There are no bars at the window but, as its name suggests, The Old Nick in Lynton was once part of the old village police station. Life is more luxurious inside now - there's even a Jacuzzi bath in the three-bedroom property. The house has its own garden, views of Lynmouth Bay and is conveniently close to the local pub.
Price: £647 (sleeps six).
Contact: Country Holidays (08700 723 723)
Pigeonnier
Midi-Pyrénées, France
Pigeons used to be kept in this stone building in Brengues, just over an hour's drive from Rodez. Now it's perfect for a couple with an older child, offering a small living/dining room and kitchenette on one floor, a double bed on another and a single bed on a mezzanine. Set in the grounds of a farm in the valley of the Cele River, the Pigeonnier de Bazos comes with its own swimming pool and is near a lake for swimming, fishing and boating.
Price: £500 including short sea ferry crossing (sleeps three).
Contact: French Life (08704 292188)
Castle on an island
Campania, Italy
Perched on a rock that towers above the sea is the Castello Aragonese on the island of Ischia, connected to the mainland by a narrow peninsula. Within the castle walls are churches, courtyards, antique archways, terraces, gardens and arcades ... and two self-catering apartments. Ischia is famous for its spa waters and hot springs, with hot baths in the north-west of the island and a natural sauna carved out of the rock in the south. Naples is just 35 miles away.
Price: £952 (one-bed apartment) or £1,349 (two-bed apartment).
Contact: Holiday Rentals (020 8743 5577)
Cider press
Somme, France
Le Pressoir is a quaint wooden building near Abbeville which was once used to stock and press apples for cider-making. It stands in the private grounds of Chateau Houdencourt where woods, meadows and a lake are surrounded by sleepy farming hamlets. The building's impressive beams have been retained and combined with modern comforts. Of the two bedrooms, one has a sloping and beamed roof.
Price: £642 with short-sea crossing (sleeps four).
Contact: Country Cottages (08700 781100)
Windmill
Mallorca
Es Moli is a converted windmill just outside the old town of Santanyi. You don't actually get to stay in the windmill tower but in the adjoining stone building with its spacious open-plan lounge/dining area complete with high ceilings and exposed stone walls. The property, with one twin bedroom, also has its own pool.
Price: £327pp with flights (sleeps two).
Contact: Open Holidays (01903 215215)
Shepherd's cottage
Corsica
In the beautiful wilderness of the Desert des Agriates, a 15-minute drive from St Florent in Corsica, Campu di l'Olmo has been converted from an ancient stone shepherd's cottage. An external staircase leads from the cheese and charcuterie storehouse to the living quarters above but there are also internal stairs to reach the two bedrooms. The cottage has its own plunge pool, fed by a natural spring.
Price: £650pp (sleeps four) including car hire and flights.
Contact: Simply Travel (020 8541 2211)
Boathouse
Cornwall, England
You don't get much closer to the water than this; the former three-bed stone boathouse in Cargreen is built on its own stone quay and is surrounded by water on three sides. There are spectacular views from the conservatory over the Tamar, with its boaters and birdlife. For the more active, stone steps lead directly to the river for small boat use and the house has its own boat hoist and private slipway.
Price: £1,200 (sleeps eight).
Contact: Holiday Rentals (020 8743 5577)
Underwater lake house
Västerås, Sweden
Set on a small floating platform in the middle of Lake Mälaren, the quaint Otter Inn has a loo and kitchenette above the water level and a double bedroom a few yards below it.
It comes with panoramic windows so you can watch the fish go by. When you get bored of living in a fish tank, hop in the canoe and paddle to one of the lake's uninhabited islands.
Price: From £26pp per night (sleeps two).
Contact: Otter Inn (00 46 2 110 3830)
