Original subtitles

Imagine staying the night deep in the desert,

sleeping underneath the stars...

..lodging in an airship hidden in a forest...

..or holidaying in a resort perched on top of a glacier.

In this series, we venture across the globe...

It's literally built into the rock, you wouldn't even know it was here.

..to reveal some of the world's most unique hotels,

hidden in the most surprising of places.

Even people who are from here,

they have no idea that this is here.

From reinvented bunkers and converted jumbo jets...

I've never experienced something like this,

it's just a really cool place!

..to floating hideaways and futuristic escapes.

It's like nothing I've ever seen before!

We meet the teams who keep them running...

We're inviting people to create unforgettable experiences.

..and the guests living their dreams...

This is an entrance you don't normally see, isn't it?

Wow!

..as we explore the world's most secret hotels.

This time, we meet the owner of a remote retreat in Iceland...

People who are from here,

they always think it's kind of amazing

that somebody built something here.

..we dive deep into a sunken Swedish escape.

It's the first underwater hotel room of its sort.

..and we explore a unique stay that is full of surprises.

The plane's not only for show.

If we give our guests one of these key fobs,

we show that it has a secret all of its own.

Our adventure begins deep in the wilderness in British Columbia.

This is one of the most untouched,

wild regions of North America.

250km north of Vancouver

is a remote area known as the Chilcotin Wilderness.

Only 1,000 residents live in this 32 million acre landscape.

It's also home to Chilko Lake.

This 80km body of water is fed by glaciers...

..and is the setting of a hidden hotel...

..known as The Chilko Experience.

This complex of custom-built lodges

is the brainchild of owner Phil Huston and his wife Annie,

who discovered this spot whilst on holiday,

and never left.

We decided to build here

because I found this territory 45 years ago,

and just enjoyed it a lot.

Did a walkabout for 15, 16 months when I was 25 years old,

picked up a hitchhiker that told me about the Chilcotin,

and he said, you could catch a fish every cast in the Dean River.

I bought $20 worth of groceries, came over here...

This is a long time ago.

..and camped for ten days, fished, and just really enjoyed it.

BIRDS OF PREY CAWING

There's a purity and a vastness here

that you just don't see anywhere else.

We are 40 miles to the power grid,

50 miles to the post office,

200 miles to the grocery store,

but at night, you can reach up and touch the stars.

The resort is managed by Carly and Brad,

two travellers from the UK

who also discovered this place by accident,

and also never left.

Phil, the owner, reached out to us

to ask if we wanted to come and volunteer,

and we had actually been working in the tourism industry

for a few years, and didn't really want to be volunteering anymore.

And then Phil said that his manager just had to leave,

so he had a spot open,

and that was it.

No-one really knows about us.

We're still a very secret, hidden gem,

and this lake is huge,

and there's not another building on it.

BIRDS HOOTING AND CHIRPING

The resort can host up to 12 visitors,

who stay in the six, self-contained,

traditional Canadian-style log cabins.

The largest of these is the Tower House,

a three storey, two-bedroom building

with a distinctive tower to one side.

This is the Tower House,

the most impressive of all the cabins on the property.

It's a huge log home with a three storey tower.

All six lodges in the resort are built from red cedar.

The timber is sustainably harvested

from the west coast of British Columbia

in order to not destroy any of the protected forests here.

This deep redwood is one of the strongest

and most durable timbers you can use for building.

Each lodge was constructed off site,

using traditional handmade techniques,

at a special workshop over 200km away,

then deconstructed, shipped and reassembled here.

Building the entire site took five years.

Even though guests have chef prepared meals

in the main house,

they also have their own kitchen in a lot of the cabins,

and this is the Tower House kitchen.

We've got a little hidden refrigerator here,

and a stove, and everything you need.

The downstairs sitting room has a feature that harks back

to the days when all Canadian houses were built from cedar.

So this is a little different,

as it has these sections of log holding these beams up.

This one you can see is this branch that comes up

and holds that thing, and it's twisted and crooked.

The design of these structures is based on

that of traditional, Northern European log cabins,

brought over by settlers more than 200 years ago.

They are naturally insulated, robust,

and have changed very little in the intervening years.

This is the second floor up here.

This is the master bedroom.

You've got a small balcony there,

and then you overlook the views and vistas again over there.

This is the highest floor of the Tower House.

The floor offers this amazing view of our little private pond,

the trees, and then the mountain range.

Chilko Lake is just down there.

This resort is truly in the middle of nowhere,

which makes getting supplies in for the restaurant a real challenge.

We have to drive three and a half hours

to the nearest grocery store,

over a very dodgy road.

We have to get the trucks fixed every other time we go in,

because the road just destroys the trucks!

So it's a seven hour round trip every time that we want to get food.

It's like going from Glasgow to Manchester

just to get some bread.

LAUGHTER

The only method of communication here is by a satellite phone,

and the compound's off grid, and runs off solar power.

This is our solar panel system.

There's 78 solar panels in total,

which charge our 24 two-volt batteries in the generator room.

And that's how we get all of our power for the summer.

We also have two back-up generators, a large one and a small one,

two diesel ones that are converted to propane,

so we have propane as our back-up, so we never lose power.

The solar powers everything on the resort,

refrigeration, all the laundry we have to do for guests,

the lighting... Everything.

Solar's perfectly fitting with what we try and do as an eco-lodge,

as we're trying to get people to see the outdoors,

and see this amazing part of the world,

but by not really having an impact on it at all.

Even the hot tub is eco-friendly.

The way it works is at the bottom of the hot tub

there's a pond pump, and that will cycle water through,

so that cycles the cold water around this.

Around this stove is this water jacket, it's called,

so that will fill with water, heats that up,

and then siphons it round.

So you're just using wood, no power at all.

Another appeal is being so close to the wildlife

roaming freely around the site.

The thing that we're becoming to be very well known for

is the grizzly viewing.

So, around mid-September we get a salmon spawn

of generally, average, around a million salmon,

and they all spawn in this one place,

so we get around 100 grizzlies come down to feast.

So when we go down to the water,

there are often more grizzly bears out there

than there are humans coming to view them.

I think the record that we've had was in 2019

when some of our guests went out

and saw 42 grizzlies in the space of an hour.

The Chilcotin Wilderness is also one of the best places to see moose,

cougars, wolves, and foxes.

WHINNYING

Guide Taylor Archer also takes visitors hiking,

horseback riding into the mountains,

white water rafting on the Chilko River,

and fishing on the lake itself.

Love being out here, it's great to get away

from the hustle and bustle from the cities,

and off your phone,

and, you know, really get amongst the wilderness.

Every year, I get to build a new family that I like,

and that's fun, you know, cos these people are from Australia,

these people from New Zealand, these people came from Germany,

and... Different viewpoints.

The young blood, it's nice to have it around.

All visitors come here to experience something different.

CARLY: I think most people come here

to get away from their everyday lives.

They just get here and there's vast open spaces,

and you get a bit of fresh air,

and try out things that you haven't done before,

and see things that you wouldn't see at home.

There's a hidden waterfall, which we actually had to make the trail to.

People haven't been there in a long time.

It's not the biggest waterfall in the world,

but to know that you're one of only a few people to have seen it

in the last 50 years... It's a very secret spot.

This part of British Columbia is certainly off the beaten track.

And we have these huge plains,

this plateau that we're sitting on right now,

that goes for several hundred miles to the north-east and west,

and so you have four ecosystems in a three-mile radius,

and that's why I like it here, that's my passion,

is the diversity that we have here.

Getting to see the wildlife here

is pretty far from the everyday, back home.

CARLY CHUCKLES

It's very remote, very wild.

And... Yeah, it's a perfect place to have an adventure.

Still to come, we explore a hideaway surrounded by lava fields...

They always think it's kind of amazing

that somebody built something here.

..and a getaway lurking deep underwater.

The people who helped me with the build, there,

they were like... Are you serious?

Are we gonna build an underwater hotel room here?

We're exploring some of the world's most secret escapes.

From hotels perched on glaciers

to airships hidden in forests.

Our next stop...

is Iceland.

A sparsely populated island,

with just 367,000 inhabitants...

..formed by extensive volcanic eruptions over millions of years,

it is home to more than 30 active volcanoes,

and experiences a major eruption roughly every five years.

98km from the capital of Reykjavik,

surrounded by lava fields,

is an unusual structure.

Painted black,

and with much of the building covered in reflective glass,

disappearing into the landscape...

is the Glass Cottage.

Even people who are from here,

they have no idea that this is here.

And they were always like, but how did you bring the electricity there?

How did you bring the water there?

And they always think it's kind of amazing

that somebody built something here!

Erected in 2020,

this holiday cottage covers 25 square metres of space,

and includes a hot tub,

a kitchen and living space,

sleeping area,

and a glass bathroom.

The landscape that surrounds the cottage

is made up of layer upon layer of compressed ash and volcanic sand

spewed from the nearby Mount Hekla.

Owner Ari Votat wanted to create an escape from the modern world.

So he constructed this timber and steel cottage

with glass walls and a glass ceiling

so that visitors could take in the views

across the desert of black sand.

The world is getting more and more crowded and overpopulated,

and I think that a lot of people want to feel

like they're alone,

and in contact with nature.

You are in the middle of nowhere.

Ari designed the cottage himself,

but sourcing the materials,

and building it on this tricky terrain

proved far from easy.

At the beginning,

we wanted to build the house here in Iceland.

The problem was that there's no trees.

So...

I was like, we might as well maybe build the house

in a different country.

As Iceland is formed from lava,

it doesn't have the depth of soil required

to support the growth of any decent sized trees.

With no suitable wood or glass available locally,

importing the raw materials to build the cabin on site

would've been very expensive.

So Ari worked with a company based in Latvia

that would prefabricate the building

using timber specially grown for the purpose.

Triple-thick layers of toughened glass were used

to protect the exterior from any possible damage from wind,

and the sharp, volcanic sand.

We can have wind that goes up to 180 km/h, which is not unusual

and of course we had to make sure that the house will be OK,

and, you know, survive that type of weather.

Ari's next task was to transport

the fully-built and equipped cottage to site.

A huge challenge during the Icelandic winter.

The team had to lift the building onto a truck

and drive it almost 2,000km from Latvia to Denmark...

..where it was loaded onto a ship, and then sailed to Iceland.

Just when they were gearing up to drive the cottage to site...

..it began to snow.

When we woke up, we saw, like...metres of snow.

Like I've never seen, or rarely seen that here.

And we had, like, almost four to five metres of snow.

It took a day and a half

for a snowplough to clear the road.

After a five-hour drive across the frozen plain,

a crane finally lifted the cottage

onto a pre-built concrete foundation pad.

Basically, when you come in the cottage,

you have a view of...

well, the black sand,

and also the water, the river.

We have a fully-equipped kitchen here,

which is an oven, a fridge, a coffee machine...

And the hot tub, it's heated up all year round,

at 39 to 41 degrees,

depending on the weather outside.

And it can be used all year round.

The bedroom,

you can see the Northern Lights from the glass ceiling.

The cottage is placed towards the north,

so when you are sleeping, you can see the Northern Lights,

when they are showing up, right above you,

and also in the bathroom.

The shower is all glass,

so you can see from above and on the sides,

and you have a direct view of the Mount Hekla,

which is our most active volcano here.

Ari's desire for everything to be as sustainable as possible

extends to the interior of the cabin.

Iceland is very eco-friendly,

and it was very important for us to make it sustainable.

Couldn't use Icelandic wood, because there wasn't any,

so we basically... Everything else, almost, is from the neighbourhood,

like, from around here,

except for the wood for the tables,

and it's driftwood that comes from Russia.

And also the fittings for the branches.

And the branches, we found on the land over there,

so it was just wood that we found over there,

and we used it for the lights.

The cottage's electricity is channelled via underground cables

from a nearby farm.

Volcanic springs criss-cross the landscape here,

so all of the building's water is pumped from a specially dug well

that stretches 24m deep into the lava field.

Wastewater is stored in a tank,

which is periodically collected and removed from site.

In winter, an Icelandic day only lasts about four or five hours,

so to fill the long evenings,

a relaxing pastime has taken off here.

Knitting.

Local family friend Elin has created

many of the cottage's handknitted soft furnishings.

I do a lot of knitting, all kinds.

Jumpers, quite a lot of them.

Socks and gloves, hats...

Whatever comes to my mind.

I always have something on my needles.

Elin even knitted the headboard.

When I was asked to knit this,

I thought it was an easy job to do,

but a very nice idea.

This...pattern is a very old, Icelandic, sweaters pattern.

Those, here, to hold the key,

it's a very small jumper, or sweater,

and it makes a nice sort of keeper for the key.

Each guest is given one,

so he can enter the house.

It's a very nice idea.

There's plenty to see in this lunar landscape.

From hot springs and active volcanoes

to Haifoss waterfall.

Iceland is a beautiful place, with many waterfalls,

and really was a great place for us

to visit a few of the local gems

in this region of Iceland.

Seeing the waterfall was very beautiful.

One of the definite highlights of coming to Iceland.

It was a bit of a trek, but I guess that's not uncommon in Iceland,

so it was well worth the walk to get there.

With almost no light pollution,

the sky at night here is an incredible sight.

And if you're lucky, you may even catch the Northern lights.

It was around like 10 PM or so, before...

It got super cloudy, overcast, and you couldn't see anything,

and then there was greenish blue over, like, the horizon,

and we're like, they're coming! They're coming!

I got so excited!

They, like, lit up the whole sky.

It was really majestic.

Coming up, we dive deep into the ultimate underwater retreat.

I had a good shipbuilder work with me,

we all get our heads together, and we built it.

We're exploring some of the world's most unusual getaways.

From hobbit huts...

..to mediaeval forts.

Our next stop is Sweden.

Lake Malaren, in Svealand.

This vast expanse of water is the third largest freshwater lake

in the country, covering an area of 1,140 square km.

With a wooded shoreline, and more than 1,200 islands,

it's a great place to wind down in the wilderness.

Emerging from the lake itself is an unusual structure.

From a distance, it resembles a floating buoy.

On closer inspection, it looks a little like a fishing hut,

but it is, in fact, a room of a one-of-a-kind submerged hotel,

floating two km from the shoreline,

and only accessible by boat.

This is the Utter Inn.

I always say that my...

my target group is the eight-year-olds,

our inner child, you know, the...

the inner part of us that loves wonders.

It's the creation of artist Mikael Genberg.

As an artist, I wanted to discover more

about, you know,

kind of alternative places to dwell.

What I really wanted was to capture people

in some kind of new scenario,

change the perspective for them.

It all started with a treehouse hotel,

and I called it Hotel Woodpecker,

and it was a tremendous success, from a hotel point of view,

and people wanted to stay from all over the place.

Following the success of the treehouse hotel,

Mikael created the Utter Inn.

He built it in the year 2000.

On top sits a small structure

that he designed in the style of a typical Swedish wooden house,

painted red, with white trims around the roof and windows.

The colour of the paint is called Falu red,

originally made with the bright coloured waste materials

from the Falun copper mine 138km away.

Inside is one room that doubles up as a kitchen and washroom.

The master bedroom is downstairs.

A viewing deck surrounds the top floor.

So this is...

You have a small toilet in here,

we have a small kitchen in here,

and then you have one more thing,

and that's the hatch in the middle of the room.

Hidden down this hatch is the biggest secret of this tiny hotel.

11 rungs down a three-metre ladder,

under the surface of the lake,

is a submerged bedroom 2.4m wide and long.

The room has two single beds,

and the walls have four large windows

designed to give the experience of living in an underwater world.

The lamps that light it

are all solar-powered from panels on the roof.

Constructing this unusual space

was a huge technical challenge for Mikael.

I mean, how do you build an underwater hotel room?

What were kind of windows is it?

You know, how thick should the windows be?

How much is the pressure?

You know, it's a lot of things to think about,

and I didn't have any money,

and I couldn't find any examples,

because there weren't any.

There weren't existing any underwater hotels in the world,

except one in Miami, where you had to dive down 20m.

Mikael worked with a specialist team

from the local city of Vasteras

to turn his dream hotel into a reality.

The people who were helping me to build it,

they were like, are you serious?

Are we going to build an underwater hotel?

And I... I didn't know anything!

I asked every company if they could give me some kind of...

Can I get some steel plates?

"Really? OK, you can get some steel plates, no problem.

"What size, what thickness? This is amazing."

I had a good shipbuilder working with me.

We all, you know, get our heads together,

and we built it.

It's the first underwater hotel room of its sort.

After a year-long build,

a boat transported the structure to its mooring site,

where a crane lifted it into position.

So, how does this extraordinary hotel float?

The whole structure weighs around 25 tonnes.

The walls of the bedroom are made of 7cm thick steel,

and the windows below deck are made of 5.5cm, hardened glass.

Although heavy, the hotel is hollow

and lighter than the water it is displacing,

allowing it to float,

while the extra width of the outer deck

helps stabilise the hotel against the waves.

And to stop it floating away,

it's anchored by chains to two, 300kg concrete slabs

that lie 5.5m down on the seabed...

..although there's enough slack

to let the hotel move gently in the water.

Mikael shuttles the visitors to the Inn by boat,

and after that, they're on their own.

Complete isolation.

You go there, you stay there, we fetch you when you want to go back.

They must bring their own food for their stay,

but Mikael provides fresh water in a 10-litre tank.

I mean, you can be on it and you can eat

and you can, you know, have your coffee in the morning,

and sunshine, you can take a swim...

Visitors can only stay here between April and September,

when the weather is calm, and the lake doesn't freeze.

But towards the autumn,

the temperature underwater can drop to 12 degrees at night,

so the Inn has a gas-powered heating system

that radiates below the floorboards.

Apparently, people love it.

And I think it's the thing that you are actually submerged in water,

and you don't really...

You don't understand the emotion before you've done it.

And then... more than one, I don't know how many,

but more than one has actually said,

it was like coming back into the womb!

HE LAUGHS

You know, and there's me going like, oh, that's good, you know?

That's good!

I realised very early that the fish loved it,

cos, you know, they come, sometimes, hundreds towards the windows,

and they go like...

And they stare, and, you know,

it's actually kind of a reversed aquarium.

Something for the nature, I'm showing the wildlife of humans.

HE CHUCKLES

But it's not always easy for visitors and fish

to see one another.

I should say the worst place in the world to put

an underwater hotel room.

The divers, when I said I want to build it here,

they said, Michael, are you really going to put it here?

It's like diving in pea soup, they said.

Lake Malaren is rich in phosphorus and nitrogen.

This helps cultivate algae,

both free-floating and growing on solid objects in the water,

so keeping the windows clean is a constant battle.

This is maybe the most important equipment we have.

There's one tricky part, and that is to clean the windows downstairs.

I suppose we clean them at least once a week.

Good weather, really good weather, and I'm in good shape,

I can dive down, and, you know, scrub the windows.

Today, it's a little bit cold.

It's very important that it has the right angle,

and you find... I know that the window's here.

And I go down,

and I go down, and I go down...

and then I have to feel it.

Where the windows actually are.

It's a bit tricky,

yeah, it's a little bit of a workout, you could say so.

Maintaining and running a place this remote isn't easy.

It's been in the waters now for 21 years,

and it's still working as a charm.

What I love so much about it

is that we actually succeeded in making it,

because people said, you know, this is impossible,

you can't do this, why should you do it?

You know, it's...

And we struggled.

So when I see that we did it,

you know, the feeling where you see something and say, oh, I did it!

You know? That's what I love most about it.

Still to come,

a remarkable re-imagination of a historic Royal Air Force base.

Nobody really knows anything about it, to be honest.

There's no public access, which helps keep the secret.

We're exploring the world's most secret escapes.

From mountaintop retreats...

..to giant conkers that look like they've landed from outer space.

Next, we're heading to Lincolnshire,

on England's east coast.

The seaside town of Skegness

has been a Mecca for holidaymakers for more than a century.

The heady mix of neon lights and rollercoasters

keeps its seafront hotels busy all year round.

But far from the coastal road, on the outskirts of town,

is a hotel very few people are ever likely to stumble across,

or even recognise as a hotel.

Nobody really knows anything about it, to be honest.

They see a helicopter and an aeroplane parked outside,

and they assume there's a runway somewhere.

There's no public access, which helps keep the secret.

An unusual complex sits among

fields rumoured to harbour unexploded bombs.

Tall, barbed wire fences,

and dark, brutalist architecture greets visitors.

It seems like a place designed to keep people out,

but it's actually a holiday hideaway.

It's simply called The Tower.

For those with an interest in military history,

or even just a taste for the unusual,

it's a perfect top-secret retreat.

For over 80 years,

The Tower was the heart of a Royal Air Force bomb testing range.

Owner Will Roughton grew up in the tower's shadow,

as it was slap bang in the middle of his family's farm.

When RAF Wainfleet closed down in 2009,

the site was due for demolition,

and Will saw an opportunity.

They couldn't sell it to anybody else,

because it's in the middle of our farm.

So...that's why we got the phone call.

It's not your average transaction!

The hotel still uses the original buildings

made of 18 inch-thick, bombproof concrete.

Outside, bunkers originally used as a shower block

for bomb disposal experts,

and offices for on-site security

have been converted into three, self catering apartments.

There's also a communal games room

where guests can play pool or darts.

In the site's observation tower, on the ground floor,

is a toilet and a kitchen.

Above that, three bedrooms sit on top of each other.

And on the top floor is a communal lounge.

This is the main attraction.

This is what was known as the observation lounge.

My personal opinion is the best thing's the view.

I mean, we're way up here, it's flat for as far as the eye can see,

you get the great weather, storms, sunrises, sunsets...

I think that's the most attractive quality.

The 360-degree panorama that once gave unrestricted views

of fighter planes practising bombing raids

today offers spectacular vistas across pristine salt marshes,

a Site of Special Scientific Interest

teeming with birds and rare wildlife.

Back in the day, this would've been desks all the way round,

with radars, men sat at each desk with their headphones on

coordinating the aircraft, marking the bombing.

It's 360 glass walls, because obviously they need to see

which direction the planes are coming from, where they're going,

and whether they've hit the targets or not,

and that's left us with these great views.

There would have been so much noise and action going on.

BOMBS EXPLODING MACHINE GUNS RATTLING

And now, obviously, it's a lovely, peaceful lounge

where you come and sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, and relax.

Underneath the observation deck,

the tower conceals further secrets.

Three bedrooms lie inside the tower itself.

One bedroom was once the top-secret office

where airmen recorded the results of the bombing raids conducted outside.

It looks very different today.

Away from the tower,

the outhouses also harbour a secret or two.

Maintaining the gritty military look outside,

but creating the accommodation inside

was no easy task.

To keep the original appearance of the complex,

we've also had to build secret gardens

in positions behind the buildings

so that we haven't actually affected the aesthetics of the compound.

It still looks as it did as a military base,

but behind each building, there is a fenced in, private garden,

with their own hot tub, decking area,

for the luxury holiday that they're coming on.

Thick concrete and functional architecture

might not be to everyone's taste,

but Will was determined to make sure it remained central

to his hotel's appeal.

We get a lot of people who enjoy history,

so we get a lot of world war enthusiasts that come down.

BEEPING

Wow, this is an entrance you don't normally see, isn't it?

Wow!

The idea that we were trying to create

was an experience for our guests.

The illusion that you're still turning up to a military base,

so they get to come here, now,

and see the aeroplane and the helicopter, the tower itself,

the complex... We've left all the exteriors of the buildings

exactly like they were, with their engineering bricks,

and, you know, it's a very rugged look.

But that helps add to the surprise,

when you open the door and you've got Egyptian cotton,

and nice lamps, and sofas, and soft furnishings.

It's just the big contrast that we were aiming for.

It's an extremely bold design

that means this hotel is full of quirky charm and surprises.

It's just so imposing in the landscape.

Everything's flat,

and then you suddenly see this building rising up.

It's amazing.

The strangeness, and secretness of it, yes,

and the history!

Wow.

You don't expect this, do you?

Out of a building like this.

I thought it would be all military, hard furniture...

It's just amazing.

Transforming this robust structure into comfortable living quarters

was a formidable construction challenge.

The biggest challenge we had

was just the way that the buildings are constructed.

They are supposed to be bombproof, in case of any accidents!

We're going through 18-inch concrete floors and ceilings to get here.

Former kitchen fitter Josh French

was tasked with this one-of-a-kind conversion.

It's just solid, four-inch brick, five-inch concrete,

and four-inch brick again,

so it took me like a whole day to drill a hole for the extractor fan.

I've burnt out I can't even imagine how many drill bits...

20, 30, 40 drill bits? That's what the brick's like.

And it's taken a lot longer than it should have done,

but the plus side to that is it shouldn't ever fall down!

It does mean the rooms have perfect soundproofing.

But it's the non-concrete architecture

which conceals the biggest surprises.

The plane's not only for show.

If we give our guests one of these key fobs,

we show that it has a secret all of its own.

SERVOS WHINE

To continue the theme, the owners also purchased

an ex-military Jetstream passenger plane

to house holidaymakers.

We've totally transformed this space

by gutting it, taking out all of the seating,

and putting a double bed in the back

and a king bed in the front,

so now sleeps four people.

Isn't for the faint of heart, though.

You know, on a very windy night, it can rock a little bit.

The really exciting thing, though, about the plane,

is what we've done with the cockpit.

You can basically sleep with your head in a plane's cockpit,

and if you have kids...

What a wonderful way just to be able to play with all the controls!

Other than the cockpit, there are three TVs in there,

so there can't be kids falling out over who's watching what.

We've also put some bench seats and a little pull-out table,

so you can even eat your meals in the aeroplane.

Diana and Will also sourced a decommissioned Lynx helicopter

that had seen action in Afghanistan,

and transformed it into additional accommodation.

We've converted the biggest section of the helicopter,

and we've put underfloor heating in, and a nice bed.

Where our guests lay their heads on the pillow at night,

that would be where the guns would've been set up.

A few months after we converted her,

her flight engineer from Afghanistan actually came to visit her.

It was just really amazing to sort of hear her back story,

and to understand what role she played in the past.

The helicopter came with the full cockpit still intact,

which we've left. We've even installed some sound,

which is the sound of the rotor blades,

and some sound of some machine-gun fire.

GUNS THUNDER

Reconfiguring the helicopter was yet another challenge for Josh.

Nothing's square, so I've had to build timber frames and stuff

to put all of the new walls and the new floors,

and to put all the fixtures on, so, yeah, it's just the shape,

and the fact that it's not meant to be slept in, really,

or be accommodation.

But...we've worked with it, and we got there in the end.

It all adds up to a unique space

that blends brutal military architecture

with surprise after surprise.

And Will is still adding to the unusual offerings.

This is the latest addition to the fleet.

It's our Unimog army ambulance,

which we've purchased to convert

and sleep four people as a mobile glamping pod.

It's a stunning top-secret bolthole,

especially if you like history, or aviation.

Tests for Barnes Wallis's famous World War II bouncing bomb

were conducted on the marshes here.

There's certainly a lot to take in.

We just wanted somewhere a little bit different,

a little bit special,

to celebrate our anniversary of being together for a year.

It was...

just so magical when you drove in,

and telling people that you could stay in a helicopter,

every person was...

"Oh, my God, really?!"

When it was open as a military base,

obviously, it's a fairly aggressive, noisy,

you know, dangerous place, really,

and now it's turned into this lovely, peaceful retreat.

It gives us an enormous sense of pride.

We've achieved something that I didn't think we'd ever achieve,

but we've persevered and persevered,

and eventually got to where we wanted to be.

The building itself is so unusual

we just didn't want to see it being demolished,

and had we have not bought it, that is what would have happened.

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