Is This the Best Sleep in the World?

Desert Cave Hotel

Imagine a place with absolutely no sound or light. There's no heat and no humidity. It feels perfectly calm, as if time doesn't exist and the space around you is directionless.

You're tucked up in a comfortable bed and you drift off to sleep, with nothing at all to disturb you until your mind and body decide they're ready to reawaken.

This is the experience in one small, South Australian town – Coober Pedy – where houses and hotels are buried into hill faces and extend deep underground.

Approaching these dwellings from the outside, you can't tell how big or small, grand or simple they'll be once inside.

Some expand out into virtual mansions; multi-stories of carved rock rooms, far below Coober Pedy's sandy external surface.

As you enter the first rooms, you sense the coolness and quiet immediately. The natural light fades and you feel, almost literally, at one with the earth.

It's no surprise then that many visitors end up having a couple of fantastic sleep-ins!

“I've had a few guests who emerge for breakfast looking quite shocked by how long they've slept!” laughs Robert Coro, Chair of Coober Pedy Retail Business and Tourism Association and owner of the Desert Cave Hotel.

“You certainly want to set an alarm if you've got a sunrise tour of the Breakaways or an early morning start on the Outback Mail Run.

“If you haven't been to Coober Pedy, you can't imagine what real life underground is like – we have not just houses and hotels but restaurants, bars, shops, museums and even churches.

“Coober Pedy is the one place where you can stand at the lookout, located right above all of these buildings, and still not see most of the town!

“What started as a clever way to keep opal miners cool and comfortable at night has turned into a pretty bizarre and unique lifestyle.”

For more information on visiting Coober Pedy, go to: www.cooberpedy.net

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is located 852km north of Adelaide and 685km south of Alice Springs, along the sealed, all-weather Stuart Highway.

Originally established almost 100 years ago on arguably the world's greatest opal mining site, Coober Pedy is now also widely known for its unique underground lifestyle, 'moonscapes' and landscapes.

Many of the town's major facilities are underground, including hotels, restaurants, shops, museums, churches and private homes.

This novelty attracts tourists from around the world, eager to experience the bizarre sense of the lifestyle – where sound, light, time and direction all seem to become lost.

Other major attractions include historic and working opals mines, locations used in films such as 'Mad Max 3', 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', 'Red Planet' and 'Pitch Black', plus breathtaking natural attractions like The Breakaways and the Moon Plains.

Serbian Church

A minimum of two nights is recommended to properly experience the town of Coober Pedy, alongside other Outback destinations.

Bus and air services operate to and from Coober Pedy, as do connections from The Ghan train, and tours can be booked from the Visitor Information Centre or accommodation providers on arrival.