Is anything cooler than a lighthouse?

The history, the mystery, the whole man-as-an-island thing. Haven in darkness for ships lost in the night … Yet they still have that scary-movie vibe to them.

And that’s not even to mention the obvious: the sea, the amazing views, the perfectly quaint solitude.

Stop admiring from afar. It’s time to move in.

At least for a little while. For your next vacation, skip the Provençal mas and rent a lighthouse. They’re available around the world, from New England to old England, from the Adriatic to Australia. Some of them have been converted into inns, some are attached to hotels, and others can be rented as single structures. Few are still used for actual ship-guiding purposes, but you can be a guest keeper for many of those that are.

Best of all? The bragging rights you get when everyone else is yawning through their stories of Taos and Nantucket share houses.

You’ll be the coolest kid on the block. All the way at the edge of the world.

Find an excellent list of lighthouse vacation spots online at lighthouse.cc. Learn more about them at lighthousedigest.com. For info on lighthouse preservation, visit lighthousefoundation.org.