Lion Sands | Courtesy of Lion Sands
Lion Sands | Courtesy of Lion Sands
We know COVID-19 is impacting travel plans right now. For a little inspiration, we’ll continue to share stories from our favorite places around the world so you can keep daydreaming about your next adventure.
When you were 10, camping out in a treehouse -- where “room service” was your mom with brownies, interrupting your game of truth or dare at the WORST possible moment -- made for some pretty great overnight lodging. Now, though, treehouse hotels, eco lodges, and Airbnbs are taking the notion of a treehouse to the next level, sometimes literally.
These are a few of the world's most spectacular treehouses for your future vacation plans and Ewok cosplay needs, where the amenities are more than a sleeping bag and flashlight -- some are full-blown resorts. At the very least, they could inspire you to step up your own backyard game and start building.
Bangkok Tree House
Bangkok, ThailandNumber of rooms: 12
Cost per night: From $116
Opened in 2012 and inspired by Thoreau's Walden Pond, this elevated eco-friendly oasis in the heart of the big city admits it's "not for everyone." No A/C, outdoor showers -- it’s treehouse life for real here. In addition to sleek treetop rooms and free cell phone rentals, the hotel rents the “View with a Room”: Sleep 23 feet off the ground, with no ceiling or walls, in the open air under the stars.
Sanya Nanshan Treehouse Resort and Beach Club
Hainan Island, ChinaNumber of rooms: 4
Cost per night: From $111
Built into old tamarind trees near a "new 5,000 acre Buddhist and ecological theme park complete with temples, pagodas, (and) botanical gardens," these treehouses offer beach access, views of the South China Sea, and can sleep up to 20 guests over three levels.
Lion Sands
Kruger National Park, South AfricaNumber of rooms: 4
Cost per night: From around $237 per person
Though this South African wilderness resort has lodges with equally luxurious rooms, the way to go is a night in one of the treehouses you can book above those rooms, accessible via raised wooden walkways. When you’re perched above the savannah in a king-sized bed, it’s hard to imagine staying anywhere else.
Nothofagus Hotel & Spa
Neltume, ChileNumber of rooms: 55
Cost per night: From $315
Floor-to-ceiling windows and private balconies offer leafy views of both the Patagonian Andes and Mocho Choshuenco Volcano. Premium suites come with their own living room, whirlpool tub, and, appropriately, rainforest shower. There are also two restaurants, and a heated swimming pool and full spa below.
Treehotel
Harads, SwedenNumber of rooms: Six, including Dragonfly, The Blue Cone (which is, uh red), and The UFO
Cost per night: From $526
As much a showcase for Sweden's top architects as it is a hotel, this enclave in a pine forest boasts modern, highly Instagrammable treehouses up to 20 feet off the ground, resembling bird nests, mirrored cubes, and UFOs. The largest room is the Dragonfly; the most invisible room is the Mirrorcube; the most extraterrestrial room is the UFO.
Chateaux dans les Arbres in the Dordogne
Nojals-et-Clotte, FranceNumber of rooms: 6
Cost per night: From $262
Modeled after a traditional French chateaux, these elevated castles in Southwest France are built on stilts among chestnut and oak trees, and include a terraced hot tub and ground-level infinity pool. No roughing-it attitude required here.
Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica Canopy Tree House
Puerto Maldonado, PeruNumber of rooms: 1
Cost per night (minimum 2 nights): From around $600
You're pretty much sleeping with the wildlife in this private cabin, which sports a traditional palm thatched roof and wooden floors. You even get walkie-talkies in order to call the Canopy Butler. The room is linked by a suspension bridge to the resort's quarter-mile 103-foot-high canopy walk (of which you'll get a spectacular night-time tour).
MORE: The best way to hike Machu Picchu is not the Inca Trail
Finca Bellavista
Golfito, Costa RicaNumber of rooms: 14
Cost per night: From $49
Not to be confused with George and Estelle's "Del Boca Vista," this is a first-of-its-kind sustainable treehouse community situated up to 90 feet off the forest floor, in the canopy of the Costa Rican rainforest on the Pacific Coast. They're nice enough to let you join them in surfing, hiking, and zip-lining between treehouses; you could also potentially buy a lot and build your own.
TreeHouse Point
Issaquah, WashingtonNumber of rooms: 6
Cost per night: From $661
The work of a "world-renowned treehouse builder," this B&B just outside Seattle boasts rustic-but-modern cabins decorated with leather chairs, cedar beds, and private balconies. The treehouses themselves have hippie-dippie names like Trillium, Upper Pond, and Temple of the Blue Moon. The place also rocks a summer concert series and serves as a tourable nature conservancy.
Free Spirit Spheres
Vancouver Island, British ColumbiaNumber of rooms: 3
Cost per night: From $314
You'll be gently rocked to sleep in one of three floating cedar/spruce orbs (Luna, Eryn, and Melody) dangling in an old-growth forest. Not bad, eh? The spheres are "suspended like pendants from a web of rope," 10 to 15 feet above the forest floor.
Out'n'About Treehouse Treesort
Cave Junction, OregonNumber of rooms: 16
Cost per night: From $150
This place has more than a mile of ziplines! It feels more like staying with your highly eccentric relatives than being in a hotel; the family-run business used to sell T-shirts to guests, whom they called “Tree Musketeers,” rather than charge them a room rate. The rooms don’t have locks -- though we guess you’re relatively safe out in the middle of 36 acres near the Siskiyou National Forest. The activitrees at this treesort also include a horse-breeding ranch.
Treehouse Blue Mountains
Bilpin, New South Wales, AustraliaNumber of rooms: 1
Cost per night: $456
I mean … look at it. Built on 600 acres of private land, this treehouse comes with a spa, fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a hot tub. It makes a great home base for exploring not one but two nearby national parks. There’s great mountain biking to be done in the area, but it honestly looks like it would be very hard to get out of bed here.
Canopy Treehouses
Tarzali, Queensland, AustraliaNumber of rooms: 7
Cost per night: From $310
These cabins sit in the tree canopy above 100 acres of rainforest along the Ithaca River. The land surrounding the resort produces quadruple the amount of fruit as the areas around it, which attracts extra-rare wildlife like Lumholtz Tree Kangaroos and Green Possums -- who often come wandering across your balcony to say hello.
Green Village
Bali, IndonesiaNumber of rooms: 11
Cost per night: From $325
This eco-community in Bali may be the grandest collection of treehouse vacation homes in the world. You can actually rent a six-story bamboo villa -- and since most of them don’t have what you’d call “walls,” you’re basically sleeping in nature, but like, still in the complete lap of luxury.
MORE: How to choose the Southeast Asia country that’s right for you
Original Treehouse Cottages
Eureka Springs, ArkansasNumber of rooms: 7
Cost per night: From $179
Eureka Springs is one of America’s great mountain towns, so if you’re keen on exploring this hotel offers treehouse accommodations on a wooded hillside right by Downtown. For a more secluded experience you can opt to stay in their “Hidden Forest” about a mile away. Either way you’re getting your own little slice of treetop luxury. There’s a jacuzzi completely encircled with windows, offering a 365-degree view of the towering pines of the Ozarks.
Secluded Intown Treehouse
Atlanta, GeorgiaNumber of rooms: 1
Cost per night: $375
It’s kind of amazing that an urban treehouse -- we’re literally minutes from downtown Atlanta here -- can look like this. The Secluded Intown Treehouse has three separate rooms (Mind, Body, and Spirit, the latter of which is a hammock deck) that are connected to each other with rope swing bridges. It’s supported by seven trees altogether. It looks like something designed on Pinterest, yet it is real.
Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, get Next Flight Out for more travel coverage, and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.
Matt Meltzer is a contributing writer to Thrillist. Follow him on Instagram @meltrez1.
Kastalia Medrano is Thrillist's Travel Writer. You can send her travel tips at kmedrano@thrillist.com, and Venmo tips at @kastaliamedrano.
Dave Baldwin is a contributor for Thrillist.
Our Newsletter