When you were 10, camping out in a treehouse -- where “room service” was just your mom with brownies, interrupting your game of truth or dare at the WORST possible moment -- made for some pretty sweet overnight lodging. Fortunately, hoteliers around the world are happy to indulge your childhood nostalgia. These are the world's most spectacular treehouse hotels you can book for the night; amenities are a step above a sleeping bag and flashlight, and the views are wildly better than your backyard.
The Best Places to Visit This February
Bangkok Tree House
Bangkok, Thailand
Number of rooms: 12, including one with no walls or ceiling, called the View with a Room
Cost per night: From $125
Opened in 2012 and inspired by Thoreau's Walden Pond, this elevated oasis in the heart of the big city admits it's "not for everyone." In addition to sleek treetop rooms and free cell phone rentals, the hotel rents a floating double-bed called the River Nest. Seriously, it's just a bed on the water.
Sanya Nanshan Treehouse Resort and Beach Club
Hainan Island, China
Number of rooms: Four
Cost per night: From $96
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 Africa
Number of rooms: 4
Nightly rate: $450
Though this African wilderness resort has lodges with equally luxurious rooms, the way to go is a night in one of its four treehouses. Sleeping amongst the lions and zebras 10 minutes from the lodge with no electricity and no shower might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but when you’re perched above the savannah in a king-sized bed, who really cares.
Nothofagus Hotel & Spa
Neltume, Chile
Number 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 comes 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, Sweden
Number of rooms: Six, including Dragonfly, The Blue Cone (which is, uh red), and The UFO
Cost per night: From $506
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.
Chateaux dans les Arbres in the Dordogne
Nojals-et-Clotte, France
Number of rooms: Three
Cost per night: From $262
Modeled after a traditional French chateaux, these three elevated castle houses in Southwest France are built on stilts among chestnut and oak trees, and include a terraced hot tub and ground-level infinity pool.
Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica Canopy Tree House
Puerto Maldonado, Peru
Number of rooms: One
Cost per night: $541
You're pretty much sleeping with the wildlife in this 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).
Finca Bellavista
Golfito, Costa Rica
Number of rooms: Nine
Cost per night: From $100
Not to be confused with George and Estelle's "Del Boca Vista," this is a sustainable treehouse community (AKA a commune of earthy young expats) 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 buy a lot and build your own.
TreeHouse Point
Issaquah, Washington
Number of rooms: Six, with hippie-dippie names like Trillium, Upper Pond, and Temple of the Blue Moon
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 place also rocks a summer concert series and serves as a tourable nature conservancy.
Free Spirit Spheres
Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Number of rooms: Three, named Eve, Eryn, and Melody
Cost per night: From $160
You'll be gently rocked to sleep in a floating cedar/spruce orb 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, Oregon
Number of rooms: 16
Nightly rate: $150-$330
This feels more like staying with your highly eccentric relatives than being in a hotel, as the family-run business used to sell T-shirts to guests and call them “Tree Musketeers” rather than charge for accommodations. The rooms don’t have locks -- I suppose you’re relatively safe out in the middle of 36 acres near the Siskiyou National Forest. The “treesort” also features a horse-breeding ranch and over a mile of ziplines.
Canopy Treehouses
Tarzali, Queensland, Australia
Number of rooms: 7
Nightly rate: From $290
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, Indonesia
Number of rooms: Depends on the rental pool
Nightly rate: $325
Though not technically a hotel, 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 the them don’t have what you’d call “walls,” you’re basically sleeping in the jungle but in the complete lap of luxury.
Original Treehouse Cottages
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Number of rooms: 7
Nightly rate: $149
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.
Sanya Nahan Treehouse
Hainan Island, China
Number of rooms: 7
Nightly rate: $160
You can’t get much better than a treehouse on a beach. This hotel is set high among the Tamarind trees on the coast of the South China Sea. You’re a short walk from the beach and from 5,000 acres of preserved Buddhist temples and pagodas.
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