Rooftop pools, underwater restaurants, Rolls-Royce airport transfers — hotels
today will do anything to attract clients. But if there’s one gimmick that
sucks me in faster than you can say Swiss Family Robinson, it’s a treehouse.
My first experience of one was in Kerala, 90ft up in the boughs of a
200-year-old banyan: squirrels nibbled at my rucksack, mist drifted through
my “room”, monkeys screeched through the night. And at 5am a cuckoo perched
not 20 yards from my bed and announced the dawn. You can keep your
Ritz-Carltons and your Mandarin Orientals — this was travel.
Prices are per person, based on two sharing. Flights, where included, are from
London — contact the operator for regional departures.
Green Magic Nature Resort, India
Deep in the Wayanad forest, teetering atop a giant banyan, the three
terrifyingly simple thatched treehouses here are lashed down with little
more than coir rope. Meals are vegetarian, served on banana leaves; a cane
cage pulley-lift is your only link with the ground. I’d heard Green Magic’s
lustre had faded a tad of late, with talk of lazy staff and rowdy guests.
But it’s under new management, and we say it’s worth a punt. It’s bonkers
and brilliant (but dodgy service could stuff that up).
TransIndus (020 8566 2729, www.transindus.co.uk),
which also offers the more reliable Tranquil Resort’s treehouses nearby, has
seven nights in Kerala from £1,284, full-board, including three nights at
Green Magic, all transfers and flights with Emirates to Cochin.
Treehouse Hideaway, India
Opened in October, Treehouse Hideaway nestles among the branches of
Bandhavgarh National Park, just about the best place on the planet to see
tigers, with four breeding pairs, 15 cubs born this year, and a kill taking
place right at the foot of one of the five treehouses just after opening.
Melting into the jungle, the treehouses are made entirely from local timber,
open on one side to the forest surrounds, with just the telltale minibar to
remind you where you are. There are sloth bears, mongooses, antelopes and
200 species of bird, with 4WD drives and elephant safaris to see them.
Discovery Initiatives (01285 643333, www.discoveryinitiatives.co.uk)
has a 12-night Tiger Study tour from £2,995, full-board, including three
nights at Treehouse Hideaway, transfers and flights with British Airways to
Delhi.
Hotel Hackspett, Sweden
Conceived by Mikael Genberg as a living art installation, Hotel Hackspett
(Woodpecker) comprises just one treehouse, with a double bed, a cooker and a
toilet, perched in a vast oak 43ft above Vasa park, in Vasteras, near
Stockholm.
If that’s not David Blaine enough, guests climb to their “room” using a
ladder, which is then whipped away for the night, with meals served via a
basket and pulley. Initially, it was free. Genberg — also creator of Utter
(Otter) Inn, a shed moored in the middle of nearby Lake Malaren — only
started charging when people were suspicious of getting something for
nothing.
Hotel Hackspett is £89, B&B (£116, half-board). Contact Vasteras
tourist information (00 46 2139 0100, www.visit-vasteras.com).
Kirker (020 7593 2288, www.kirkerholidays.com)
has three nights’ B&B in a four-star hotel in Stockholm from £596,
including BA flights to Stockholm and transfers.
Perche Dan Le Perche, France
Wrapped around a vast chestnut tree, standing alone in 25 acres of rolling
hillside in southern Normandy, Perché dans le Perche cries out for long,
lamplit evenings over a bottle of bordeaux, with foxes, badgers, wild boar
and deer scurrying about beneath the 200-year-old châtaignier
(sweet-chestnut tree). Opened in May, perched on the western borders of the
Parc Naturel Régional du Perche, the treehouse is a good base for superb
horse-riding and hill-walking, arranged by its English owner, Claire
Stickland.
Perché dans le Perche charges £54pp per night, B&B (plus £14 for
each extra person; sleeps five). Contact Claire Stickland (00 33 2 33 25 57
96, www.perchedansleperche.com
). Sail to St Malo or Caen from Poole or Portsmouth with Brittany Ferries
(0870 536 0360, www.brittanyferries.co.uk)
from £128 return, for up to four people and a car.
Chole Mjini, Tanzania
Thirty miles off the coast of Tanzania, marooned within Mafia Island Marine
Park, Chole Island is as castaway as you’ll get without a force-10 storm: no
cars, no electricity, no phones — just a lonely dhow doing the school run to
Mafia Island to distract you from your treetop reverie . . . that and Chole
Mjini’s dive school, turtles, rays, dolphins and whale sharks on surrounding
reefs.
And the treehouses? They’re not the poshest, with little more than a simple
four-poster up in your baobab, and composting toilets down below, but all
six gaze straight into the sea breeze, with a night-time lullaby of sea on
sand, bushbabies in branches and fruit bats munching in mango trees.
Audley (01993 838500, www.audleytravel.com)
has 10 days in southern Tanzania from £3,500, full-board, including three
nights at Chole Mjini, transfers and flights with British Airways to Dar es
Salaam. And £5 per guest per night goes to local community projects.
Tsala Treetops, South Africa
If Tarzan won the lottery and asked Richard Rogers to build a place where he
and Jane could entertain, Tsala Treetops is what he’d get. Seven miles west
of Plettenberg Bay, the 10 treehouses here each sport their own private deck
and plunge pool, freestanding stone bath, roaring log fire and
floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the Tsitsikamma forest canopy. The
main lodge — linked by a snaking wooden walkway to the rooms — has vast,
vaulted ceilings, modishly rough stonework and a candlelit, alfresco dining
area jutting out into the surrounding yellow woods.
Elite Vacations (01707 371000, www.elitevacations.com)
has a nine-night self-drive from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth for £2,089, B&B,
including two nights at Tsala Treetops, car hire and flights with British
Airways.
Chalkley Treehouse, South Africa
Tsala may be more luxurious, Green Magic is more bizarre, but for sheer,
let-this-never-end romance, Chalkley Treehouse, at Lion Sands, takes the
champagne-dipped, moonlit biscuit. Built around a ghostly, 500-year-old
leadwood tree and entirely open to the stars, the treehouse is a 15-minute
4WD ride from camp. Once a ranger has dropped you off, it’s just you, the
moon, your picnic dinner and whatever animals — lions, leopards, elephants
and rhinos — wander beneath the platform.
Audley (01993 838550, www.audleytravel.com)
has 10 nights in South Africa from £3,500, including three nights at Lion
Sands Ivory Lodge and Chalkley Treehouse, plus transfers, meals, drinks,
activities and flights with South African Airlines to Johannesburg.
Kwetsani, Botswana
Run by Wilderness Safaris, which provides small- scale, just-right camps in
the most exhilarating corners of remote southern Africa, Kwetsani lies on an
island in the northwest Okavango delta, with five luxury huts raised on
platforms among fig trees and mangosteens. Outdoor showers, huge views over
the flood plains from your bed, mandatory lions roaring unseen in the dark
and vervet monkeys nipping down to nick your camera gear. Lions, leopards,
cheetahs, buffaloes, elephants and wild dogs are all here, seen on foot, by
4WD or dugout canoe.
Wildlife Worldwide (0845 130 6982, www.wildlifeworldwide.com)
has an 11-day Wings over Botswana safari for £3,650, including two nights in
Kwetsani, all meals, drinks, activities, transfers and flights with South
African Airlines to Maun (via Johannesburg).
Cedar Creek Treehouse, USA
Lodged in the boughs of a 200-year-old cedar on the edge of Washington’s Mount
Rainier National Park, with the trunk coming up through the kitchen floor
and disappearing out through the ceiling, Cedar Creek Treehouse (sleeps
five) is the brainchild of Bill Compher, who by his own admission “read an
awful lot of Jack and the Beanstalk as a kid”. It’s 50ft up and the views
here are simply awesome: Sawtooth Ridge from the sun room, Mount Rainier’s
icy summit from the skylight above your bed, bettered only by the 360-degree
panorama from Bill’s observatory, 100ft up a neighbouring fir, reached by a
chain-link bridge that wouldn’t disgrace a Tintin cartoon.
Cedar Creek Treehouse is £73pp per night (plus £24 for each extra person),
self-catering. Bon Voyage (0800 316 0194, www.bon-voyage.co.uk)
has seven nights, fly-drive, from £495, including car hire and flights with
British Airways to Seattle.
Chaa Creek, Belize
High in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, on Belize’s border with
Guatemala, towering on stilts among the treetops above the River Macal, the
two treehouse suites at Chaa Creek are almost preposterously plush, with spa
baths on the wraparound verandas and split-level, hardwood interiors so
fashion-shoot-fabulous that you will never want to come down. Set on a
365-acre nature reserve, Chaa Creek rewards the adventurous, with Mayan
ruins close by, and wildlife jungle trips by canoe, mountain bike, horse,
4WD and on foot.
Last Frontiers (01296 653000, www.lastfrontiers.com)
has 14 nights, B&B, in Belize and Guatemala from £2,800, including three
nights in a treehouse suite at Chaa Creek, transfers and flights with
British Airways and American Airlines via Miami.
Tabin Wildlife Resort, Malaysia
In the heart of a vast dipterocarp reserve in eastern Sabah, surrounded by 475
square miles of protected rainforest, sheltering pygmy elephants, Sumatran
rhinos, tembadau (wild ox), 220 species of bird and nine primates, Tabin
Wildlife Resort is a wonderfully grandiose name for a few wooden huts and
tents built among — and often around — the mighty hardwoods.
For the full frog lullaby and gibbon wake-up call, make sure it’s a tent you
book: raised on platforms, brushed by leaves, damp with early-morning mist —
it won’t be the best night’s kip you’ve ever had, but who needs sleep when
you’ve got hornbills calling in the dawn?
The Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646, www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk)
has seven nights in Borneo from £1,395, including four nights at Tabin
Wildlife Resort, most meals, all activities and transfers, plus flights with
Malaysian Airlines via Kuala Lumpur.
Hapuku Lodge, New Zealand
With sperm whales resident year-round and humpbacks, pilots, orcas and blue
whales present depending on the season, Kaikoura would be worth the journey
even if they made you kip on the beach with no blankets. Sleep in one of
Hapuku Lodge’s treehouses, and you may chuck your plane ticket into the
Pacific.
Clothed in native woods and copper shingles, with furniture designed by local
craftsmen and friends of the family owners, the single, double and
family-sized houses stand 30ft up in the canopy of a manuka grove, with
mighty views of the Kaikoura Mountains and nearby ocean. Winery tours, sea-
kayaking, whale-watching and mountain-biking can all be arranged.
Bridge & Wickers (020 7483 6555, www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk)
has 14 nights, fly-drive, on South Island, between Christchurch and
Queenstown, from £2,313, B&B, including car hire and flights with
Air New Zealand (via Auckland).
