Tree-house Getaways

You thought your childhood tree house was the perfect place to go to get away from the world and all its troubles (i.e., parents), but last time you tried to crawl into it, the tree looked as if it were suffering under your weight and the squirrels were threatening to go on strike.

Vacationers are escaping the world by climbing trees.

What to do? Guadalupe Guzman, 26, found an interesting way to satisfy her longing for vertical escape without scraping a single knee. Instead of heading to any old hotel, she and her boyfriend opted for a midwinter escape at Island Ambience, a bamboo tree-house hotel suspended over a rain forest in Puerto Rico.

"It just sounded so incredible—and romantic! A tree house with no one there but us. What could be better?" she says.

No longer the domain of knock-kneed 9-year-olds, branches around the world are bowing with spas, honeymoon suites, and safari escapes.

The Bora Bora Lagoon Resort and Spa boasts the only treetop spa in French Polynesia. Offering spa treatments that incorporate local plants, flowers, and fruit, the spa’s leafy home is truly unusual. Stateside, the stunning Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, California, has three triangular tree houses hoisted 9 feet off the ground that are so cozy each room is restricted to two people.

At Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, monkeys are not the only ones swinging from the mahogany branches. The only accommodation in the entire park is the Lake Manyara Tree Lodge a series of 10 stilted lodges suspended above ground. The high-up location makes for some of the best bird watching in all of Africa.

Of course, if your need to escape needs to be fulfilled right this second, you can always pull out a hammer and try building your own backyard abode in the branches.

But that might not be much of a vacation….

Posted on January 09, 2006