Best for: a digital detox
Loire Valley Lodges, France
The Loire Valley might be famous for its Renaissance-era chȃteaux but arguably the accommodation at these 18 stilts-built lodges is more interesting. Opened by a French art-seller in 2020, each lodge has been designed – and sometimes embellished – by an artist or other creative soul. It’s why guests in the Essential lodge-suite may find the walls daubed with lyrics, left there by a French singer (who has also placed her portrait next to the bed). Or that the light in the Moodywood spa lodge is made from twisted Barbie doll legs. Le quirkiness extends to “lyrical hikes” in the nearby forest, a “wish tree” (guests hang their scribbled dreams onto the branches of a centuries-old oak tree) and no wifi in the rooms (it is in the communal area if you really want to reconnect with the world). Loire Valley Lodges attracts urbane Parisian weekenders in great need of a digital detox and, with its Le Labo toiletries (not to mention the joy of having breakfast hampers pulleyed up to the balcony) it’s easy to see why.
Best for: luxury
Chewton Glen, Hampshire
Chewton Glen is a house (a very big house) in the country, sitting on the edge of the New Forest. It’s been here since 1732 but its Treehouse Suites are a much more recent addition. Suspended 35ft above the ground and wedged within a tree canopy, there’s no scrimping on luxury: each suite is equipped with a king-sized bed, marble bathroom, underfloor heating, mood lighting and a terrace hot tub. Even the free-standing baths have commanding forest views. Don’t expect to be foraging around the trees like squirrels for food either: breakfast hampers are delivered every morning through hatches, while Chewton Glen has The Kitchen, overseen by ubiquitous TV chef James Martin. A wonderful escape.
Best for: art lovers
Arctic TreeHouse Hotel, Finland
The sweeping windows at this cluster of treehouse suites located inside the Arctic Circle offer world-beating views of the northern lights and the midnight sun from your (mock)-fur-lined bed. This being Finland, many cabins come with their own sauna, while the design is a winning blend of Scandi sophistication and rustic Lappish charm. It’s all a 20-minute drive from Santa Claus’s official HQ in the Alvar Aalto-designed city of Rovaniemi (the Finnish Modernist architect designed the city like a pair of reindeer antlers, visible from the air), which makes it the perfect place to take the kids for a seasonal treat. The restaurant Rakas is famed for its local produce and “Art Meets Food” concept in which chef Petteri Luoto pairs his dishes with artworks on the walls.
Best for: wow factor
Treehotel, Sweden
Jaw-droppingly brilliant, the pioneer of treehouse living still astounds. Will you stay in the Biosphere – a suspended spherical room coated with wooden birds’ nests? Or is Mirrorcube – a glass box hanging in the trees, which can disappear into the forest like an invisibility cloak thanks to its mirrored walls – more to your liking? Then there’s UFO, a bona fide flying saucer hovering between the trees (guests enter via a ladder like an alien abduction). Treehotel’s eco-credentials are also second to none. If the inventive arboreal architecture wasn’t enough, Treehotel’s location – in the heart of Swedish Lapland – can occupy guests for days, whether it’s ice fishing, kayaking or an intriguing “Meet a moose” VIP tour.
Best for: isolation
Hapuku Lodge, New Zealand
First-time visitors to Hapuku Lodge’s five nest-like boltholes might initially balk at its glass-walled bathrooms. But the reality is its location – on a deer-breeding farm outside the whale-watching haven of Kaikōura on New Zealand’s South Island – means the only creatures likely to see you in dishabille are a few Bambis, dozens of sheep and the odd rappelling tree surgeon. Hapuku Lodge is renowned for its cuisine (dishes include green-lipped mussels and barbecued picanha) while the treehouses – which sit 30ft in the canopy of a kanuka grove – come with huge windows offering panoramic Pacific Ocean views, deep-soaking tubs and wood-burning fireplaces. Careful with all that timber around, now…
Best for: total relaxation
Kanopi House, Jamaica
Everything is irie at gorgeous Kanopi House. At these nest-like treehouse bungalows, it’s difficult not to slip into a rhythm of supping Blue Mountain coffee from your veranda daybeds, luxuriating in outdoors rainfall showers or nabbing another cool Red Stripe from the wet-bar. The bungalows themselves are sublime, camouflaged within a grove of banyan trees and surrounded by magenta ginger lilies and flapping hummingbirds. The local Port Antonio region offers similar go-slow delights, whether diving the Blue Lagoon, Boston Bay (aka the home of jerk cooking), rafting the Rio Grande (just like swashbuckling Errol Flynn did when he lived here in the 1950s) or just shooting the breeze with locals in rum shops.
Lysanne Currie is editor in chief of Meet the Leader. She also writes for Robb Report, Diplomat, Guardian, Influence, Tempus and Investor
