Costa Rica Treehouse Hotel
Costa Rica is a country filled with lush tropical landscapes, extraordinary wildlife, and beautiful sunset beaches. What if you could get up close and personal with some of nature’s rarest wonders on Earth, every minute of your stay?
What if you stayed in a treehouse hotel?
What’s A Treehouse Hotel?
In Costa Rica, treehouse hotels are miniature “houses,” ranging in size from one-room cabins to spacious bungalows, positioned in the treetops of the country’s forest landscapes.
Some treehouse hotels create housing structures, then nestle and secure them to a strong tree’s branches. Others are built from the tree itself, integrating the trunk and branches into the house’s core architecture.
Still others are freestanding; their windows and decks are 30 feet up, bringing guests eye level with the forest canopy while sticking with a manmade foundation.
Treehouse Hotel Features & FAQs
In a thoughtful piece for Travel & Leisure, Patricia Doherty writes, “Built into nature and surrounded by leaves, branches, and the sounds of wildlife, tree house hotels provide an unparalleled connection to nature.”
It’s an alluring vision. Yet, as most people don’t usually live and work in spaces with unparalleled surrounding wildlife, the very concept of “treehouse hotels” brings questions to mind.
What Types of Treehouse Hotels Are There?
Treehouse hotels come in all shapes and sizes. Some emphasize minimalism, sustainability, eco-friendly practices, and guided wildlife tours. Among these, you’ll find bare bones rustic cabins with minimal cell service, and cozy chic communities with hot showers.
Others are premium resorts, blending stunning views with top-of-the-line amenities. Hotel bands like the Ritz-Carlton, synonymous with luxury, have made a splash in the treetop hotel scene in Costa Rica.
Aesthetically, you’ll find romantic, spiritual, and family-friendly treetop hotels.
- Romantic hotels are cozy, intimate spaces, offering couples treetop decks with a magical ambiance and grounds with a firm “no kids” policy.
- Spiritually-oriented hotels cultivate treetop spaces for meditation and soulful retreats.
- Family-friendly hotels offer bigger rooms, easier access points, and kid-oriented services.
How Much Does It Cost To Stay At A Costa Rica Treehouse Hotel?
The nightly cost of a treehouse hotel in Costa Rica ranges widely. A 3-star eco-lodge with basic amenities, sleeping 4, in October, can run around $112 per night.
However, $250 / night is more common. Moreover, luxury treehouses at peak season can run $1,400+ per night!
Time of year, location, amenities, and package deals all affect these hotels’ prices.
“Digital Detox” Stays Vs. Modern, Mainstream Hotels
For the truly adventurous, a “digital detox” spot might speak to you.
These locales have no modern “high tech” amenities: there’s no Wi-Fi, and there’s often limited cell service. The point of a low-tech hotel is to break oneself away from habits like “dopamine scrolling,” and truly immerse oneself in nature.
In contrast, some hotels aim to offer all the amenities of a traditional luxury resort, just a bit higher up from the ground.
If you want to enjoy the internet, order room service, and watch capuchin monkeys squabble from the comfort of a jacuzzi, a modern treehouse resort may be more your style.
Notably, there are digital detox treehouse hotels in Costa Rica available at a range of price points. Many are cheaper than modern hotels, but not all of them.
How Do People Weigh Pros & Cons of Treetop Stays?
Treehouse hotels aren’t for everyone! When weighing the pros and cons of this type of experience, here are a few things to consider.
Pros
- Experience A Place Unlike Anywhere Else
Treehouse hotels let guests experience something truly rare. A canopy view of the world can change your perspective, and for some guests, that experience alone is worth treasuring.
The uniqueness of the experience can also be a source of creative inspiration!
- Get Closer To Nature Than Ever Before
Treehouse hotels put guests inches away from a truly wild landscape.
In Costa Rica, a canopy-level porch becomes a front row seat to a vision of monkeys, macaws, and hundreds more creatures of all stripes. Animals’ dramas play out, with one of Earth’s most vibrant tropical ecosystems as their backdrop.
- Follow Your Sense of Adventure
Treehouse stays can get your heart pumping. Whether you’re traversing a hanging bridge to get to your front door, or preparing foods you foraged over a campfire, a treehouse hotel can be the place to rise to challenges.
- Enjoy Camaraderie With The Wilderness Community
Certain treehouse hotels emphasize their community spirit, cultivating a connection to those whose hearts are with the wilderness. These places are community hubs, and they’re a great way to forge connections you’d never otherwise make.
- Live Your Eco-friendly Values
Even luxury treetop resorts in Costa Rica are committed to environmental sustainability. Close to 100% of all electricity in the country is generated with renewable energy, and most treehouse hotels take eco-friendliness even further.
Partnerships with wildlife conservation organizations, carbon neutralization, and green transport options, treetop stays make living a little greener easy.
Cons
- Access Can Be Challenging (Or Impossible)
By far the biggest drawback of most treetop hotels is accessing the room. Even for a healthy adult, hiking to the location, climbing ladders or stairs, and crossing rope bridges–all while toting luggage–can be a real workout.
Certainly, some treehouse hotels are more accessible than others. But, those offering true wheelchair / stroller access with elevators are few and far between.
Instead, the setup of the vast majority of treehouses makes the ability to climb a steep set of stairs a minimum requirement for entry.
- The Amenities May Be Unappealing
Bathrooms vary in location and quality among treehouse hotels. Having to climb down from the treetop room, then find and unlock the outhouse, isn’t an unusual experience.
Moreover, even those with bathrooms in the treehouse itself can be off-putting to some guests. No matter how sophisticated, the plumbing system will simply be weaker and more compact than what you’ll find on ground level.
- Room Interiors Are Small
The floorplan of a treehouse is limited by the tree it’s built into and the other trees and wildlife it neighbors.
As a result, even luxury resort treehouses aren’t particularly broad. Instead, a house is expanded by adding floors and decks vertically.
- Severe Weather Poses Serious Risks
The stability and watertightness of a treehouse does not match a ground-level building. This means severe weather, like extreme storms or flash floods, poses more of a threat.
If guests find themselves facing unexpected inclement weather in a tree in Costa Rica, they may need to evacuate.
Treehouse Hotel Features Checklist
The best features to seek out in an overnight stay in the treetops depend a bit on what you’re hoping to get out of it.
While there’s no single right answer, this checklist can help you make sure a treehouse offers the amenities you need before you book. Consider your potential stay’s offerings in each category to ensure it’s right for you.
1. Basic Amenities (Food, Bathing & Access)
Features that meet basic day-to-day needs vary widely among treehouse hotels. Indoor showers with hot, running water, kitchens or dining services, and easy access rooms are not guaranteed!
On the “roughing it” side of the scale, plumbing is limited to an outdoor outhouse and water spigot for bathing. The treehouse has no kitchen, and guests are expected to bring their own food.
These treehouse hotels typically require more effort to access. For example, some bare-bones tree inns require guests to climb a rope ladder to enter and exit their rooms.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are, in essence, modern luxe hotel rooms raised to sit among the treetops.
Floor-to-ceiling glass windows offer panoramic views, yet guest comforts are never sacrificed for the treehouse aesthetic. Hot showers, hot tubs, kitchenettes, room service, and elevator access are all at hand.
Between the two extremes, treehouse hotels might offer:
- Access Options. A treehouse might be entered via a spiral staircase wrapping around the trunk, less-steep conventional stairs, or a swinging bridge requiring an uphill hike to reach.
- Varied Plumbing Setups. Treehouse hotel grounds may offer a modern lodge with bathrooms and showers, serving all guests, an in-treehouse half-bath with an outdoor campground-style shower, or a full bathroom in the treehouse.
- Diverse Dining Amenities. Offerings may be in-treehouse kitchenettes, lodges, or associated farms serving hot meals, or campground-style outdoor cooking features (i.e., campfire, grill).
- Electricity. Treehouse hotels can be electric to any of the following degrees.
- Fully wired rooms connected to the power grid, so guests can use appliances and charge laptops
- Moderate electrical service via solar panels or a private generator, letting guests charge phones and flashlights
- Minimal electricity via portable batteries
- Absolutely no electricity at all
2. Privacy Features
When it comes to treehouse hotels in Costa Rica, privacy options vary widely.
Communal, “hostel-style” hotels have dorm-like setups, with up to six adults per room in twin beds or hammocks.
Other hotels offer seclusion, building each treehouse deep in the forest, far from the others. The hotel then rents the treehouse in its entirety to only 1-3 guests at a time.
In between the extremes, look for privacy features like:
- Noise-blocking panels
- Personal sound bubble (PSB) systems in bedrooms
- Secure locks on treehouse doors
- Reasonable distances between private rooms and shared lodges
3. Upgrade Amenities
Beyond basic needs, different treehouse hotels offer a range of amenities to enhance guests’ experiences. Popular “upgrade” amenities include:
- Better Beds. Treehouses often offer unique sleep spots like hammocks, luxury bamboo mattresses covered in silk sheets, or “porch-swing”-style beds.
- Spa Services. Different hotels offer in-room hot tubs, complimentary local Costa Rican scrubs and cleansers, or passes to onsite saunas.
- Kid & Pet Provisions. Certain kid- and pet-friendly treehouse hotels offer curated “kids menu” and pet-appropriate meal options, right-size furnishings like junior beds, complimentary toys, or onsite babysitting / pet-sitting services.
4. Tours & Package Deals
Many treehouse hotels offer package deals bundling the room with transportation, extra services, or activities. The most popular package inclusions are guided wildlife tours, beachside surf/snorkel rentals, or passes to treetop zipline parks.
Transportation inclusions range from airport shuttle service bookending the stay to on-call services throughout.
11 Best Costa Rica Treehouse Hotels, Lodges & Resorts
Which of these superlatives describes your dream (tree)house?
Best Budget Stay: Sloth Treehouse, Tree Houses Hotel, Costa Rica
The Sloth Treehouse is a cozy, rustic space on the Tree Houses Hotel Costa Rica grounds. Tree Houses Hotel Costa Rica offers “80 acres complete with river access and wide paths to hike to take yourself on a little adventure.” It does not offer Wi-Fi.
While the Sloth Treehouse is their smallest, it still comes with housekeeping, room service, onsite spa access, and complimentary breakfast. During the shoulder season, rooms are less than $90 / night.
Most Family Friendly: Maquenque Eco Lodge
Maquenque Eco Lodge offers affordable treetop bungalows, and their suite of amenities and services is perfectly suited to families with kids.
As the hosts explain, “Our hotel is the ideal place for nature lovers who wish to explore their senses,” thanks to their location in the Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge. Crucially, each of their 16 tree houses includes “hot water (through solar panels), a private bathroom, a ceiling fan, closets,” and “[a] balcony with a beautiful view [of] a natural lagoon and the tropical forest.”
Visitors can explore the property’s 68 acres of rainforest on their own, or they can sign up for guided tours.
Most Romantic (Adults Only): Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel
This treehouse hotel in Monteverde earns glowing 5-star reviews for romance.
Guests praise the secluded spacing of the rooms, which each offer wonderous views of the ocean beyond the mountains–and not the other tree houses.
Reviewers also rave about the attentive hosts (particularly their wonderful baked-fresh-daily breakfasts and tea), “palatial” amenities (like king-size beds, rainfall showers, and 2-seat Jacuzzis), knowledgeable guides, and the hummingbird garden.
Best Rainforest Immersion: Lapa’s Nest Tree House
Lapa’s Nest puts guests right in the heart of things. The house and its spiral staircase hug the trunk of a 150-foot Guanacaste tree. There’s no barrier between people and nature here. Visitors can reach out and touch the leaves of the canopy without leaving their beds.
Best Luxury Resort Treehouse: Rancho Pacifico
For the absolute best of the best, stay at Rancho Pacifico. The 5-star treehouse hotel offers unparalleled, personalized service and top-tier amenities. Here’s how the hosts describe what Rancho Pacifico offers:
“Live a childhood dream with every comfort you have come to expect in adulthood when you stay in a Rancho Pacifico Treehouse. The treehouses offer almost 1,000 square feet (100 square meters) of space and light in the canopy of one of the most pristine rainforests in Costa Rica. The indoors and outdoors are seamlessly blended with large windows, bathrooms that give you a full feeling of cleansing in nature, and vast decks with sweeping rainforest and ocean views.
Each of our treehouses comes with the highest level of amenities that feature predominantly wood in a palette inspired by the local rainforest including king beds, an outdoor soaking tub, custom art, hanging loveseats, comfortable couches, a desk, air conditioning, automated blinds, and organic bath products locally made in Costa Rica.”
For luxury accommodations with character, they’re hard to beat.
Coziest Tree Stay: Topos Tree House
Topos Treehouse is a truly enchanting stay in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Unlike the other places on this list, the Topos Treehouse is built right into the heart of the tree. Guests literally sleep surrounded by the trunk of a giant sharinga tree!
The cozy spot is safe and inviting, and guests are often visited by curious sloths.
Most Adventurous Treehouse Hotel: Finca Bellevista Treehouse Community
Located in the Southern Zone of Costa Rica, the Finca Bellevista Treehouse Community offers hosted stays in truly rugged–and wonderous–environs. As the hosts explain,” this private community and rainforest reserve is the most unique neighborhood in the world.” In these treehouses, “The pulse of unfiltered life present defines sensory overload, and provides a daily existence immersed and in tune with nature.”
Canopy-level cabins are secluded, with many over a 30-minute walk from the camp’s base. The treehouses offer hot showers and, often, kitchens, all completely solar powered.
Friendliest Treehouse Space: Tree Houses Hotel Costa Rica
Tree Houses Hotel Costa Rica–home of the budget-friendly Sloth Treehouse–has well-earned its reputation as a warm, amiable stay. It’s a great option for anyone visiting the Arenal Volcano, as it’s conveniently located in Santa Clara.
Guests are charmed by the hosts’ daily home-cooked rancho breakfasts, and they praise the lively guided hikes.
The treehouses may be rustic, but each offers privacy, comfortable air conditioning, refrigerators, hot water showers, and large decks with spectacular views.
Best Treehouse Hotel With An Elevator: Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve
Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, may be the only treehouse resort with an elevator. In a review of the hotel upon its grand opening, travel writer Maya Kachroo-Levine calls “taking the glass elevator down to the beach club” one of Nekajui’s “true charms.”
Other features she highlights include:
- The “largest hydrotherapy pool in Central America,” within Nekajui’s enormous, 27,000 sq ft. spa.
- An 18-hole, Arnold Palmer Signature golf course
- On-site surf instructors and an aerial adventure park
- Culinary offerings centered on “fresh, hyper-local ingredients”
- A tented tree house bar with clear, unobstructed views of the pristine seascape
The main drawback? Nekajui’s got a lot going for it, and the price reflects that.
Best Treehouse Hotel For Large Groups & Parties: ArtVillas
ArtVillas are here to play.
Near Uvita, Costa Rica, the creative villas rest on elevated platforms at the canopy level of the forest. Each has a “biophilic” shape, inspired by the jungle’s bulbous flowers and coiling jeweled snakes.
In an interview with Filip Žák, the owner of ArtVillas, travel writer Paul Brady sets the scene: “A five-bedroom that’s ideal for today’s multigenerational groups is the property’s crown jewel, and comes with a private pool.” Further out, “affordable glamping pods cluster around an open-air lounge.”
The venue’s design creates a whimsical atmosphere. A “slide, wooden walkways, and a mid-canopy trampoline are among the playful design elements.”
Žák elaborates: “We create unique experiences where our guests can expand, evolve, and reconnect with their pure self.”
Best Themed Tree Houses: Costa Rica Tree House
Want to stay someplace even more offbeat than a treehouse? In Punta Uva, just south of Puerto Viejo, there’s an oceanfront property offering six creatively themed houses with prime beachfront access: Costa Rica Tree House.
Cross a sloped suspension bridge to enjoy the Rainforest Tree House, built around a 100-year-old Sangrillo tree. Experience the kaleidoscopic magic of the Crystal House (including a flame-heated hot tub). Or, spend the night in The Bus: an old school bus repurposed into the bedrooms of a stunning, breezy space.
All houses offer both basic and unique amenities, including a mini golf course, a barbecue pit, air conditioning, kitchen space, and Wi-Fi.
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