Looking for a fun alternative to a hotel? These 10 spots turn an overnight stay into adventure.
SLEEP IN A TREEHOUSE
Fall City, WA: So. This is what it feels like to be a tree. A branch sways. A bird flaps by. It’s just before sunrise, and I’m cuddled beneath a canopy of green needles and drooping pinecones. If the windowpanes next to my pillow could open, I’d palm the peeling panels of bark.
Instead, I just look: up (through the skylight), around (through walls of windows), and down, at the river rushing 35 feet below. I’m suspended partway up a 300-year-old, 160-foot-tall Sitka spruce, surrounded by a stillness unlike any I’ve ever felt before. I’m one with the forest. And, well, it’s pretty freaking cool.
Julia Butterfly Hill certainly didn’t have it this good: built-in cedar beds, leather reading chairs, handmade quilts. At TreeHouse Point, 10 minutes from Snoqualmie Falls, Pete Nelson has created a two-treehouse utopia, with more under way―plus giant hammocks hung 18 feet high, trails leading to a rocky riverfront beach, and a night sky filled with stars that you feel just a smidge closer to.
Downright cool: The Temple of the Blue Moon is accessed by a swaying bridge that shakes the house when someone walks the planks. From $195, including breakfast. ―Rachel Levin
SLEEP IN AN IGLOO
Telluride, CO: After a day of guided snowshoeing or skiing in the rugged backcountry of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, cozy up in a snow palace hand-built for two.
No, not by you―by Joshua Butson, owner of Telluride Alpinism, who learned to build igloos from a guide who lived with Inuits in Quebec.
Sturdy and windproof, the igloos are a surprisingly toasty 32°, warmed by natural insulation and body heat. From $300 per person, including guide, gear, and three gourmet meals per day; 970/728-4101. ―Jayme Otto
SLEEP IN A HUT ON WHEELS
Mazama WA: Edged by a river, with views of the Cascades, are six glass-and-steel cottages that let you commune with nature, in comfort.
Parked in the Methow Valley, each of the Rolling Huts is just 210 square feet, but picture windows and sunny decks make the mod space feel spacious.
Sorry, you can’t really roll around; the wheels were a nifty design solution, allowing the huts to be built on land zoned for RVs.
Downright cool: The modular living room furniture hides a secret: Separately, they’re a bench, table, and stools; pushed together, they form an extra bed. From $80; two-night minimum; 509/996-4442. ―Jaime Gross
Next: Spherical treehouses and sanitarium sleeping
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