Sweden’s Treehotel: This hotel is redefining luxury escapes with bird nests, mirrored cubes and UFOs
To travel — and to do so well — is to move away from the mundane and experience a sense of respite from reality.
And there are few places in the world that not only make such a powerful play for this, but do so via almost immediate transformation.
After checking in at Treehotel’s historic Swedish guest house, you’re instructed to walk along a 500m path through a stacked forest of dense birch trees. It may only be a seven-minute stroll, but it acts as a portal — one transporting you from the banal realities of wi-fi passwords, check-out times and, well, reality, to a truly unique and whimsical world enveloped by nature, escapism and a tangible sense of wonder.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Waiting in the Swedish Lapland forest, hidden among a parade of towering pines, sit eight elevated “treerooms” — each the unique vision of an acclaimed Scandinavian architect, which range in design from bird’s nest, to UFO to a sharply squared mirrored cube.
ROAM landed in the latest build — Biosphere. Designed by Danish “starchitect” Bjarke Ingels Group, BIG, and accessed via a 23m-long bridge, the two-storey suspended glass cube is covered in 340 birdhouses — a feature intended to immerse guests in the forest soundscape.
Inside, you’ll find many of the trappings you’d expect in a high-end hotel room (minibar, tablet, De’Longhi coffee machine) and many you wouldn’t (incinerating toilet, energy-saving eco-shower and a sauna).
On the entry level is a compact, ink-black lounge with striking metal seat suspended over a glass floor. A steep ladder leads to a mezzanine sleeping loft from where another ladder magically descends from the ceiling to provide access to an intimate roof terrace.
Sleeping in Biosphere is both comically impractical (there are no blinds, no bedside lights and navigating the ladder at night is potentially fatal) but also wondrously enchanting. How often do you wake up in a giant transparent birdhouse suspended in a forest?
Activities here range from kayaking on nearby Lule River and hiking and swimming in summer to snowshoeing, snowmobiling and ice fishing in winter. The guesthouse serves fabulous hyper-seasonal local produce (think reindeer tartare with blueberry wine) and there’s even a forest spa with a limb-melting sauna and jacuzzi.
Yes, Treehotel truly offers what all the best travel experiences do — a powerful pause on reality.
STAY
Treehotel is located in the Swedish village of Harads — 90km north-west of Lulea Airport, a regional outpost to the north-east of the country, and a 1 hour 20-minute flight, or 14 hours night train, from Stockholm. Rates start about $880 for two people and include breakfast.
KNOW
Beyond the Bjarke Ingels’ Biosphere, rooms have been created by Tham + Videgård Arkitekter (the Mirrorcube), Snøhetta (the 7th Room), Rintala Eggertsson Architects (the Dragonfly) and Cyrén & Cyrén (the Cabin), among others.
