Tree Hotel In Sweden Brings Tourists In Harmony With Nature (VIDEO)

A new idea in hospitality and tourism is taking shape in the remote wilderness of Harads, Sweden. Treehotel offers guests a unique experience: accommodations in one-of-a-kind tree-house rooms, designed to exist in harmony with the pristine natural environment around them.

In this video, Reuters' Matt Cowan takes a look at Treehotel's first four available rooms, though the long-term goal is to have 24 entirely distinct rooms available within the next 5 years.

The Mirrorcube is one of the first available options. Like the name implies, it is a large cube room with an outer surface that is entirely composed of reflective material, encompassing a single tree that runs through the middle. Treehotel owner Kent Lindvall describes that the concept behind the room is to make it appear nearly invisible in the forest. To avoid any harm to wildlife, the mirrored walls will be fitted with an infrared film visible only to birds.

According to Treehotel's website, part of their philosophy is "that we find another way to value the forest, rather than to cut the trees for industrial use." The hotel will host silent nature walks as a recreational activity, as opposed to destructive snowmobile safaris which many other hotels in the area offer. "This is untouched forest and we want to maintain it the same way," says Annette Selberg, Treehotel's sales manager.

WATCH a hotel in the trees:

Comments

[Tony Thornton]

08:02 PM on 08/02/2010

why do other countries have really cool fresh things that arent here? All we have is lame old stuff and crumbling infrastructure. Then our politicians and the right criticize these places like they are inferior to us.

[kareemachan]

09:47 AM on 08/03/2010

http://www.visitparksvillequalicumbeach.com/cms/wpimages/wpID78imgID36Mid.jpg

These treehouses are amazingly cool, and in one of my favorite places on earth: Vancouver Island.

[vtopa]

03:14 PM on 07/28/2010

Them Swedes are cool. Look at that thing. Cool.

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[Tony Thornton]

08:03 PM on 08/02/2010

I'd rather have the Onion in the front row

[kernel lib]

02:15 PM on 07/28/2010

just like the venitian in vegas right ?
no ?
well i'll take my chances
my tree house days are loooong gone .

[Roses]

12:33 PM on 07/28/2010

You don't have to go to Europe for tree house hotels.
There are tree house hotels in Washington state and in Oregon.

[commonsense333]

12:10 PM on 07/28/2010

"To avoid any harm to wildlife, the mirrored walls will be fitted with an infrared film visible only to birds" So there shouldn't be any poor birdies hitting the walls.

[bootpdx]

11:59 AM on 07/28/2010

I wonder where they stash all the dead birds that hit the mirrors?

[commonsense333]

12:10 PM on 07/28/2010

"To avoid any harm to wildlife, the mirrored walls will be fitted with an infrared film visible only to birds" So there shouldn't be any poor birdies hitting the walls. (Sorry, meant to reply to this thread, not post a new one lol )

[AmbleResorts]

11:55 AM on 07/28/2010

The Resort at Isla Palenque is constructing Canopy Homes inspired by tree-houses on an island in Panama's Gulf of Chiriqui. We aren't using the Mirrorcube, we are incorporating the homes into their natural settings by suspending the homes above the jungle floor. We recently blogged about the Tree Hotel: http://islapalenque.com/blog/2010/03/getting-back-to-our-roots/

[harmonyus]

10:50 AM on 07/28/2010

Me thinks they be trying to fool us.......Even in this picture the cube looks like a cube that does not belong on a tree. It reflects the sky. Who wants to see blue cubes in the middle of a forest. dumbest idea. I like flygrande's tent idea.

[devildog21]

10:44 AM on 07/28/2010

Interesting concept, but I do wonder how much impact these will actually have on the environment. Especially the "Cube". I can't imagine that attaching it to that tree is going to do anything but harm the tree eventually.

[satanlite]

02:04 PM on 07/28/2010

Trees are pretty tough.

[tlaloc1]

10:17 AM on 07/28/2010

really? maybe they can grind up all the dead birds killed by the mirror cube and turn them into fertilizer.... an eco-friendly solution don't you think?

[Flygande Jakob]

10:03 AM on 07/28/2010

This is pretty cool, except hello, it's still disturbing the natural environment. How about a tent and some tree-climbing instead?