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Someone is Building a Treehouse Hotel in the Rainforest and It’s Amazing

By Ann Binlot Sep 18, 2017 3:00 PM

As a child, I always dreamed of living in a treehouse — my own secret hideaway where I could create a world of my own, high up in a tree. Years later, I may finally have the chance.

Ariel Stephenson and Zabrina Shield are combining their hospitality experience (which includes the Ace Shoreditch in London) and their love of nature to bring you the Bíku Treehouse Retreat in the Bocas del Toro province, a small archipelago Panama. The treehouse hotel is still under development and won’t be ready until sometime in the future, but we can get a glimpse at what it will look like now.

Baca Architects treehouse — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Stephenson is from Bocas del Toro and, after observing how modern tourism was affecting the region, he wanted to build a place that reinvests the money into the community and addresses environmental, social, and economic issues. The London-based duo tapped Baca Architects to build the magical treehouse escape.

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Baca found inspiration in cocoa pods and other seed structures found in the Panama rainforests. The main lodge and surrounding treehouses, which will only be reachable by boat, will be constructed from materials like bamboo that are sourced localll; there will be a local design team and local labor as well. Bíku will include deep overhanging for sun protection, cross ventilation, water retrieval, and protection from storms.

The treehouses will feature all the amenities you could want. There will be outdoor showers so you can freshen up in nature, shaded balconies to get respite from the sun, comfortable sleeping areas, and staircases that wrap around the tree trunk. Each treehouse pod will also be accessible by a hanging walkway.

In the mood to swim with the fish or flex your muscles while rowing? The retreat will curate snorkeling and canoeing exhibitions. Other activities, like treetop adventures and chocolate-making, will be on offer too.

If you want to get in on the ground level of Bíku Treehouse Retreat, a fundraising campaign (complete with perks) is scheduled for spring 2018. Simply click here to join the journey and stay updated on developments.

Ann Binlot is a New York-based freelance writer who contributes to publications like The Economist, Wallpaper*, Monocle… Read Full Bio

Canyon de Chelly: A Beautiful Place With a Powerful and Tragic History

Peter Horan

From the rim of Canyon de Chelly, the view is almost impossibly beautiful. Sheer red sandstone walls plunge hundreds of feet toward a green ribbon of cottonwood trees and cultivated fields. Ancient stone dwellings cling to narrow ledges high above the canyon floor. It’s the sort of landscape that makes you reach for your camera before you’ve even begun to understand what you’re looking at.

But Canyon de Chelly is much more than another spectacular Southwestern landscape. People have lived here for nearly 5,000 years, and unlike most of the great archaeological sites of the Southwest, this is still a place where families live, farm, and maintain deep connections to their ancestral homeland. It’s also the setting for one of the most tragic chapters in American history.

I tried FlipSide’s luggage: its clever compartments changed the way I organize my trips

A set of three FlipSide luggage travel bags

Organizing items in your suitcase or backpack should be a one-time thing, but that’s rarely true. Even if you save space by rolling your clothes and arrange your gear in a Tetris-like formation, things seem to explode the second you land at your destination and unzip your bag. Even worse, dirty laundry and souvenirs make you rethink your whole packing strategy, and staying at multiple properties means that you’ll have to do it over and over again. Thankfully, the FlipSide luggage suite tackles this issue—but did it really make packing easier for me?

I’ve spent much of 2026 testing three of the brand’s bags, including the 22-inch Ryan Carry-On, 26-inch Ryan Checked Bag, and the FlipSide Backpack. And I’m delighted to share that in a world of premium bags to choose from, these actually made a difference. This is largely due to one design element that both improved and simplified my packing experience — a zippered divider that let me split each bag into two distinct packing areas.

Aye aye, SIR: Checking in to Copenhagen’s most nautical hotel

admiral hotel copenhagen review da2fb40d 5c11 48d3 aa26 4583c8c7

I spend a good portion of the year in Copenhagen, and I have walked past Admiral Hotel Copenhagen approximately one million times. It’s hard to miss. The hulking timber-and-brick warehouse sits right on the harbor along Toldbodgade, a few minutes from Nyhavn, gazing across the water at the Royal Danish Opera House like it’s been there longer than everyone else (It has).

Every time I passed, I had the same thought: I should stay there. Which is a slightly unhinged thing to think about a hotel in the city where you already have a perfectly good bed. But after the hotel wrapped up a multi-year renovation this summer, my boyfriend and I finally gave in and booked a staycation.