Ever come across an incredible hotel that stops you mid-scroll and makes you think, Wow, wouldn’t it be something to stay there? We do, too—all the time. Welcome to Friday Fantasy, where we highlight amazing hotels, lodges, cabins, tents, campsites, and other places perched in perfect outdoor settings. Read on for the intel you need to book an upcoming adventure here. Or at least dream about it.
Why My Family and I Love the Suitree Experience Hotel
It was my 13-year-old son who first became obsessed with the idea of staying at a treehouse in Costa Rica. So, when I found online, I quickly called him over. We stared, mesmerized, at the website’s drone footage of the treehouses’ disc-like rooftops set in a verdant rainforest on a hillside amid the clouds.
These aren’t your typical treehouses. Suitree’s four individual podlike dwellings are propped up on 30-foot-high steel stilts to better survey the scenery, with winding staircases leading to 110-square-foot “rooms.” Additionally, two ground-level bungalows can accommodate two, while their elevated counterparts can sleep up to four. On-site common areas include a lookout platform (offering views of the surrounding tree-covered hills), four pools (one with a swim-up bar), and an open-air restaurant.
Suitree opened in 2018 in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, just six miles from the closest Pacific beach. Its Italian owner enlisted an architecture firm in the capital city of San José for help in developing his idea: an immersive, canopied modern treehouse. (A note from the firm: Not a single tree was harmed in the making of this hotel.)
Fairly unfamiliar with Costa Rica, I asked a friend who lives in the province about Suitree and Sardinal, the closest town. “It’s where?” He balked. “There’s nothing out there.”
I booked it for a night anyway. Although Sardinal is roughly eight miles from Playa Hermosa, winding dirt roads make travel slow—and confusing. Apple Maps suggested we drive through a private horse pasture. Fortunately, we found another way without trespassing.
“That’s part of the experience,” says Nidia Bravo, a Costa Rican travel specialist who represents Suitree. While the property provides transfers from Liberia Guanacaste Airport, roughly 45 minutes away, guests with their own vehicle can make an adventure of their time here, just as we opted to.
We spent the morning playing in the ocean and trekking the trails in the shorefront town of Las Catalinas before heading toward Suitree. En route, we pulled off to enjoy a zip-lining adventure and monkey sanctuary. Had we foregone these detours, our drive from the coast would’ve taken about 30 minutes.
Upon our arrival, a golf cart transported us and our luggage up a steep, narrow cobblestone path to the base of our magical treehouse, which struck me as a modern Ewok village. At ground level was a private swing sofa. Our winding staircase led to what seemed like a trap door in the center of the elevated pod. Once through the hatch, we stepped into a gorgeous teak interior. There was a king-size bed, a bunk-bed nook, a writing desk, and a seemingly hidden—but spacious—bathroom. Nearly the entire space was encased by floor-to-ceiling windows.
We made the most of our wraparound deck, which afforded 360-degree views of the valley, mountains, and treetops. I did my there. And one of us was usually perched on the deck with the room’s pair of high-powered binoculars, scanning the surrounding canopy in search of wildlife. I could’ve stared out at the surrounding hills, listening to birdcalls and monkey howls for hours, but we had four bright blue pools to explore before dinner.
ϳԹ Intel
While Guanacaste is known for surfing—its 400-mile Gold Coast is home to popular beach breaks like Tamarindo and Playa Grande—the interior is where you’ll find monkeys and sloths and birds (oh my!).
For an additional fee, Suitree staff will book all sorts of guided tours, from a horseback ride through a savannah, to a rainforest hike at the base of the Arenal volcano, to an all-day excursion of the colonial city of Grenada, Nicaragua, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Suitree. If we’d had more time, I would’ve loved to try one of the many self-guided adventures available, including mountain biking and e-biking, hiking, and buggy rides into the jungle.
Destinations Newsletter
Looking for more great travel intel?Instead, we floated in Suitree’s connected stone pools (at one point next to a resident iguana) and walked among hundreds of white and yellow butterflies. We laid out on the netting at the lookout while listening to the screeches of howler monkeys, and peered through binoculars in search of them and the other area residents: white-faced capuchin and squirrel monkeys, sloths, , , and 948 species of birds, many of them wonderfully colorful.
Various butterflies wing from bush to bush at Suitree Experience. Costa Rica is home to 1,500-plus butterfly species, and the rainier months between May and November are when more tend to be spotted. (Video: Courtesy Lisa Jhung)
My husband rose early and spotted red and blue tanagers in the adjacent tree canopy, along with an iridescent purple and green fellow that he identified as a spectacular motmot. Over coffee, I spent a solid 20 minutes staring through the binoculars at a brown spot on a faraway hillside to see if it moved—I was desperate to see a sloth. While I’ll never know if I accomplished my mission that morning, I did see a variety of birds and fell in love with the fluttering butterflies who hovered so close that they seemed to be wanting to tell me something.
Each night, bright stars speckled the sky. I regret heading straight to bed instead of out on the deck to stargaze, but fell asleep happily to the jungle’s nocturnal noises.
Choice Treehouse
While the hotel accommodates various wants and needs, including a wheelchair-friendly bungalow, its four treehouses are the main attractions. Do you choose the one with a private jacuzzi? Or the one that overlooks the stone pools? Or the one with a newly installed private pool?
We picked the one with the pool view. (The treehouse with its own pool was completed after our stay, and, because I’m obsessed with water, that’s where we would have wound up.)
Eat and Drink
With no restaurants within easy walking distance, guests will inevitably gather for a meal at Suitree’s on-site restaurant, Taru. Its menu features fresh, locally sourced ingredients and dishes inspired by regional traditions.
We started dinner with fresh guacamole prepared tableside, followed by our entrees: a mahi-mahi with seasonal vegetables for my husband and myself, and osso buco with spaghetti al bronzo (a tomato jus) for the boys.
Breakfast is included with your stay, and my sons and I were thrilled when the friendly staff offered to serve us at the swim-up bar. (My husband, less obsessed with water, dined at a regular table.) We swam over to stone stools submerged in cool water and my sons ordered pancakes, while I indulged in incredibly fresh fruit, yogurt, and honey foam.
When to Go
Suitree closes for renovations each October, toward the end of the rainy, less-touristed months (typically May through November). Rain can make outdoor activities more challenging and travel along this area’s numerous dirt roads difficult, but it also keeps this country green and doesn’t often last all day, every day.
The dry season is December through April, when prices are highest and temperatures hottest.
We visited in June and experienced torrential rains for less than 3 days of our 12-day trip, mostly at night. High temperatures were in the eighties, with more than 80 percent humidity.
How to Get There
San José International Airport is a four-hour drive from Suitree, but the closer option is the region’s Liberia airport. The hotel offers luxury transport to and from Liberia for $120 each way for up to four people. Alternatively, you can book a shuttle or a taxi.
Don’t Miss
There’s zip lining in Costa Rica, and then there’s extreme zip lining in Costa Rica. Sign up for the latter. My family and I had our extreme experience at in Artola, less than 30 minutes from Suitree, halfway to the Pacific coast (from $45). We also tacked on a walk through its monkey sanctuary (from $54).
Strapped into a full-body harness, each of us in a completely horizontal, prone position, we whirred through the jungle canopy on five different zip lines, the longest of which was a quarter-mile. I stretched my arms out to enhance the feeling of flying above the gorgeous landscape.
Details
Price: From $294
Address: Guanacaste, Sardinal de Carrillo
Obandito, 50503, Costa Rica
To Book:
Raised near the coast of San Diego, but living a mountain life in Boulder, Colorado, Lisa Jhung finds every excuse to travel to a beach. That said, she found herself drawn to Costa Rica’s interior on this trip, wowed by its jungles, wildlife, and adventures. Jhung’s most recent articles for ϳԹ Online include a story on ways to make a family ski trips easier and the best winter running shoes.