Swiss Family Hotel

When I'm on the road for work I spend a lot of time reading in-flight magazines, travel publications and other various glossy periodicals.  One thing I've noticed that keeps cropping up lately is the idea of tree house hotels.  Perhaps it's the whole green eco-tourism movement that has given rise to the idea of literal tree-hugging, or maybe it's just the next obvious step after ice hotels, under-water hotels, and the likes of Virgin Galactic.  Either way, it's a trend to watch.  You know it's a keeper when a tree house hotel shows up in Vegas or Dubai, New York or Hawaii.  Here's a roundup of the latest.

Costa Rica's Tree House Hotel

Sweden's Tree Hotel which opened in July (shown here under construction)

Sanya Hainan's Nanshan Treehouse Hotel

The Central Treesort in Cave Junction, OR

 The Ariau Towers Hotel in Amazon, Brazil

The Yellow Tree House Restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand (unfortunately they are still waiting for their permit - I guess there's a lot of red tape that goes along with tree dining)

 The tree-top dining pod at Soneva Kiri resort in Thailand.

And Travel & Leisure's article about their top 10 high-end tree house hotels.

Finally, one has to wonder..... leaves as toilet paper? or is that taking it too far?