Real Estate That Branches Out

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A few years ago, a project in Fife, Scotland, called for a tastefully designed tree house that would appear to grow out of a 500-year-old lightning-struck cedar tree. On top of that challenge, the TreeHouse Co. designers needed to create both a play space for the children as well as an entertaining area for the adults.

They constructed a 45-foot spire with cedar shingles, a copper turret, a side deck, two staircases with multilevel verandas, and a zip slide—all for the enjoyment of the youth. For the parents, they built a deck under the canopy of another nearby tree and adjoined the entire structure with a bridge. As a result, the adults can enjoy their roughly $90,000 investment in the company of friends while keeping a watchful eye on their kids.

FIT FOR A DUCHY.

When the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland laid out plans to create the largest public gardens in all of Europe at Alnwick Castle, they commissioned the TreeHouse Co. to create a gigantic tree house that would be home to a 120-seat restaurant, a retail shop, two classrooms, and two private dining rooms. Opened in January, 2005, the Treehouse at Alnwick Gardens is a labyrinth of turrets, treetop walkways, and cavernous spaces. At 6,000 square feet, it's one of the largest wooden tree houses in the world.

The price? $6 million.

Tree houses aren't just for the home either. People seeking an adventurous Swiss Family Robinson-style getaway without the pricey investment can look for hotels among the branches. In the heart of the Aberdares National Park in Kenya, visitors to the Treetops Hotel pay about $80 per night for rooms built atop stilts and entwined with trees. The hotel is a great pit stop for safaris, as numerous observation lounges and balconies look onto the favorite watering holes of nearby rhinos, elephants, lions, and warthogs.

If you want to see life like the Korowai and Kombai natives of Papua, Indonesia, who live in huts built 80-160 feet off the ground for protection, book a night in the Mount Rainer (Wash.) Cedar Creek Treehouse—a retreat that takes visitors to new heights. Designed and constructed by Bill Compher in 1982, the bed and breakfast is a cabin perched 50 feet off the ground in an enormous redwood tree, and includes double bedroom, fully equipped kitchen, and observation room for $250 a night.

Click here for a slide show of super tree houses.

MacMillan is a reporter at BusinessWeek.com in New York.