Hawai‘i
Fern forests growing on fresh lava — the youngest jungle on the planet, and it feels like it.
The Big Island's east side is rainforest growing on land younger than some of the houses on it. Around Volcano, Fern Forest and the Puna coast, tree ferns the size of garages close over one-lane roads, and the stays are genuinely off-grid: catchment water, solar power, and the glow of Kīlauea on the clouds some nights. This is where America's most famous treehouses are.
Maui's jungle runs along the Hana Highway and up the Haiku side — waterfalls, bamboo forest, taro valleys. Staying out there instead of day-tripping the road is the whole move: you get the pools and black-sand beaches at dawn, before the rental cars arrive.
Hawai‘i asks for some adjustment. Lava-zone insurance quirks, coqui frogs at night on the Big Island, rain that arrives sideways and leaves in ten minutes. In exchange you get jungle with American infrastructure, no passport for US travelers, and the only place in this directory where your morning swim might share a bay with sea turtles.
Where Hawai‘i's jungle stays are
The five Hawai‘i stays are on two islands. Three are on the Big Island's rainy east side, in Puna and Volcano: the Dreamy Tropical Tree House in Fern Forest, the Romantic Treehouse in Volcano village and the Adventure Treehouse in Mountain View, about 28 km in a straight line from Hilo's airport (ITO). Two are on Maui's north shore: the Bamboo Temple in Huelo and the Hawaiian Dream Temple in Haiku, which its host puts 30 minutes by car from Kahului airport (OGG).
On the Big Island, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is the neighbour that shapes a stay. The National Park Service puts the park 30 miles southwest of Hilo on Highway 11, about a 45-minute drive, and 95 miles from Kailua-Kona, two to two and a half hours. The park charges an entry fee. That makes Hilo the sensible airport for these three treehouses, with groceries bought in town on the way in, as the Adventure Treehouse's host suggests.
The Maui pair are bamboo houses on the north shore, in Haiku and Huelo. The Hawaiian Dream Temple takes up to six guests and has a pool and a private hot tub; the Big Island treehouses are smaller and simpler, and the Adventure Treehouse runs on solar power. Rates in our records run from about $85 a night at the Adventure Treehouse up to $320 at the Fern Forest tree house.
Our month planner treats Hawai‘i as a year-round destination, with April through October marked prime. On both islands a rental car is a must: the hosts say so, and the bus on the Big Island's main road runs about once an hour.
- National Park Service: Hawai‘i Volcanoes directions: distances and drive times from Hilo and Kona, entry fees, read 15 October 2026
- Adventure Treehouse on Airbnb: host's notes on groceries, buses and access
- Hawaiian Dream Temple on Airbnb: host's drive time from the airport
Volcano rainforest
Photo: Christoph Strässler, CC BY-SA 2.0