Bangkok Treehouse

Bangkok Treehouse sits inside Bang Kachao, Bangkok's 'green lung', a loop of land formed entirely by a bend in the Chao Phraya River, just south of Bangkok and cut off from road traffic altogether. It's reached only by boat, bicycle or on foot, which has kept it as mangrove forest and fruit orchards. 12 rooms are built on stilts from bamboo and recycled metal, since the land floods with the tide twice a day. Each one rises over three open-sided levels, with a ground-floor bathroom and open-air bamboo shower, an upstairs bedroom, and a rooftop terrace for sleeping out under the stars.

All the outdoor and restaurant lighting runs on solar and wind power, the pool is filtered biologically, and the kitchen buys its coconuts from a neighbour at the island's weekend floating market. The hotel removes a kilo of rubbish from the Chao Phraya for every booking it takes. Complimentary bikes cover the raised paths that wind through the island's mangroves and orchards to century-old Mon temples, or to the market itself on weekends. It's a short ferry ride from a BTS station, but a world away from the chaos of The Big Mango.