My daughter, Nora, spotted the treehouse from across the field. We were camping on California\u2019s Sonoma Coast and the treehouse, a weathered wooden platform about the size of a two-person tent, sat perched in a giant oak not far from our campsite. \u201cTreehouse!\u201d she exclaimed, as she sprinted toward it. Within minutes, my rambunctious almost-3-year-old was climbing the rickety wooden ladder as I watched nervously from below. From the top of her new tree-dwelling castle, she announced, \u201cI want a treehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, a week later, my husband strung a rope between two pine trees in our backyard, then attached a bright orange, kid-sized tent that hovered a couple of feet off the ground. Instant treehouse. No hammer and nails. No splintering wood. No shaky ladders. Nora loved it, and she now spends a good stretch of each day bouncing, reading, snacking and lounging in her new fortress. Once, I thought she might even take a nap in there.<\/p>\n
What is this mysterious treehouse that pops up in minutes? It\u2019s called a TreePod, a small, teardrop-shaped tent made from sturdy, water-resistant nylon that hangs from a strong tree branch. It has a zip-up doorway to create a cocoon-like effect and two mesh-lined windows for peeking out at the world. It costs $300 and can be assembled in less than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
The TreePod is just one example of a new and growing market of so-called suspension tents\u2014hanging, above-the-ground shelters like hammocks, car-rooftop-tents and tree tents. The coolest part? Campers around the country are discovering that these airborne tents aren\u2019t just for novelty or fun. They also have a genuine purpose and surprising benefits over standard, down-in-the-dirt tents.<\/p>\n
These creative, pop-up tents are more than just fun-looking\u2014they also solve common\u00a0camping dilemmas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The TreePod is the invention of a guy named Ricardo Bottome, who has four daughters and wanted to find an easier to way to give his kids a backyard treehouse. He launched\u00a0TreePodvia Kickstarter in late 2015. The idea has taken off: His company has doubled its sales in the last year and a half.<\/p>\n
Bottome\u2019s initial idea was to create a play structure, not so much a camping tent, but as soon as TreePod launched he started getting feedback from customers who asked, \u201cWhen are you going to make a hanging tent big enough for adults to sleep in?\u201d<\/p>\n
So in spring 2018, TreePod will debut its first TreePod Camper, which will sleep two adults in a tent that hangs from a tree or attaches to a car hitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis elevates your camping,\u201d Bottome said. \u201cIt gives you a level surface to sleep on, so you don\u2019t have to worry about water, rocks, bugs or uneven surfaces.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Above-the-ground tents\u2014treehouse tents, rooftop tents and tricked-out hammocks\u2014may be camping\u2019s latest trend, but they\u2019re also practical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campsites","category-reviews","tag-campsites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hero-posts.omnicom-dev.com\/main-demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}