Top Cosy Cabins & Tiny House Stays for Nature Lovers
There’s something about a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Waking to the rustle of trees, slipping straight from bed into a lake, or sitting outside with coffee while the rest of the world feels very far away.
From glass cabins above the Arctic Circle to fishermen’s houses on the edge of the Aegean, these are the tiny houses, treehouses and wonderfully remote hideaways we would happily disappear back to.
There’s a thrilling last-outpost feeling to Manshausen, a tiny island in Norway’s wild Steigen archipelago, high above the Arctic Circle, where award-winning glass-fronted cabins seem to hover between sea and sky.
Created by legendary Norwegian polar explorer Børge Ousland, the adventure begins before you even arrive, with a coastal boat journey to Nordskot followed by a final hop across the water to the island.
Spend your days kayaking between rocky islets, hiking nearby peaks, watching for sea eagles or simply staring out at the ever-changing Arctic light from bed. Then retreat to the sauna and hot tub as the midnight sun or, later in the year, the Northern Lights, puts on the evening show.
Just 45 minutes from Vilnius, DOYOU PLACE feels a world away, hidden among the forests and lakes of rural Lithuania. Created by Justė and Kęstas, this retreat features striking black A-frame cabins, a glass Coffee House, and a sunken sauna, making it a beautifully considered retreat for switching off and slowing down.
Come in spring or summer to swim in the lake and spend long evenings stargazing around the fire pit, before waking to Kęstas’ freshly baked bread and coffee surrounded by trees. It’s the kind of place where there is very little you need to do, and that is precisely the point.
Hidden among seemingly endless olive groves in the hills near Kissamos, in Crete, Cabanon Concrete Retreat is a striking little hideaway of raw concrete, glass and glorious Cretan light, with sweeping views towards the sea. Created by Greek artist Antonis Choudalakis and Swedish art curator Sofia Mavroudis, the two minimalist cabins take their inspiration from Le Corbusier’s Le Cabanon and are made for simple Mediterranean living: cook, dine outside, watch the sun sink beyond the olive trees and listen to almost nothing at all.
Help yourself to seasonal produce from the organic garden and the retreat’s own olive oil, made from the trees surrounding you, then settle in for a night beneath the Milky Way. And while Crete is irresistible in summer, the wood-burning stove, greener landscapes and wild winter skies make this a wonderfully atmospheric retreat almost year-round.
Tucked into Tabitha and Zack’s seven-acre regenerative homestead in the wilds of West Clare, Ireland, this sustainably built Tigín by Common Knowledge feels like a tiny love letter to slower living, with wildflowers, native trees, and huge windows that pull the landscape inside. Climb the ladder to the cosy mezzanine bed for a bird’s-eye view of the cabin below, or head outside to drink wine around the fire pit as the moon rises and the farm settles into silence.
Friendly cats, farm animals and golden retriever Perrin may wander by, yet the cafés of Ennistymon and the surf at Lahinch are only a short drive away. Come for the clever tiny-house design; stay for that delicious feeling of having slipped, briefly, into a quieter way of life.
Hidden deep in the forests of Hakone, these beautifully designed timber treehouses and villas with their own private onsen feel like stepping into another world, especially in autumn, when the surrounding maples turn the forest into a kaleidoscope of gold, amber and crimson.
Soak in steaming hot-spring water beneath the trees, curl up beside the wood-burning stove or wander through the forest for dinner at the wonderfully cool WOODSIDE dining, where seasonal ingredients are cooked over an open wood fire. In the morning, breakfast can be taken at Ryotei Hyoseki, an atmospheric century-old traditional Japanese building tucked among the trees. Part cabin stay, part Japanese ritual, this is the sort of place that makes you want to disappear into the forest and stay there.
At the foot of the Andes in Mendoza’s beautiful Uco Valley, the whitewashed vineyard houses of Finca Rosablanca are made for long, sun-drenched days and an even slower pace of life. Surrounded by vines and huge mountain skies, spend the day cycling between nearby bodegas, cool off in the pool, then dine outside with a bottle of Malbec as the evening light settles over the Andes.
For something unforgettable, saddle up for a horseback ride through this spectacular wine country before returning to the warmth of Rosablanca’s wonderfully welcoming owners. It’s rustic, romantic Argentina at its best - wine, mountains, and the kind of hospitality that makes you feel instantly at home.
Perched five metres above the ground among mature oak and Scots pine, The Birdbox is the childhood treehouse fantasy reimagined for grown-ups, complete with a rope-bridge entrance, cosy mezzanine bed and tiny wood-burning stove. Throw open the doors and eat breakfast on the little wooden deck overlooking the hills towards Glenveagh National Park, or simply curl up by the fire while the Donegal weather rolls past outside.
When adventure calls, there are walks and cycling routes from the doorstep, while the beaches and wild coastline of the Wild Atlantic Way are an easy drive away. Small, playful and wonderfully secluded, it makes you feel as though you’ve found your own secret hideout in the trees.
Just two minutes from the waves in Lahinch, one of Ireland’s great surf towns, Skippy’s Shack is a solar-powered shipping container transformed into an effortlessly cool little hideaway for two. Created by local surfers Dan and Ann Marie (the family behind nearby The Green Room Surf School), its clever, beautifully styled interior packs a king-size bed, kitchen and everything you need for a post-surf retreat into one tiny space.
Spend the day in the Atlantic, then retreat to the sun-catching deck to warm up and slow down. And in the morning, wander around the corner to cult favourite Hugo’s Bakery for sourdough, flaky pastries and a pastel de nata before bringing breakfast back to the shack. Tiny, salty and full of personality, Skippy’s captures everything we love about life on Ireland’s wild west coast.
High in the rural heart of Tinos, beneath the dramatic slopes of Exomvourgo, Blacksmiths at Xinara House is a gloriously quirky Cycladic hideaway filled with art, colour and beautifully unexpected details. Part of an award-winning restoration by designer Peter Marston and artist Susan Marston, the airy former blacksmith’s space pairs whitewashed walls and marble with flea-market treasures, contemporary art and a wonderfully eclectic, lived-in feel.
Spend slow mornings over coffee on the private west-facing terrace, wander through the estate’s gardens and nearby village lanes, then return as the evening light turns the surrounding hills gold. Featured by both Vogue and Condé Nast Traveller, it’s Tinos at its most romantic, bohemian and effortlessly cool.
Tucked into a tiny fishermen’s village on the north coast of Milos, Aqua House remains one of our favourite stays anywhere. A laid-back, boho-Cycladic hideaway built right at the water’s edge, with its own little swimming cove framed by two extraordinary sea arches. Wake with the sunrise and slip straight into the impossibly clear Aegean, wander to the dramatic caves of Papafragas, or make the short drive to pretty Pollonia for dinner by the sea.
When we first stayed, Aqua House stood alone here; today there are three beautifully renovated fishermen’s houses sharing the cove, meaning a little less Robinson Crusoe privacy but far more choice. Still, sit outside with a glass of wine as the sun drops beyond those white volcanic rocks, and it feels wonderfully, blissfully removed from the rest of the world.
Around an hour from Riga, tucked into the forests and meadows of Latvia’s Gauja National Park area, Ziedlejas is the sort of place that seems designed to make you exhale the moment you arrive. Its exquisite glass-fronted cabins gaze out over trees and water, with ingenious interiors where the bed folds away and a Japanese-style table rises magically from the floor, leaving almost nothing to distract from the landscape outside.
The real reason to come, though, is the ancient Latvian pirts ritual: choose between the contemporary Glass Pirts beside the swimming pond, the wonderfully atmospheric Smoke Pirts hidden beneath the trees or the extraordinary spiral-shaped Wool Pirts, and surrender yourself to several hours of steam, fragrant local plants, traditional birch besoms, bathing and deep relaxation. Afterwards, wander the paths through the gardens, take a dip in the pond and retreat to your little glass house for birdsong, stargazing and the kind of profound quiet that makes the outside world feel very far away indeed.
Hidden at the edge of a forest in Latvia’s Saulkrasti region, beside a curling little river and within easy reach of both Lake Pabaži and the Baltic Sea, the two striking 2 Black Cabins are made for wonderfully lazy days in nature. We loved whiling away warm afternoons in the hammocks, swimming in the lake and cooking outside, before heading to the nearby coast for one last dip as the sun went down.
Back at the cabin, light the fire, pour a glass of something cold and settle in beneath a sky full of stars — or add a hot tub, and at Moondust, a forest sauna, to the evening ritual. Simple, peaceful and surrounded by water and trees, this is the kind of place where doing very little somehow fills the entire day.
