Now, here’s a good story and a lesson in basing your travel plans on proper in-depth research rather than inspirational pictures on Instagram and Pinterest.
While social media can be a powerful and useful tool to dreaming up your next getaway, travelling by hashtag can also take you down the road to disaster. Or less disaster. More aggravation.
Who’d have thought!
But seriously, here’s why.
You see this treehouse? No doubt you have. At last check this beauty has been pinned over a million times by cabin-lovers the world over.
And why wouldn’t they? Behold it in all it’s whimsical rustic glory. How could anyone resist it, least of all us?
From all the way in Australia we coveted this place. It sat pride of place in our ‘Canada Road Trip’ Pinterest Board. It was one of the things we absolutely HAD to do while in British Columbia.
We would stare at it, sigh, then fancifully muse about how we’d ask the owners for permission to go inside and if they’d mind if we could stay the night, living out our Swiss Family Robinson fantasies with only our sleeping bags and iPhone torches for light.
This was our mission. Built it up a little? Nah, not at all.
We only had a rough guide on where it was and as we happily drove along the Trans Canada Highway in British Columbia we felt little tingles of anticipation that we get sometimes when we know we’re going to get a really great shot.
But while we did indeed get A shot, it turns out our dream treehouse was just like most internet relationships. Beautiful online but in reality something completely different.
Y’see, the reason this fairytale hideaway looks so magical is because it’s in a theme park.
As in a theme park for 6-year olds.
We’d flown 13 hours from Sydney to LA and spent 3 months winding our way up the western coast of the US to finally reach the Canadian border, crossed over into British Columbia and drove our rickety 1970s GMC camper all the way to Revelstoke to reach… The Enchanted Forest***
You can read more about it here but essentially it’s 30 acres of folk story figurines and moss-covered cubby houses set amongst giant tree roots and boulders. They even have a picturesque pond for romantic row boat trips.
Charming it was. Allowed to sleep in it we weren’t.
In hindsight it all seems incredibly obvious. “What? The red oversized toadstools didn’t give it away, Meghan?” No. They did not.
Canadian readers, we can see you sniggering from here. To all our fellow cabin, shack and treehouse lovers we’re sorry to break it to you but this one isn’t real.
And for the record we did get to go inside and our inner 6-year-olds were very impressed.
*** Stopping at a few iconic spots along the way.
