Stylist’s editor-in-chief Lisa Smosarski discovers a British treehouse like no other – complete with rhinos, tigers and giraffes

There are many things I expect of a night in a luxury treehouse in the English countryside – stroking a rhino, hand-feeding tigers and taking a night safari in a golf buggy weren’t high on that list. However, Port Lympne Reserve, near Ashford in Kent, is cheerfully pushing the boundaries of the mini-break.

Fast becoming Stylist’s resident treehouse correspondent, I’ve become quite the expert in sleeping in swaying trees in all weathers, but Port Lympne’s Treehouse Hotel is not your traditional treehouse. This ingenious new property, on the periphery of a wildlife park, is actually a family of eight stylishly designed suites positioned at treetop height – trees recently vacated by a family of snow leopards, incidentally. The two-bed apartments are as comfortable as a luxury city flat, but with a wall of windows and wooden terrace overlooking the rhinos on the ‘savannah’.

Escape Routes: Go on an African safari adventure in, er, Kent