High in the mountains outside Boquete, surrounded by misty forests, enormous trees and views toward Volcán Barú, Boquete Tree Trek Mountain Resort is much more than a simple zipline attraction. It is essentially an adventure park, nature reserve, coffee estate and mountain getaway rolled into one. The property sits in the Río Cristal area of the Talamanca mountains, and its activities range from serious adrenaline to surprisingly peaceful experiences involving coffee, tea, honey and birds.
The Canopy Tour
The classic Tree Trek experience is the Canopy Tour, which takes you flying through the cloud forest on a network of 12 cables covering approximately 4.5 kilometres. Instead of simply looking at the forest from a trail, you are suddenly moving through it from above, passing over trees, rivers and waterfalls while the mountains disappear and reappear through the mist. Tree Trek describes the course as passing through centuries old forest and natural waterfalls, with opportunities to see birds, small mammals, orchids and, occasionally, the famous resplendent quetzal.
The entire experience takes roughly 1.5 to 2 hours, and there is a safety briefing before you begin. It is the activity for anyone who thinks that walking through a cloud forest is nice but would be considerably better if someone attached a cable to them and sent them flying through it.
Superman: When Regular Ziplining Isn't Enough
Then there is Superman, for people who look at a normal zipline and think, “That looks a little too relaxing.”
This experience has you flying horizontally above the cloud forest on a high and exceptionally long three cable circuit. Tree Trek currently advertises speeds of up to 116 km/h and distances of up to 1,450 metres on the longest sections. The current tour listing starts around $65 per person.
The Superman is probably the most immediately memorable option for adrenaline seekers because you are not sitting upright like on a conventional zipline. You are essentially turning yourself into a human flying squirrel and travelling through the mountains face first.
The Hanging Bridges
For something considerably calmer, the Hanging Bridges Tour is arguably one of the best ways to appreciate why this part of Panama is so special.
The route combines six natural trails and six hanging bridges over approximately 4.5 kilometres. The bridges range from roughly 70 to 135 metres long and reach heights of up to around 75 metres above the ground. The trails climb through elevations of approximately 1,660 to 1,827 metres. Along the way there are views toward rivers, waterfalls and Volcán Barú.
Unlike the zipline, the bridges give you time to actually look around. This is particularly good for photographers, birdwatchers and anyone who would rather admire the forest than scream through it at highway speeds.
The Kotowa Coffee Tour
Boquete is famous around the world for specialty coffee, and Tree Trek combines adventure with one of the region's most important agricultural traditions through its Kotowa Coffee Tour.
The experience takes place at Finca Río Cristal, around 1,700 metres above sea level, where visitors can learn about coffee cultivation, processing and tasting. The tour is designed to go beyond simply drinking coffee and explain how the beans develop their characteristics and why the highlands of Boquete are so well suited to producing exceptional coffee. The current tour listing starts around $35 per person.
And there is an obvious advantage here: if one person in your group wants adventure while another is obsessed with coffee, nobody has to compromise. You can literally do both at the same mountain property.
The Kotowa Tea Tour
Coffee isn't the only drink getting attention. Tree Trek also offers a Kotowa Tea Tour, exploring the history, cultivation, harvesting and production of tea.
The experience includes tasting different types of tea, making it a much slower and more peaceful alternative to the zipline. The current listing starts at around $35 per person.
It is particularly appealing for visitors who enjoy learning about how local products are made rather than simply buying the finished product in a shop.
La Solera Rum Tasting
Then there is the slightly more adult version of the beverage experience: La Solera Rum Tasting.
The tasting explores Panama's rum production, including characteristics such as distillation, alcohol content, colour, aroma, ageing and quality. The current Tree Trek listing prices the experience from approximately $35 per person.
After several hours of hanging bridges and mountain scenery, sitting down to discuss rum suddenly seems like a perfectly reasonable scientific investigation.
The Bee Tour
One of the more unusual activities is the Bee Tour, which takes visitors into the world of beekeeping and honey production. Guests explore the apiary with experienced guides and learn about different bees, their habitat, care and breeding. The current tour listing starts around $40 per person.
There is something particularly appropriate about having a bee experience in the cloud forest. The forest is full of flowering plants, orchids and other vegetation that supports an enormous variety of pollinators, so the tour provides an interesting look at one of the less obvious pieces of the ecosystem.
There is even a current Sweet Encounter package combining the bee tour with honey tasting.
Birdwatching
For serious nature lovers, Tree Trek also offers a dedicated birdwatching tour through its Río Cristal reserve.
The property says that more than 150 bird species have been recorded in the reserve, including species that are endemic or particularly associated with Panama's highland ecosystems. The tour currently lasts around four hours and starts at approximately $70 per person.
This is a completely different experience from the Superman. Instead of trying to travel as fast as possible through the forest, you are deliberately slowing down and listening for movement in the trees. The cloud forest around Boquete is particularly famous among birdwatchers, and the possibility of encountering a quetzal is one of the big attractions.
You Can Combine Experiences
One of the best things about Tree Trek is that you do not necessarily have to choose between adventure and nature. The current High Altitude Challenge package combines either the Canopy Tour or Superman with lunch, while the Natural Connection package combines the Hanging Bridges with breakfast. There are also packages centred around coffee, tea, rum and honey.
This makes Tree Trek particularly useful for groups with completely different personalities. One person can be thinking about coffee, another about birds, another about hanging 75 metres above the forest and another about travelling through the trees at 116 km/h.
Somehow, everybody can still have the same day out.
More Than an Adventure Park
What makes Boquete Tree Trek interesting is the combination. You are not visiting an amusement park that happens to have trees around it. The activities are built into a genuine highland forest environment, with the Río Cristal reserve, mountain scenery, waterfalls, coffee plantations and biodiversity forming the backdrop.
You can arrive looking for adrenaline and leave talking about birds. You can arrive wanting coffee and end up flying across a mountain. Or you can spend the entire day doing hanging bridges, tasting coffee and wondering why you ever thought a normal sightseeing tour was sufficient.
For a first visit, the ultimate combination is probably the Canopy or Superman in the morning, followed by the Hanging Bridges and a Kotowa coffee experience. That gives you the three things that make the area special: adrenaline, cloud forest and some of the world's most famous coffee.
And that is really the appeal of Tree Trek. It lets you experience Boquete from several completely different perspectives without constantly getting back into a car and driving somewhere else. One minute you are flying through the canopy, the next you are walking quietly beneath it, and later you are sitting down with a cup of coffee grown right there in the mountains.