Photo by Willy Méndez on Pexels
🇲🇽 Mexico · Jalisco, Western Sierra Madre
♨ Temperature
38°C
⛰ Altitude
1600 m
⚗ pH
7
💧 TDS
0 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
N/A
📅 Established
2010s
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Casa Etérea is a glamping and wellness retreat in the highland pine-oak forests of Jalisco, Mexico, in the Western Sierra Madre mountain range. The retreat offers suspended accommodation structures — treehouses and elevated cabin platforms — positioned in the forest canopy at around 1,600 metres altitude, combined with temazcal (traditional Mesoamerican steam ceremony) sessions, fire circles, and wellness programming that draws on both Mexican indigenous traditions and contemporary holistic practices. The Jalisco highlands are among the most ecologically rich mountain zones in western Mexico, where the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Occidental host extraordinary bird diversity and the cool, mist-shrouded mornings provide a radically different experience from Mexico's coastal resort culture. Temazcal ceremonies at Casa Etérea are conducted in traditional stone-and-adobe sweat lodges using volcanic stones and herbal steam, following the practice established in the same mountain communities for centuries. The retreat has attracted attention for combining authentic indigenous wellness practices with contemporary design and environmental sensitivity.
| Temazcal herbal steam (no mineral water) | 0 mg/L |
The Sierra Occidental of Jalisco encompasses the traditional territory of multiple Indigenous communities including the Wixáritari (Huichol) and Nahuan-speaking groups whose ancestral relationships to these forests extend back thousands of years. Temazcal ceremonies in this region are rooted in pre-Columbian traditions that survived the Spanish colonial period and remain living practice in highland communities today.
The 'floating accommodation' or treehouse glamping format that Casa Etérea pioneered in Jalisco has become influential in Mexican sustainable tourism, combining Indigenous wellness practices with high-design forest architecture. Jalisco is better known internationally for tequila production (the Blue Agave landscape of the Tequila highlands) but the Sierra Occidental highland zone represents a completely different ecological and cultural identity.
The forest structure of the retreat is designed to leave tree root zones undisturbed and uses locally sourced materials. The temazcal operates on traditional wood-fired volcanic stone heating — no electricity required. The pine-oak forest of the Jalisco highlands is part of a biodiversity conservation corridor.