IF the eco-friendly idea of falling asleep under the stars and roasting marshmallows around a campfire appeals to you, but the reality of pitching a tent and sleeping on bumpy ground does not, glamping, the new term being used for upscale — or glamorous — camping, could be your ideal green vacation.
Though dismissed by hard-core leave-no-trace campers (who don’t so much as move a rock for fear of affecting the area), glamping can still be an environmentally sound outdoor experience, even if it does include creature comforts (like not having too many creatures inside your tent). And though it is a relatively new trend in the United States and Europe, with its origins harking back to Africa and even Thailand, glamping sites are starting to pop up everywhere, with prepitched tents, tepees and yurts rising out of the landscape like sailboats on an ocean.
“Think of it like the hip hotels of camping,” said Jonathan Knight, the author of “Cool Camping,” a 2006 book that rated campsites in England by their amenities, locations and facilities, and quickly became so popular (selling second only to the “Good Pub Guide”) that there are now editions on Wales, Scotland and France, with planned guides on Europe and Kids (www.coolcamping.com). “I wanted to correct the misconception that camping is still about leaking tents,” Mr. Knight said.
Guests of Elizabeth Tom and Alan Berry at Cornish Tipi Holidays (www.cornishtipiholidays.co.uk) need bring only their food, a towel and bedding from home, since everything else is provided in their 40 cotton-canvas tepees — from lanterns and Turkish rugs to a camp stove, kitchen utensils and a cooler. “We are not about giving people a trowel to dig a latrine and a compass to survive,” said Ms. Tom, who with her husband runs the 16-acre campsite based in Cornwall, England.
“We want our guests to experience traditional camping like in the 30s, 40s and 50s, but in an accessible way,” she said. To that end, she and her husband have a stocked spring lake where campers can fish for rainbow trout and then cook it on a skillet over a fire pit.
The camp has no electricity, no cellphone coverage and no Wi-Fi. It does have solar panels for hot showers, low-volume lavatories (one composting toilet) and a wind generator. The tepees come in three sizes, the largest fitting up to eight people. Prices start at £275, about $488, at $1.82 to the pound, for two nights for a medium tent that sleeps two to three people.
At Mille Étoiles, a campsite with 14 yurts in the Rhône-Alpes region of France overlooking the dramatic Ardèche River gorge, the tents are built on oak and ash platforms and furnished (four-poster beds, oriental rugs, antiques) so guests feel, said Lodewijk van den Belt, one of the owners, “like you are in an Edwardian safari tent.”
Mr. van den Belt and his wife, Ruth Lawson, avid campers, founded Canvas Chic (www.canvaschic.com, though the Web site is being revised) in 2006, looking for a change from their hectic existences in London. “We loved the idea of a barefoot luxury project,” Mr. van den Belt said of their campsite. Paths are lighted with solar-powered lanterns and candles, rainwater is collected and reused, recycling is standard, and the food served in the small restaurant (there are four communal cooking tents with equipment provided) is organically grown. A minimum three-night stay starts at £255.
On the California coast an hour south of San Francisco is Costanoa (www.costanoa.com), a lodge and camp surrounded by 30,000 acres of state parks and wildlife preserves, visitors would be hard-pressed to call their 76 tented bungalows “tents.” They are like stand-alone rooms with canvas walls and ceilings, hardwood floors and made-up beds with heated mattress pads (“So we can save energy by keeping the bungalow’s heat lower,” said Trevor Bridge, Costanoa’s general manager.)
While guests can choose to stay in the lodge or in a cabin, Mr. Bridge says the bungalows are sold out every summer and are popular even through the autumn (there are three comfort stations with bathrooms and showers). Campers can cook their own food on grilling stations throughout the campsite (picnic food and coal are available at the general store), or eat meals at the restaurant. There are an outdoor hot tub and a 24-hour dry sauna and spa. Weekend rates for a tented bungalow that can sleep three starts at $115.
To get the ultimate glamping experience, consider a visit to either the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort (
www.wildretreat.com) on Vancouver Island in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve in British Columbia, or the Resort at Paws Up (www.pawsup.com) in Montana. Both have elegantly furnished tents, which could lure even the most squeamish camper, but the resort is also dedicated to respecting the environment.
At Clayoquot, which calls itself a Super Natural Adventure, tents are connected by cedar boardwalks and have remote-controlled propane fireplaces, composting toilets, oil lamps and even antique dressers. There are also a games tent, a library tent, dining tents, lounge tents and a spa tent, if your muscles hurt after a day of fishing for coho salmon.
Clayoquot also has a comprehensive recycling program, organic gardens, gravity-fed turbines that generate fuel-less electricity and hot water, a waste composting system, and a policy of nonintrusive, conservancy-driven marine and land adventures for guests — including a five-year plan to restore 6.4 kilometers (about four miles) of critical salmon-spawning habitats. The minimum stay is three nights for 4,750 Canadian dollars a person ($4,474, at 1.09 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar).
At Paws Up, a ranch resort with horseback riding, mountain biking and fly-fishing, among other activities, campers can pass up the cabins and stay in Tent City or in one of the newly built tents at River Camp on the Blackfoot River, complete with king-sized beds and art on the walls, a personal butler and private master bath (though it is a short walk away). Rates start at $695 per night for two but include three meals a day.
“We call it nature on a silver plate,” Terre Short, Paws Up’s general manager, said. “I think glamping has really hit its stride this summer as the ultimate connect with nature.”
New York Times
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