Get away from it all with a glamping trip
Staycations, privacy and fresh air are keywords in today’s challenged travel scene. Glamping is the way to go if you love the outdoors and if you are willing to give up the niceties of a hotel room like TVs, mini-bars and indoor loos and showers. Comfortable cabins are popping up all around Montreal, offering woodsy lodgings and light adventure.
The choice includes all shapes and sizes of huts, cabins, yurts and tree houses with such rustic conveniences as gas stoves for heating and cooking facilities.
Luxury in glamping is measured differently than luxury in an urban hotel or a country resort. If you want to count your blessings, serenity is a big factor. Figure that you will be in the woods, quite far from your neighbours, and you’ll probably only hear the brush of the wind through the trees. That surely rates five stars for peacefulness.
Here are two exciting glamping developments in the Eastern Townships, an approximately 90-minute drive from Montreal.
Laö Cabines: Laö Cabines de Racine is a domain of six creative lodgings in the Val-St-François region about 40 kilometres north of Magog. Laö Cabines is perched high on a rocky cliff and built atop wooden poles for even more dramatic views of valleys and mountains.
“We are truly lost among the trees and also on a hilltop,” said Marie Courtemanche, who owns the striking new glamping grounds with her partner, Vincent Tognon.
“Our guests are very much on their own, isolated and in total tranquillity, ” Courtemanche said. “We call it nature in comfort.”
Laö has three models of cabins, all single-space studios with queen beds as well as kitchenettes ( but no refrigerator). Some have sofa beds. Cleverly designed by Ubudesign of Granby, the cabins are pine, each with one wall of glass to capture that fabulous vista.
“It’s like living outside, but you are indoors,” Courtemanche said.
The cabins fan out from a Welcome Pavilion, which has Wi-Fi, showers, loos, a hot tub, games and books. There is cellphone service throughout the property. Laö also has four kilometres of trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, and in summer there’s paddle boarding and kayaking on a lake.
Courtemanche can prepare a lunch box with goodies from local suppliers: cheese from Fromagerie la Nouvelle-France, charcuterie from Cochon Tout Rond and a baguette and chocolate from Les Douceurs de Lory. She also recommends visits to such food producers as Boucherie Lamarche and Le Marché Locavore and in summer, the farmer’s stand, Brin d’Ail.
Dining-out options include Bistro le Radis Noir, Brasserie du Lac Brompton and Bistro le Brandy Creek.
Chêne Rouge: La Station du Chêne Rouge is named for the massive oak trees that envelop its large mountaintop glamping domain, outside of the village of North Hatley.
Chêne Rouge is home to 10 eco-inspired lodgings, as well as five summertime camping huts. The year-round getaways include shapes like dome-style pods,
triangular A-frames and square cabins.
You are all set for light cooking, lounging and sleeping with queen or double beds, wood stoves, small equipped kitchens and a table and chairs for two or four.
The toilets and showers are at the Welcome Centre, but there are several waterless toilets on the grounds.
Outdoors, guests can relax on their individual patios around a firepit. There is cellphone service, but no Wi-Fi.
“We want to be in harmony with nature,” said Philippe Florentin, who operates Chêne Rouge with his wife, Hilda. “This is a place where people, flora and fauna can coexist.”
The cabins are situated between 50 and 950 metres from the central pavilion and you can borrow a sled or wheelbarrow to transport your luggage, or pay a fee for baggage service by ATV.
Chêne Rouge has trails for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and winter hiking, so guests can spend their days in the woods or make a break for civilization with a gourmet lunch at Manoir Hovey, the Relais & Châteaux in North Hatley; downhill skiing at Mont Orford, 25 kilometres away; or a visit to Sherbrooke, home of Ström Spa and the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke. rochelle@rochellelash.com