CAMPING IN LUXURY
Sites offering glamping, a luxury camping hybrid, spread around the world
‘Glamping’ is going mainstream as hotels and tourism services offer low maintenance access to nature,
Camping in the wild with all the comforts of a deluxe hotel, including real beds, plush furnishings and attending stewards, has been around since 19th-century African wildlife safaris. Now known as glamping — short for glamorous camping — the hybrid of camp and resort has exploded, bringing a wave of new glamping destinations this year in a variety of price ranges.
For travellers, the camps offer convenient access to nature without an investment in equipment or the chores of firewood-gathering and the common camping hazards of splinters, sleeping in the rain and waking up cold.
“People nowadays desire real change from the grind of their daily commutes, the dreary workplace environment with its ever-present noise pollution and the constant invasion of smartphones,” said George Morgan-Grenville, the founder and chief executive of Red Savannah, a high-end travel company. “Glamping is the ultimate realization of ‘disconnect to reconnect.’ ”
Indicative of glamping ’s growth, the biggest U.S. camp collectives are on an expansionist spree. Both Under Canvas and Collective Retreats recently secured new funding, $17 million (U.S.) and $10 million, respectively. The 14973-hectare Resort at Paws Up in Montana, one of the earliest, in 2005, to erect fancy tents with framed art on the canvas walls, rugs on the wood floors and downy duvets on the log-frame beds, introduced glamping’s first three- bedroom, two-bathroom tents last summer.
Popular glamping sites are expanding in ways that resemble more traditional hotels, too. Firelight Camps in Ithaca, N.Y. plans to open a Catskills location next fall that will include a restaurant from its co-founder and chef Emma Frisch, who recently published a cookbook, Feast by Firelight, which includes recipes served at the camp’s daily breakfasts and occasional dinners.
Glamping.com lists nearly 800 locations worldwide, including lodges, tree houses and cabins — essentially, any accommodation in a natural setting with luxury-level service — but the following new glamping sites follow the classic definition: tent-based. Urban adventures Light pollution, noise and noc- turnal pests, human and otherwise, haven’t discouraged glamping entrepreneurs from setting up in cities.
The most significant camp to put down city stakes, Collective Governors Island, will feature 37 tents on the car-free island in New York Harbor once it’s fully open in July (from $150).
The company Collective Retreats has been setting up seasonal camps since 2015 when it opened in Vail, Colo. The New York camp will have its own restaurant, offer massage services and equip some tents with their own bathrooms. Others will share facilities but all will have furnished porches and woodframe beds with 1,500-threadcount linens.
A spate of luxury hotels is newly offering glamping on the private terraces of its top suites, including the Gwen Hotel in Chicago, the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Le Méridien Denver Downtown, running between $3,500 and $15,000 a night. Into the wild Under Canvas operates seasonal glamping resorts near national parks, among them Yellowstone, Zion and Glacier. Last month, it opened Under Canvas Rushmore in South Dakota through Oct. 1. The solarpowered forest compound of 80 four-person tents, each with a wood stove and some with attached bathrooms, offers views of Mount Rushmore (from $209).
Guests can eat hearty breakfasts and campfire dinners of smoked, grilled and roasted meats on site, and the kitchen packs box lunches for those heading out. On Aug. 30, Under Canvas Great Smoky Mountains will open in Gatlinburg, Tenn., with 54 tents on 81 hectares near the national park (from $199).
Collective Hill Country, by Collective Retreats, will spring up on a 91-hectare ranch near Austin, Texas, offering horseback riding and winery tours. Guests in its 12 tents will dine on dishes such as jalapeno and cheddar grits and wild boar osso buco (from $400). On the Hudson River in Kingston, N.Y., Terra Glamping operates at Hutton Brickyards, a riverside event venue, with 25 tents featuring memory-foam mattresses, down bedding, Turkish towels and robes (from $225). Guests can borrow bikes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, as well as lanterns and flashlights after dark.
For beach lovers, Wild Lotus operates a tented camp on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Tents come with blow up mattresses, coolers and ice, and guests have access to showers at a neighbouring beach bar (from $149). Or you can glamp at the company’s rainforest camp on nearby Montserrat.
Among the truly glamorous new sites, the Rosewood Luang Prabang opened in March in a forested setting near the Laotian city with six deluxe tents among its 23 accommodations (from $724). Guests of the tent suites have access to the resort’s many amenities: a pool, tented spa villas, restaurant and activities such as cooking classes and Mekong River cruises.
Like the Rosewood property, designer Bill Bensley also designed Capella Ubud in Bali. The Indonesian retreat will host 23 tents, furnished to evoke 19th-century colonial travel. Even the gym will be based under canvas, as will the Officers Tent lounge (from $838, including breakfast).