HIGH STEAKS LOCH AND LOAD BONES IDLING

Can a rural hideaway be a glamping option if it isn’t a tent, but is a treehouse in the boughs of the gardens at Château Lestange, a manor house near Bordeaux? Fine. La Palombière doesn’t count. So you won’t want to hear that it sits above a vineyard, breakfast is served in the chateau, and that you can get a six-night stay, checking in on Aug 6, for £1,348, via canopyandstars.co.uk. A couple of hundred years ago, setting up camp in the grounds of a castle would have seen you chased into the woods by a pack of drooly-mouthed hunting dogs. Now it’s encouraged. At least, it is at 15th-century Dundas Castle, near Edinburgh, where the 400-acre estate features a private loch, and five glamping tents with bathrooms – plus log stoves for cooler evenings. Two-night stays from £198 with coolcamping.com. Surely the yurt phenomenon hasn’t made it as far west as California? It certainly has – particularly in the case of Treebones (treebonesresort.com), a clutch of such tents set on a hill, directly overlooking Highway 1 and the Pacific, just south of Big Sur. One-night stays start at $320 (£255) – or you could slot the resort into the 11-day “Coastal California Self-Drive” trip sold by audleytravel. com from £3,215pp with flights flights. Henfryn Farm (henfrynfarm.co.uk) takes rustic glamping to a lovely extreme with its bell tents (each on a raised platform, and able to sleep up to six) in leafy Carmarthenshire. Extras include the property’s old Citroen 2CV (available for hire), views of the Teifi river, eggs for breakfast and steaks for dinner – sourced from the cattle over the fence. Maybe don’t tell your kids. One-week stays from £319. When in Africa, A sophisticated canvas palaces will always beat basic tents – unless you want to find a lion worrying the zip at 3am. The seven-day “Taste of Tanzania” group trip aimed at tourists aged 18-35, by contiki.com, features two nights’ glamping in the Serengeti. Its Aug 10 departure starts at £1,969pp, flights extra.