Glamping Around The World
“Glamping” is a contraction of ‘glamorous’ and ‘camping’, although the definition of ‘glamorous’ is sometimes a bit hit-and-miss depending on where you choose to glamp and with whom.
Traditional campers are split into two camps, if you’ll excuse the pun: those who like tents and those who like caravans. The former enjoy being close to nature, and listening to the wind (and often torrential rain) outside whilst they lie on the floor trying to get comfortable on inflatable beds or soft(ish) mats. The latter enjoy being close to nature as long as nature stays well and truly outside, and there’s a loo inside.
Glampers fall somewhere in the middle. They enjoy the luxuries of hotel accommodation such as soft furnishing and fine decor, but want to feel independent and as if they are ‘roughing it’. Most glamp tents come with electricity, temperature control, and fixed beds plus designer materials and colour-schemes, but alas they don’t normally come with toilets.
Festivals such as Glastonbury usually bring about a revival of the glamping movement, primarily because many of the ‘It’ crowd and the musicians who attend these events have grown rather accustomed to a nice, plush lifestyle and don’t necessarily appreciate the idea of being in a baking hot tent in the day (or a freezing cold one at night) yet don’t want to be far from the atmosphere of the festival. To this end, they invest in their glamp tents whilst mere festival-goers squidge through the mud to their little green two-man tents.
Africa is where it all began, though, and today there are many fine holidays to be had whilst staying in a glamorous tent, usually on a package-basis with excursions such as safaris thrown in. However, glamping is now a world-wide phenomenon and it is well worth a surf on the net to find some excellent package deals to almost any country, from Canada and Alaska to India, Australia and New Zealand and the UK. For those who want something a bit different, with the benefits and comforts of hotel accommodation with the added thrill of being in the great outdoors.