Glamping

Posted by Jeff Wetherington Mar 27, 2007

USA Today recently ran an article about the latest outdoor craze being made available by tour operators and outdoor resorts; luxury camping known as "Glamping" or Glamorous Camping.

Yes, there are tents, but they have Persian Rugs on the ground and are more like cocktail party canopies. No sleeping bags, but there are extra-length beds with fluffy pillows, crisp, clean sheets and warm blankets. Electricity is standard. Some offer saunas and hot tubs. And meal time? Well there's no cooking over an open campfire. Instead, you can head for the mess tent and indulge that appetite you worked up by sitting in the jeep during the game drive by filling your bone china plate with haute cuisine and sitting at a table covered by a linen tablecloth.

All this can be yours for the paltry sum of $4,100 per person, double occupancy for a 3 day trip.

So, whatever happened to "roughing it" and "getting away from it all"? The lure of camping for me has always been the experience of leaving civilization (or most of it, anyway) behind to enjoy the beauty and allure of nature. There is also the aspect of a hiking or camping trip being a chance to exercise the need to be self-sustaining, at least in some small part. Granted, I don't hunt game and prepare it to eat, but I do erect my own shelter, prepare my own food, build my own fire, and sleep with not much more than a sleeping bag and pad between myself and the hard, uneven earth.

I hate to break it to these "Glampers", but while what they're doing may indeed be glamorous, it's definitely not camping.