Camping VS Glamping



Unless you weren’t in the country this weekend it would have been impossible to have missed that Glastonbury Festival was on. I remember going to Glastonbury with a huge heavy rucksack on my back carrying a tent and hoping that I wouldn’t get too wet. Half an hour later I was still walking and knee deep in mud! However it would appear that visitors this year had another option – not staying in the local b and b’s no GLAMPING! Prebooked bell tents set up for you in a nice dry field with double beds and lots of room and luxury toilets and showers!

I’m a bit unsure about glamping – it feels slightly treacherous. I have fond memories of camping in a field with a tent, single hob burner and a little tent posted well away. The simplicity to me was the main benefit. You could pack up and go and as long as you remembered the cooker and ground sheet you were fairly safe. Evenings were spent playing football or cards till the light dimmed then bed and early rising.

I was first introduced to a form of glamping when we stayed in a field one day and the couple on the other side of the field had a tv!!!  They set out their deck chairs and tuned in to eastenders with a cup of tea and torch. Then more recently I discovered Featherdown Farms. I’m not alien to tents having separate spaces – we had a shower curtains separating our sections but Featherdown have main bedrooms, kitchens (with coffee grinders) dining rooms, lounge area and in some hot tubs all be it of the camping sort of variety – you have to turn the grinder yourself (no electricity)
While the first to introduce this rather upmarket form of camping they are by no means the only lot around. China plates and cups, luxury bedding, rugs & laptop chargers! Yurt holidays, bell tents, ecopods, tipi’s even gypsy caravans – the list is endless. But does it class as camping and does it compare? Yes you do wake up after a luxurious sleep (no air beds to pump or punctures to mend at 3am) under duck duvets and you have the choice of cooked breakfasts while listening to birdsong and white fluffy towels to dry off after a hot shower...but!
For a start you do pay for this luxury. With starter tents from Tesco’s at £10 the average cost of four days glamping being £650 out of season. You also can’t just pitch up where you feel like and you’re bound to have neighbours. So personally I think I might give the tent with the fitted wardrobes and the cocktail partys in the evening a miss and stick to my four person pop up tent where if I don’t feel like making polite conversation with the neighbours or  feel like wearing make up and high heels I won’t be laughed at!

I do reserve the right however to change my mind as my bones get older!



Comments

  1. I'm NOT a fan of camping, glamping or any form of holidaying in something which doesn't have en-suites or room service.
    But fear having two pre-school boys, and a husband who loves the great outdoors, it won't be long before I'm bullied into freezing my ass off in a sleeping bag on the ground, being woken by the birds tweeting and people burning sausages on barbecues.
    But seriously, if you had £650 to spend on a break, why wouldn't you book into a comfortable hotel?
    By the way, how chavvy were the Rooney's, arriving at Glasto in designer wellies, via a helicopter? Bleuurrrrgh!

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  2. LOL Werent they just! We have two preschool boys who adore the outside but I have toa dmit I do like my home comforts but you can do pretty well these days - take along showers and some of the blow up beds are amazing> I think you can go a fair way on spending on luxury items before I spend THAT much!

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  3. Agree with you both here, we are going to Jimmy's farm and they have "glamping" tents like you say for about £600 for 2 nights. I am a big fan of my creature comforts but am sure we will survive in our family tent for a weekend and save the money for a real luxury. Campsites have really got their acts together and we have stayed on some lovely ones in the Peaks and Yorkshire - perfect for preschool boys! xxx

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  4. I'm in no way, shape or form a camper, and not even sure about the glamping.... Last festival I went to was V (does that even count?) and me and the girls stayed at the local uni halls.... and that was us slumming it! Need my ghd's too much, pathetic I know! Nat

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  5. I can see the appeal of glamping but I've had too many fun holidays, both as a child and a grownup, that have been spent in a traditional tent to swap for something more glamourous! I can't wait until Lucy's a bit bigger so we cam take her camping too!

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  6. LOL i went to the V festival and after four years of going we did decide one year it was too wet and camped out at a hotel - it was my most glamourous festival!
    My youngest is just a year now and we're hoping thats old enough to go camping. If this heat continues I might pitch up in the back garden!

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  7. I put off going camping for many years saying the lowest I would ever sleep to the ground would be in a caravan!! But I tried it last year and was absolutley hooked...I really can't explain it I just loved no telly, cooking on those blasted stoves, kids cooking our breakfast in the morning, and just the fresh air!! We treated ourselves to a super new tent this year and tried it out in half term.....Just fab :)

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