Carry on glamping
January 27th, 2008 Posted in Pets Guide Lissa Christopher finds five-star camping involves
silver-service meals, luxe bathrooms and ‘tents’ decorated with
antiques.
Nights in the wilderness now come in two contrasting styles.
There’s old-fashioned no-star camping (aka going back to basics in
the bush for a bit), which has been around forever and demands a
certain degree of stoicism. To enjoy it you need to be able to view
minor privations - cold, bucket showers, dossing down on rough
ground and visits to frightening dunnies, for example - in a
positive light. Camping is about being hardy, earthy, maybe even a
bit grubby.
Then there’s glamping (aka glamorous camping). It’s a newer
concept and, like camping, involves wilderness and “tents” (in a
broad sense of the word). But there the similarities end.
Glamping is about exploring your positive feelings about nature
at the same time as your fondness for linen napkins and turn-down
services. You can indulge your inner Toad of Toad Hall and get some
fresh air. Stoicism be damned. But bring your wallet.
Gigi Bondick and her family, from Massachusetts, are glampers.
“We’re just not the camping kind of people,” she says on a US-based
blog. “We don’t pitch tents. We don’t cook outdoors. We don’t share
a bathroom. It’s just not going to happen.”
The Bondicks pay about $1000 a night to holiday at Paws Up in
Montana, where the tents are luxury constructions with power, comfy
beds, antiques and rugs. They head off into the wilderness by day
to hike, ride and fish and return to camp in the evening to enjoy
the ministrations of its butlers, chefs and masseuses.
John Caton, the co-owner of the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort in
Canada, another glamping enterprise, described the experience to
the American Broadcasting Corporation as “soft adventure … the
soft part is the food and beds and the adventure is the same as
you’d get if you were out there in a two-man tent”.
I have camped often and glamped once, at Voyages Longitude 131,
an exclusive campsite of 15 “tents” in a premium spot at the edge
of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
The itinerary starts something like this: arrive at Ayers Rock
Airport. Sit back and take in the red desert while being driven in
air-conditioned comfort to the camp. Relish an haute-cuisine
champagne lunch served by staff who remember your name. Have your
slightly perished backpack delivered discreetly to your tent. And
so on.
When I eventually get to the tent I find everything below the
tent-like billow of the ceiling is really a luxury hotel suite:
elegant furniture, automated blinds, a swish bathroom,
air-conditioning and a bed I will later weep about leaving. Best of
all, there are uninterrupted views of Uluru in all its orange glory
from just about any point in the room, including the shower.
Later today there will be an intimate tour of Kata Tjuta’s Walpa
Gorge and, tomorrow morning at dawn, a close-up look at Uluru.
There may not be a whole lot in the way of ropes, nylon or
zippers at Longitude 131 but the two best features of a tent have
not been forgotten: a vast expanse of night sky is visible from the
bed and if you open the glass doors that comprise most of the front
wall, you’re all but sleeping outside.
Glamping has its origins in African safari-style camps and these
have also served as the inspiration for the design of Longitude
131. The resort opened in June 2002, burnt down in a bushfire in
2003 and rose again (with a new fire sprinkler system) nine months
later.
Guy Heywood, the group general manager of Voyages’ signature
resorts - including Lizard and Wilson islands, both off the
Queensland coast, and El Questro Homestead, in the Kimberley region
of Western Australia - says Longitude 131 is part of a shift among
high-end travellers worldwide, who are moving away from the
heavy-handed “marble-lobbied, 500-room hotels” once considered the
epitome of opulence.
“People these days are looking for accommodation that is unique,
personalised and experience-driven,” Heywood says. “But they also
want to feel they are stepping lightly on the environment.”
The showers at Longitude, for example, use solar-heated water
and “you could remove one of our tents and within a couple of weeks
you would never know it had been there”, Heywood says.
“But an environmental focus doesn’t have to mean back to basics.
You can still have the luxuries, like great food, showers, a decent
amount of space, turn-down services and nice linens.”
All of the glamping enterprises described in the accompanying
list on this page lay some claim to an eco focus, be it green
building principles, support for local communities or wilderness
conservation.
Geoffrey Kent, the CEO of high-end travel company Abercrombie
%26amp; Kent, and Enrico Ducrot, from Luxury Camps %26amp; Lodges of
the World, claim exclusive, carefully considered and managed
accommodations such as these bring advantages to local communities
and environments without the destruction that can be wreaked by
mass tourism.
There’s certainly no sign of destruction (or fire damage for
that matter) as the sun sets at Longitude 131. I mingle with the
other guests on a high dune, drinking champagne and eating oysters
flown in from South Australia. The stately curve of Uluru dominates
the horizon in one direction and the eccentric knobs of Kata Tjuta
(formerly known as the Olgas) beckon from another. I don’t know
which way to look.
Table 131 is a signature dining event at Longitude: a candlelit
five-course feast held in the desert under the stars. The
impression is of being within cooee of nowhere but you’re actually
just behind the resort. The chefs wear headlamps while waiters and
a sommelier discreetly emerge from and disappear into the
shadows.
After dinner a man named Tim, who has a high-powered telescope
and a woody voice, talks to us about the constellations. Another
guest who has stayed at Longitude before leaps up to squeeze Tim’s
arms, so excited is he by this chance to do it all again. The
campfire is extinguished and a minute’s silence is observed in
darkness before talk of life, the universe and everything begins.
All the adjectives that come to mind seem inadequate.
I could definitely do more of this glamping business but some of
my favourite memories are of mini-catastrophes on back-to-basics
camping trips. There was the spider roughly the size of a draught
horse inside the tent; the family of unrepentant kangaroos caught
with their paws in the food store, having either eaten or
disembowelled everything in it; the missing tent peg and the
thunderstorm … These are all funny (with hindsight) incidents I’m
glad I experienced and which are unlikely to occur in the cocoon of
a luxury resort disguised as a camp. There’s also a certain joy in
the humble labours of lighting a fire, washing up in a bucket and
banging in a tent peg.
Yes, having your every creature comfort satisfied is a very fine
thing but so, too, is being hardy, earthy and even a little bit
grubby.
Lissa Christopher travelled to Longitude 131 courtesy of
Voyages Hotels and Resorts.
Five-star wilderness
Whitepod, Switzerland
Does Manolo Blahnik make snowshoes? This secluded alpine camp
has a private ski run. A nearby lodge is home to a spa offering
yoga classes, personal training and massages. Accommodation for two
costs about $640 a night in low season, not including meals or spa
services. Aigle, the train station nearest the camp, is 80 minutes
from Geneva. See http://www.whitepod.com.
Al Maha Desert Resort, UAE
Discomfort, with the possible exception of the bill, does not
exist here. Each two-person tent has its own private swimming pool.
Activities include safaris, falconry, archery, camel trekking and
horse riding. Bedouin suites cost about $1100 a night, not
including meals or spa services. Al Maha is a 45-minute drive from
Dubai city. See http://www.al-maha.com.
Aman-i-Khas, Rajasthan, India
Air-conditioned, Mogul-style tents with high ceilings,
king-sized beds, big bathtubs, plus a massage tent - what’s not to
love? Activities include nature walks, guided safaris and
birdwatching. Accommodation costs about $1170 a night, including
meals. Activities and transfers cost extra. Aman-i-Khas is a
four-hour train ride from New Delhi. See http://www.amanresorts.com.
Baines’ Camp, Botswana
Your only concern will be where to put your “fully mobile”
four-poster bed - inside your luxury tent or under the night sky?
Highlights include 4WD safaris and boat trips. Prices range from
$575 a person a night in low season to $1040 in high season and
include meals, beverages and most activities. Baines’ camp is on
the Okavango Delta. See http://www.sanctuarylodges.com/bainescamp.htm.
Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, British Columbia,
Canada
This is a luxurious camp located on the edge of a wilderness
reserve. A three-night stay costs from $5900 to $6850 an adult,
which includes all meals, beverages and activities such as whale
and bear watching, ocean and freshwater fishing and horse riding.
Seaplane transfers from Vancouver International Airport are
included. See http://www.wildretreat.com.
Paws Up, Montana, US
It costs from $835 to $940 a night for two people at the Paws Up
resort’s Tent City, including meals. Spa treatments and wilderness
adventures such as horse riding, fly fishing and ice climbing cost
extra. Paws Up is roughly 150 kilometres from Helena, the capital
of Montana. See http://www.pawsup.com/resort.
Longitude 131, Australia
The twin-share rate at Longitude is $990 a person a night, with
a minimum two-night stay. It includes all meals and beverages, a
touring program, park entrance fees and airport transfers.
Longitude does not cater for children under 12. See www.longitude131.com.au.
Related posts
Tags: amp, ash, billow, catastrophe, feelings, hotels, kha, lizard, loc, lori, love, paws, sap, shoes, sleep, walks, wallet
