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Glamping.com listed properties among top winners of Safari Awards 2015

Each year over 4,000 qualified tour operators, travel agents and travel journalists from around the world vote to nominate the best safari camps, lodges, houses, mobile and riding operators, and wildlife organizations for the Safari Awards. A team of 14 judges said to be “the most highly-respected, knowledgeable independent tour operators selling safaris,” then decides who among those nominees are the best in several categories.

NCS 2015 winner

The big story this year is Norman Carr Walking Safaris, which took the highest honor- “Best Safari Experience in Africa,” as well as “Best Walking Safari” in the 2015 Safari Awards. “The legacy and the history of the company really stand out,” says Sales and Marketing Director Mindy Roberts. Founded by Norman Carr who pioneered the walking safari 64 years ago, she calls him “a man with a vision way beyond his time.” She especially attributes the award honors to the guides. “Our guiding team from Mfuwe… we think are some of the best in Africa.”

Norman Carr

Known as the “original safari company,” Norman Carr started walking safaris more than 60 years ago in the Luangwa Valley, and today their properties include four bush camps, Kapani Lodge a luxury camp along the Luangwa River, four of which are listed on Glamping.com.

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Luwi Bush Camp, a Norman Carr Safaris property listed on Glamping.com, is one of several camps included in the Norman Carr Walking Safari that was named “Best Safari Experience” and “Best Walking Safari.”

Kakuli Bedroom

Kakuli Bush Camp is also one of the winning properties featured on Glamping.com.

Chin Fire Pit

Down the Luangwa River from the bush camps is Chinzombo, winner of “Best New Safari Property” and runner up of “Best Safari Cuisine”. It was the original green season base for Norman Carr in the 1970s, now a “super luxurious” camp that “retains its bush feel,” according to Norman Carr Safaris.

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“Best Safari Spa/Retreat” goes to Sasaab in Kenya, the spa is known as “Spasaab,” uncommon for being “purpose built into the rocks” and said to have “impressive views and tranquil sounds of birds and the river.”

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Kudos to Kenya’s Lewa Safari Camp and the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (also known as Lewa Downs) for winning “Best Wildlife Conservancy Organization,” as well as “Personal Contribution Wildlife” award given to Ian Craig, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy & NRT (Northern Rangelands Trust).

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A safari experience offered by Ker & Downey Botswana was also an award recipient. The Botswana walking safari “Footsteps Across the Delta” was a winner of “Best Ecologically Responsible” and “Best Family Safari Experience”.

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The awards come at a good time for the tourism industry, with overreaching concerns over the spread of Ebola, considering that the award-winning resorts are approximately 5000 miles from the hot zone in Western Africa. That’s literally like being afraid to visit Miami because of an outbreak in Anchorage, Alaska. Congratulations to these and all the winners of the 2015 Safari Awards.

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Glamping on the Rise: Travel + Leisure Lists 20 Glamping Properties Among 70 Best New Hotels in the World

It’s official: glamping has arrived, landing on the 2014 Travel + Leisure “It List” in no small fashion. With only the “coolest new hotels that are changing the travel landscape” making the list, glamping makes its mark with 20 properties (nearly 30%) that feature glamping as their primary accommodation, nestled among urban trendsetters, scene makers, and Next-Gen business hotels. The best glamping spots easily keep pace with the “hip,” “swank,” and “luxurious” newcomers, bringing with them “experiential travel” to round out a list that prides itself on recognizing the most exciting changes in the travel landscape.

1000-7_000 Mahali Mzuri

From jungle to savanna, and snow-topped mountains to tropical islands, choices are what is cool about glamping. Glamping accommodations that made the T+L list were safari lodges, beach resorts, and “remote outposts.”  It List safari lodge choices range from the traditional, such as Chinzombo in Zambia that offers “stylish austerity and unforgettable wildlife encounters”  to Richard Branson’s Mahali Mzuri in Kenya that T+L refers to as a “futuristic riff on the classic East African lodge,” with tents resembling  “spaceships.”

022_Villa Three At Night_original Chinzombo Camp

Beach resorts on the list span the globe from great escapes in the Caribbean like Eden Roc in Dominican Republic and The Cove Eleuthera Resort and Spa to sublime island resorts like Australia’s Bedarra Island Resort, Hawaii’s modern, renovated Andaz Maui Villas, and the decadent Cheval Blanc Randheli in the Maldives.

Not surprisingly, several “remote outposts” are listed, such as Cresto Ranch and Outlook Lodge, both in Colorado.  What may initially come as a surprise however is a property in the United Arab Emirates, Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Al Sahel Villa Resort, until you learn that it is set amid “savanna-like grasslands of Sir Bani Yas Island’s famed Arabian Wildlife Park,” a welcome surprise indeed.

Bathhouse_at_duskDunton Hot Springs and Cresto Ranch

What may not come as a surprise are the price tags. To be the best in the world often means the most expensive, and glamping by Travel + Leisure standards can be pretty pricey, with 14 of their glamping choices (70%) costing guests $500 or more a night. Five properties in the more reasonable range of $350-500 were Ion Luxury Adventure Hotel, Selfoss, Iceland, the culturally rich Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort and Spa in China, and It List five time winner Hotel Escondido in Mexico. One bargain made the list Outlook Lodge of Colorado Springs, Colorado, costing less than $200 a night. Regardless of price however, a discerning traveler on the lookout for a new experience will find that it really is no surprise that glamping is on the rise.