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Glamping Man-cation: Guys Do it Differently

Ask a woman to go on a camping trip and her most likely response will be, “will I have to sleep on the ground?” Ask a guy the same question, and he will say, “when do we go?” The idea of glamping is more about the accommodation for women, and more about the activity for men. Tell her she’s going glamping, and she’ll be excited about deluxe accommodations and spa treatments in the splendor of the great outdoors. Tell him he’s glamping and, well, he might not want to call it glamping (but he’ll still want to go).

The mention of a “glamping mancation” to a red-blooded American male may make him wince. It isn’t that guys are against hanging out with friends on a camping trip and having a few extra creature comforts- that sounds like a great idea. Chances are the kinds of comforts that spring to mind are flat screen TVs, a mini fridge loaded with beer, and a king-sized grill or maybe a smoker for some barbecue. The real trouble comes from the word “glamping,” a combination of the words glamor and camping. No dude wants glamor associated with his camping.

If you peruse Glamping.com, here’s a description you will find on a typical listing:

Great for: Families, Couples, Honeymooners, Corporate Groups

Notice it doesn’t say, “guys on a fishing trip”? So with that in mind, here are some things that could drive a successful glamping mancation:

paws up resort exterior
• Guys won’t be as concerned with the accommodations like fussing over thread counts and turn down service. Guys will usually focus on the activity, as in what is offered at The Resort at Paws Up in Montana, which includes fishing, sporting clays, and snowmobiling.


• Take the activity up a notch by offering something out of the ordinary, like bungee jumping or airboat rides at Westgate River Ranch in Florida, or a sports car/off road experience like the Driven Experience at Gateway Canyons Resort in Colorado.

living airstream interior
• Speaking of driving, another way to get a guy to go on a glamping mancation is to say, “road trip!” The guys will love hitting the road with an airstream rental, like those offered by Living Airstream (Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Scottsdale, AZ).

Guys can do most things like fishing and canoeing on a regular camping trip. But what makes a camping trip a “glamping mancation” is enjoying great outdoor activities and having someone else prepare camp at the end of the day. Coming back after a long day of fishing to a place where the wood is chopped, the fire is made, the beer is on ice and the steak is already on the grill- now that ‘s luxury a man can appreciate, so he can attend to more important things like bragging about the day’s catch.

It’s an old cliché that guys don’t like to talk about their problems with each other, and likewise they don’t like to jabber about “glamping.” But that doesn’t mean they don’t like it. After a long day fishing, hunting, or bungee jumping with his pals, a guy can’t say no to chowing down on some great man food, then kicking back with an ice cold beer by the fire (and maybe sleeping on thousand thread count sheets. Just once. Shhhh!!)

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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.

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Glamping Review: C Lazy U Ranch – Granby, CO

When planning your next dream trip, what plays the biggest role in deciding where to go?  Is it your budget . . . time of year . . . activities . . . accommodations?  How about the number of vacation days you have left?  Well it just might be that the weather ends up being the biggest factor.

 To mark our 20th wedding anniversary, my wife and I booked a trip to Colorado this past September to take advantage of a shoulder season that (usually) features beautiful fall weather.  It turns out that two weeks before our scheduled flight, we sadly watched unrelenting torrential rains devastated the state. I was convinced we’d be forced to change our plans.

Fortunately, the massive flooding that forced the evacuation of several towns north of Denver didn’t impact our visit to the C Lazy U Ranch 100 miles to the west.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t say the same for our stay in Estes Park, where road closures made us detour over two hours to get there.  Thankfully, the golden foliage was out in full force and the temperatures managed to hover in the 60s/70s during the daytime.

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Like most “nature lovers”, our idea of the perfect romantic getaway includes plenty of outdoor recreation and accommodations that offer refinements that go well beyond the standard hotel room.  When planning for this particular occasion, the C Lazy U Ranch easily met this criteria.

There would be plenty of activities like fly fishing, tennis, trap shooting, archery, mountain biking, ropes courses, and of course, horseback riding to choose from.  Better yet, they were all available amidst an awe-inspiring, untamed landscape.

The ranch encompasses over 8,500 acres of lush meadows, Aspen lined mountain trails, and the Colorado River.  It’s one of the few remaining places where you can experience the traditions of the American West from the moment you arrive. Family, horsemanship and land preservation form the foundation of their mission: Honoring and preserving the traditions of the Great American West.

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Ultimately, we chose the C Lazy U Ranch for the opportunity to try some “glamping”.  After all, how better to experience this special part of the country than with an overnight campout?

After a savory gourmet dinner at The Lodge, we hung around the fire pit with some guests we had just met from California and Canada.  As the drinks wound down, a ranch hand escorted us in a motorized golf cart to the outpost where our tent was all set up and waiting for us.  Inside, we found a king size bed and a pair of twins.  Since this was one of the rare times we weren’t traveling with the kids, there’d be no need for the extra sleeping arrangements, other than to prop up our suitcases.

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Besides four solid walls, indoor plumbing, and a reliable climate control system, we pretty much enjoyed the same amenities found in the cabins back at the ranch.  The rustic ambience included oil lamps, all-wooden furniture, and to our great delight, our very own S’mores kit!

With temperatures dropping down into the lower 40s, starting a fire in our own fire pit was appealing for more than just the S’mores.  After warming up and successfully sandwiching roasted marshmallows between two pieces of graham cracker and some Hershey’s chocolate, it was time to get cozy.

Although my wife and I love the whole camping experience, sleeping with only a thin layer of canvas between you and the great outdoors does present its challenges when it comes to getting a good night’s rest.  Even though the late night silence was often broken by howling coyotes and bugling elk, I didn’t mind the interrupted slumber.  Waking up to a glorious sunrise glistening through the morning mist made the restless night more than worth it.

After returning to the ranch, our daily activities revolved mainly around two central locations:  The Barn, originally built in 1925 and now houses the supplies for over 180 horses, and The Patio House, where we enjoyed lunch and dinner cook-outs, lounged by the pool, and soaked in the hot tub (the kids, if they were with us, would likely have ditched us for its game room).

If the Patio House was the center for all the casual activities, The Five Spur Spa is where we got centered.  In the spirit of glamping and getting more in-touch with our natural surroundings, two of the massage tents are suspended over the river and have glass floors, so you can contemplate the movement of the water during a massage.

And unlike many other dude ranches out west, the onset of freezing temperatures and snow doesn’t close things down at C Lazy U.  Snowcat skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sledding & snowtubing, snowmobiling, and even horseback riding (both indoors and out) offer enough to keep you active.