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Nature Immersed Glamping Destinations

Clayoquot

The search is always on for the unique, the nature immersed experiences – this is what drives most glampers . If you’re looking for the next luxury stop, then here are a few out-of-the-box destinations that are sure to please!

It takes a seaplane ride to arrive at the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort. 45 minutes out of Vancouver will take you to the island where luxury tents make a comfortable stay – plush beds, en suite bathrooms, heated floors, running water, and thermostat-controlled propane wood stoves. Activities like bear-watching and zip-lining will fill your stay and horses are the main means of transportation.

Take yourself 5,000 feet elevated into the Swiss Alps and you’ll find yourself at Whitepod. The area is explored mainly through skiing, with the option of snowshoe, dogsled and foot. Here you have a choice between 15 geodesic domes that blend into the Alp landscape with white canvas in winter and green canvas in summertime. The view, as you might expect, is truly inspiring.

Whitepod

If you want to see what it’s like to live out-of-this-world, the Earthship Biostructure may be the closest you can find. This desert setting in Taos, New Mexico, gives an otherworldly feel to this off-the-grid resort – which is still able to offer the amenities of wi-fi and TVs (complete with netflix) through electricity gathered by sun and wind. Everything is built with natural or recycled materials. Rainwater storage is utilized for drinking and showering, as well as for watering the garden.

Then there’s the famous Uluru’s Longitude 131 set in the red sand dunes of Australia. There are just 15 tents, which are more aptly described as freestanding luxury rooms. One-way privacy films coat the expansive windows, so you’ll feel out in the open and perfectly hidden all at the same time. The location is neighbor to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, meaning the views are uninterrupted and the local plants and animals are in your “backyard” of sorts.

Longitude 131

What’s made of 25 individual domes and 3 community domes? The EcoCamp in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia! The EcoCamp is the Park’s first sustainable accommodation, with geodesic domes that resemble high-tech igloos with transparent ceilings for stargazing. Complete with private terraces, comfortable beds, private bathrooms, wood stoves, gas heaters and splendid views of Torres del Paine peaks. There is no lack of luxury, either, when it comes to the community domes and their Chilean cuisine restaurants.

Add the word “Ger” to your glamping dictionary. At the Three Camel Lodge in Gobi, Mongolia, you’ll experience the traditional mongolian herder tent in luxury. Here there’s a selection among twenty Deluxe Gers that are all handmade using lattice wood covered in felt and canvas.Unlike the typical Mongolian herder your stay will find you in perfect comfort with wood stoves, private bathrooms and king-sized beds, with a view marked by the iconic Gobi-Altai Mountains.

Treehouse enthusiasts will appreciate Chole Mjini, the “castaway fantasy” set in the remote Chole Island in Tanzani, Africa, where they have seven treehouses to choose from. This castaway fantasy is complete with all the creature comforts, including outdoor showers with hot water. The resort has worked alongside the local island community to add a taste to your visit unlike anywhere else, and activity options – including diving, island excursions, swimming with whales, sunset sailing and more – are certain to leave an impression.

Chole Mijini

If you can manage a slot or two out of the 14 allowed spots inside Chumbe Island Coral Park in Zanzibar, Tanzania, it’s certainly worth a stay. Exclusion stems from the need to protect this island coral reef sanctuary, visitors will stay in eco-bungalows with waterfront views. Each bungalow has it’s own sleeping area, living room, hammock, self-contained bathrooms to ease the body and mind between adventures. Everything is included when staying at this glamping spot, including guided snorkeling in the reef sanctuary.

Australia’s Wildman Wilderness Lodge is rebuilt from the same materials as the former Wrotham Park Lodge which was shut down 1,740 miles away. While the materials may have been recycled, nothing about this resort feels second hand. Being settled in the scenic land of Mary River National Park Wetlands gives visitors front row seats to the rivers, billabongs and wallaby wildlife. Safari tents are well equipped with all the luxuries of comfy beds, en suite bathrooms, running water and electricity, while the camp land is kept clear of unwelcomed guests such as crocodiles.

For an unforgettable and unparalleled experience you might try the Human Nest at Treebones Resort. While the stay might not be particularly luxurious – you’ll have to bring your own sleeping bag and pillow to lug up to the nest – it will make an impression. The view from your perch will take in the Los Padres National Forest and the Pacific Ocean. Ah, California you don’t disappoint!

So… do you still have room on your glamping bucket-list? 🙂

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What Oprah.com Thinks About Glamping

Glamping

It’s summer time and the outdoors are looking more and more inviting. For avid glampers, that means chasing unique glamping experiences across the globe, especially in the US.

Oprah.com took a look into glamping and found the high-class camping in states from Maine to California. Like a $35 per night four-person tepee in Gunnison, Colorado. Or a $1000 per night for a two-person, hardwood-floor tepee at Mustang Monument Wild Horse Eco-Resort in Wells, Nevada. The quality of living goes up with the price tag, but both provide the one-with-nature feel that has made glamping a huge trend and perhaps permanent method of vacationing.

You know that you’re glamping when there’s no tent to pitch, no sleeping bag to unroll, and no fire to build. Whether in a tent, yurt, airstream, hut, villa or treehouse – glamping is a way to experience the great outdoors without sacrificing luxury. It’s tailored for travelers who want to experience the positive aspects of camping without the “uncomfortable” negatives.

There’s no official definition of what glamping is (yet), but these are the universal elements you’ll see at a glamping site.

  1. No lobby in sight. Nature is literally right outside your door.
  2. A unique structure.
  3. The (basic) comforts of a hotel.

“If you like the idea of spending the night in the great outdoors but aren’t so wild about sleeping on the ground and wearing the same clothes for days, you may be ready for glamping”, says Lindsay Funston, a contributing writer for Oprah.com.

It was 2007 when the keyword “glamping” started to gain traction, according to Google Trends. While the celebrities have popularized it in our era, it was royalty who first began our glamping tradition. Tracing all the way back to the Ottoman Empire. That was 200 AD. The sultan traveled with silk fabrics, embroidery, expensive rugs and furnishings while hosting royal ceremonies or other gatherings. Some of the glamping today might even surpass the extravagance of those days… minus the crowds… modern glamping is a private experience for couples or families.

Except for when it is a ceremony. Take for example Matthew McConaughey who transformed his Texas ranch wedding into a glampground extravaganza in 2012. Perhaps not luxury standard, but each tent had it’s own air conditioning unit!

Check our list for glamping in the USA here. Some locations that offer glamor camping, right here in the states, include places like Yellowstone in Montana and Moab in Utah. Also in Montana there’s the premier luxury dude ranch glamping at Paws Up. Try staying at cottages in Maine at Bay Leaf Cottages or the motor homes at Santa Barbara Auto Camp in California.

Oprah.com points out that, “Despite its name, the activity doesn’t have to be super chichi; at its heart, glamping is about getting close to nature with a little more comfort and a lot less lugging of stuff.” At the end of the day, whether you pitch your own tent or use a permanent canvas king-tent with built-in plumbing, it’s all about getting out of the city and into the wilderness. Both will find you enjoying the fresh air and the heat of a night-time campfire. Glamping adds the option of guided activities and unique excursions. At the end of the day, we’re all roasting marshmallows under the same sky. Get out there and enjoy the outdoors this summer!

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Glamping Review: Safari West

Since the very early stages of our courting, my wife and I have talked openly about a shared dream to take an African safari. Elephants! Rhinoceros! Giraffes! All of these animals are critters we have hoped to see in the wild. With two children, however, we likely can’t afford to schlep the kids. And we wouldn’t want to leave them home for such a fantastic adventure.

rhino-interaction

Naturally, then, we’ve looked far and wide for similar wildlife-oriented experiences here at home. It turns out one of them is around the proverbial corner from our house in Sonoma County, California: Safari West. The 400-acre preserve is home to nearly 700 species of animals, including Grant’s zebras, ring-tailed lemurs, and southern white rhinoceros, to name a few. The place also has 30 canvas-walled tent cabins—imported from Africa, of course—in which visitors can spend the night.

giraffe-tent-1

One night this spring, my wife and I did just that. Our cabin—Cabin 19—overlooked the giraffe enclosure; from our deck, where we drank a bottle of local Zinfandel after check-in, we watched the animals cavort with wildebeests and frolic with each other, just few neck-lengths away. Inside the tent’s pale green canvas walls, décor was rustic but elegant, a motif I like to consider bush chic. Two of the tables were hand-hewn from pieces of a felled tree trunk. Overhead lights were made from tree branches. The lampshade had metal silhouettes of animals from the Serengeti. The cabin had two double beds (with electric blankets), a space heater, and an armoire with umbrellas and flashlights. There also was a small-but-spotless private bathroom, which had a copper basin and hot water.

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On the night we stayed, we could have taken the car into Santa Rosa for an upscale meal. Instead, we opted to stay on-property and eat at the Savannah Café, a low-lying building that doubles as the mess hall for resort guests. Chefs cooked up a buffet-style ranch barbecue, complete with chicken, corn, beans and more. After an hour, we were so stuffed that we grabbed our flashlights and headed back to the cabin, where we snuggled down on a comfy bed beneath an electric blanket, and dozed off to the cacophonous cackles of flamingoes—nature’s white noise.

lesser flamingo talking

The following morning, we awoke to the same flamingoes bright and early, and wandered down the hill to the Café for a continental breakfast that comprised bagels, fresh fruit and coffee. Fueled for the day, walked around a back portion of the park in which monkeys and cheetahs and other animals (including a porcupine) are sequestered in separate habitats. My wife, an anthropologist, spent much of the time regaling me with details about the monkeys. Her tutorial made the experience significantly more interesting.

cape-buffalo

Around 10 a.m., we returned to the area in front of the Café and boarded double-decker, open-air Jeep-like vehicles for a “safari” around the property.  Over the next 2.5 hours, our vehicle sputtered up and over the back hills of Sonoma County, inching past gazelles, oryx, antelopes, cape buffalo and other critters. A Safari West naturalist guided our trip, pointing out distinguishing characteristics on each of the animals as we drove by. I found the naturalist helpful—just not as helpful as my own wife.

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The tour ended just before lunchtime, and we had enough time to hike back to the cabin and retrieve our belongings before check-out. That evening, on the drive home, my wife and I struggled to summarize our experience overnight at Safari West. No, we agreed, it wasn’t luxury living on the Serengeti. But it sure came close.