Posh tenting holidays: is ‘glamping’ ever well worth the cash?

Luxurious yurts, seductive teepees, elegant bell tents, retro-chic caravans… glamorous tenting, or ‘glamping’ because it’s moderately wincingly referred to as, is all the craze lately. New this summer time is kind of presumably the poshest, in addition to essentially the most imaginative, tenting expertise but to be provided within the UK.

Nation Home Hideout permits you to keep within the grounds of a rustic home in your individual Victorian-era, safari-style encampment. 4 hideouts have up to now opened, within the Scottish Borders, Essex, Shropshire and Lancashire.

A few weekends in the past, the Mawer household examined out the idea within the Wyresdale Park Property on the sting of Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland. Here is what we discovered.

Good old style enjoyable: The Mawer boys, Edward and Arthur, observe their Robin Hood strikes at Wyresdale

The tenting

Our non-public encampment – one in every of 5 on the property – was huge and, I used to be informed, price greater than £25,000 to create. Impressed by the interiors of nineteenth Century Dutch farmhouses, the primary tent was a stupendous, rustic affair with canvas sides, boarded flooring and a protracted eating desk and chairs common from vintage wooden.

A wood-burning range doubled as a cooking hob, and there was a granite sink, operating chilly water and an impressively full set of kitchen and eating gear.

Off the residing space was a flushing lavatory, and two bedrooms – one with a double mattress, the opposite with bunks – with sheets and thick duvets offered. Our boys, Arthur, eight, and Edward, 5, turned an extra mattress in a cabinet into a beautiful den.

We even had electrical lighting. An train bike is available to generate extra electrical energy if the ability runs out – ours did not.

Although the climate wasn’t nice for a lot of our keep, we had been at all times actually toasty and cosy. in truth, I’ve by no means slept so effectively in a tent. Our solely actual frustrations had been that the wood-burning range generally smoked the tent out, and within the mornings we needed to wait one of the best a part of an hour to heat up water for a cup of tea – in contrast to on correct safaris, you do not have a retinue of workers to attend on you. Our encampment included a lot else apart from, together with a separate bathe unit.

Every morning, I might wheel a barrel over to a communal tank and fill it with heat water, drag it again to the bathe, then pump by hand the water out of the bathe head (a bucket with holes). The method was enjoyable and, after a number of preliminary fuss, my household admitted it was surprisingly nice.

We had much less success with the new tub, although. You warmth up the water with a log hearth – however we simply could not get ours going. Our neighbours had no such issues, nonetheless. Our camp additionally had an entire different ‘discovery tent’. This was kitted out with old style gear to encourage partaking with the environment, comparable to a telescope and binoculars, a magnifying glass (my boys studied the nits of their hair!), watercolour paints, and acceptable studying materials comparable to The Harmful E-book For Boys.

One of the best little bit of package was the windup gramophone, with crackly 78s to play. As supposed, it completely evoked the Victorian explorers’ atmosphere. One final little moan. Given that is purported to be fairly indulgent tenting, I am undecided anticipating company to cart their stuff in wheelbarrows 400 yards down a observe from their automotive to the tent actually makes a lot sense.

Good wooden: The Nation Home Hideout gives a distinct type of tenting

The setting

Wyresdale Park extends over 1,000 acres. As company right here, you just about have the run of the property, and we hardly set foot exterior it the entire weekend – we stocked up with staples and eggs, bacon and sausages from a neighborhood butcher, and Lancashire cheeses from the honesty store by the house owners’ pile of a house.

We handed the time going for walks up over the fell (magnificent views so far as the Lake District), taking part in hide-and-seek within the woodland across the tents and within the corridor’s overgrown gardens (pheasant and spent cartridges in abundance), and, above all, benefiting from successfully having our personal lake. Our camp was simply 30ft from the shores of a surprising, giant expanse of water created in Victorian instances, and bordered by purple-flowering rhododendron bushes.

Arthur and Edward spent hours mucking about on the muddy and mossy most important seashore, and one morning we rented a rowing boat from Wyresdale’s pleasant house owners, James and Sally. We pootled proprietorially round in our craft, saying hiya to the geese and geese, searching for trout leaping out of the water, discovering a dilapidated, hidden boathouse, and mooring up on picturesque picket jetties.

It was all magical – if solely barely marred by the truth that from our camp, the low-level hum of the close by M6 motorway was at all times audible.

The price

As you’ll be able to think about, a Nation Home Hideout keep does not come low-cost. Out of season, costs begin from £295 for a four-night midweek keep and £395 for a three-night weekend keep.

However within the college summer time holidays, you are taking a look at £695 midweek, £595 for a weekend. For tenting, nonetheless posh, that is clearly some huge cash – you’ll be able to hire a sensible cottage for costs like that.

Nevertheless, an encampment can sleep as much as eight and if you happen to go along with one other household, it makes costs appear far more affordable. Given the excessive price, it is annoying that mattress linen, which is compulsory to rent, is £5.95 per individual further, and bookings made on the telephone price an extra £25.

Extra data: 01420 549150 or www.countryhousehideout.co.uk.

Messing about on boats: The boys become familiar with maritime transport

Different upmarket tenting choices within the UK

Feather Down Farms (01420 80804, www.featherdown.co.uk) is the longer-established sister operation to Nation Home Hideout. The primary tents are just about an identical, besides that they do not have electrical energy and there aren’t any scorching tubs, non-public showers or explorers’ package. You may select from two dozen small-scale, unspoilt farms throughout England and Wales to remain on. Peak summer time costs are round £150 cheaper than Nation Home Hideout’s.

In a meadow on the sting of Cornwall’s Bodmin Moor, Ekopod (www.canopyandstars.co.uk) is a white bubble dome with echoes of the close by Eden Venture.

It comes with a king-size double mattress, beanbag, its personal kitchen and loo (with free-standing bathtub), and sunloungers. A breakfast hamper, included within the charges, is delivered every morning. Sleeps two, no kids; four-night midweek or lengthy weekend stays £350 to £400.

Jollydays Luxurious Tenting (01759 371776, www.jollydaysluxurycamping.co.uk) lays on tented lodges sleeping six on a woodland web site in North Yorkshire.

The lodging comes with four-poster beds, chandeliers and sofas, in addition to fuel rings, wood-burning stoves, scorching water, non-public showers and bathrooms – a three-night weekend keep prices £500 to £700.

The yurt within the grounds of Yarlington Home (www.canopyandstars.co.uk) in Somerset is grandly furnished in the identical model because the manor – specifically 18th Century, with a French affect.

There is a kitchen with fuel hobs and loo with operating scorching water in a separate tent. Visitors have entry to a swimming pool. Sleeps 4, from £95 an evening.

Forest Holidays (0845 130 8225, www.forestholidays.co.uk) gives wooden cabins on Forestry Fee land in Cornwall, Yorkshire, Scotland and, from September, the Forest of Dean.

Essentially the most luxurious Golden Oak cabins are outfitted with bathrobes, DVD gamers and outside scorching tubs – with two bedrooms, round £500 for a three-night weekend keep in July.