So That's What They Mean by Glamping


It was late autumn in Pembrokeshire and I’d been looking forward to this new camping experience.  This wasn’t just camping. This was posh camping, or what they call ‘glamping’.  

Inside the Dome Tent


I love camping.  But this was something very different - this was posh camping, or what they call ‘glamping’. 

The tent was a dome tent – not the ‘2-man squash yourself, your rucksack, your partner and his smelly shoes into a portable shelter made of cloth’ kind of tent.  No, this was a 20ft geodesic dome tent with raised wooden flooring, a double bed with down duvet, a wooden row of coat pegs and storage box by the entrance for the aforementioned shoes, and a wood burning stove – all inside the tent.   

Close by was a small wooden kitchen, raised and open on all sides except for the roof. It contained everything a camp kitchen required, including a cat who took up residence as soon as the tent became occupied.

When it got dark, I sat in a chair and read by the firelight while enjoying a piping hot mug of tea.  In bed, I listened to the night: tawny owls screeching, a hedgehog rummaging and acorns falling from overhanging branches.

 I could see why they called it posh camping.  All the good bits of camping without the crawling about on your hands and knees, squatting over a tiny gas cooker while looking for somewhere level to place your mug.  No need to search for flat, even ground.  No rocks or pinecones hidden under your ground sheet and no need to worry about pitching on a slope and sliding down the inside of your sleeping bag. 
This was camping at its best.   However, there is one thing unappealing about camping. You can put all the home comforts in a giant- windowed dome tent and wrap it up in whatever term you like, but there's nothing glam about glamping when you are forced to leave your comfy warm bed and do the moonlight toilet trek. 

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