Imagine the scene. You are taking it easy with your loved one, friends or family in a beautiful corner of the countryside, perhaps a woodland clearing or a field with long, lingering views, or a riverside meadow. The sun is sinking gently. There is a bottle of wine open and maybe you are sitting around a campfire, the smell of wood smoke hanging sweetly in the air.
Later you might be toasting marshmallows over the embers by the light of a glowing lantern, accompanied perhaps by the soft strumming of a guitar, fire-side stories or just wide-eyed star-gazing, before retiring under cover and falling asleep to the sound of an occasional owl hoot.
Welcome to the world of glamping. Glamping is hardly new anymore, but it is now thriving due to the circumstances of the past couple of years and is positioning itself as the preferred choice of staycation for many. What started as a search for the simpler, purer things in life, has developed into a yearning for space with people seeking the safety and reassurance of a stand-alone rural setting for a holiday with everything close at hand. And, not least, somewhere that can be reached without the need to get on a plane.
So, what can you expect if you choose this sort of holiday? Glamping is a bit like camping but without the twin inconvenience of having to put up a tent in a race against darkness and then waking up to a stiff back in the morning. It is also a bit like staying in a holiday cottage, only one where bijou and predictable have been swapped for rustic and quirky.
It perhaps took its inspiration from the extravagant safaris conducted by wealthy explorers in the 19th century, in which weary porters had to shoulder all sorts of items not strictly necessary for jungle survival. Glamping comes by throwing everything, quite literally including the kitchen sink, at the whole experience of outdoors living.
Over the past few years, glamping in the UK has broken its own boundaries and now embraces a broad church of bell tents, tipis, yurts, lodge tents, safari tents, shepherd’s huts, gypsy caravans, log cabins, hobbit huts, treehouses, Iron Age-style roundhouses, upcycled shipping containers, converted double decker buses, old aircraft and a lot more besides. And standards have risen dramatically.
Today there is a chocolate box of glamping options to suit almost any budget. You can opt for a more down-to-earth experience or you can go total top drawer. And you no longer need to head to obvious ‘alternative’ locations like Cornwall or West Wales – you can go glamping pretty much anywhere now, not least here in Essex.
One site to consider for a stay this year is Woodchests Glamping near Pebmarsh. There you will find three safari tents, each able to sleep six. They include a fully equipped kitchen, a private shower and toilet room, and outside, an ingenious wood-fired stove that combines the roles of fire pit, grill and pizza oven. The tents are part of a family-run farm and are sited next to mature woodland between the farm and a 19-acre fishing lake.
Hugh Crayston from Woodchests says: ‘We chose safari tents because we wanted to provide guests with lots of room and home comforts, while still having the experience of sleeping under canvas. Our guests tell us they come for the peaceful surroundings and lots of open space, and we regularly have groups of friends and families who take two or all three tents to spend time together. The outdoor cooking stoves are a nice item and some guests even cooked a whole chicken for a Sunday lunch on theirs!’
Meanwhile, A Swift Escape, which is close to the coast at Beaumont, offers a Mongolian yurt for two. It features a wood-burner inside and outside a fire-pit and a broad area of decking with outdoor easy seating, picnic table, gas barbecue and twin open-air roll-top baths with a view.
‘We were fortunate enough to move into our current house with the yurt already on the land,’ explains owner Lewis Swift. ‘My wife and I now run the yurt together with all the family helping out.
‘We have a complete mixture of people staying in the yurt, including couples, mothers and daughters, friends looking for an escape and individuals looking for some peaceful and tranquil alone-time. And with the beach just ten minutes down the road, people can spend the day there and then come back here to chill out.’
Anglers might be tempted to stay at one of the shepherd’s huts at Serenity Lakes near Helions Bumpstead, where coarse fishing is on offer. The owner, Andy Gage, says: ‘I am a keen fisherman and have fished all over the world. I have always wanted to have my own lake, and in 2018, I realised that dream when we dug one here to provide a sanctuary for wildlife and a home for some specially selected carp. We found we enjoyed the space so much, it seemed only fair to share this and so we set up the glamping site’
There are two shepherd’s huts, each self-contained with kitchen and shower room. Outside is a patio with a striking spherical fire-pit, and a barbecue, hot-tub and sauna cabin are also available.
Glamping is probably more popular now than it has ever been, but is there not a potential cloud in the sky for glampers in the form of the Great British weather, that notorious spoiler of so much out in the open? Not a bit of it. Just retreat into your inner sanctum – whatever form that takes – get cosy and wait for it all to go by.
12 glamping sites in Essex
Woodchests Glamping woodchests.co.uk
A Swift Escape aswiftescape.co.uk
Serenity Lakes serenitylakes.co.uk
Yurts at Hatfield Peverel lakeland-yurts.co.uk
Lodge tents at Layer Marney near Tiptree layermarneytower.co.uk
Safari tent and floating log cabin at Heybridge chigboroughfarm.co.uk
Shepherd’s huts near Brightlingsea theshepherdshide.co.uk
Cabins near Marden Ash colemans-farm.co.uk
Bell tents near Clacton-on-Sea glampingatlodgefarm.com
Pods near St Osyth near Clacton-on-Sea leewickfarm.co.uk
Bell tents and yurts at Great Tey near Colchester browningbros.co.uk
Shepherd’s huts, safari tents and pods near Heybridge osealeisure.com
Remember…
Not all glamping sites offer all the facilities you may be looking for. Before booking, be sure to check what is offered to see if your needs are met. Check too for any extras you might need to take yourself.
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Unusual days out in Essex: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/unusual-things-to-do-in-essex-8764156
Wild days out in Essex: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/wildlife/wild-days-out-essex-9151772
