Gone Glamping

Forget about roughing it in the bush, glamorous camping is here to stay

By Athena Tsavliris

Forget fighting gale winds in a leaky tent with two sticks and a tin of Spam. These days, camping is pitching a whole new image.

Think hanging out in a silk sari-lined tent, wearing cashmere socks and a caftan, sipping Soju and leafing through W.

Indeed, today’s camper knows that with the right accoutrements — plus a little style and sense of adventure — even camping has room for sprinklings of glamour.

And it’s pretty simple really: All you need are deluxe digs and plenty of warm, fluffy bedding. Toss in a tube of SPF, some hand-rolled truffles, an assortment of light reading and a chivalrous chap who’ll pitch the tent and get that fire going, and there you have it: Club Med camping, sans activities that will chip your nails.

In England, glamorous camping — or glamping, as it is called — is fast becoming a national pastime, prompted in part by celebrity-studded festivals like Glastonbury, where the likes of Kate Moss and Sienna Miller make trudging through mud look chic.

“There is this obsession with celebrity culture over here, and I think that’s why the whole glamping thing has taken off,” says London-based travel writer Jonathan Knight, whose coffee-table book, Cool Camping, pinpoints some of the exceptional sites in England. “Staying in a posh tent in Glastonbury once a year doesn’t mean you’re an avid camper, but what’s good about that is that people go, ‘Oh, right, Kate Moss goes camping, so if she can do it then I can try it, too.’ ”

But Knight attributes camping’s real coolification to the gradual improvement of the gear. Even British designer Ted Baker has camped things up with his own line of blow-up mattresses, sleeping bags and tents, complete with cuckoo clock and chesterfield chair. “I think that adds to the appeal of camping and opens it up to a new audience that perhaps wouldn’t have considered it before,” Knight says.

Cath Kidston is another British designer whose collection of ultra-feminine floral teepees, windbreakers, ponchos and bedding add splashes of colour and whimsy to even the dullest of environs. “And I strongly recommend bringing an eye mask and earplugs, so you don’t get woken at the crack of dawn,” says Kidston, who camps with her faithful four-legged companion, Stanley.

While a designer tent may be hard to track down in Canada, it’s well worth venturing over to your nearest Mountain Equipment Co-op, where stylish gear is available in abundance.

“We’ve made quite a lot of effort in the past two years to make our product not only functional but attractive, too,” says David Labistour, the Co-op’s senior manager of buying and design. The demand has come mainly from women, he says. “In the old days, there was a term that said, ‘Shrink it and pink it,’ which was how the outdoor industry approached women’s apparel. And it’s no longer good enough. You have to make the products more specific to women’s physical and emotional requirements.”

Indeed, feeling cold and soggy is every glamper’s cauchemar, but even worse is looking like she’s been sucked down the Gortex vortex.

“There’s a fine line between practical and stylish,” says Georgia Groom, co-owner of hip Toronto boutique Model Citizen. “Camping with your straightening iron and stilettos is a bit ridiculous, but you needn’t stoop to synthetic cargo pants and Velcro sandals.”

Sarah Bancroft, Fashion magazine’s Western editor, couldn’t agree more. “People think they have to go out and get a whole new wardrobe,” she says, “but I don’t see why you can’t wear what you’d normally wear, just because you’re hiking down a trail instead of walking down the sidewalk.” Her camping attire includes Dayton boots and a stylishly cozy Cowichan sweater.

In fact, whether it’s fashion or food, there’s no reason to make concessions at all. With today’s state-of-the-art culinary gadgets, why bother with powdered milk, instant soup and freeze-dried noodles?

“Campers have more product choices than ever before, and these new choices are making it more attractive for people who don’t like roughing it,” says Ezio Sbrizzi, vice-president of Coleman Canada.

“Take the traditional camping stove, for instance, which back then was a white gas two-burner. Well, now we have tabletop grills that are mini-barbecues, grill-and-stove combinations, heat-and-serve slow cookers, propane driven skillets, portable ovens…”

And the list goes on. Going gourmet in the great outdoors has never been so easy.

“My husband’s a chef,” Bancroft says, “so we won’t make concessions just because we’re cooking over a fire instead of at home.” The last time they camped, she packed their cast-iron Le Creuset cookware and a full set of Henckel knives. “We’re completely impractical, but Murray will pretty much try and chase a pheasant before he eats something out of a tin.”

And when not indulging in long, delicious lunches, what do glampers do to pass the time? Salute the sun? Meditate? Tackle a Sudoku puzzle?

“I know people love to camp here in Canada, but it’s the portaging that I just don’t get,” Groom says. “Why someone would choose to trudge around in the pouring rain with a canoe on their back is beyond me. My ideal scenario would involve lounging around in a big Hudson’s Bay blanket and drinking lots of lovely tea.”

Indeed, if portage is just not your thing, there’s always the option of a pedicure, which, says Beth Potter, executive president of the Ontario Private Campground Association, is just one of the specialty services now available.

“I have another member who organizes weekly potlucks, where campers arrive bringing gourmet dishes instead of the usual wieners and beans,” she says.

And the sites themselves are getting luxier by the minute.

In fact, in the United States and Australia, some sites come fully equipped with hot tubs, movie rooms, babysitting facilities and spa services, a trend toward luxury that’s picking up speed out West and is on its way to Ontario, Potter says.

“You will always have people who want to escape it all and camp in the traditional sense, but we are definitely seeing a greater demand for creature comforts,” she adds. “The big trend now is to install WiFi access in campgrounds for people showing up with tent under one arm and laptop under the other.”

For a different take on camping altogether, once again it’s the West that’s leading the way, Potter says.

Bourgeois bohemians who crave an antidote to urban life, but still want to indulge in facials and filet mignon would do well to check out the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. With 20 safari-style yurts, fully outfitted with Persian rugs, antique furnishings, wrought-iron beds and fluffy white towels, the resort’s Outpost facility offers true Rockefeller-style camping.

“You can bring people one step closer to nature and still give them fine food, wines, down duvets, Persian carpets, china and crystal,” owner Jonathan Caton says. “And any kind of outdoor activity is right there at your fingertips. You can get as dirty and muddy and stinky as you want and then come back to a hot-water shower, massage and a five-course dinner.”

Certainly not camping — or glamping, for that matter — as we know it.

“No, it’s not,” Caton says. “Someone should come up with a word for this, too.”

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