What is Glamping?

Glamping is a luxury type of camping that includes facilities and accommodation considered far more comfortable than traditional camping. It allows you to enjoy the freedom and closeness to nature that camping affords, without the uncomfortable aspects!

What's glamping? – The camping revolution

The idea of roughing it during a camping trip might sound appealing if it weren't for the insects and other creepy-crawlies, wild animals, sudden storms, leaking tents, smelly sleeping bags, and questionable food. For a number of people their first camping experience often becomes their last, but there is now a camping option growing in popularity: glamping. Glamping offers the same exposure to the great outdoors as traditional camping, but the amenities found at the campsite - and in the tents themselves - far exceed anything most campers have ever experienced.

Glamping is the luxurious for of camping with all the essentials included

Glamping vs Camping

Put simply, glamping is a way of getting closer to nature and enjoying the great outdoors while still experiencing a luxurious break. It sounds like the perfect combination, but what does it mean in practice? We’ve put together five major differences between camping and glamping which should help explain!

1. Accommodation

When you go camping, it usually involves packing your own tent, setting it up in the middle of nowhere and hoping it doesn’t leak. Glamping, on the other hand, means arriving to find your accommodation ready and waiting; usually a framed shelter with amenities such as electricity and running water.

2. Sleeping

Depending on how organised you are, bedtime while camping can involve anything from a sleeping bag to a camp bed, allowing you to snuggle down under the stars. Meanwhile, glampers can enjoy a comfortable bed with a real mattress and linen bedding.

3. Bathrooms

What bathrooms? When camping, you might have to make do with a tree in the woods! Other sites have a communal toilet and shower block to share with your neighbours. Most glamping facilities come with real bathrooms and warm running water in the tent, meaning you can wash away the debris of the day in comfort.

4. Cooking

Whether you’re camping or glamping, the food is amazing. Burgers, hot dogs, baked potatoes… the list goes on and on! And of course, who can resist warm, chocolatey s’mores? Glamping means that as well as the traditional fire or firepit, you also have the option of cooking on a butane hob and a wood burning stove.

5. Heating

Keeping warm while camping is mostly down to layering! Jumpers and vests are certainly your friend. You can also control the temperature by opening and closing the tent flap or changing the thickness of your sleeping bag. Meanwhile, most glamping accommodation includes some kind of heating, such as wood burning stove, so you always have somewhere cosy to return to at the end of the day.

A true luxury camping experience

Glamping is the perfect combination of comfort and countryside. Unlike traditional camping, glamping provides you with every single comfort of home, there is no roughing-it to be had in our canvas retreats! Luxury glamping is exactly that, getting close to nature without getting covered in it! Our tents, our locations and our included features all reflect an experience you won't find at home or on a traditional camping trip!

View our ultimate guide to glamping

Glamping sites across the UK

Each of our beautiful locations sits right in the heart of the British countryside, whether that be coastal, woodland, moorland or parkland habitats. Each of our luxury glamping sites is ideally located for you to really get out and explore endless surroundings. A wealth of walks on your doorstep will keep you busy if you fancy being active, or the peaceful, picturesque nature of each site makes it perfect for a relaxing weekend of doing nothing too. Enjoy the best of both worlds.

Glamping is becoming more popular

Glamping is becoming more and more popular. It returns you to an effortless simplicity that allows you to make your holiday into whatever you want it to be.

Glamping can be for everyone

For family holidays you can run and explore with the children, discover nature, get messy and really tire them out. If you're visiting with friends, reconnect in the natural surroundings, roast marshmallows and have a good old natter, or use the site as a base camp and venture out on day trips to all the local hotspots and tourist attractions. Perhaps you're after romance, or a quiet get-away for two without the kids? Enjoy easy-going walks and relax to the sounds of the nature around you. Sit out under the stars with the crackle of the firepit and return to reality feeling completely refreshed.

Why luxury camping works

Direct access to the countryside
Stories and chill-out time around the campfire
The soothing sound of rain on your tent (occasionally!)
Nature's peaceful soundtrack
Time with family and friends
Fresh air

Without the worst of camping:

Lugging all that equipment
Sleeping on lumpy ground
Shivering (or sweating)
That half-blown-up air mattress
Sleeping bags, in general
That not-so-waterproof tent when it rains

A brief history of glamping

Born from the early 21st Century a demand for UK holidays grew that provided a camping experience with a hotel twist. Known as 'luxury camping' it soon became known as 'glamping'. People often refer to glamping as 'posh camping' and 'comfortable camping'. Due to its rapid popular growth, glamping covers a huge array of accommodation options including yurts, teepees, treehouses, Shepheard huts and much more. At Lantern and Larks'glampsites, we offer a glamping experience like no other. Luxury and comfort in exclusive locations set in the heart of exquisite beauty and solitude. Somewhere you and your family or friends can enjoy each other's company and a little corner of your private heaven.

The benefits of glamping

Beside those already mentioned, glamping offers you a lot more benefits:

The luxury of glamping with the 'Back to Nature' aspect of camping

Ecological holidaying

Glamping has the luxuries of a hotel or home but is far more environmentally friendly. There's no carbon footprint from electricity of gas, water systems are ecologically friendly and all the food and provisions provided are sourced locally. By choosing a glamping holiday, you are choosing an environmentally friendly holiday without sacrificing the niceties of a more traditional hotel.

Closer to nature

Just like traditional camping, if you're interested in glamping you clearly want to experience life closer to nature, without actually becoming a part of it! Glamping allows you to do just that. You can have a holiday experience that takes you into the wild, sharing your close environment with the beautiful living things we share our world with every day but seldom witness or reflect upon.

Time well spent with family or friends

When you take yourself away from the normality of everyday life and share that experience with others without electricity, we naturally become closer. You laugh more than you would normally, you share thoughts and talk to each other more than normal. Being outside and being surrounded by the elements will provide the perfect catalyst to be closer with each other. Glamping at Lantern and Larks will be an unforgettable experience that will forge memories you and your fellow glampers will always remember and we suspect, have you visiting us time again.

New adventures

Exploring is a natural human urge especially if you're glamping with kids. A glamping holiday will provide the chance to do just that in a safe environment but within one filled with adventurous opportunity. When was the last time you watched an Osprey catch a fish? Or perhaps built a dam and caught fish in a stream? Lantern and Larks lets you and your family do all this and much more. All you have to do is book your stay!So the next time you reject the idea of a camping holiday, think again. Think Lantern & Larks.The pleasure is in tents.