My daughter recently texted me about her experience in the woods of upstate New York. She saw a black bear one evening and slept in a tent. She used the term “glamping”, which I assumed was a typo. But then later she again mentioned “glamping” when she sent me this picture of their tent
I searched for “glamping” and discovered it is “a thing”. Glamorous/upscale camping. A guy brought them firewood each evening and got their fire started. Crazy stuff like that.
I hadn’t heard of it and felt so behind the times.
It’s certainly not a new term. As you can see, there are whole industries that have evolved to provide glamping experiences and have been out there a long time.
But, chances are you aren’t the actual “last” person to hear about it.
I first heard the term in 2012 when I was booking a tour package in Australia. Although I just booked the standard tour, they did offer a more expensive package that involved “glamping” in the Outback.
That’s one of the things I really appreciate about the uncontacted people on North Sentinel Island. I can reliably count on them finding out about trends even later than me.
Me too. I did a ton of long term canoe trips and hiking trips in my younger days. At our age, I’d be willing to try something upscale. I wouldn’t really consider it “camping,” but I also would resist using the term glamping. How about a “tent hotel?”
I want my camping to be hard, uncomfortable, dirty and preferably many kilometers from an other human.
But, that said, glamping here is a widely spread term, and if my mother said she was going “camping” I’d assume “glamping” - she is in her 80s, after all, despite being well able to hoist a tent.
We used to do a Memorial Day camping trip to a friend’s property in the middle of absolutely nowhere. One of my favorite memories is when Peggy was told she had to put up her own tent. Previous years Peggy would get somebody to feel sorry for her and put it up.
The first night there was a rainstorm. Peggy’s tent had a nice rain fly so she was good in that department. However, she had chosen the worst possible spot to put her tent, a little depression that flooded.
The first morning we were all drinking coffee, having a first beer, telling jokes. Peggy was the last one up. She came from her tent wrapped in a dripping wet blanket, crying. Good old Peggy! She finally earned some camping cred that year.
THAT qualifies as “glamorous and upscale”?!
For me, it has to be an actual wooden structure with windows, screens, AC if necessary, and a mini kitchen. LOL
My camping cred came when I was in a tiny little pup tent with one other person. So small you could barely sit-up in the middle of the tent and not have your head hit the roof.
One night a storm came through and knocked our tent down but I was the lucky one. The tent fell over me. My companion was exposed and got soaked. Yet somehow, being teenagers, we slept through it all. He woke very unhappy but I avoided most of the worst of it.
I’ve never heard the term “glamping” until now, but the idea of camping on a raised foundation in a permanent tent has been around since 1990s, if not earlier. Sure there’s the machismo of rough sleeping, but for myself I’d rather get a good night’s rest before a day of enjoying the great outdoors.
I was really only aware of it as a derogatory term for people who would basically bring out all the creature comforts of home, and basically not do any actual outdoors stuff at all.
But it doesn’t surprise me that it’s being reclaimed as a positive term.
